A few first day adventures included finding a Vera Bradley store in the Chandler Mall, visiting the Harley Davidson store, eating chocolate cream pie from the bakery next door to my hotel, and lots and lots of sun!!
My 2nd favorite Cobb salad ever at the San Tan Brewery.
This cupcake really was as big as it looks!
McCullough-Price House museum in Chandler houses a great photo exhibit of people and their 1930's cars.
"A Mountain" on ASU campus in Tempe is the best hike for a sunset view of the city. Similar to a Pisgah hike only a lot hotter.
These beautiful (azalea?) bushes are everywhere here. Would love to add them to my yard but don't think they would survive our climate.
We made it! What an incredible adventure this road trip was. We logged almost 9,000 miles and visited 24 states. Thank you for following along on our blog and sharing your comments. As a final post, we thought we would share our "Top Ten" favorite things about the trip.
Moore Travels Top Ten
Friendliest Town- Windom, Minnesota Runner Up- Couer d' Alene, Idaho Most Scenic Drive- (Terry) Rocky Mountains near Avon, Colorado (Julie) Rolling Hills of Candler, North Carolina Most Dramatic Natural Site- Arches National Park, Moab, Utah Runner Up- Gates of the Mountains near Helena, Montana Most Dramatic Man-Made Site- Mount Rushmore, South Dakota Runner Up- Skyline of Cincinnati, Ohio Favorite Tourist Destination-(Terry) Lambeau Field, Green Bay, Wisconsin Runner Up- Ford Museum, Dearborn Michigan (Julie) Grand Ole Opry, Nashville, Tennessee Runner Up- Ingalls Homestead, De Smet, South Dakota Favorite Small Town- Livingston, Montana Runner Up- Couer d' Alene, Idaho Best Historic Find (that we didn't know about)- Cumberland Gap, Kentucky Runner Up- Big Bone Lick State Park, Union, Kentucky Best HIstoric Neighborhood Walk- Charleston, South Carolina Runner Up- (Terry) De Smet, South Dakota (Julie) St. Joseph, Michigan Best Restaurant- (Terry) Branson Belle, Branson, Missouri- Chicken/Steak Dinner (Julie)River City Cafe, Windom Minnesota- Blueberry Pie Best Surprise- Hominy Valley Singing, Candler, North Carolina Best July Climate- (Terry)Leadville, Colorado- 62 degrees (Julie) Rapid City, South Dakota- 90 degrees Best Thunderstorm-Emmet, Kansas Runner Up- Hermosa, South Dakota Smallest Town Visited- Vilas, South Dakota- population 19 Largest Town Visted-Chicago, Illinois- population 2.9 million
It's great to be back in Oregon. Our final night on the road was spent in Hermiston. We didn't do much exploring, just rested and watched the opening ceremony for the olympics. We headed for home the next morning and stopped at the Bonneville Dam on the way.
A watermelon water tower could only belong to Hermiston.
We visited the Bonneville Hatchery on the Columbia River.
This pond has three old sturgeon in it and some rainbow trout. Surprisingly, the sturgeon don't eat the trout. The only live fish they like is shad. Everything else has to be dead for them to eat it.
This is Herman the sturgeon. He is 70 years old, 10' long, and weighs over 400 pounds!
Herman swims slowly and everyone gets out of his way!
Terry made some more new friends when we had lunch at Charburgers.
We missed our freeway exit and wound up in Ritzville, a small town with a rich history. What a find it was!
Ritzville was settled in the 1880's and was once the largest wheat shipping point in the world. We took a step back in time with a walking tour of the downtown National Historic District.
There are still wheat fields all around Ritzville. This must be what "amber waves of grain" look like.
The downtown area was full of beautiful, historic buildings.
The library was built in 1907 and has been in continuous use since then in this original building. Prior to the library being built, the first school session in Adams County was held in a shanty on this site In 1881.
The Dr. Frank R. Burroughs home was built in 1889 and extensively remodeled in 1902 when electricity came to Ritzville.
This adorable metal sculpture of Dr. Burroughs and his family is in the side yard of the Burroughs home. There are sculptures like these throughout the town. Did you notice the one in front of the library?
The Northern Pacific Railway Depot
The depot is now home to a museum full of Ritzville treasures from the past.
This safe is in the ticket office in the depot. I wonder what it held in 1910......
Terry playing the role of ticket taker.
Julie playing the role of telephone switchboard operator. Mom, does this look familiar?
We got to go inside this newly restored 1940's Northern Pacific Caboose. It was about the size of our trailer inside, complete with bed, tables and chairs, and a bathroom.
The caboose has a conductor seat at each end. This seat was at the front, or was it the back?
We have both driven past Coeur d' lane on I-90 several times before, but never stopped. We didn't know what we were missing!
The city is full of walking/bike paths. We followed a path along Lake Coeur d' Alene to enjoy this concert in the park.
From the concert, we followed the path around the lake. It led us under this bridge, across the University of Idaho campus, through the city park and beach, and into downtown for dinner. And then we had to walk back!
We had never eaten a caprece salad and ordered one for dinner thinking it would be a regular dinner salad. Surprise! It was almost too pretty to eat. Terry described it as pleasantly tangy with a good mix of veggies and cheese.
After the Missouri River boat ride we drive up to this campground on the continental divide, to spend the night. We took an evening hike up to the top of the divide for a spectacular view of Montana.
If you put these three pictures together, you will have a panoramic view of both sides of the continental divide. This is the west side of the divide. The rivers on this side flow to the Pacific Ocean.
This is a view looking north from the top of the divide.
This is the east side of the divide. The rivers on this side flow to the Atlantic Ocean.
Taking a break at the top of the divide with eastern Montana in the background.
This historical marker tells the mysterious story of "Frenchy" a pioneer woman who lived near this area. Click to enlarge and read this interesting story.
After a drama-filled night of camping in the Wal-Mart parking lot, a visit to the Gates of the Mountains Wilderness was a relaxing and restorative treat.
Summary: Lewis and Clark discovered this canyon on their trip down the Missouri River in 1806. It can only be accessed by boat, so it looks much the same today as it did then.
We took a boat tour from the headwaters of the Missouri River through the canyon to the "Gates of the Mountains" for some spectacular scenery. Our guide was a retired history teacher who narrated the geology and history of the area.
Our first glimpse of the canyon as we left the harbor.
......."from the singular appearance of this place I called it the gates of the rocky mountains"- Meriwether Lewis, July 19, 1806.
Our tour left at 9:00 so it was a cool and pleasant 65-70 degrees.
Lewis compared the entrance of the canyon to a gate because when he first saw it, the opening was not visible due to the angle of the boat. He thought the river ended here. Look at the center of the photo to see the walls of the canyon appear to be touching. The gate is closed.
As Lewis approached the canyon the walls appeared to open up like a gate to let him through.
Livingston was another surprise. We saw the "Historic District" sign from I-90 and were drawn to the town to check out its history. We loved this place! One of the nice things about having no travel plans is that there is plenty of time to explore all of the "historical marker" signs and places along the road, without feeling like you're in a hurry to get to the next place.
The historic railroad depot has been converted to a museum.
A Downtown Street
The Public Library
With a population of about 6,000, most streets were quiet like this one.
A home in the historic district.
The Yellowstone River runs right through town.
Summary: Sacajawea was a Shoshoni teenager when she and her son traveled down the Yellowstone River through this area with Lewis and Clark in 1806.
This is a life-size statue of Sacajawea and baby Jean Baptiste on their journey with Lewis and Clark. You can barely see the baby's head in this angle.
This is the other side of the statue. The baby is on her knee.
Welcome to big sky country. The funny thing about this sign is that it is covered with stickers from other states. There is a sticker right of above the NT in "Montana" that says, "Don't mess with the heart of a Texan." How do you think that Texan stuck their sticker way up there? We visited Little Bighorn on our last visit, so didn't stop there on this trip. We had a quiet dinner at Pizza Hut, and then turned in for the night after a long day of driving.
Sheridan, Wyoming
The beauty of the Bighorn Mountains and the abundance of antelope at every water hole along the highway are what we will remember about Wyoming. We planned on staying here, but had some trouble finding our KOA campground, so we just decided to keep driving up into Montana.
Mount Rushmore is located in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
We took a less traveled road into the Black Hills and found several small rock tunnels like this one. There was a huge surprise on the other side of this tunnel.
As you exit through the tunnel, there it is! Mount Rushmore is framed in the tunnel's exit. It was a great surprise after driving so long, and catching obsucre glimpses here and there.
This helps give a perspective of size to the mountain, though it's really much larger than it appears here. The faces are 60 feet tall!
Looking up at the father of our country.
A profile of George from the road below on the way out of the park.
This a model of the Hall of Records, a hidden vault, located behind Lincoln's head. It is 100 feet long and 80 feet wide. It was to be used as an archive for important documents relating to the monument, but was never completed.
A tipi in the Lakota Sioux village in the park. This was Lakota Sioux territory.
The inside of the tipi
Hill City, South Dakota
We wandered down into the foothills of Rushmore and found Hill City. There are some amazing bronze/hybrid sculptures here.
The horse is made of bronze, spoons, wrenches, hinges, and all kinds of other household stuff.