Mark Twain boyhood home

The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum

Since my horse show schedule has somewhat taken over my vacation travel, I try to make the most of it and look for interesting stops on my road trips across the USA.  From Dallas to Chicago, I took a slight detour to Hannibal, Missouri to visit The Mark Twain Boyhood Home & Museum.

Mark Twain was by far my favorite author in school.  In fact, I basically hated reading and his books like The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Adventures of Huckleberry Finn may have been the only ones I ever finished during the school year!  I liked his writing so much, that I took an entire class in college dedicated to his works. 

So to me, stopping to visit Twain’s boyhood home was a very exciting endeavor.  I wished I had made more time to wander Hannibal’s charming downtown too.  But with the black sky and ominous storm approaching, I only took a few hours to check out my favorite author’s childhood abode.

JOIN THE ADVENTURE!

Day 243 – Badlands and Black Hills (Part 3)

Day 243 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

I started the morning at Crazy Horse Memorial.  The $parking fee gets visitors into the grounds and the museum, but getting closer to the incomplete monument requires a bus ride for an additional free.  I’m not much of a tour bus rider, so I skipped that part. If the monument were all I wished to see, I probably could have just snapped a photo from the highway and carried on. But I also checked out the museum and learned all sorts of interesting the facts.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!

Day 242 – Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills

Day 242 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Another great day in South Dakota!  I have been pleasantly surprised.  I expected mostly flatland and prairie like Nebraska and North Dakota, but the Black Hills resemble the foot hills in Colorado.  We climbed through the pines to a towering granite outcropping carved with four presidential faces…Mount Rushmore!

Mount Rushmore

The national memorial pays tribute to Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt.  Each face is sixty feet tall from brow to chin and the each eye is eleven feet wide.  It took 400 workers 14 years to carve the monument with dynamite and jackhammers, and it cost just under one million dollars to complete.

The sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, envisioned carving the presidents to their waist.  But with his death in 1941 and our nations involvement in World War II, his son who had accompanied him on the project declared it finished.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
badlands

Day 241 – Badlands National Park and Black Hills

Day 241 of a Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

The Badlands National Park

I don’t think I can describe the badlands any differently than I did yesterday.  Rock formations of clay and ash protrude from the prairie land and encompass rich fossil beds from the time that has become to be known as the golden age of mammals.  I spent the morning walking a handful of trails under intense sun.  The boardwalk
on The Door Trail and The Window Trail led directly into the rising sun.  I suspect the light would have been better had I walked them at sunset last night…oh well, the bands of colors were still noticeable.

In addition to taking the boardwalk trails, I also took The Notch Trail which passed over the rough terrain. The loose rock crunched under my feet as I followed the path to a log ladder that rose to a ledge which weaved its way around the spires.  The hike provided close up views of fossilized remains and ended overlooking the White River Valley.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
toadstool park in Nebraska

Day 240 – Nebraska Heartland (Part 2)

Day 240 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways
Fort Robinson

Another enjoyable day in Nebraska…though most of the interesting sites I’ve seen have been within 100 miles of each other, and I have driven over 600 miles over a few days to see them!

We started out today at Fort Robinson where I camped last night.  The campground is the site of one of the most tragic events at the fort, the Cheyenne Outbreak.  Forcibly sent to Indian Territory in Oklahoma, a band of Northern Cheyenne, led by Dull Knife, escaped and fled across the plains of Kansas and Nebraska. The 149 men, women, and children were finally captured by troops from the fort in October 1878. 

Told they would have to return to the Indian Territory, they tried escaping again on January 9, 1879. The men opened fire on the guards with the few guns they had hidden away as the women and children fled toward the White River.  Many of the Cheyenne fell in the battle, one of the last of the Indian War.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
scotts bluff

Day 239 – Platte River Road

Day 239 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Today’s scenic drive on the Platte River Road led me to a variety of rock formations.  Given rocks fascinate me, I was pleasantly surprised with the western portion of Nebraska. I probably drove close to 150 miles before I made my first stop.  Sometimes I like that, as I can zone out and listen to music or to books on CD…Stephen King’s The Dome is the current choice.  Not surprisingly, it is weird.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
sand hills

Day 238 – Nebraska Heartland

Day 238 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Broken Bow

This morning we left Grand Island and headed northwest up Highway 2 in gusting winds through corn fields and farmland to Broken Bow, so named for a broken Indian bow found nearby. The winds are so strong in this area that trees are planted along the highways as windbreaks.  The Broken Bow area came to be known as the Sod House Frontier, as when settlers first moved to the nearly treeless area, they built their homes, corals, pig pens, churches and school out of sod.  Today the town is
small and modernized, relatively speaking. We stopped near the courthouse to snatch a cache…Nebraska checked off the list!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
view at stone state park

Day 237 – Travel Day

Day 237 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Well, I intended on doing some sight seeing today before heading west to Valentine, Nebraska, but I ended up slightly challenged in Sioux City.  First, I expected a city of 80,000 to have a Firestone, and I needed an oil change in the next 500 miles to keep my warranty.  No Firestones here, so I had to adjust my route. 

I still planned on making it to Nebraska, but my final destination for the evening changed to Grand Island with a pit stop in Omaha.  Of course, this required me to travel south along the flooded Missouri River which resulted in the main Interstate (I-29) being closed in several areas and sandbagged in others…DETOUR.  I wasn’t really aware of the devastation.  The flooding here is very bad.  While I was able to stop at one overlook in Stone State Park, the other places I tried to visit in Sioux City were under water.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
loess hills forest overlook

Day 236 – Loess Hills Scenic Byway

Day 236 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Well, I considered driving an extra 155 miles to Hamburg, IA last night so I could start off my day exploring Waubonsie State Park while it was slightly cool.  I’m so glad I didn’t do that for two reasons.

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!
jefferson city capitol building

Day 235 – Missouri and Kansas

Day 235 of Year Long Road Trip Along America’s Scenic Byways

Jefferson City, Missouri

It was impossible to miss the capitol building in Jefferson City.  It dominates the skyline of Missouri’s quaint capital.  I spent a little time poking around, both inside and outside, and came up with another type of restroom available to me – government buildings.  Parks, Wal-Mart, restaurants, rest areas, and gas stations generally serve the purpose, but churches and government buildings have recently been added to the list!

ON THE ROAD AGAIN!