Hotels, Motels, and Lodging thoughts

While fresh in my mind, thought I'd comment on the places we stayed.  We stayed in a mixed bag of places...mostly hotels, but some more unique places.

Before this trip, I thought Comfort Inn and Hampton Inn were similar.  They really have diverged.  Hampton Inn properties (we stayed in 3 in diff cities) are much, much nicer.  Super clean, high end bedding, great breakfasts.  Comfort Inns were OK in multiple places.  We stayed one night in an America's Best Value Inn which was clean, but quite basic.  We also stayed one night in the Boulder Outlook Motel which was definitely the worst (but not near cheapest) lodging.  Residence Inn for a few nights which was pretty nice. And the best place we stayed was the Wildwood Inn near RMNP (also by far the most pricey).  Experience booking all of these was pretty good, but I used a mixed bag of options to get good rates from priceline to direct websites to using points. Overall, I was most impressed by Hampton Inn as they really seem to have upgraded their properties over past few years and staying in them feels like you're in a much richer hotel (like Hilton or Westin or Hyatt, etc).  Generally, though, these come with free parking and are more self-service than the higher end properties, which is too my liking.  I'd be confident at this point booking at Hampton Inn pretty much anywhere in US and feeling that it would be a great stay.  The price difference btwn Hampton Inn over others I list is quite minimal and worth the small increment (if any).



 

 

It's all over

What a great trip.  We made it back to Blacksburg late on Friday and that ends our trip. Fabulous time.

On the way back, we got to satisfy one last food craving - for chili.  There's (at least) one great place to stop for that and it's Cincinnati.  So, on the way, stopped at Skyline Chili and grabbed some tasty plates.  If' you've never had Chili from this town...it's super tasty. Sweet tasting.  We both had it five ways, which includes beans, onions, cheese with the chili over spaghetti.  Highly recommended.

We did have an hour and a half delay in WV due to an accident, but we forged on anyway and made it back home a bit after midnight.

State plate game

Been tracking state license plates using app uspl8s.  44 seen so far...missing Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Rhode Island, Hawaii, New Hampshire, DC.

Update: In WV, we saw Maryland and Maine...but were still 5 plates short of the goal.  I thought we'd see them all on this trip, but we did not. Oh well.

Long day of driving

Finally made it to hotel in Peoria after driving since 9am this morning (Mountain Time).  Had a really interesting lunch/dinner at a random place Little Chicago Pizza and Gyros in Mason City, Iowa.  It was like eating at grandma's house.  No one else in entire place other than me, Susan, and the cook (and owner?) Pizza was ok, but it was sort of weird.  Mostly, I think it was weird because the place was so dead and it was around 5pm on Thursday and the place was oddly kept.  Interestingly, reviewers on urban spoon seem to really like it.  Nothing wrong with it, just got a weird vibe and there was just no one around.

Badlands are bad

Bad meaning good.

Went to Wall Drug Store (which is much more than a "drug store")...kind of like South of the Border for South Dakota.  Really weird place.  It started out when they began offering travelers free ice water, which they still offer today.  And they still have 5 cent coffee.  Really.  They do.  I saw a sign coming in and thought it was a joke, but we arrived, purchased a couple donuts and then got two 5 cent cups and it wasn't even bad.  A throw back sort of place.  Other items are normally priced, though.  Anyway, we checked this place out for a couple hours then headed to the Badlands National Park (BNP).

BNP was cool.  As usual, we took a whole ton of pics and posted some of the best here.  I will say that the iPhone takes some sweet panoramic pictures.  Nice.

Anyway, we now have the job of driving to get home.  We're about 22 hours driving if we go the best route which appears to be across Minnesota, down through Iowa and Illinois, through Dayton and ultimately WV on our way back to the 'burg.

We might have a couple more short updates...but most of our fun is now over.

Buffalo, Buffalo and more Buffalo!

We didn't realize ahead of time that seeing Mount Rushmore would take such a small amount of time, so we had an extra day here in Custer.  There is more to see here, so we still had an eventful day.  Mostly due to the buffalo (which are actually bison, but commonly called buffalo here).  We started by just exploring the little town of Custer.  Around the city are painted buffalo, similar to the painted Hokie Birds in Blacksburg.  We did take a small sampling of pictures with some of these as we toured the main drag of Custer.

For lunch we hit the highly recommended Black Hills Burger and Bun Co.  We found it to be worthy of all the praise.  We each had a delicious burger there and would recommend it to anyone traveling to the area.

For our afternoon fun we headed into Custer State Park to drive along the wildlife loop.  There were all sorts of animals we were hoping to see, primarily the buffalo.  The drive started slowly... we saw a couple of deer (which live in our backyard back home, so that wasn't quite as thrilling for us) and some cute prairie dogs.  Then we drove for miles just enjoying the landscape because there were no animals for us to see.  We finally came across some stopped cars and paparazzi and found a small herd of friendly burros.

We finally hit pay dirt near the end of the drive when we found a very large herd of buffalo.  We pulled up with the line of cars (no one pushing their children outside with these animals thankfully!!!) and suddenly all the buffalo were moving.  We had arrived just when the herd decided to head to a field on the other side of the road.  This was very exciting for us, but also a bit on the scary side.  They are massive animals and there were a great many of them.  It was still an amazing experience to be surrounded by them especially since there were a lot of young calves with them.  Check out the video.

After we left the park we had a minor encounter with a couple of pronghorns and then we headed up route 16 to see Mount Rushmore through the tunnels.  Yes, we did go back to Rushmore, our parking pass is good through December, and we were so close, so why not?  We did not stay long, but it was still impressive and then when we left we found a Mountain goat momma with her baby .

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln

Mount Rushmore seen.  Check it off the bucket list. Pretty incredible that most of the work was done with dynamite via blasting.  400 workers built it between 1927-1941.  Very cool ceremony for veterans (and current military) at end of evening lighting ceremony.  We did spend a bit too long there...got to site before 4pm and wanted to stay until lighting which was at 9:30p, but it was pretty cool.  Not as big as you might imagine, but still pretty incredible.  I think they need to add a Reagan head to this, but I guess that's never going to happen.  

Often for sports, talk radio guys like to talk about the all time NBA Mt Rushmore or similar.  So, if you like, you can check this out: Steelers Mount Rushmore

For driving fans

The drive from RMNP up to South Dakota is pretty darn boring.  Nothing to see.  But, at least the speed limit is 80!  I've never seen that before anywhere else in US.  I wonder if this is the maximum posted anywhere in America?

Drive to top of world

Early on Sunday, we drove up on Trail Ridge Road to the Alpine Visitors Center.  About 11 miles of this road is above the treeline and for much of the drive one is above 12,000 feet.  Lots of driving near cliffs (sans guard rails) which is pretty interesting.  I'm running out of ways to note something is cool or awesome or the like, so take a look at the pictures and see for yourself.  Nice.  It's tundra at the top and for July was pretty darn cold (low 50s).

Got back to our crib just in time to watch the soccer game and see Germany defeat Argentina.

We then went back out to park and relaxed near a nice stream for a while.  To cap off the evening, we went back into RMNP one last time, at night, to do some star gazing.  One great thing about lodging here is that we're pretty much in the closest place you can stay to the park without staying in the park...so it's really quick and easy to get in and out.

We are heading up to Mt. Rushmore early on Monday.

Lucky

Some days things just go your way and some days are even better!  Today was mostly extraordinary! The highlights: Prime parking spots, an enormous bull elk, a DOUBLE rainbow, a great dinner and a shirt!

Let's start with the parking... our plan for the day was a 6.5 mile hike up Deer Mountain in RMNP.  We did not get the earliest of starts and we were a bit worried about parking because there is not really much space for this trailhead in the park.  So our first bit of luck came early because we scored a prime spot in an official parking space!  Now the hike was long... Brian already mentioned this bit in his post earlier today, but what he didn't write about, which we discussed later was how much walking we did by the end of the day.  Brian hooked me up with a FitBit Force last Christmas and I enjoy racking up the steps each day.  Today was a record setter for my FitBit... 26,500 steps today! This includes our hike up Deer Mountain, a jaunt around Bear Lake and some meandering around the quaint town of Estes Park.  This day of major walking for us is second only to our hike up (most of) Mt. Saint Helens a few years back.  That was a long hike!

After our hike and a bit of rest time, we decided to venture out again because our time in the park is limited.  I had read that Bear Lake was a nice visit and did not involve hiking so we hit the road.  On our drive out to Bear Lake we came across a man practically in the street, many cars stopped and realized he was photographing some wildlife... looked to be an elk.  Well, we were not really able to stop, but I was excited to see it.  Our next bit of major luck came when we arrived at the parking area for Bear Lake.  More cars stopped and people on the streets with cameras.  I saw the elk and practically dove out of the car to get in the paparazzi mix.  It was enormous!  You can see in the pictures and video.  It was pretty cool.  That elk could have cared less that we were all standing there, he just went about his business chomping on the greenery after a brief rainstorm.  After he returned to forest, we went on the Bear Lake.  This is a very popular destination at RMNP, but some luck for us was that it had been raining and it was now very foggy, so the parking lot was near empty and the lake path was relatively quiet.  The foggy part was a bit of a bummer for us as well, but we decided to walk around the foggy lake anyway.  Good thing because by the time we were halfway around, the fog was already clearing and near the end I was able to get some lovely photos of the lake with the surrounding tree reflections. Yay!

So, hiking and RMNP time is done for the day and I reminded Brian that we needed to go see the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park. A famous, historical hotel and the site of the movie The Shining.  It just so happens that we have a movie poster from the shining in our house, so I figured Brian would like to visit this hotel.  As we neared the hotel I was thrilled to notice a rainbow and then Brian pointed out that it was a double rainbow!  We found a stopping point and I took somewhere close to a million pictures of it! I won't post all of them, I swear.  It does not get much luckier than a beautiful double rainbow!  I had a thought at that point that we should play the lottery...

Following our trip to the Stanley Hotel, we headed into Estes Park "downtown" to do a brief bit of shopping.  You see, when we were waiting in that horrid long line for the Coors Brewery tour I noticed a girl wearing an Estes Park Colorado t-shirt and I really liked it and knew that we were heading here.  I was determined to find the shirt.  It looked fairly new on her so I figured she had acquired it recently so I thought it would be a piece of cake.  It mostly was.  We went into a few shops and looked around but didn't see it, so we decided to stop for a bite to eat.  Excellent sandwiches at Poppy's Pizza!  After dinner we did not have much time left before stores would be closed and Brian was really more interested in heading back to our room, so I said, just one more store... all I needed.  There was the shirt!

Tonight was the full moon... quite a lovely day with lots of  luck.  Hoping to see some big horn sheep, or some bears tomorrow... or both!