Home, 11,180.3 km later.....Once again, we had a great time & made lots of memories that will last a lifetime!  After our traditional trip-ending lunch at Culver's in Grand Forks, none of us wanted to cross the border back to our normal lives, even though we were looking forward to being home & seeing the cats.  You know, way back in Arizona we saw a sign that said "Albequerdue  351".  I really wanted to make a wrong turn in Albequerque, but we couldn't justify the extra 351 miles....now, we're sorry we didn't, lol!  But, we still have our memories and pictures from the trip, & the extra Sasaparilla that we brought home!

Dead things...

This post is sure to solidify my position on CSIS' internet watch list!  Today was all about dead things, outlaws and presidents.  We went to Mount Rushmore, to see the heads of dead presidents. http://www.nps.gov/moru/index.htm  The approach to the memorial is quite impressive, lined with rows of pillars which bear the names, dates of acceptance to the union and original flags of each of the states.  Mount Rushmore itself is spectacular, it is amazing how well done the sculptures are, on such a grand scale.

Almost made me feel patriotic, just for the wrong country.

Ironically, many of the trinkets and memorabilia for sale in the gift shop of the quintessential American national monument were made in China - and they wonder why their economy is struggling so badly??!!

There is no denying the grandeur of this monument!

Then, we went to Deadwood, another national historic site, http://www.deadwood.com/basic and to Mt. Moriah Cemetary (the real Boot Hill), to the gravesites of Wild Bill Hickock http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Bill_Hickok and Calamity Jane http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calamity_Jane.

Saloon No. 10, where Wild Bill Hickock was shot in the back by the assassin Jack McCall

Then, our last stop on this trip was at Wall Drug....http://walldrug.com/...for those of you who have never heard of it, Wall Drug is a tribute to self-promotion.  There are signs erected in famous locations around the world, announcing the miles to Wall Drug.  And all this, because a couple decided to give away free glasses of ice water to tourists headed to the newly opened Mount Rushmore monument.

If you build it, they will come....

Ah, finally, a decent internet connection, time to catch up on our recent travels.  We left the mountains of Colorado for the cornfields of Nebraska, heading for Minden and the Harold Warp Pioneer Village.  Kind of like the movie 'Field of Dreams', it appears that if you clear away part of your cornfield and build something, people will come from miles away to see it.  Alright, I know I am stretching it a bit, the movie took place in Iowa and dealt with a baseball diamond, ghosts and Kevin Costner, none of which have anything to do with the Pioneer Village.  But hey, they both involve cornfields!  There are an amazing amount of artifacts gathered there, which are so well organized and which chronicle man's progress from the settlement of the west to recent times.  The village is huge, and it took us hours to go through it, and even then we skipped out on a couple of the buildings housing old farm equipment and vehicles. http://pioneervillage.org/

if you build it, they will come...

1890's kitchen, just one of many displays of kitchens, bedrooms and living rooms throughout the years

1950's kitchen

old school merry-go-round, still in use on the grounds

the types of guns used to assassinate presidents (that'l get me on an internet watch list somewhere!)

old school jail cell - and criminals nowadays think they have it bad???

old-fashioned dentist office, aka torture chamber

a streetcar named desire?

the evolution of the lantern 

High Hauntings

What would you do if you had to pass through Colorado on the way to Nebraska, and the mountains had lost their initial appeal?  After all, we have been travelling around, up, down, through and between more mountains than you can shake a stick at!  We have driven across some pretty high mountain passes, too.

Vail - I think this is the highest point we crossed

Why, you head up to the town of Estes Park, at the gates of the U.S. Rocky Mountain National Park.  Of course, it has nothing to do with seeing the Rocky Mountains again, after all, we have the same lovely mountains in Canada.  Mind you, they have nicer highways here, that's for sure.

Four lanes, divided highway, the Americans do their road right!

Rather, the reason for the detour this way was to go visit the Stanley Hotel.  It was in this hotel that Stephen King got the idea for his book, The Shining, after an apparently somewhat sleepless night in Room 217, and where the TV mini-series was filmed.  The hotel itself, and its founders, F. O. and Flora Stanley, have a very interesting history dating back well before Stephen King's visit, though, so we had an extremely interesting tour.  It is a very haunted hotel, and many people - guests, tour guides and visitors alike, have had encounters of one sort or another.  I would definitely recommend checking it out, if you are ever in Colorado!
http://www.stanleyhotel.com/

The Stanley Hotel

The tunnel through which the staff had to enter the hotel

Looking down from the 4th floor, where most of the hauntings occur

The infamous room 217 (just ask Jim Carrey why he had to change rooms)

F.O. Stanley and his twin brother, F.E. Stanley

The Stanley Steamer

Words....

Incredeautiful!  Fantabulous!  Fabutastic!  Clearly, there are no words that can describe the Grand Canyon, not even made-up ones.  It is overwhelming.  I had ideas what it would look like, of course, having seen pictures and movies showing it, but nothing prepared me for the overwhelming reality of the Grand Canyon.  No pictures can ever do it justice, and you really need to actually see it to know the immense scale and beauty.

A rather unassuming approach to the Grand Canyon (notice the "Beware of Haughty Elk" sign)

...and then the ground opens up in front of you!

From Sea to Sand

To our dismay, we had to leave Los Angeles (okay, Pasadena, actually).  We had a decent hotel located less than 1/2 hour from downtown Hollywood, and we really enjoyed ourselves there!  We also decided to skip San Diego when we found out that Comic Con was starting the day we would be there....way too many nerds all in one spot, we'd be sure to get lost in the crowds.  Instead, we headed to Laguna Beach, to check out the Pacific Ocean.  What a beautiful spot!

Then, we headed to Riverside, to find the church used as a location in a campaign in the computer game Left 4 Dead.  Interestingly enough, our dear Navi took us to a "churk", as she pronounced it.  In fact, it was the First Christian Church of Christ Scientist, which was pronounced as the "First Christian Churk of Christ Scienti" - a tongue-twister indeed!!

From Riverside, we headed to Las Vegas.  It was quite the dramatic change in the landscape.  In the morning, we left the Pacific Ocean, and then we drove into the desert.

Las Vegas was its usual colourful and entertaining self, a surprise of colour and lights after the drab sameness of the desert sands.  It was incredibly hot, something like 108 degrees, but the humidity was a whopping 2% - something virtually unheard of back in Winnipeg.

From Vegas, the next morning we headed to the Hoover Dam, which was quite a spectacular sight.

Surprisingly, equally as spectacular was the bridge that was built over the dam.  At first, I missed the turnoff to the dam itself & we had to drive a couple of miles before we could turn around, which resulted in me crossing the bridge twice.  I can tell you, if I had seen beforehand what type of bridge I was actually crossing, you wouldn't have gotten me across it even once!  Here is a look from below:

After that, desert, desert and more desert.  I guess the only thing that will grow down here is the electrical transmission tower, we did see a big field of those.  Other than that, not much vegetation was apparent.

 

We spent our afternoon in Oatman, Arizona, a lovely little spot in the midst of some rather unfriendly looking mountains.  I heard about this little town from Pat, where the wild burros roamed the town freely, so we just had to see it.  Indeed, they do have the run of the town, and you really have to watch out when you are driving down the main street - they go where they want.  They are pretty smart, too, as soon as they hear your car door, they head over in your direction, to see if you have any food for them.

By the way, for a good part of our trip today, we followed the historic Route 66 (anyone remember the show)?  At one point, we stopped for gas and we were trying to decide whether to have lunch.  But, when we saw the name of the nearest restaurant, we decided we would just wait until the next town!