Mississippi Headwaters

Lake Itasca is where the Big Muddy starts, and Itasca State Park is where you go to view the starting point.  I was here on a school field trip about 60 years ago but it's new territory for Trish.

The Mississippi starts its 2552 mile run to New Orleans, above and below.

I walked across on the rocks; Trish didn't feel it was worth the risk of falling.

The largest white pine in Minnesota, about 300 years old, is in the Park.  Back in Paul Bunyan's time, the timber business boomed in northern MN.  Most of the logs were floated downriver to the lumber mills via the St Croix River and other waterways.

Oops!

How the devil did they untangle this mess?  Dynamite, I suspect.

The guys in the photo don't appear overly fussed about it but I'm 

guessing they're townspeople who just came for the photo op.

The Douglas Lodge, built in 1905, is on a small hill overlooking Lake Itasca. 

We were gonna have lunch there one day but never got around to it.

A large field of sunflowers about 50 miles south of the Park.

We saw many such fields in SD and MN, never saw any at all when I lived here.

Terry Redlin

If you'd asked me about him 3 days ago, I'd have replied, 'Never heard of him.'  I had heard of him, though, had seen several of his works over the years.  My brother, Gerry, has one of his prints.

 Redlin is an accomplished, prolific artist from Watertown, SD - which is where we've been the last 3 days.  Jim and Joan, friends from LHC that have a home on Lake Kampeska near Watertown, took us to the Redlin Art Center where we viewed hundreds of Redlin originals.

The Redlin Art Center, Watertown, SD

Above and below, a random sample of Redlin's work.  He's a master of detail and lighting.

The Redlin Art Center includes a huge gift shop which sells framed and unframed prints of various sizes, plus images of Redlin art reproduced on mugs, coffee tables, plates, vases, rugs, you name it.

Terry now lives in a nursing home near Watertown, a victim of Alzheimer's - which was probably caused by his use of lead-based paint.

Grade School

After 45 years of driving mountain roads, I discovered something that came as quite a surprise.  Now, I'm wondering: did virtually everybody know this except me?  I bet not.  

This type of sign is often seen on mountain roads, especially on high mountain passes.  The grade percentage varies widely, of course; the vast majority are single-digit in the 5-8 range but I've seen them as high as 21%.

 What is that sign above really telling us?  8% of what?  I'd never really thought about it.  If asked, I would have said it meant an 8 degree angle.  I would have been wrong.  The sign is telling us that for every 100' of horizontal distance, the road loses 8' in vertical distance.  

So, a 100% grade would mean that for every 100' of horizontal distance, there's a loss of 100' of vertical distance.  If you sketched this on graph paper, you'd find that a 100% grade yields a 45 degree angle.

Any questions?  No?  Okay, it's time for recess.  You may go outside and play now.

Pierre, SD

I'll bet you've never been to Pierre, SD.  We'd never been here, either, but we are now, staying 3 nights at Farm Island Recreation Area, a nice park and campground on the Missouri River.  We stopped here because: a) It's halfway between where we were and where we're going (Gillette/Watertown), b) We needed to get well away from the Sturgis area, which is heavily infested with HOGs,* and c) It's the state capitol and we enjoy visiting capitol buildings.

Pierre has a population of 14K, the smallest state capitol city in the US.  It's on the path less followed, nowhere near a freeway or interstate highway.  I suspect it gets precious few casual visitors like ourselves.

SD state capitol building, vintage 1908.

Looking straight up at the dome from the inside.

Taken from second floor, entrance/lobby below.

Lots of beautiful veined white marble columns.

*HOG = Harley Owners Group.  The annual Sturgis motorcycle rally is in full swing.  It's the 75th anniversary of the rally, which is expected to draw a million plus attendees.

We drove through the area yesterday, thousands of bikers on the freeway even at 8:30 AM, many of whom seemed to have a death wish - passing on the shoulder, zipping right in front of us as we cruised along a 65 MPH.  If they want to kill themselves, it's fine with me.  Natural selection and all that.  I just don't want the idiots to involve me in their demise.  I hate paperwork.

Wyoming

It's the least populated state in the USA.  I'd guessed as much.  We drove across the entire state, south to north and are now in Gillette, which is in the southeastern part of the state.  Gotta say this: Wyoming has a whole bunch of nothing much.  Trish calls it a fly-over state.

There are 2 things I really like about WY, though: Devil's Tower and pronghorns.  If we weren't towing the trailer, I'd also like the 80 MPH speed limit on the freeways.  Oh yeah, almost forgot: WY has Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks, both awesome

Devil's Tower

One of my favorites scenes in one of my favorite movies, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, is Richard Dreyfuss sculpting Devil's Tower out of mashed potatoes at the dinner table while his family looks on in amazement.  

The Tower is an anomaly with several different theories on how it was formed.  Most likely it was caused by volcanic action: magma pushed up slowly through the earth's crust cooling on all sides as it rose up.  It didn't have enough oomph (I just love using those esoteric scientific terms!) to become a full fledged volcano.  So, in essence it's simply a volcanic zit.

Beautiful, graceful animals are pronghorns.

WY ranks first in coal production by a considerable margin, produces more than 3 times as much as West Virginia, which is ranked number 2.  Therefor, it is logical to assume that WY is also first in the production of coal miners' daughters.

Two other WY first place awards: business and personal income taxes.  Admit it, you were just dying to know that weren't you?  Hey, work with me here.  I'm doing the best I can, given the subject matter.

WY ranks second in average elevation: 6700'.  CO is first, at 6800, which isn't surprising since it has 53 'fourteeners' (WY has nary a one).

Little Bighorn Battlefield NM

 7th Ranch RV Campground is about 10 miles southwest of the Battlefield.

We're here for 3 nights.

The remains of 220 US soldiers, scouts and civilians who lost their lives in the Battle

are buried near this memorial on Last Stand Hill.

 The officer's bodies were transported to various other private or public graveyards.  George is buried at the West Point Military Academy.

The Indian Memorial, above and below, was recently built and dedicated.

About darn time, say I.

The 249 gray stone markers in the Battlefield are located near where the soldiers, scouts and civilians were killed.  The most concentrated group of markers is on Last Stand Hill, pictured above.  Custer's marker, distinctive for its gray-on-black lettering, is in the middle above, closeup shot below.

In 1999, National Park Service started erecting red granite markers

that indicate where some of the natives lost their lives.

Should-have criticisms come easy to those who weren't there, and hindsight is 20/20.  That said, here are mine: Custer should have believed his scouts about the size of the Indian encampment (estimated at 7000).  He should have posted scouts to watch the Indians and stayed well away from the Indian camp.  He should have sent messengers to alert General Terry and Colonel Gibbon to the north, and to general Crook to the south (Custer's 7th Cavalry was just a small part of the large, 3-pronged military campaign). 

Custer was a shameless glory seeker who wrote his own self-aggrandizing newspaper articles (as did Douglas MacArthur in WWII, another shameless glory seeker).  Custer had presidential aspirations - which may have been realized if he had won the last big battle against the Native Americans.  

At the Little Bighorn, he ordered Major Reno to attack the Indian camp first; the camp contained many more women and children than warriors.  They say all's fair in love and war, but attacking noncombatants is despicable in my view - and it wasn't the first time he'd done it, either.

He paid the price for his rash actions and I can't feel too bad about it.  I do feel bad about the other lives lost in the battle - on both sides. 

Flaming Gorge NRA

Flaming Gorge is gorgeous!
John Wesley Powell thought so, too.  He named it in 1869.

The Gorge is on the Green River, straddles the UT/WY border.

Flaming Gorge Dam, 502' tall, forms the lake seen in the above pix.