Special Friends

Today I was treated to the 50th Wedding Anniversary celebration of some very dear friends, Mel and Karen Melius.  Mel was best man at my own wedding in 1958.

Their five children were friends of my children.  Karen actually babysat for my three youngest for about a year AND she maintained her sanity 

Back to Montana

I am now in Billings, Montana looking back on this past almost two months of travel.  What a delightful experience.  I saw 13 countries in Europe, 2 provinces in Canada, and 13 states, 10 of which I had never been in before.  As we were loading into the bus in South Dakota we were treated with this sunrise.

(Taken through the window of the bus)

 It seemed to me that was a perfect symbol for ending a series of experiences but more importantly looking forward to whatever lies ahead.  My plans are to be in Montana through October, then to Oregon and California for November, and back in Montana for December.  So far the plan is to spend January and February in Arizona but that is not definite at this time.

Obviously, My Vagabond Year is coming to a close.  I will continue to blog until January first as there are some family members that have not been included yet and it’s important to me that they all get in.

South Dakota

South Dakota has a population of 833 thousand people and the capital is Pierre.  The town closest to the eastern border is Sioux Falls.  It was named for the Big Sioux River and the falls that are a part of it.

Mitchell, South Dakota, is the home of the “world’s only corn palace.”  It was built in 1892 to display the agricultural bounty of local farmers.  The exterior is changed completely every year.  A paint-by-number system is used to guide the decorators.  Roughly 275 thousand ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building following patterns created by local artists.  

One of the internal murals

Corn Husk Dolls

Wall Drug is 1,451 miles from Livermore, California.  Signs indicating the distance to Wall Drug can be found all over the world – literally.  The Hustead’s started their drug store in the middle of nowhere - Wall, South Dakota - in 1931.  Their initial way of getting people to stop in was to post signs on all the incoming roads in the style of the Burma Shave signs:  Get a soda - Get root beer - Turn next corner - Just as near - To Highway 16 & 14 - Free Ice Water - Wall Drug".  During World War II soldiers posted signs where ever they were stationed with the distance from there to Wall Drug.  (They currently make the signs available to anyone who asks.)  A friend of mine said that when she got to Amsterdam the first thing she saw was 4,504 miles to Wall Drug.

 

The town closest to the western border of South Dakota, which is the direction we were going, is Spearfish.  We spent our last night there in the Holiday Inn.  We arrived two days after a very heavy snow storm.   While driving around town we saw many damaged buildings and broken trees, and we had already seen dead cattle along the highway.  That was not fun.

La Crosse, Wisconsin

From Chicago it was on to La Crosse, Wisconsin which sits on the Mississippi River.  (Wisconsin has a population of 5.5 million people and the capital is Madison.)

On the way we stopped at The House on the Rock.  This house is an example of how one man (Alex Jordan) can turn his dreams into reality.

In addition to the unique house it displays a collection of collections:  guns, dolls, dollhouses, royal jewels, glass bottles, miniature circuses, model ships model trains, model airplanes, masks, puppets, matchbox cars, clocks, Faberge eggs, musical instruments, organs, ivory carvings, suits of armor, sterling silver serving dishes, Tiffany lamps, old slot machines, and more.

These musical instruments were set to play automatically.

From a display of "yesteryear"

From a display of movie memorabilia

All of these things are arranged in a series of cavities in the rock that are discovered by going from one passageway to the next.  One of those openings housed a whale larger than the Statue of Liberty fighting with an octopus.

But, the most spectacular to me was the “world’s largest carousal.”  There are 269 creatures to sit upon – not one of which is a horse, 20 thousand lights, 182 chandeliers and a 1,740 square foot mirror behind it. 

This picture doesn't do it justice.

An example of creatures on the carousal.

Mr. Jordan died in 1989 and the property is now owned and operated by Art and Karen Donaldson who have added a resort with an inn, a spa, and a golf course.

Leaving Wisconsin we drove through Minnesota before arriving in South Dakota.  The Hormel Factory is in Austin, Minnesota, which has a population of about 24 thousand people.  I figure most of them must work for Hormel.  We went to the SPAM Museum which was a delightful treat.  One of the most efficiently organized and presented museums I have seen. 

Look closely - those are SPAM cans - 3,390 of them.

And here I Am with Spamy - the international representative.

Dearborn, Michigan - Chicago, Illinois

Now we’re heading back to Montana.  First stop is Michigan, which has a population of almost 10 million people.  The capital is Lansing, but the Henry Ford Museum is in Dearborn, and what a museum it is.  It not only has automobiles of all makes and years but it also has trains, airplanes, agricultural equipment, furniture, and a little bit of all of our pasts.  

This is not the exact car but very similar to the first car I remember in my family.
Ours was a 1936 Buick - this was a 1936 Ford I think.

This was the car I wanted when I was in high school - 1956 Thunderbird

Of particular interest to me was the Dymaxion House that was an all aluminum house that was conceived by R. Buckminster Fuller as the home of the future for its affordability and environmentally conscious design.  Only two of these homes were ever built.

This was built along the lines of a trailer house - but it is actually round.

After passing through a corner of Indiana we were in Illinois which has a population of 13 million people.  Its capital is Springfield but the biggest city is Chicago.  We attempted to take a boat ride from Lake Michigan down the Chicago River, but it was pouring rain and began to lightening so that did not happen.  Which means I missed out on all the beautiful pictures that I would have gotten along the way.  Here is the best I could do of the Chicago skyline.

Absolutely had to include Jimmy Buffett's Margaritaville Sign
for my oldest son, Mike.

New York - Niagara Falls, Ontario

On to New York we go.  New York has a population of over 19 million people and 8+ million of them live in New York City.  However the capital is Albany.  Upstate New York is very different from the busy, heavily populated cities.  The area once was part of Lake Ontario, so all the sediment from that lake bottom resulted in very rich farmland.  One of those farms is now Murphy Orchards which was previously owned by the McClew family and was part of the “underground railroad.”  The underground railroad was neither underground nor a railroad.  It was a network of people helping slaves get to freedom in Canada.  Prior to 1850 if slaves could make it to New York State they would be safe, but in 1850 the Fugitive Slave Act was passed (Millard Fillmore was President) which made no place within the United States safe – and it encouraged people to hunt the slaves down and turn them in.  This farm was one of the stops along the way.

Barn under which slaves were kept in secrecy.

Hole in barn floor through which slaves accessed a compartment in which to hide.

From there it was just a hop, skip, and a jump to Niagara Falls, Ontario.  You already know the population of Ontario – this is a test!  (Answer:  13.5 million)  Niagara Falls (the town) has a population of 83 thousand people.  Of course the main attraction is the coming together of 4 major waterfalls:  Horseshoe, American, Bridal Veil, and Niagara.  The first three are on the American side and Niagara on the Canadian side.  These falls are fed by four of the Great Lakes:  Michigan, Superior, Huron, and Erie.  After going over these falls the water then goes to Lake Ontario and on to the St. Lawrence River and the Atlantic Ocean.  

American side - left to right - Horseshoe, American and Bridal Veil

Niagara Falls - Canadian side

Look Closely - there is a DOUBLE  RAINBOW below the falls.

New Hampshire - Vermont

Correction to confusion regarding Harvard University from the last blog - somehow I got these two bits of information mixed up in my head:  (1)  Harvard University was established in 1636 as a college but was not called Harvard until 1638.  John Harvard had donated a large amount of money so they put his name on the school. 

(2)  Mrs. Widener gave 2 million dollars in 1912 for a library.  She gave it in memory of her son Harry Elkins Widener who was obsessed with books and died on the Titanic along with many volumes of very valuable books that he had purchased all over Europe.  She had four conditions to her donation:  (1) they must maintain a room for Harry’s spirit to visit the library and that room was to have a fresh flower in a vase every day, (2) they can never touch the outside of the building to make changes, (3) each student graduating from Harvard must prove that he (there were only male students at that time) can swim, and finally (4) if any of these conditions are not met everything within the walls of the library will be given to the City of Cambridge.  That library is today the undergraduate library which is second in size only to the Library of Congress.  Because they could not change the outside appearance they went down seven stories to make room for the approximately 3 million volumes.

We drove from Boston through New Hampshire.  New Hampshire has a population of 1.3 million people and the capital is Concord.  We stopped at Pickity Place which was used as a model for illustrations in the Golden Book version of Little Red Riding Hood, written by Elizabeth Orton Jones in 1948.  

Grandma's bedroom with the Big Bad Wolf in the bed.

We stopped for the evening in Laconia, NH at the NASWA (which came from NAturalSpringWAter) Resort on the shores of Lake Winnipesaukee.  “On Golden Pond” was filmed there and, although “What About Bob” was not filmed there, Lake Winnipesaukee was the location to which they referred in the movie.

View from our deck in NASWA

And here we have the classic covered bridge - of which there are only 96 working bridges left.

Dartmouth College

is located in Hanover, New Hampshire.

It was founded in 1769 and is the smallest college in the Ivy League.

Vermont has a population of 625 thousand people.  The capital is Montpelier.  The town in which we spent the night, Quechee has a population of 656 people.  Here is an example of the beautiful fall colors in the Green Mountains of Vermont.