October 5, 2008
Vacation Photos Day 5: Minuteman Control Room at Delta-09
On Day 5, I went through the Badlands, North and South Units, and also to the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. This is a picture of the control room where the two officers who controlled the missiles would, mostly, be very bored waiting for instructions or messages.
Birthdays today
It's the birthday of the Czech dramatist and president Vaclav Havel, born in Prague (1936). In the 1960s, he wrote a series of absurdist plays that attacked the Communist Party, including The Garden Party (1964) and The Memorandum (1965). He said, "If you want to see your plays performed the way you wrote them, become President."
It's the birthday of the architect Maya Lin, born in Athens, Ohio (1959), who was an architecture student at Yale when she entered the national competition for the design of a Vietnam Memorial, and won it. She beat out her own professor, who gave her a B- in his class. Today, more than a million people travel from across the country to see it each year.
Today is the birthday of actress Kate Winslet. Forget Titanic, she has done much better work in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Quills
Today is also the birthday of my friend Kris Keegan. Happy Birthday, Kriz! Mazel tov!
Today was the birthday of my late father.
(And yes, today is,um, my birthday, too.)
September 30, 2008
Vacation Photos Day 4: Me at Devil's Tower
On Day 4 I headed west to Devil's Tower and then headed down to Jewel Cave. This is one of the very very few pictures of me on my entire trip.This is me at Devil's Tower National Monument.
September 28, 2008
Vacation Photos Day 3: Mt. Rushmore
On Day Three of my adventures, my adventures were in stone: Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Wind Cave. This is the classic photo view of the famous Gutzon Borglum carved Mt. Rushmore. I took the loop and got a lot of pictures around the mountain at different angles, and even found a turn off on the road west that allows a profile of George.
However, I thought it was most appropriate to choose the classic look here for my picture for day 3
Vacation Photos Day 2: Spearfish Falls
I've been accused of loving waterfalls. No bad thing in my book.
As you might have heard from the phone post and other methods, on my second day of the trip, my car battery died not long after a climb on a path in the Badlands. Once I got a new battery, the auto parts place strongly recommended that I drive for at least an hour.
So rather than "stop and go" driving in the badlands, I got myself on the highway and drove more than an hour west. I found myself in Spearfish, South Dakota, at the head of the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. I naturally took pictures, especially once I learned there were waterfalls to see...like Spearfish Falls, as seen here!
September 27, 2008
Vacation Photos Day 1: Badlands
I am slowly choosing and uploading pictures from my vacation.
This is a picture from day one, when I took the Badlands Loop on the way to Wall.
September 26, 2008
Vacation to South Dakota: Stats and Facts
Stats and Facts from my Vacation:
Total Mileage: 2975 miles
Amount of Gas bought: 98.098 Gallons
Average MPG: 30.32
Number of Batteries changed in my car: 1
Number of Engine Overheats: 4 (all homeward bound)
Number of Wind Turbine Trucks Passed on the Highway: 4
Number of States Visited: 3 (South Dakota; Wyoming, Iowa)
Number of Interstates Clinched: 1 (I-90 in South Dakota, drove its entire length)
Number of National Parks Visited: 7 (Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Devil's Tower, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Minuteman Missile Site, Pipestone)
Number of Scenic Byways Driven:3 (Spearfish Canyon, Needles Highway, Badlands Loop)
Number of State Parks Visited: 1 (Custer State Park)
Number of City Parks Visited: 2 (Memorial Park, Rapid City; Falls Park, Sioux Falls)
Number of Cabela's Passed: 3 (Owatonna, MN; Mitchell, SD, Rapid City, SD)
Number of State Capitols Visited: 1 (Pierre, SD)
Number of Museums Visited: 2 (SD Air and Space; Museum of Geology on campus of SD School of Mines)
Highest City Reached: Custer, SD (Elevation 5300 feet).
Highest Elevation Reached: Not sure, some of the points on the Highway were higher than Custer. It's less than 6300, I never got a chance to go up to a driveable peak because the gravel road looked poor after the storm...
Number of Hailstorms Witnessed: 1 (it left deposited hail that looked like snow in the morning!)
