Day 30 - Dayton, Ohio

I had a campus visit scheduled for Friday at Ohio State, but showed up a couple of days early. So I spent Wednesday chilling in the library in Delaware, OH, and returned to do the same on Thursday. While I was there, I took my car to get the oil changed, and discovered that my two front wheels were about to come apart. So I had to stay in town one more night to get the tires fixed (the tires couldn't get there until Friday). That also threw off my schedule for the campus visit, and I was only just able to talk to the professor I was considering working with.

After that, I moved on to Dayton, where some Rolla friends of mine now live. Friday night, there was an airshow and fireworks display at the Air Force museum, and I had the first snow cone I've had in years (which seems to be having a little too much fun in my intestines today). This afternoon, we went to the local art museum, ate dinner, and saw Transformers 2. It was good, but don't go expecting any artistic merit.

Tomorrow, I'll be moving on to the last leg of my roadtrip, back home.

Day 25 - Alma, Wisconsin

So Thursday I visited the Mall of America. Everything was outrageously expensive, but I got some pictures of the Lego displays.


I left Minnesota on Friday, and started heading through Wisconsin and Michigan. I drove across the Mackinac Bridge between the peninsulas (or peninsulae, maybe). There wasn't a lot worth noting, although rural Michigan looks a lot like Missouri. I also saw a crazy bug in the library just a little while ago.

This is what passes for a "scenic overview" in Michigan.

What is this? Some kind of silverfish?

Day 20 - Arden Hills, Minnesota

After Mount Rushmore, I continued East, and visited Wall Drug. It was really interesting, and I had some of the free ice water (it came from a dispenser, and wasn't really that cold), and picked up some toenail clippers, which I was in dire need of. Then I continued to Mitchell, SD, and visited the Corn Palace. It was covered with murals done with various shades of brown and yellow corn cobs. The front was also decorated with tufts of dried grasses of some kind, but the side was still under construction, and was mostly still plywood.

After leaving Mitchell, I went on to Minnesota and spent the night with my brother and his wife. I went to the mall earlier today, and picked up some things at Borders, where they were handing out coupons at the door (unfortunately, I could use the "$2 off Fiction" coupon on a Discworld novel, but not the "$2 off Humor" coupon).

One of many sections of Wall Drug.

You can actually climb on top of the jackalope from the other side.

All of those murals are done in corn cobs.

Day 18 - Rapid City, South Dakota

Today I went to see Mount Rushmore, and, since it was just a little farther down the road, the still-under-construction monument of Crazy Horse. On the whole, it wasn't that great. In this case, the pictures really do justice, and there's no good reason to go all the way out there just to see them.

That's as far as they've gotten so far. The only details they've done is the face.

A scale model of the completed sculpture.

Day 17 - Buffalo, Wyoming

So Yellowstone was pretty interesting; nature was out in force. Shortly after registering my campsite, I started making some dinner (Pro tip: beef Raman and tuna sandwiches aren't very good). I left the food on the picnic table, and walked a few yards to my car to get my water. About 10-15 seconds later, I turned around to see a big black bird (maybe a raven) flying off with my unopened package of Raman. Unfortunately, I had another package, and my sandwich plans continued unabated.

Later, I walked over to another section of the campground, and found two buffalo grazing in the middle of the circle of campsites.


Honestly, when I first showed up to Yellowstone, I'd forgotten about all the geothermal stuff going on, but here are some pictures.

According to the sign, this actually happened.

While walking around the geyser area, one of the larger ones started erupting, and I got fairly close to it. Then the wind shifted. As it turns out, the water from the geysers doesn't stay hot for very long, and it was pretty cold by the time it fell all over me.

This was at a museum at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere. And by "middle of nowhere," I mean the entire state of Wyoming.

Note: I have a video of Old Faithful erupting, but for some reason, it doesn't want to load. Maybe it's too big. I'll try to post some still pictures later, when I get a chance to turn them the right way.

Day 14 - Weiser, Idaho

So after visiting U of Oregon, I took a detour to the west to see the ocean. For the most part, I was rather underwhelmed; it was like a blue version of Kansas, with no interesting features to speak of. Then I went up a little farther to Washington, and visited a friend at Washington State. It was a lot of fun, and I got to sleep on the floor and take a real shower, so I'm pretty refreshed for the next leg of my journey. As it turns out, Idaho has some really nice mountains up north, and a beautiful river flowing through them. I left those behind, but I'm on my way to Yellowstone, so I should be seeing some nice scenery soon.

Day 11 - Eugene, Oregon

So Sunday morning I went hiking in the Siskiyou National Forest, passing Mount Shasta on the way up there. Near the Oregon-California border is the Bigfoot trap, which was built in the 70s and baited with deer carcasses to try to catch Sasquatch. It didn't work, and it had the door bolted open so it wouldn't catch unsuspecting tourists.





Today I visited the campus of U of Oregon. I went to the Wesley house, because they were having a pancake breakfast for finals week (they don't start until October). The campus was pretty cool, and the professor I'm looking at working with seemed nice too. He even had a recruiter talk to me, and had a couple of his students (girls, no less) take me out to lunch. Then I checked out a couple of Christian houses. One of them was really nice, with a reasonable rent, but like all the other similar houses I've seen, it included all meals during the week. It seems all the houses of this sort are set up more for freshmen/sophomores just starting to live on their own than for more mature people who know how to feed themselves without getting scurvy.

Now it's just about time for me to start heading back East.

Day 9 - Redding, California

OK, a couple of questions:

Why do Subway employees have such a hard time with the concept of "just a little bit"?

Shouldn't a park called "Library Park" have a library in or near it?

Why can't I get cell phone reception in the middle of Sacramento?

Also, you know how in school they tell you that deserts get really cold at night? It's not true; they just get a little less warm.

While in Arizona, I went to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City. It was pretty cool, especially since I got there just as the sun was setting.

This was a sunrise in the desert, where I spent the night

At any rate, I'm now in northern California, on my way to Oregon, where I'll check out the University of Oregon. I haven't seen much of interest in California; so far it's just deserts, farms, and cities that are way too big. I did eat at an In-N-Out Burger, but I didn't have a chance to look up the secret menu, so I just ordered normal food.

Day 7 - Grand Canyon, Arizona

I got into the Grand Canyon National Park last afternoon, and parked at one of the campgrounds near a viewpoint. I got to watch the sunset over the canyon as a park ranger explained the human history of it. Then this morning I took a hike 1100 feet down into the canyon. It's about a mile down to the bottom, so we were still pretty near the top. Also, the trip back up was exhausting.

In the interest of disclosure, I broke my two rules yesterday. I stayed in a Motel 6 because it turns out all the campgrounds in Colorado cost $15 or more, and don't even have running water, so I was due for a proper shower. Also, I bought a sundae at McDonald's when I was driving through the desert, since it was too hot to run the air conditioning without overheating the engine.








In other news, I think I cut my finger washing an apple today. I doused it with water from a drinking fountain and scrubbed it a little with my hand, and then suddenly got a sharp pain in my finger. I looked, and noticed a paper cut, so I had to get a band-aid. At any rate, my next stop is Lake Havasu City to see the original London Bridge.

Day 5 - South Fork, Colorado

After my visit to Colorado State, I started heading south, and stopped by Bishop Castle, tucked way back in the mountains. It was built entirely by one man, by hand, who also had to deal with the local government trying to stop him. Basically, it's like a libertarian jungle-gym.

Yes, that's a dragon head.

Also, thunderstorms on mountains are just cool.

The Five Iron Frenzy fans out there might be interested to know that I drove the intersection of Colfax and Broadway; there was neither a zero nor a fifteen, but there was a nice park. There's not a whole lot else to speak of, just a lot of really beautiful country in the Rocky Mountains. Now I'm on my way to the Grand Canyon.

Day 3 - Fort Collins, Colorado

I spent most of Saturday continuing to drive through Kansas, but I took a break to go see "Up." It joins the elite ranks of the few movies that would have made me cry, if, you know, I wasn't so manly *cough, cough.* I also stopped just short of the state line to see "Prairie Dog Town," home of the world's largest prairie dog, along with lots of other animals. In fact, the ground was covered with burrows, and you had to watch your step to miss them.

This is the world's largest Prairie Dog. I think it might be fake.

The sign said they were Russian Wild Boars. They don't look that wild to me, nor are they in any particular rush.

Later that night, I stopped at a rest stop just inside of Colorado, and discovered that on the other side of an open gate was a community center with some kind of commotion going on. I went to check it out, and it turned out to be a Quinceanera. I had some appropriate clothing, so I watched for a while, but since everything was in Spanish, and I didn't know how to dance to anything, it was pretty boring.

This afternoon, I arrived at Fort Collins, Colorado, in order to visit Colorado State, one of the schools I'm considering for graduate school. I have a meeting with the professor tomorrow, but today I checked out a Christian housing facility. It was very nice (and co-ed), but it costs an arm and a leg, and a meal plan is required on top of that. So that doesn't look too promising there. I plan on staying in town for a couple of days to finish checking out the campus and go hiking in the mountains, but after that, it's off to the Grand Canyon.

Day 2 - Hays, Kansas

I'm trying to get through Kansas as fast as I can (you can only look at farms for so long before you go crazy), so I've been traveling down I-70 toward Colorado. There isn't much scenery to speak of, and most of it just looks like more of Missouri, but flatter. However, I did pass some gigantic wind turbines, although there wasn't a good place to pull over and see them well.

To get a sense of scale, keep in mind that those turbines are freakin' huge.

I also saw this airplane caged up in a park in Grenola, Kansas (so named after the towns of Green Field and Canola joined due to the construction of a railroad). I have no idea what it is, so maybe somebody more familiar with old fighter planes could fill me in.

Last night, I was looking out over an open field, and noticed the lightning bugs out in force. What's curious is that, as opposed to the longer flashes that I'm used to, these lightning bugs would only flicker for a split second at a time. I'm not sure if this is a regional variation or what, but it was definitely curious.

Day 1 - Parsons, Kansas

My first stop on my trip was West Mineral, Kansas, home of Big Brutus, the largest electric shovel still in existence. It stands 160 feet tall, and weighs about 5000 tons. There are stairs leading up to the very tip of the boom arm, but they haven't been open since 2004, so I wasn't able to go higher than the control booth. Still, the treads that it moved on (with a top speed of 0.2 mph) were taller than me, and it could crush my car without a second thought. But really, the pictures should speak for themselves.

That shovel holds 90 cubic yards of dirt.

Those treads on top were 6 feet off the ground. I was standing under Big Brutus at the time.

See those people down there? Yeah, neither can I.

Day 1 - Embarkation

Since internships are hard to come by these days, I found myself without any plans for this summer. This could be my last summer without any obligations, so I’m taking the chance to do something totally reckless and irresponsible. I’ll be taking a driving tour of the country, visiting national landmarks, friends, and some potential graduate schools. The only rules are: no hotels, and no restaurants (unless they're culturally significant, of course).

My first stop will be West Mineral, Kansas, home of the world's largest electric shovel (11 million lbs.) still in existence. I'll be blogging about my progress and posting pictures at http://roadtripof2009.blogspot.com. Be sure to check back to see how I'm doing!