A Great American Road Trip

This post is about my road trip from Washington D.C. to Washington State and back. It includes my experiences, visited places, photographs and things to do on your own road trip.

The week of March 7, 2022, we embarked on a great American road trip, combined with some personal tasks I needed to complete. I had to go to Spokane, Washington to ready and sell an investment property I owned for twenty years. While the increased gas prices resulting from sanctions would hurt, it was a good time to release our brains from the non-stop reminders of the terror happening in Ukraine. Plus, it was an opportunity to check off the last two states I hadn’t been to – Arkansas and North Dakota, and see other places I’ve wanted to check out for awhile, such as Nashville, St. Louis, and Arches National Park.

Our journey took us from the D.C. region, southwest through Tennessee, making our way west through the lower Plains toward Santa Fe, where we stayed a couple nights. We then headed northwest through the majestic Monument Valley, continuing through Utah and Idaho before ending the westbound track. After a week in Spokane, we headed back east through the northern stretches of the U.S., just as spring started to warm those states up. In North Dakota, we stopped at Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and then to South Dakota to see Mt. Rushmore and the Black Hills. Continuing across the Great Plains, we checked out Omaha and St. Louis, then stayed a couple nights at my parents home in Cincinnati, before completing our last leg to D.C.

Days 1 and 2 (D.C. to Memphis)

Knoxville – Driving down Interstate 81, through the Shenandoah Valley, you realize just how long of a state Virginia is. Upon entering Tennessee, it started to rain, and continued through most of the day. We stayed overnight in Knoxville, and the next morning stopped downtown for coffee, before most shops were open.  I was quite impressed with downtown Knoxville – it seems to be somewhat vibrant, and the area around Market Square was just getting ready to open, with various delivery trucks making their rounds to the restaurants and shops. The last time I had really spent any time in Knoxville was when I was a teenager, during the World’s Fair in 1983. I wouldn’t mind coming back here to spend more time and go to some of points of interest.

Nashville – We continued west along Interstate 40 for 2.5 hours to Nashville. Our first stop was the Parthenon, located in Centennial Park two miles west of downtown. The Parthenon claims to be the world’s only exact-size and detail replica of the original temple in Athens. It was originally built as a temporary building in 1897 part of the Tennessee Centennial Exposition, epitomizing Nashville’s nickname “The Athens of the South”. It was rebuilt in 1920 as a permanent building and has been used since then as a museum and art gallery. While the interior was closed while we were there, it was still a very interesting and photogenic site.

We continued to downtown Nashville, driving through the trendy area called “The Gulch”. The Gulch is a newly developed area that has a number of upscale hotels, boutiques and restaurants, and is also home to the Frist Art Museum. I was very impressed with downtown Nashville. It seems to be growing steadily, with a number of new glass condominium towers being built around its edge. Along the Cumberland River, across from Nissan Stadium (home of the NFL Tennessee Titans) sits a reconstructed Fort Nashborough. It was here that James Robertson and his group of pioneers founded Nashville in 1780, using the fort for protection from Native Americans.

The center of downtown activity, especially amongst tourists, is Broadway Street, also known as “Music Row”. Music Row is the heart of the country music industry, home to radio stations, recording studios and record label offices. Music Row includes historic sites such as RCA’s famed Studio B and Studio A, where hundreds of notable and famous musicians, including Loretta Lynn, B.B. King and Elvis Presley have recorded. Broadway Street also has dozens of touristy restaurants, country music bars, boot stores and souvenir shops. While country isn’t generally my taste of music, it was a fun place to walk around a bit, listening to the music blaring from the various bars, and seeing the kitschy vintage neon signs hanging above the doors. Just south of Broadway, along Demonbreun Street, is the Walk of Fame Park, where just like Hollywood Boulevard, the stars names are embedded in the sidewalk. Across the street is the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum.

We met up with a friend on the outskirts of Nashville and had lunch at a good little taco restaurant, called West Coast Taco Shop, and then continued west to Memphis.

Memphis – Memphis is another city that pleasantly surprised me, although there are some aspects that need improvement. We drove and walked around both downtown and some of the inner city neighborhoods. Outside of downtown (but still within the city limits), mid-town Memphis, and East Memphis seems to be where the money is. Street after street is flanked by moderate to huge, older huge homes and the streets are canopied with large trees. The trendy Cooper Young neighborhood in southeast Memphis is more popular with a younger, hip and gay crowd. There are a number of restaurants, bars, galleries and retail establishments at the intersection of Cooper Street and Young Avenue (hence the neighborhood name).  

On the mighty Mississippi River, sits Mud Island (actually a rather long narrow peninsula) directly across from downtown. This island is connected to downtown via a vehicular roadway, as well as a separate long pedestrian bridge. The north end of the island contains a new urbanist style community named Harbor Town, that consists of single family homes, apartments, parks, marina and a commercial district. Being an urban planner, I was quite impressed with the design and overall integration of the development. The residential aspect contains a mixture of housing styles, and the streets and boulevards are designed to be well connected, while slowing traffic, making the community pedestrian friendly.

The south end of Mud Island contains Mud Island Park. The park was constructed in 1982, and includes Riverwalk, a hydraulic scale model of the lower Mississippi River from Cairo, Illinois to New Orleans.  The Riverwalk model is carved out of cement to provide a scale model of the Mississippi River, and is 2,000 feet long and includes plaques with details about the river’s history. The concept is fascinating, and it must have been a huge effort to construct it. While it was fun to follow the model river, I was disappointed in the park’s overall upkeep and maintenance. Many of the adjacent buildings, such as those signed as a museum, were closed, and much of the concrete is crumbling. There were few others at the park, and apparently the city of Memphis is looking at a potential re-use of the site, as it hasn’t drawn the crowds that were originally intended. The park does provide good views back toward the City’s skyline, the iconic Memphis pyramid (See below), as well as the Mississippi and the many barges that make their way along it.

Just across from Mud Island is the 321-foot tall Memphis Pyramid. Constructed in 1991 as an arena, it was redeveloped and rebranded in 2015 as a Bass Pro Shops megastore. The megastore includes a huge store, hotel (Big Cypress Lodge), restaurants, bowling alley, archery range, and observation deck. The store was quite amazing. A large lake filled with fish meanders through the interior, and tall moss covered trees and shacks evoke the feeling of being a duck hunter in a swamp. The hotel is located along the perimeter of the upper levels, allowing guests to look down into the pyramid. The tallest freestanding elevator in America takes visitors to the Lookout at the Pyramid, where there is the observation deck and the Catfish Cabin, a restaurant, bar, and aquarium at the top of the building.

We headed over to infamous Beale Street, home of the Blues. Beale Street has three blocks of nightclubs, shops and restaurants, and the music coming from the bars is a combination of blues, jazz, gospel, R&B and rock n’ roll. One of the most famous blues clubs is B.B. King’s, at the corner of Beale and South Second Street. It was still early, so most places weren’t yet open, but it was fun to walk around; Beale Street has a similar vibe to Music Row in Nashville, but with a different music focus. Then we headed along the South Main corridor, an up and coming trendy neighborhood with a lot of restaurants, bars, the Blues Hall of Fame Museum and the National Civil Rights Museum located the Lorraine Motel, where the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.

Days 3 and 4 (Memphis to Santa Fe)

We left Memphis and drove across the wide Mississippi, entering the state of Arkansas. Yay! My 49^th state visited. One down, one to go…The landscape was fairly flat and boring between Memphis and Little Rock, but the one plus was that gas prices were about 20 cents lower than Tennessee.

Little Rock – Little Rock, the capital and largest city in Arkansas is a pleasant enough city with some pretty architecture, and a number of interesting sites in the central part of the city. Our first stop was Little Rock Central High School, Why would we visit a high school? Well, aside from it being a beautiful building, Central High School played an important part in the civil rights history of America. In 1957, Little Rock Central High School was the epicenter of confrontation regarding forced desegregation, and was a precursor for enforcement of African American civil rights following the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education. More information on the history of the school can be found here.

We toured briefly around a few other sights, including the Arkansas state capitol, the Governor’s mansion (home of Bill Clinton while governor of Arkansas), and the historic Quapaw Quarter where most of the city’s oldest homes and buildings are located. Remember the Sugarbaker house on the old 1980s sitcom “Designing Women”? It’s not really in Atlanta, but rather in the Quapaw Quarter, located at 1321 Scott Street, and is actually named Villa Marre, and was built in 1881.

Along the Arkansas River, which separates Little Rock from North Little Rock, at the east end of downtown is the River Market area, which has a number of restaurants, bars, a food court, and other sites including the Museum of Discovery and the Witt Stephens Jr. Central Arkansas Nature Center. Further east is the William J. Clinton Museum and Library, neither of which we went to due to our limited time. One thing I did enjoy was the Julius Breckling Riverfront Park. This park included a sculpture garden as well as the Junction pedestrian bridge that crossed the river affording great views of downtown. 

Oklahoma City – Traveling west of Little Rock, the hills of the Ozarks begin to form, eventually leading to dusty rolling plains beyond the Oklahoma border.  We stayed overnight in Oklahoma City, and ate dinner in the entertainment area called Bricktown. Bricktown is a former warehouse district filled with older red brick buildings that have been converted to restaurants and bars. The Chickasaw Bricktown stadium, home of the Oklahoma City Dodgers is also here. The highlight of Bricktown is the meandering canal that is lined with restaurants and bars, with pedestrian bridges above connecting the promenades. It reminded me of a more modern version of the Riverwalk in San Antonio. Visitors can ride tour boats up and down the canal.

The next day we stopped briefly to walk around the Myriad Botanical Gardens on the south side of downtown Oklahoma City. The 15 acre gardens take up an entire city block, and the centerpiece is the glass cylinder shaped structure built over a pond, called the crystal bridge. It houses a tropical conservatory, but was closed and under renovation when we visited. The gardens are free to the public.

Route 66 – Today was the day for getting our kicks on Route 66.  West of Oklahoma City, Interstate 40 parallels this old two lane highway that was one of the main routes that people used in crossing the country, especially from Chicago to southern California, before the Interstate system was constructed. From the interstate, you can see the old road and many abandoned structures, such as old motor court motels and gas stations. These shells of buildings were as relevant prior to the 1960’s as today’s cookie cutter gas stations, convenient stores and hotels at every major interchange.

The temperature dropped and the sky was gray in anticipation of snow. The landscape in this part of the country is rolling to flat dry dusty grasslands and ranches, and thousands of huge white colored modern wind turbines dot much of it, more than oil derricks would have in the past. It’s good to see that renewable energy is being implemented in oil country. Across the Texas state border in the Panhandle, we stopped in the town of Shamrock to visit the U Drop Inn 66. This iconic refurbished art deco style building contains original Conoco gas pumps, a museum and gift shop, and a café. We talked for awhile to the friendly ladies that worked in the gift shop, as they were admiring our dog Benji.

Near Amarillo, we stopped to take photos at a few other places that relish in American kitsch. The Big Texan steak Ranch and hotel is located just east of Amarillo off of Interstate 40, and is home of the Free 72 ounce steak challenge. Patrons can try and eat a 72 ounce steak dinner within one hour without getting sick and it’s free. The exterior is designed as a colorful western saloon and a huge cowboy sign greets visitors.

To the west of Amarillo is the famous Cadillac Ranch, where ten old Cadillacs have been planted in the ground at an angle with their rears upright, and covered with graffiti. It was constructed by hippies from San Francisco in 1974 and has been a major tourist attraction ever since. As we got off the interstate, I noticed a tour bus headed in the same direction of the landmark, so we passed it in order to get some good photos without being bombarded by people. We hurried our way to the Cadillacs to take photos. Sure enough, a few minutes later, a large group of teenage girls came screaming, armed with their spray paint canisters. Just up the road from Cadillac Ranch is the 2^nd Amendment Cowboy – a large statue of a cowboy in his cowboy hat, surrounded by polished Cadillacs, and a plaque explaining the second amendment.

As we approached New Mexico, the landscape became much more attractive, and confirmed our arrival to the west. This was my first time to New Mexico in over 25 years, but the beauty was just as I had remembered. Mesas rose from the ground, and the dull beige landscape was now a more red tint, interspersed with green sagebrush. Our last stop before Santa Fe was a place I found while searching for attractions on google maps. In the town of Santa Rosa, New Mexico is a little tourist spot called the Blue Hole. It’s a small swimming hole and artesian well that is over 60 feet deep, and the water is a clear blue. The water is a constant 62 degrees. It’s one of the most popular dive destinations in the United States for scuba diving and training.  

Days 5 and 6 (Santa Fe to Monument Valley)

Santa Fe – The Snow began falling as we drove up Highway 84 and onto Interstate 25 heading into Santa Fe. We checked into our hotel and ordered take out burgers for dinner. The next morning, it was a chilly 17 degrees. We made our way to downtown Santa Fe to walk around Santa Fe Plaza and surrounding streets lined with adobe style structures. The fresh blanket of snow added both beauty and a bit of solitude to the scenery. The vibe and look of downtown Santa Fe is different from anywhere else, especially because of its mixture of Native American and Spanish cultures, and the contribution of architecture from both groups. While the weather was frigid, it was still a pleasure to walk around the city, especially without the crowds. There are dozens of galleries, arts and crafts markets, restaurants, jewelry stores and curio shops throughout the downtown area, as well as some good museums including the Institute of American Indian Arts, the New Mexico Museum of Art, the Georgia O’Keefe Museum, and the New Mexico History Museum.

Bandelier National Monument – In the afternoon, as the temperature warmed up, we drove an hour to Bandelier National Monument. Bandelier Monument is 50 square acres of the Pajarito Plateau, on the slopes of the Jemez volcanic field. The monument includes ancestral Pueblo archeological sites and stunning scenery. The ancient homes of the ancestral Pueblo people date from between 1150 and 1600 A.D.

The drive to the monument is stunning, and the Anderson Viewpoint (Off Highway 502 toward Los Alamos) provides a great vista of the valley, mesas and distant snowcapped mountains. We then backtracked to Highway 4 toward Bandelier. Once we got to the Visitors Center, we found out that dogs were not allowed on the trails, so we each took turns hiking the Main Pueblo Loop Trail. There are a number of other trails, but the Main Trail only takes about 30 to 45 minutes to hike, and provides excellent views of the valley, the archeological sites, and surrounding cliffs and cave dwellings. A portion of the trail includes stairs to access the cliff dwellings, where you can then climb ladders to look within the caves that were inhabited by the Pueblo people. On the way back to Santa Fe, we stopped at the Tsankawi Preshistoric site off of Route 4 just before it merges with Route 502. There is a 1.5 mile trail (part of it requires climbing a ladder) along a mesa, that allows for viewing of petroglyphs and the Ancestral Pueblo village of Tsankawi, which was constructed in the 15^th century.

Chaco Canyon – This morning we got up very early to make the three hour drive to Chaco Canyon, which is located in northwest New Mexico. Chaco Canyon is a national monument and world heritage site, where the Chaco people built a huge trade center with a number of great houses starting around 850 A.D.  The great houses were massive multi-story stone buildings containing hundreds of rooms and kivas (places where ceremonies were held), and astronomy was used in the development patterns. They also built an elaborate road system that connected dozens of the great houses all throughout northwestern New Mexico.

Chaco Canyon seems to be in the middle of nowhere, and you wonder what would have drawn people to this region. A significant part of the journey to Chaco Canyon is along gravel and dirt roads west of Route 550. We arrived at the visitor center just as it opened at 9 a.m., as the park rangers were raising the U.S. flag. Our early rise paid off, since we were just about the only visitors here. The entry fee is $25 per car, but our annual National Parks pass that we purchased last fall allowed us entry into the national monument. So far, the pass has just about paid for itself.

We visited two great houses – Pueblo Bonito, the largest one, and Pueblo del Arroyo. It was a beautiful clear day with deep blue skies that enhanced my photographs. Both great houses were fascinating. The Chaco people used stone tools to create the masonry for the great houses. At Pueblo Bonito, the trail leads to a high point to take in the spectacular view of the half moon shaped great house, where you could see the outline of walls separating the rooms and the round shaped kivas. Other trails lead to large rocks that were used for petroglyphs. If you have the time, Chaco Canyon is well worth the visit.

Monument Valley – We continued on our drive toward Monument Valley, stopping for fast food in the dusty, sprawly town of Farmington, New Mexico. The Monument Valley straddles southeastern Utah and northeastern Arizona. The valley is characterized by a series of sandstone buttes, and the largest reaches 1,000 feet above the valley floor. The valley is a sacred area that lies within the territory of the Navajo Nation Reservation.

At Shiprock, New Mexico, we headed north on Route 491 into Colorado, and then west on Route 160, followed by Route 162 through Utah, which becomes Route 163. We took this route (rather than the route thru Arizona) because it seemed to have a prettier landscape and more to see based on a google search and look at google Street View. In Bluff, Utah, we saw some interesting rock formations that looked like double chimneys.

There were good places to pull off the highway near Mexican Hat, and we continued toward mile marker 13 of Highway 163. This is the location that was used in the movie “Forrest Gump”, where Forrest remarked that he was tired from his multi-cross country run, and decided to go home. We were lucky that there weren’t too many people taking photos, but I would venture that during peak tourist seasons, there is a mob of people here. We continued driving and stopping for photos at the many stunning vantage points, then checked into our hotel, Goulding’s Lodge, which has a perfect view of the valley and is surrounded on one side by a large monument. We later took sunset photos of Monument Valley at the View Hotel. This location seemed to be the most recommended site based on a google search, and was confirmed once we arrived and saw the number of people getting their cameras ready.

Days 7 thru 9 (Monument Valley to Spokane)

We woke up early to catch the sunrise of the valley at the View Hotel again. It was frigid outside, and we waited in the car until just the right moment. The sunrise was just as beautiful as the previous sunset. We then headed north on Route 163 to Route 191 toward Arches National Park. Moab is the largest town in southeast Utah, and the main commercial hub for both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks.  There are plenty of restaurants, coffee shops, camping supply stores, and tour companies that can be found in Moab. We found a good cafe for  lunch named Moab Garage Company, where I had the staff’s favorite – a delicious BLT with a homemade tomato jam.

Canyonlands National Park – We arrived at the gate at Arches National Park, only to be disappointed to see a variable message board saying “Park is full, come back in 3-5 hours”. Unfortunately, we didn’t have three hours to spare, so we headed to Canyonlands National Park. For future reference, if you run into the same situation, you can view natural arches at Canyonlands. In addition, we had stopped about 20 miles before Moab, at the huge Wilson Arch, which is right off Highway 191, and were quite impressed.

Canyonlands is a huge national park, and the largest in Utah. It has vehicular access points (that don’t connect) from both the south, near Monticello, and from the north, near Moab. The north entrance, which provides access to the Island in the Sky district, has more overlooks, and is closer to Arches National Park, so that is the entrance we used. Canyonlands did not disappoint. There are spectacular views of canyons and their associated buttes, mesas, and arches formed by both the Colorado and Green Rivers and their tributaries. Many of the vistas have snowcapped mountains in the distance. While stopping at the various overlooks, I remarked that Canyonlands seems to have a little bit of the Grand Canyon, Bryce Canyon (with it’s hoodoos), and Arches all in one. After a couple of hours, we continued our journey north toward Salt Lake City.

Salt Lake City – The drive north from Moab is fascinating, as you witness various geologic land formations, with changing colors as you continue. The red rock colors of the national park area change to a dull grey ash color near the Green River and all the way past Price, Utah. In this section, with its absence of any vegetation, you feel like you could be driving on the moon. The rock then changes to a yellow shade, followed by a sage green along Route 6 through Price Canyon. Once you hit Highway 89, the colors change back to a vibrant reddish color, as you descend into the Salt Lake Valley. The Salt Lake City Metro area is in a spectacular setting, sandwiched in a valley between the Wasatch Mountain range to the east, and the Oquirrh Mountains to the west. The urbanized area with a population of about 2.4 million people stretches for about 80 miles, from Provo in the south, to Ogden in the north.  The next morning, we drove into downtown Salt Lake City, and explored several areas.

Temple Square, home of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (LDS Church), is located on the north edge of downtown. The Square includes gardens, the Salt Lake Tabernacle, the Salt Lake Temple, museums and a conference center. The square was under renovation while we were there, and the Temple was covered in scaffolding. We toured the inside of the Tabernacle, which was completed in 1875. It’s hard to believe the building dates to the 19^th century, as its appearance seems much newer. The building is known for being one of the most acoustically perfect buildings in the world, partially a result of the elongated domed roof. The Tabernacle organ is positioned at the west end above the choir seats, and is the focal point of the Tabernacle’s interior.

We walked around City Creek Center, an attractive open air shopping mall and mixed use development that extends through three city blocks, just south of Temple Square.  The development was undertaken by the LDS Church, and opened in 2012. While I’m generally not a fan of malls, the design was done quite well, incorporating public plazas, and sustainable design practices, and the development connects well with the adjacent street grid as well as the light rail system that traverses between two of the blocks. We then drove to the Utah State Capitol and to a residential neighborhood on a hillside north of the capitol that offered stunning views of the downtown skyline and distant mountain ranges.

A few notes about Salt Lake City – the streets are very wide (the Mormons built them that way in order to easily turn their wagons around), and the people are very friendly. Almost everyone we came in contact with smiled and greeted us with a hello. It’s also one of the cleanest cities I’ve been to in the United States.

We drove north to Boise, the capitol and largest city of Idaho. As you approach the Idaho state boundary, the mountains become more distant, and the landscape becomes more barren, with rolling empty hills, and few population centers anywhere. After a couple hours, we stopped in Twin Falls to see Shoshone Falls, which is along the Snake River. Shoshone Falls is sometimes referred to as the Niagara Falls of the West. Unfortunately for us, when we arrived the flow was pretty minimal, but the rocky canyon carved by the river was attractive nonetheless.

Boise – After another two hours, we arrived in Boise. The last time I was here was in 2010, and I was interested to see if much had changed. This very fast growing city, nicknamed The City of Trees, sits on the Boise River, where a series of parks and trails and the Boise Zoo are interconnected. We met up with a local friend for dinner in downtown, an attractive compact area comprised of both historic and newer architecture, including a few modern high-rise towers. Downtown was buzzing with activity. A pedestrian zone has been established along 8^th Street which has plenty of sidewalk cafes, bars and restaurants. Since my last visit, I noticed there has been additional construction of new condominiums downtown. One interesting area downtown is the Basque Block. The Basque community in Boise numbers around 16,000 people, one of the largest outside of Spain. Basques initially arrived in Idaho in the late 1800’s working as ranchers and sheepherding, and the population continued to grow over the years. The Basque Block, along Grove Street, has several Basque restaurants and a Basque Museum and Cultural Center.  We tried to find a Basque restaurant with outdoor seating since we had our dog, but none of the restaurants had their outdoor seating open. Instead, we ate at Lucky Fins, where I enjoyed tasty braised lamb tacos with a side of pineapple rice.

After dinner, we drove through the North End, a quaint neighborhood of craftsman style homes and compact but diverse commercial district along North 13^th Street. North of the North End is Camel’s Back Park. We climbed a steep trail to the top of a hill that provided great views of the city below. As we climbed the trail, strong winds nearly blew us off the trail, but we were able to catch a great sunset.

The next morning we left early for the final day of our westbound journey, hoping to reach Spokane by the afternoon. I chose a route that traverses along the western boundary of Idaho, using local highways. The other option, and slightly quicker (but longer by mileage), uses Interstate highways through northeast Oregon and southeast Washington state, going mostly through high desert country. The route I chose is along Highway 55 through the mountains, Payette National Forest, then through the Nez Perse reservation, and into the Palouse region of southeast Washington, one of my favorite places. Unfortunately, the day was rainy, and less stunning than it could have been. But it was still beautiful nonetheless, and a good portion of the countryside was blanketed in snow. In the mountains, the rain turned to snow. Some of the scenery along the way included the Payette whitewater river meandering through snowy meadows surrounded by mountains. The resort town of McCall that sits on the south end of Payette Lake seemed to be busy with people enjoying winter sports. There are a few ski resorts in the vicinity. I could easily come back to this area again, in either winter or summer.

The Palouse – The Palouse is a picturesque region of southeast Washington and northwest Idaho that comprises rolling hills of wheat that are lime green in the spring, and red, gold and brown by fall. In the spring, you can see the green change shades as the wind blows. Red barns, grain silos and small quaint farm towns filled with Victorian architecture, such as Dayton, Washington, dot the landscape. Palouse Falls, a stunning waterfall surrounded by a canyon cut in the desert is a photographer’s dream. Ever since the first time I came here in the late 1990’s, I’ve been mesmerized by it, and always enjoy coming back. I even painted a large oil painting of the Palouse landscape that hangs in my house.

Days 16 and 17 (Spokane to Dickinson)

After spending a week in Spokane cleaning my investment property, talking to a realtor and contractors, and doing some leisure activities, it was time to begin our eastbound journey back to D.C. We left exactly at 8am on a Tuesday, and drove through the beautiful Panhandle of Idaho, where the mountains were still capped in snow. Off to the right of Interstate 90, you could see the jade green colored Lake Coeur d’Alene, with the mountains in the distance. We did a trip here in 2016, staying at a timeshare with a spectacular location on the east side of the lake, perfect for viewing sunsets. Coeur d’Alene is a great place to vacation and stage day trips to other nearby places such as Lake Pend Oreille, the Palouse, and western Montana.

A little later, we entered Montana. There are two things to know about Montana. First, it’s one huge state and the drive across takes nearly eleven hours. Second, it’s a stunningly gorgeous state and you’ll appreciate nearly every minute of the eleven hour drive. The lyrics of ‘America the Beautiful’, especially those about spacious skies, amber waves of grain, and purple mountain majesties, could easily apply to huge swaths of Montana. My neck started to get sore from so much looking from left to right, taking in the scenery while driving.

We stopped briefly for lunch in the cute college town of Missoula. We had difficulty finding a place that had outdoor seating, but the friendly staff at Top Hat in downtown Missoula let us use their outdoor igloos, even though our dog isn’t technically a service dog. I had the yummy crispy mole chicken tacos with home made tater tots.

Butte – We stopped again in the old, historic mining town of Butte. In its heyday during the late 19^th and early 20^th century, Butte was one of the largest copper mining towns in the U.S., attracting immigrants from all over, especially the Irish. Today, Butte has the highest per capita population of Irish-Americans. We saw several large Irish flags, and I wasn’t sure if it was because St. Patrick’s Day had just passed, or if it was a tribute to the local population’s roots.  

The main thing I wanted to see in Butte was the massive Berkeley Pit, a former open pit copper mine opened in 1955 operated by the Anaconda Copper Mining Company. The pit is one mile long, by one-half mile wide, with a depth of approximately 1,800 feet. The pit was closed in 1982, and today is filled with acidic water and is one of the largest Superfund sites in the U.S. Unfortunately, the visitor center and viewing platform was closed, but I hiked up a nearby hill to look through a chain link fence to get a view. The historic downtown area of Butte is built on a steep hillside, and has the feel of an old western boom town, but it’s definitely seen better days. Many of the storefronts were empty and the buildings needed repair. I hope that the city can improve its economy and bring in more tourism because the area is in a stunning location.

Billings – Close to Billings, the tall mountains begin to fade away as the landscape is replaced with rolling hills, plains and rocky cliffs covered with scrub or pine trees. We stayed the night in Billings, the largest city in Montana, which prides itself on being the real Montana, and not the trendier Missoula or Bozeman. The city is to the north of the Yellowstone River, set in plain surrounded by rocky buttes. We walked around the compact downtown area while looking for a place to pick up dinner. After 5pm on a Tuesday, the downtown was pretty quiet, but we did notice there were quite a few restaurants. We took our dinner back to the hotel and ate before calling it a night.

Pompeys Pillar – A fascinating part of our route is that this part of Interstate 90 through Montana follows closely with the Lewis and Clark expedition’s return journey in 1806, along the Yellowstone River. Just east of Billings, we stopped at Pompeys Pillar, a National Monument.  This rock formation along the south bank of the Yellowstone River reaches 150 feet and is famous for its engraved signature of William Clark. Clark was on his return trip (after he and Lewis temporarily split their parties near the Continental Divide) when he signed the rock on July 25, 1806. The signature is the only remaining physical evidence along the route that was followed by the expedition. According to Clark, after he climbed the pillar, he saw “immense herds of buffalo, elk and wolves”. He named it Pompy’s Tower (the name has since changed), after Sacagawea’s baby, whom she carried on a cradleboard strapped to her back for the 14 months that she accompanied and aided the expedition. The pillar also has numerous Native American petroglyphs. We climbed a wooden stairway that leads to the glass encasement of the signature, and also took a trail to the bank of the Yellowstone River.

Near Glendive, Montana, we stopped at Makoshika State Park. This park has badland formations and dinosaur fossil remains, and the name Makoshika literally means “Bad land” in Lakota. The visitor center wasn’t open, but we were able to drive a few miles into the park and take photos of some of the interesting landscape that would be a prelude to our next stop.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park – Thirty minutes later, we entered the state of North Dakota. Woo hoo! I can now say I’ve been to all fifty states! The initial landscape in North Dakota was rolling empty prairie, and I noticed large words from the classic cowboy song “Home on the Range” spelled out on the side of a hill off the freeway. A little later, we saw the rocky formation of the Badlands made up of dry sedimentary rocks and clay rich soils that have eroded. We soon arrived at Theodore Roosevelt National Park. The 70,000 acre park is comprised of three units (North, South, and Elkhorn Ranch). We just visited the south unit, since it is conveniently located right off of Interstate 94. The entrance to the north unit is about 60 miles north of the freeway. The park is named after the former president who hunted bison and started the Elkhorn ranch here in the 1880’s before becoming president.  It was a beautiful warm day to visit the park, and we practically had it to ourselves. Apparently early spring is not a busy tourist season. In fact, the only noise we heard was each other, and the wind, and we were truly grateful.

The south unit consists of a loop road, but a portion of it was closed. We drove along what we could, then turned around, taking in the beautiful rugged scenery and rock formations dominated by red, copper and beige colors. I learned that in early summer, the park explodes in green and has hundreds of species of flowers. I will need to put that on my bucket list. Throughout the park we stopped at several Prairie Dog Towns, where the small cute critters came right up to us. We also stopped to photograph herds of grazing bison right off of the loop road. It was the first time our dog Benji had ever seen bison or prairie dogs, and he was very excited. A number of other wildlife live within the park including coyotes, cougars, mustang horses, elk, and white-tailed deer. Another great spot for viewing the badlands is at exit 32 off of Interstate 94, where the Painted Canyon Visitor Center is located. The visitor center was closed, as was a portion of the road into it, but we were able to enter through an open pedestrian gate and take in the beautiful vista.

Days 18 and 19 (Dickinson to Omaha)

Enchanted Highway – We woke up very early to catch the sunrise on the beautiful plains. We drove a little east of Dickinson on Interstate 94 and got off at Exit 72 to drive the Enchanted Highway.  The Enchanted Highway traverses 32 miles north-south through mesmerizing plains that stretch as far as the eye can see. The highway’s name is due to the seven giant metal sculptures along the road. Some of the sculptures include large grasshoppers, pheasants and a tin family. It was conceived and developed in 1989 by a local artist named Gary Greff in hopes of reviving his nearby town of Regent. We stopped at most of the sculptures to take photos, as well as photos of the beautiful backdrop of deep blue sky against golden prairies in the early morning light.

Black Hills – We continued toward the Black Hills region of South Dakota, stopping first at the historic town of Deadwood. Deadwood was a center of the Black Hills gold rush that grew substantially in the 1870’s. It is also famous for its lawlessness during its heyday. Famous western figures Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are buried here. The commercial district meanders through a narrow valley while historic Victorian style homes are built on a hill overlooking the downtown. Today, the entire town is on the National Historic Register, and is filled with tourist destinations including curio shops, saloons, restaurants, hotels and a significant number of casinos / gaming resorts. It was pretty quiet when we visited, and many facilities were closed, so we didn’t stay long.

The Black Hills are so named because of their dark appearance from a distance. We drove through beautiful scenery including green hills covered with large boulders and pine trees, as well as beautiful clear lakes including Pactola Lake. Eventually we arrived at the most famous attraction in the Black Hills region, Mount Rushmore. This national memorial was lead by sculptor Gutzon Borglum and completed in 1941 after 14 years of construction. I did some research and didn’t realize that the original design was supposed to have the statues built from their waist up, but as the project ran out of funding, only their faces or busts were completed. At the time we visited, there was no fee to the park itself, but there was a $10 parking fee. We continued to gorgeous Custer State Park, south of Mount Rushmore, which covers 70,000 acres consisting of grasslands, lakes, forested hills and rocky buttes.   Entrance to the park requires the purchase of a seven day pass for $20, which can be purchased at pay meters. The park is filled with scenic drives, including the Wildlife loop road where bison and deer can be seen. Feral burros came right up to our car begging for food, itching their chins on the side mirror.

Sylvan Lake is a beautiful spot on the north edge of the park. The lake is surrounded by huge rock formations. The water was still partially frozen, and snow covered part of the path that loops around the lake. I could imagine the lake being even more beautiful during warmer months.

Badlands National Park – After spending the night in Rapid City, the main hub for the Black Hills, we woke up early to drive to Badlands National Park to catch the sunrise. The Badlands is one of the most unique and striking natural places on earth. The park includes multi-hued eroded buttes and pinnacles that rise above grass prairies. Erosion over millions of years has resulted in sedimentary layers of rock of different colors including purple and yellow (shale), tan (sand), red and orange (iron oxides) and white (volcanic ash). It was a chilling 27 degrees when we visited, compounded by gusts of wind, but still well worth it to catch the beauty of this place. You can access the western Pinnacles entrance south of Wall (where the infamous Wall Drug is located), and drive the 35 miles to the Northeast entrance point.

Our next stop was Plankinton, population 707, in the middle of South Dakota farmland. I have a funny story to tell. When I was about twelve years old, I received a huge model train set built on a ping pong table for Christmas, that consisted of streets, buildings, miniature trees, cars and people, and a mountain that had a rail tunnel. How my brother was able to spend months secretively building it without me knowing is a wonder to this day. Anyway, the train station had a blank sign for a town name, so I decided to designate a name. I randomly opened up an atlas, closed my eyes, and put my finger on the map. Thus, the name of my train town was forever after Plankinton. As the ‘real’ Plankinton is located right off of Interstate 90, it was paramount that I visit it. Well, the real Plankinton doesn’t look anything like my town did and there was no mountain, but it was fun to visit just the same.

Sioux Falls – One and a half hours later, we were in Sioux Falls, the largest city in South Dakota. The chilling wind still remained, making our stops brief. The main tourist attraction is Falls Park, the city’s namesake. The 128 acre park is located along the Sioux River just north of downtown, and various paths and overlooks allow you to view the terracing falls that meander through pink colored rock, known as Sioux Quartzite. This pretty colored rock has been used for the construction of buildings throughout Sioux Falls, making it America’s pinkest city. We also drove through the downtown area, with most of the commercial activity along Philips Avenue. It was an attractive corridor with wide sidewalks, public art, and a pretty sizable amount of retail establishments and restaurants. On to Omaha, which will be in my next post.

Days 20 and 21 (Omaha to St. Louis)

Omaha – Having never been to Omaha other than the airport, I was pleasantly surprised by this thriving city that does a good job at blending the old and new.   Our first stop was the Old Market area, on the southeast end of downtown.  This trendy area is the primary arts and entertainment district in Omaha. It was originally constructed in the 19^th century and is filled with old brick warehouses converted to new uses, cobblestone streets, and covered sidewalks. There are a lot of restaurants, bars, coffee shops, art galleries and stores in this very happening area.

Omaha seems to be going through a major construction boom. Everywhere we looked we saw new buildings and parks under construction. A massive project is currently underway to revitalize the Missouri Riverfront and rebuild the Gene Leahy Mall (park) that will directly connect the river to the central business district, to be completed in 2023.

We walked into the downtown core which is where the larger modern office towers are located. Unfortunately, it appeared that most of the retail hasn’t survived, as there were a lot of empty storefronts in beautiful old art deco buildings.

Another observation is the plentiful public art scattered throughout the city and downtown in particular, whether it be along highways, bridges, office buildings or in city parks. The city has paid tribute to its past through the Pioneer Courage Park. This park in the northeast part of downtown contains a series of life like bronze sculptures of early pioneers making their trek across the plains. You can almost imagine the tough life the pioneers lived as you look at the faces on the statues of the men driving their caravans, and mothers holding their children. The park is the largest installation of bronze and stainless steel work of art in the United States.

We took a drive west of downtown to find billionaire business magnet Warren Buffet’s house. I won’t give the address, but you can easily google it. His very modest home is located in a middle to upper middle class neighborhood filled with similar sized Tudor and Colonial style homes, and he’s lived there since 1958. There’s no large privacy wall around it, only a fence and security cameras. It tells you a lot about his values and what is important to him.

Kansas City – We briefly visited Kansas City, the City of Fountains. My first job out of graduate school required me to do a number of business trips to Kansas City, Missouri and nearby St. Joseph, so I’m pretty familiar with it. I always thought Kansas City was a nice livable city, filled with beautiful parks, museums, monuments, residential and shopping areas.

The huge Country Club Plaza, south of downtown along attractive Brush Creek, was opened in 1923 and considered the first privately owned shopping center in the U.S. targeted toward shoppers arriving by car. The shopping center is built within blocks surrounded by a street grid, similar to a traditional business district, but with designated parking areas. The attractive buildings were built in a Moorish architectural style to resemble Seville, Spain. Country Club Plaza is characterized with wide sidewalks and plazas, clay roofs, mosaics, fountains and statues, and ornate bell towers. I wish there were more shopping centers like this today, and not the generic cookie cutter ones sprawled throughout America that will last for only twenty years.

We then drove south along Ward Parkway, which is a wide landscaped boulevard lined with older mansions of various styles for miles. Within the landscaped median are lavish fountains, hence the Kansas City’s nickname.

St. Louis – We continued to St. Louis, a city I haven’t spent much time in, but always wanted to check out. When I was 18 years old, and completed my Army Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, Missouri, I was put on a greyhound bus back to my hometown of Cincinnati. My one time in St. Louis was spent in my army dress uniform in an old bus station downtown waiting for a bus transfer.

The most well known attraction in St. Louis is the Gateway Arch. Luckily, I was able to get one of the few remaining tickets for the weekend by ordering ahead online. I’ve seen many photos of the arch, but nothing really prepares you for its immensity until you see it up close. The sleek arch, completed in 1965, is clad in stainless steel, and stands at 630 feet. The arch was constructed in response to an earlier plan in the 1930’s to rejuvenate the dying riverfront through a memorial commemorating western expansion. A design competition was held in 1947 and the winning design was submitted by Finnish-American Eero Saarinen, who unfortunately died before the arch was constructed.

Visitors enter though a modern, recently renovated underground visitor center that includes a museum on the history of the St. Louis area, as well as exhibits on westward expansion. They then take small 5 seat tram capsules that take four minutes to reach the top. Once at the top, visitors have eight minutes to look out the tiny windows aimed at St. Louis on the west side, and the river and Illinois on the east side. The ride down is three minutes. I enjoyed the arch and visitor center much more than I thought I would.

The historic Soulard neighborhood south of downtown is home to the Anheuser-Bush Brewery, as well as many bars, restaurants, and coffee shops. The neighborhood has attractive architecture including old brick rowhomes with mansard style roofs.  The first people to settle in Soulard were French, and the neighborhood hosts a huge Mardi Gras annually attracting hundreds of thousands of people.

The next morning we drove through the huge 1,300 acre Forest Park, considered one of the most beautiful urban parks in the U.S.  The park is home to the St. Louis Zoo, the St. Louis Art Museum, and the Missouri History Museum, and also held both the 1904 World’s Fair and the 1904 Summer Olympics. East of the park is the Central West End neighborhood, where some of the city’s wealthiest residents live. Elaborately gated streets such as Westmoreland Place and Portland Place are lined with old mansions. The Central West End also has a large mixed use commercial area with many shops and restaurants.

The highlight for me of this neighborhood is the Cathedral Basilica of St. Louis, completed in 1914. I’ve been to cathedrals all over the world, and this is one of the most beautiful I’ve seen. Almost the entirety of the interior is decorated in 41.5 million glass mosaic pieces in more than 7,000 colors. The mosaics cover 83,000 square feet, making it the largest mosaic collection in the world outside Russia. The mosaics used in the side chapels were designed and installed by Tiffany Studios.

St Charles – Our final stop in the St. Louis area was the city of St. Charles, located northwest, along the Missouri River. Founded in 1796, and settled by French speaking colonists from Canada, it was considered the last “civilized” stop by the Lewis and Clark Expedition in 1804. It also served as the first Missouri capital from 1821 to 1826. The quaint downtown brick streets are lined with historic brick commercial buildings and private homes, and many restaurants to choose from.

I felt like I didn’t have enough time to spend in the St. Louis area, and would definitely like to come back and explore more of the area.

Days 22 and 23 (St. Louis to D.C.)

This was our last leg and homestretch for completing our long journey. We drove through the flat farmland of Illinois and Indiana and then stopped for a couple of days to visit my family in Cincinnati, where I got my Skyline chili fix. We didn’t really do any tourist activities there, but you can learn more about Cincinnati in a separate post.

After saying goodbye to my parents, we drove east through Columbus into the hills of eastern Ohio, crossing the Ohio River into Wheeling, West Virginia. Wheeling, originally part of Virginia, was where the creation of the state of West Virginia was planned, and it was the first capital of the new state. It became a prosperous major manufacturing center in the late nineteenth century, specializing in steel, and was the state’s largest city until 1930.

Much of the architecture you see in Wheeling reflects its one time wealth. Beautiful Greek Revival and Victorian style buildings and row homes can be found throughout the downtown area. The local steel industry began to decline following World War II, and with that, an overall decline of the city’s building stock and infrastructure, much of it still deteriorated to this day. The remaining vestiges of its architecture provide for opportunities to make them showpieces.  We stopped in the Centre Market Square Historic District where much of the Victorian architecture and renovated buildings are located. At the center of the neighborhood is the Center Wheeling Market, that comprises a couple of buildings housing restaurants, markets, and artist galleries. I got us a couple of extremely overpriced (cash only) sandwiches from a food vendor, and then we continued on our way to our next stop.

New Vrindiban – Awhile ago, I had come across photographs of a tourist attraction near Wheeling on TripAdvisor, called Prabhupada’s Palace of Gold. The Palace is part of the Hare Krishna compound / town called New Vrindiban, south of Wheeling. Apparently it is one of the top tourist attractions in the state. I had made a mental note to stop and check it out on future trips that would go through Wheeling. We drove for thirty minutes along twisty narrow poorly paved roads that followed Wheeling Creek before eventually finding it. New Vrindiban includes a lodge, gift shop, vegetarian restaurant, a few lakes, a temple, and the palace, as well as private homes. New Vrindiban was founded in 1968 by early disciples of A. C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada, the founder of the International Society of Krishna Consciousness (ISKON), also known as Hare Krishna, a branch of Hinduism. The palace was originally intended to be a residence for the founder, but when he died in 1977, the plans changed to make it a memorial shrine.

When we arrived, there was not any sign of anyone at the main office, so we drove to the palace. Once there, I noticed that the exterior of the palace is in poor shape and is undergoing restoration, with scaffolding around parts of it. I went to the entrance where it noted tour times, but there was no one there. Eventually I came across a woman who helped us and called one of the monks to provide a tour.

The monk, who joined the movement in the 1960’s, provided me an overview of the history of the movement, its beliefs, and the building of the palace. He noted that New Vrindiban started with two disciples, and others followed, and today has over 100 disciples, and they and their families live throughout the over 1,000 acre compound. The palace reportedly cost over $600,000 in materials, and the devotees who built it learned many of the construction techniques on the job. The interior of the palace was in very good condition, unlike the exterior, and is made of marble, gold, and ornately carved teakwood. Unfortunately for me, photography is not allowed inside. There are 31 beautiful stained glass windows, some with peacock motifs, and multiple crystal chandeliers. The centerpiece of the palace is the grand hall, where a huge 150 year old chandelier imported from France hangs from the ceiling painted in murals of ancient Indian classics. The main dome is made of a 4,200 piece crystal ceiling.

New Vrindiban is not without controversy. Later, after my tour, I did further research and found that in the 1980’s, the leader of the community at the time was convicted for murder of another Hare Krishna member, and others were indicted on charges related to mail fraud and arson. The ISKON Governing Body in India expelled New Vrindiban, but the community was later reinstated in 1998 after new leadership provided stability.

We’ve reached the end of our journey, and part of me is glad to be home, relax in my own bed, and not be living out of a suitcase. What a fantastic trip it has been, back and forth across this huge beautiful country. We logged over 7,500 miles, visited 24 states, in four time zones, in 23 days. Every day had an adventure to experience or beautiful unique site to see. America truly is a great country filled with history and amazing places. Some people may call it “fly over country” but I can truly say that the places we saw are definitely worth seeing, and are best seen from the road.