Driving Across Nevada & Utah
Grimes Point Petroglyphs
Hickison Petroglyphs
Desert Bighorn Sheep
Serena stood in the middle of Highway 50 for this photo.
Ely, NV
Someone at the campground said that females are larger than males in owls. If that is correct then this is the male of the pair we saw.
Living and dead Bristlecone Pines @ Great Basin National Park
Great Basin National Park
Utah is starting to look interesting.
Ghost Rock along Highway 50/70.
Sunset in Green River, UT
Colorado
Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park
Measurements of Black Canyon of the Gunnison at three different view areas
pegmatite stripes in the gneiss and a peek of the West Elk mountains
Lots of Pegmatite
Painted Wall and the Gunnison River
sunset light on the canyon
A peek of the Gunnison River
View from the base of a small cliff we hiked past
long view
Gunnison river at the bottom of East Portal Road.
Upper Canyon at the bottom of East Portal Road still has great rocks but the canyon walls are more eroded and gradual rather than just vertical walls of rock.
Mama bear
Baby bears
Sunset
Morning light on Painted Wall and the Gunnison River
West Elk Mountains
Hello from Black Canyon of the Gunnison
Crested Butte, CO
Our friends in Crested Butte own this restaurant. Donita’s Cantina
Gothic Mountain & buildings of a research center located there
Wyoming and South Dakota
Antelope
Sunset rays as we were driving through the grasslands of Wyoming
(thru the windshield as we drove so there is a bit of schmutz)
Devil’s Tower National Monument
(the mountain featured in Close Encounters of the Third Kind)
We hiked around the tower.
The shady side had rock climbers.
These climbers are easier to see (the two little light colored specks)
Hi!
Dinner time view from our camp
The local American Indian tribes call the tower The Lodge of the Bear. This painting by a former park ranger shows a bit of the legend and how the tower got shaped by the bear’s claws.
Red Beds
Prairie Dogs
South Dakota & Minnesota (sort of)
This is an iconic motorcycle at the Motorcycle Museum in Sturgis, SD.
Foreground is a model of the eventual memorial.
Background is the memorial of the moment.
For comparison, the Mt Rushmore heads are 60’ tall and Crazy Horse’s face up there on the mountain is just shy of 90’ tall.
Better picture of Crazy Horse Memorial
Custer State Park - South Dakota
Our first tunnel on the Needles Hwy in Custer State Park.
It didn’t appear large enough for the RV but the clearance noted on the highway maps was okay.
It looks so much bigger from the inside.
Needle-like rocks are the namesakes for the Needles Highway portion of the road through Custer State Park.
bison close up
bison herd
Burros begging for food
more Desert Bighorn Sheep
White-tailed deer (vs. the Black-tailed deer we have in Santa Cruz)
NB Highway 16A leaving Custer State Park heading towards Mt Rushmore
Rushmore evening
Rushmore with lights
Rushmore daytime
Presidential Trail view
Badlands National Park - South Dakota
We’re pretty sure the sign on this building in Interior, SD is not a joke.
Minuteman Missile National Historic Site
Apparently the missiliers would decorate the blast doors that sealed them in when they went on their 24-hour control shifts. The guy who painted this only had access to red, white, and blue paint. And the Minuteman missiles did have a 30-minute timeframe from launch to detonation. Unfortunately when the silos were decommissioned the artworks were not saved/documented. This one is apparently on the door of the facility that was saved (inoperable) for tours.
What a difference a day makes. Picture #1 below is our campsite in Badlands NP. Picture #2 is the next night at Big Sioux Recreation Area. Both are in South Dakota.
Today we drove across Minnesota and ended up in Wisconsin north of Milwaukee. We did not stop other than for lunch @ Arby’s and refilling diesel. Not even for this
Milwaukee vicinity
Up close view of one arm of a power-generating windmill. We saw at least four of these as we were driving. And lots of wind farms b/c hwy 90 is VERY windy.
We didn’t go into the Milwaukee Art Museum, just a drive by.
Found this picture on the internet of the museum’s wings closed for the night.
Public art that spins in the wind and shimmers. And there are wheels so people can turn them manually.
Houses look like castles in Milwaukee.
And public works buildings look like they belong at Disneyland.
This is a decorative “cover” for part of the city’s public water system. First used in 1844 but no longer.
Lots of low bridges over the Milwaukee river. This one had to open three times while we were having lunch.
Us and the Milwaukee River
Chicago
This is a Picasso sculpture but it’s not by Picasso. In an effort to build tourism in the 1960s, Chicago asked Picasso to design a public art piece. He sent a small version of this with instructions to “make it bigger”. Most people look at it from the other side and miss that it is a woman.
Tiffany glass ceiling in Macy’s which occupies the entirety of the Marshall Field & Co building. After the Chicago fire of 1871 Marshall Field built the first department store (this building) which occupies a full city block and is seven stories tall.
Famous Chicago theater and unofficial symbol of the city.
L train tracks. It’s a brilliant way to have cars, trains, and pedestrians share the same roadway (Chicago is great at using and selling) “air rights”.
Here is another example of using air rights. This church has their congregational space and offices on the first two floors and a chapel at the top. In between there is an office building and they collect rent on all those offices.
Serena has no idea how she photographed the ghost bird.
Cloud Gate sculpture shown from the angle the artist intended so it reflects the entire Chicago skyline.
Throughout downtown - and a little beyond - there are beautiful planted areas (medians, hanging baskets, urns, window boxes, and sidewalk beds). They are all composed fantastically with different colors of foliage and flowers, different textures and heights. Mr. Olmstead, the father of landscape architecture who worked on the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, probably wouldn’t approve but we do (ornamental beds weren’t his style).
Went to Wrigley Field to watch baseball!
The Cubs lost. :(
This is Jeff outside the Chicago Art Institute (a museum).
At the end of our museum visit in the bookstore we heard a classic midwest greeting along the lines of “what the … are you two doing here?”
Gwen is a friend from Santa Cruz who grew up in Indiana. None of us were expecting each other here in Chicago. We might have also seen each other at the Cubbies game yesterday, but we weren’t seated anywhere near each other.
After the museum we met another Santa Cruz friend who has business in Chicago this week. Steve used to live here so he showed us around a bit.
View from Cindy’s Rooftop Bar @ the Chicago Athletic Assoc.
We had post-dinner drinks in the “Signature Room” on the 95th floor of the Hancock Building.
Nice view from the women’s restroom (the men’s room does not have a view).
Street-level view of the Hancock Building.
Tall Ship Windy
Windy under sail
We didn’t go very far into the lake but we were under sail most of the time (vs. using the engine).
panoramic cityscape
The point of Navy Pier is the low green dome structure.
Navy Pier in the foreground with the boats and the Ferris Wheel.
The Hancock Building is the one getting obscured by clouds (good thing we went up there for the view yesterday and not today).
On the water is a nice way to get unobstructed views of Chicago’s stunning buildings.
A few Chicago Architecure pix...
Pretty & Pink is a nickname for the center building.
River City is in the foreground (one of Serena’s top three faves).
The black building is the 8th tallest in the US (4 of 10 of the tallest in the US are in Chicago. It used to be called the Hancock Building but there seems to be a movement to call buildings by their address. On the architecture tour it was referred to as 875 N Michigan. But it’s hard to say what Chicagoans call it since they pronounce the Willis Building as Sear’s Tower.
Reflections
Carbide & Carbon Building
This building is supposed to mimic a bottle of champagne with its green color (like the bottle glass) and 24-karat gold leaf top (like the gold foil).
Aqua (Serena’s #1 fave skyscraper in Chicago)
This photo is from the internet b/c until Wednesday we hadn’t been in the right place to see the whole building and that day was overcast.
Our picture of Aqua
The hotel that must not be named is pretty and this picture has been altered.
There are four apartments in this triangular building.
This building maximizes air space despite limited ground space - the air space footprint is bigger than the area that touches the ground. Ground space is limited by the Chicago River and the train tracks (train is in the photo bottom left).
Cuyahoga Valley National Park
Jeff on the Ledges trail
Not a man-made structure
Brandywine Falls
Niagara Falls
upstream from Horseshoe Falls
The spray was visible from at least 6 miles away.
View from Goat Island of American Falls, the skywalk and Rainbow Bridge.
View from Canada of American Falls and Bridal Veil Falls (the little one on the right).
People getting very wet at the base of Bridal Veil Falls/Cave of the Winds.
Maid of the Mist (US)
Hello from Canada
The falls are lit up at night with ever-changing colors (and sometimes multiple colors).
This was our view from the top of the Skylon Tower.
View of American & Bridal Veil Falls from the top of Skylon Tower.
Fireworks Fri/Sat/Sun
The pink building in the background was not pink - just reflecting the fireworks. The lights on American Falls just happened to match the fireworks in this moment.
fireworks
View from Canada - Skylon Tower and the brink of Horseshoe Falls.
View of American Falls from the Hornblower Canadian boat that goes into the Horseshoe Falls spray.
Horseshoe Falls are so pretty from the boat.
View from Skylon Tower of Goat Island, American Falls, and Bridal Veil Falls.
View from Skyon Tower of Horseshoe Falls.
Journey Behind the Falls viewing portal. There’s nothing to see but the sound was awesome.
View of the base of Horseshoe Falls.
Every activity that gets you close to the water issues a poncho.
Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake. We could see Toronto on the opposite shore.
Niagara River class 6 rapids.
White Water Walk allows people quite close to the rapids (a few people got splashed).
more rapids
Carolinian forest at the Niagara Glen Nature Center.
“Trail” to the Whirlpool
Whirlpool we could see from rim-side overlook.
Canada does have a touristy part of Niagara Falls but it is not highly visible until you are in the middle of it. Niagara Falls, NY is dismal. The area of Niagara Falls, Canada just beyond all this had tons of lovely B&Bs and vacation rentals. If you have a choice, stay on the Canadian side of Niagara Falls.
Whirlpool Adventure Center looks so fun from the ground. Pretty sure it’s a bit intimidating once you’re up there. Unfortunately it’s all academic; we didn’t have good weather for this on our last day and didn’t know about it before then.
Afternoon rainbow at Horseshoe Falls is a sunny day occurrence.
New York, Vermont, & New Hampshire
Corning Glass Museum in Corning, NY
The butterflies are solar panels that power the light.
Layer upon layer of torch woven glass
Millions of tiny (smaller than the word tiny) pieces of glass rod “paint” this picture of the Duomo in Venice. The picture is roughly 4’x6’.
Learned a bit about how Cameos and pieces like this are done. Two (or more) different colors of glass are layered. Then the top piece is carved. This piece took eight years to carve.
Watkins Glen State Park
Glen Creek Gorge
Probably a picture very like this one is what Serena saw in a magazine that led to Watkins Glen being on our itinerary.
The trail goes behind that cascade on the left.
Some of the 800 stairs. We didn’t count them but we believe what the sign at the entrance to the Gorge Trail said.
This is the largest waterfall that the trail goes under.
Seneca Lake wine country
Walton, NY 
One of Jeff’s relatives.
Upstate New York in Walton
Jeff in Cooperstown, NY
Leaf Peeping!
Initially we were mostly seeing individual trees.
Poison Ivy
We did eventually see some colorful trees grouped together.
Massachusetts
We have finally seen Hamilton and it was fantastic.
Cool “Christmas Tree” in Salem.
Went to a tiny neighborhood in Salem which is the location of an outdoor museum (http://puntourbanartmuseum.org/). There were more than a dozen LARGE murals and a few dozen more small ones. There were some seriously beautiful murals and really talented artists involved.
Cool right?
Now look at one of the eyes up close.
Portraying something so realistically as reflective without using silver/reflective paints is amazing. This is done all in shades of black/white/gray (with blue highlights).
One of the smaller murals (guesstimating 8’x8’).
Another of the smaller murals.
Friends in Wareham, MA took us to see the longest painting in the world. 1275’ (⅘ of the original). It depicts whaling around the world and was displayed to people by scrolling - before moving pictures.
This is one of the four scrolls that were on display.
Mark owns a trimaran sailboat so we went sailing across Buzzard’s Bay.
We’re on a Boat!
Aye Aye Skipper!
deck hand
The name of Mark’s boat and artwork by Randall.
Cranberry bog (not flooded for harvesting)
Cranberries up close
A pivotal scene in The Way Way Back takes place on this water slide.
Jeff was not trying to climb the fence, just getting above it so he could take a picture.
Canal near the Massachusetts Maritime Academy. The tall bridge lowers when the train comes through but otherwise is up to allow boat traffic
Boston
The Granary Burying Ground
LOTS of people are buried here and no one really knows where or how many. People also leave headstones they find elsewhere and they get “planted” by the staff. Among the “famous” are: three signers of the Declaration of Independence, nine governors of MA, five people killed in the Boston Massacre, Benjamin Franklin’s parents (he is buried in Philadelphia though he was born here), and Paul Revere.
The Old State House (what we would call the State Capitol).
The Lion and Unicorn are symbols of royalty for England and Scotland respectively.
Statue of Sam Adams in front of Faneuil Hall (market place and town meeting hall).
Bunker Hill memorial atop Breed’s Hill (Bunker Hill is in fact the next hill over). Why?There was confusion among the US commanders about where to set up fortifications and fight. They did eventually decide for Bunker Hill but the one who went and did it went to Breed’s Hill instead.
View from the top of the Bunker Hill Monument (Jeff climbed the 294 steps; Serena did not.)
USS Constitution
“Old Ironsides” is the oldest commissioned warship afloat in the world.
There are four miles of rope and nearly an acre of sail on this ship. When it does leave the dock it is towed rather than under sail. But it is still floating and still staffed by US Navy personnel since it is an active duty ship.
Big Gun deck
Sleeping deck
Navy personnel on watch wear period uniforms.
Sunset view of Zakim Bridge from where we were walking on the Charlestown Bridge.
FYI - Massachusetts is home to VERY large liquor stores.
This was not the largest we went into. The larger one was possibly around the same size as the Santa Cruz downtown CVS.
And some more leaf peeping pix just because.
Philadelphia & New Jersey
Stopped in Plainfield, NJ to visit a friend of ours who used to live in California. We got to see one of his two coffee shops in the area. Y’all are welcome to order his coffee online. https://www.ahrre.com/
Philadelphia
The Liberty Bell
The US Mint had these posters in a few places.
The perimeter of our park and ride “campground” is a Department of Homeland Security building.
Us with Hamilton in the Signer’s Hall at the National Constitution Center.
We enjoyed this room with life-size bronzes of all the men who were present at the signing of the US Constitution (including 3 that chose to not sign).
Independence Hall.
Almost nothing in the room is original to the time when the 2nd Continental Congress met there to craft and sign the Declaration of Independence.
Independence Hall exterior
The Tomb of the Unknown Revolutionary Soldier in Washington Park.
The inscription on the casket is “Beneath this stone rests a soldier of Washington’s Army who died to give you liberty”.
Like nearly everywhere, the Museum of the American Revolution is capitalizing on the popularity of Hamilton. They have a new exhibit opening in a couple of weeks and just in the last month got a pair of life-size bronzes depicting the fateful Burr/Hamilton duel.
Jeff is getting a bit of attention with his souvenir A. Ham hat.
Notably, young people say they like it and old guys ask what it means then look perplexed when they hear the answer.
More A. Ham at the National Constitution Center
Philadelphia’s City Hall is massive. It is the largest unreinforced masonry building in the world.
Benjamin Franklin Parkway looking toward City Hall (we didn’t have this weather so this picture came from the internet). The flags represent country-of-origin of Philadelphia’s population.
Philadephia Museum of Art and the “Rocky Steps”.
The beginning of Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Love Park.
Washington DC - Monuments & Memorials
Looking at the Washington Monument through the fountain at the WWII memorial.
Each of the 4,048 gold stars represents 100 WWII American service personnel who died or remain missing.
One half of the WWII Memorial
The Vietnam Memorial is difficult to photograph because it is so wide.
The Lincoln Memorial
Korean Conflict Memorial
There are 19 soldiers on patrol. They are reflected in the wall alongside which brings the total to 38 - one for every month that US personnel were engaged in the fighting.
The wall has images (from the National Archives) sandblasted onto the surface. Where it is not sandblasted, the wall is highly reflective which puts the visitors into the memorial as well.
Serena was a bit depressed and angry after the Supreme Court and the Civil Rights portion of the Museum of African American Culture & History. It was hard to see progress in our laws or the everyday safety of African Americans. The MLK Jr. and FDR Memorial are good antidotes and reminders of progress and hope.
Thomas Jefferson is a difficult person to understand. He wrote in the Declaration of Independence that “All men are created equal” and advocated for the end of slavery most of his life and yet owned more than 600 slaves. He fathered six children with his slave Sarah Hemings; they inherited their mother’s slave status and were therefore his slaves also. Two of those children were freed when he died but the majority of his slaves remained part of his estate and were sold.
Jefferson Memorial
Lots of pix of the Washington Monument
From the Lincoln Memorial steps
Washington DC - Touring Federal Buildings
Library of Congress reading room
Ceiling of the Atrium
Stairway to the Mezzanine
Mosaic on the ceiling downstairs. Upstairs the mosaics are on the floors. This mosaic represents one of the areas (possibly astronomy) that the LoC has materials for.
Everything that looks like marble is marble (from a variety of places both domestic and foreign).
Every image is representative of something and meant as a reminder to Congress of the purpose of the library.
Upper walls of the reading room
There were special exhibits at the LoC (surprisingly, none of them were about Hamilton).
One of the special exhibits was about baseball.
Another was a re-creation of Jefferson’s library collection.
A fire in 1851 destroyed ⅔ (30,000) of the LoC collection including ⅔ of Jefferson’s library of 3500 books. They have been able to replace many of Jefferson’s books but you can see the blanks representing items they have not. The books are arranged as Jefferson would have had them in his library at Monticello. The LoC stores their books by size (not topic) to efficiently use limited storage.
Library of Congress exterior
Exterior of the Supreme Court (no photos allowed of the courtroom).
The Supreme Court met here in the basement of the Capitol before they got their
own building.
Touring Congress
Art on the ceiling of the rotunda. E Pluribus Unum = From Many, One
The original House of Representatives room is now a hall of statues. Each state has two statues. California’s are Ronald Reagan and JunÃpero Serra. Father Serra may be replaced in the near future by Astronaut Sally Ride (first American woman in space).
When Lincoln served his one term in the House of Representatives. The House has too many members now for them to have desks or even assigned seats.
This statue is not one of the states’ statues.
We can use our passes again any day during the 115th Congress.
Washington DC - Everything Else
Front of the White House. There was only one anti-Trump protester. However, we did see one person taking a selfie of their middle finger with the White House in the background.
Back of the White House
Eisenhower Executive Office Building
National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden
Hirschhorn Gallery Sculpture Garden
Please do not touch or climb on the artwork
Asian Art at the Freer & Sackler Galleries
“Terminal” by Subodh Gupta - https://www.si.edu/exhibitions/subodh-gupta-6191
Thank you James Smithson.
The Institution was founded in 1846 with funds from an Englishman James Smithson. Smithson had never been to the states but his will stipulated that his estate be used "to found in Washington, under the name of the Smithsonian Institution, an establishment for the increase and diffusion of knowledge among men."
The “Castle” is the original Smithsonian building. It now houses their Visitor Center.
We spent an entire day in the National Museum of African American History & Culture.
Photo of Alexander Hamilton from the exhibit at the Postal Museum
We popped in briefly at the Museum of Natural History to see dinosaurs and gems.
Don Pedro Aquamarine
Air & Space Museum
National Gallery of Art
The National Gallery of Art entry hall
Given all the US history we’ve been learning about on our trip we found the DC license plates pretty funny.
Indiana, Missouri, & driving westward
Visiting in Bedford, IN. Jeff and James have known each other since Jr. High.
Visiting Serena’s 4th grade teacher in Terre Haute, IN (also she was the minister for our wedding).
Basilica Cathedral of St. Louis
41.5 million pieces of glass arranged into mosaic that covers 83,000 square feet.
All the pieces that shine like gold do have gold leaf in the glass.
This artwork shows the arch near completion with the center brace and the final piece being hoisted.
The tram cars that go to the top are tiny little 5-person pods. Definitely could be claustrophobic for some people. The ride to the top is 4 minutes (3 minutes on the way back down).
Old Courthouse across from Arch Park
This is us at 630’ above St. Louis.
We didn’t know until staff at the visitor desk told us but tomorrow is the 53rd anniversary of the finishing of the arch. Today there is a “Meet the Builders” event. Jeff bought a $1 poster then went around the table and got all their autographs. It was pretty cool to be here today.
Gateway Arch is a monument to US westward expansion following Lewis & Clark’s trek westward. At 630’ tall it is the tallest monument in the US.
It appears incredibly fragile and the idea of going up to the top was a bit scary until we watched the film. The exterior is double welded ¼” plates of stainless steel. It’s hollow for the tramway and maintenance staircase but the walls are filled with concrete and reinforcing steel cables. The sides at the base are 54’ each. The final piece at the peak is 17’ on each side.
Sunday, 10/
Friends from Santa Cruz moved to the outskirts of Albuquerque, NM not long before we left on this trip so we added a visit there to our itinerary.
Here we are in Placitas, NM with our friends Jim & Carol.
Lovely sunset tonight
And a beautiful view
Probably the last of our fall color leaf peeping - New Mexico has these gorgeous bright yellow trees.
Fun in New Mexico & heading home
Madrid is on the Turquoise Trail (Hwy 14 between Santa Fe and Albuquerque)
If we had time we could have participated in painting this bus in Madrid. Instead, Jim & Carol posed with it.
Rio Grande & Sandia Mountains
Cottonwood Trees
We had nice weather for a hike today. We started at about 7000’ feet and went up to 8000’ on the La Luz trail in the Sandia Mountains. Afterwards we went for beer and a snack at a local brewery.
Petroglyph National Monument near Albuquerque
Lots of people petroglyphs with waving arms and interesting hair?
sunset while driving west from Albuquerque to Bakersfield
We’re back!
Our route. The red points indicate overnight locations.
Here are a few stats from our trip
- … miles ($ diesel)
- 18.7 average mpg
- departed Wednesday, 8/29 and returned Friday, 11/2 - 9 weeks & 3 days
- traveled through 28 states, Washington DC, and Niagara Falls Canada (9 states were repeat destinations for us)
- Visited friends in:
- Crested Butte, CO
- Milwaukee, WI
- Portsmouth, NH
- Attleboro, MA
- Rochester, MA
- Summit, NJ
- Bedford, IN
- Terre Haute, IN
- Albuquerque, NM
