Day 40 - Just in Time

Our ride thru Madison last night was a "white knuckle” trip for sure. The traffic was very heavy and in the dark it was even more of a concern. BUT, we made it to the hotel without any incident and got settled in for the night. We did this in order to get closer to the Ferry terminal in Milwaukee. Only problem was we had no ferry reservations. So, first thing in the morning I called the ferry office and when I got the agent to make a reservation for the two Model A’s I was told I got the last two spots on the 12:30 ferry. Boy what luck! Just in time again. We had to be at the terminal 1 ½ hours before which would be easy to do if we got back on the interstate. We did and fortunately we didn’t have any problems getting to the ferry terminal in time, in fact we were the first two cars in line. When we got loaded on the ferry we were parked up against the front door.

We found seats in the main cabin and settled in for the 2 ½ hour ride across Lake Michigan. What a difference between this ship and the S.S. Badger we took earlier which was huge and slow. This ship was a catamaran and fast. The other difference was the lake was pretty rough today and the ferry was really rolling with the swells. You needed sea legs if you tried to walk around. Dick and I hoped the emergency brakes held with all this movement. When we were asked to return to the cars we were glad to see them still in the same place. Dick was first off the ship and I was right behind him.

About the time we got off the ferry the phone rang; it was Jo who was at the Gilmore Museum and told us about the Cruise night tonight. It would be great if we could make it. We set the GPS to Hickory Corners and the Gilmore Museum and headed the Model A’s in that direction. Oh but wait…one thing did manage to stop us and that was the Whippy Dip for ice cream. Dick says a day isn’t complete without Ice Cream. We also got the ROCK weather. On the road again we eventually arrived at the museum just around 6:45. When we pulled in we could hear the PA announcer say the Model A’s from Boston were now pulling into the show. Just in time again. Dick and I found spots to park and we were greeted by Jack & Jo. It was good to see them again. We answered lots of questions from other visitors about our trip which is always fun. We loved looking at the cars and especially liked eating at the restored diner. Edsel even got a chance to ride on an Edsel! We had a wonderful time and looked forward to returning to the museum for a full visit in the morning.

Leaving the museum for our motel we were warned about the deer and to be careful driving the roads. We were only gone a few minutes when we spotted 3 deer on the side of the road, but that was it. No more sightings all the way top the motel.

Day 38 & 39 - Trouble in River City

Leaving Valentine, NE there was no specific plan other than crossing the state and over the border into Iowa. RT 20 continued its straight and fairly flat terrain. With more farms and equipment. We changed direction in Sioux City, IA and adjusted our route to US RT 18 in order to make our trip to Milwaukee more direct. Unfortunately the road was not as good as RT 20 but since this was a travel day it wasn’t much of a concern. We stopped for the night in Spencer, IA





Packing up in Spencer, IA the next morning, we were given a note from the local paper looking to do an interview on our trip and stay in Spencer. I called the reporter and did an interview over the phone. Randy, reporter for the Spencer Daily Report, also came by to take a few pictures. While talking to Randy he asked if we were here looking for “Dewey the Cat”? Well, no, who is Dewey? Turns out it was a story about a cat that was abandoned at the library and lived there for 15 years. When old Dewey went to Kitty Heaven, the librarian decided to write a book about Dewey and it became an international best seller. Well, we had to go to the Library to see where the story began. Pictures were taken and then it was off on our eastward trek.







The eastern part of Iowa was dominated by farms, LARGE farms. Fields of corn stretched as far as you could see. We had set our sights on a Pioneer Museum in the town of Mason City, but when we got there it didn’t open until 1:00 PM. Nuts! Oh well, it was time for lunch so we hit our first McDonald's of the entire trip. Mason City was the boyhood home of Meredith Willson (yes, two LLs). Name doesn’t ring a bell? How about the musicals “The Music Man” and “The Unsinkable Molly Brown”, he was the author/composer of both of those hit plays. We stopped at the museum dedicated to his life and works, which was complete with a Streetscape of the town of River City and the infamous Pool Hall that was going to bring “Trouble to River City!” It was a great stop and all we could think of was our Super Tours to Watkins Glenn, NY when we attended the play of The Music Man at the Summer Theater in Auburn. The gift shop was calling Nan and she managed to find some items that she just had to bring home with us.




Continuing on after “River City” we were cruising along enjoying the ride. The CB woke up with a call from Dick saying the woody was acting funny and as we were pulling over he realized it was a flat tire. The right rear tire was flat as a pancake, so out came the jack and we changed it without any trouble. Now we just need to hope he doesn’t get another.



The weather had changed after some rain last night and the driving was very comfortable. As a result we made a decision to reach Madison, WI for the night. A phone call got us rooms, which meant we would be lined up for our trip to Milwaukee and hopefully the ferry ride to Michigan.

Day 37 - Jackalope?? what's that you say!

OK, leaving Douglas we had to go downtown and check out this urban legend. Actually, the Jackalope was the brainchild of Doug Herrick of Douglas, WY and thus Douglas was named "Home of the Jackalope." Doug and his brother were on a hunting trip and tossed a jackrabbit carcass into the taxidermy store and it landed by a pair of deer antlers. That gave Jack an idea and the first Jackalope was sold for $10. As they say the rest is history. Douglas issues thousands of Jackalope hunting licenses every year. BTW the state trademarked the name Jackalope in 1965.



Leaving Jackalope Park we continued east on US RT 20. The landscape continued to be pretty barren and the hills were somewhat challenging to the Model A's, nothing that they couldn't handle though. The biggest issue we had was with the weather. It was clear, but hot and VERY windy. The wind was really strong and seemed to blasting us constantly. We needed a break and found Fort Robinson near Crawford, NE. We parked the Model A's under some large Cottonwood trees. The Fort was just what we needed; a place to stretch and walk about and also to get something cold to drink. Reading the history of the Fort we found it had one significant event that linked it to one of our earlier stops. Fort Robinson was where the legendary Sioux warrior Crazy Horse was brought to when he was captured and it was also where Crazy Horse died while trying to escape. It seemed appropriate to have the rest of the story after visiting the Crazy Horse memorial near Rapid City.





The other thing we noticed was the size of the trains. They were huge and mostly carrying coal from the local mines. It was nothing to count over 100 cars. Incidentally, we were told that the cities were spaced about 25 - 30 miles apart in Wyoming and about 15-20 mile in Nebraska. This was primarily due to the distance steam engine could go between water stops. Development occurred first in NB and moved west to WY and as steam engines improved the distance between towns also extended. Makes sense to me...




The heat and wind forced us to seek refuge and we stopped early in Valentine, NE. Even Edsel and Squeek were running low on energy. The Dunes Inn was a welcome stop. It also gave Nan & I a chance to do laundry. Dinner with Dick & Barbara at the Peppermill was great. The Prime Rib sandwich was huge, good and priced right, what more could you ask for. OK, want more, our waitress came for Portsmouth, NH and has relatives in Kittery Point.

Day 36 - History and Buffalo Bill

The Model A’s were all packed and we headed downtown to visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Museum. Downtown Cody was pretty quiet Saturday morning, so quite that Dick thought he might stop for a haircut when he saw a sign Cowboy Haircuts! What ever that meant? He decided to keep his hair.

The museum is a major attraction in Cody and the facility is extremely nice. Our plan was to stay only an hour as we had to head east, but this is one place where you could spend a day or more if you wanted to absorb all the information. Nan & I focused on the William F Cody and the Plains Indians sections. The displays were interesting. I liked the saddle with all the silver dollars that Buffalo Bill shot when tossed in the air. The Indian display did a great job showing their daily lives. And Nan found the dresses worn by the daughter of Buffalo Bill interesting. I believe Dick & Barbara and Jack & Jo did the same sections. I also did a quick pass in part of the Firearms collection which I also thought was very good. Nan also found some time to visit the outdoor gardens which she said were very good too.


We were back in the Model A’s after our visit and continued our journey east on US RT 20.
RT 20 headed into the Wind River Canyon area. What a beautiful location. We also know why the place got its name. Boy was the wind blowing in that canyon. The road actually went through three tunnels that were carved out of the granite. It looked like the railroad tracks on the other side of the river also went through tunnels in the mountains too.

Unfortunately once we left the canyon, the landscape was pretty barren and it was very warm. The roads were also very straight and hilly. The conditions really made travel uncomfortable so we made the decision to stop ealry. We stopped for the night at the Best Western in Douglas, WY. The parking lot contained a number of Street Rods, which turned out to be a meeting of the Wyoming Street Road Association.

Tomorrow we will be another travel day as we head east.

Day 34 & 35 – Good Bye Yellowstone; Hello Buffalo Bill

Today our plan was to visit the Norris Basin area and it geysers, the Yellowstone River and Canyon and visit the Fishing Bridge area before we exit the park at East Yellowstone. Jack & Jo joined us from the RV Park at our hotel for breakfast and then we all headed back into the park. Our first stop was Norris Basin to check out the geysers. There was a great view of the basin from the Museum. The Museum is the only building in the park with a breezeway. We took a walk to the view some of the geysers which were smelly (sulphur) and bubbling hot. The bookstore had the patches that Nan was looking for so it was a good stop. The new recruit rangers however looked like they were not ready for prime time.


The next stop was the south rim loop along the canyon. This was one of those areas where the views got better with each stop. The lower falls was spectacular as it fell in the deep canyon. We stopped at each viewing location and found the photo ops great. we did the same for the upper falls loop. We all walked down to the brink of the falls and it was again a must see.



The drive down to Fishing Bridge was loaded with Elk and Buffalo, actually lots of Buffalo. At one point I was leading and had to stop to make sure they weren’t going to move or charge the Model A. Fortunately they stayed put as I passed by….slowly!



At Fishing Bridge, Dick wanted to change his carburetor, while we got some lunch. This solved his idling problem. The drive by Yellowstone Lake was very picturesque. In fact the wind was blowing so hard waves were crashing on the beach. It was a long ride to the East Yellowstone exit but very scenic. We stopped for a photo op at the park exit, which was a little cloudy due to the control burn forest fire the park was conducting.



Once back on the road we stayed on US RT 20. In case you weren't aware, RT 20 is called the Yellowstone Highway and goes from Massachusetts thru Yellowstone and on to Oregon.http://www.yellowstonetrail.org/index.htm) We decided on staying in Cody, WY. We just cruised along as the road was pretty straight. We got a call from Jack that we might like to stop at the Buffalo Bill Dam, which we did. We got some good travel advice from the “Dam Guy” on duty at the visitor center. Leaving the Dam we noticed the tunnels through the rocks which impressive.

Cody is a town founded by William F (Buffalo Bill) Cody. He had the Irma Hotel built for tourists when they came by train to visit Yellowstone. The bar is a beautiful Cherry piece and the focal point of the hotel. The costumed players of Buffalo Bill, the Sheriff, the bad guy and the barmaid were all part of the fun. Oh, BTW, the food was good too.

Tomorrow we will visit the Buffalo Bill Historical Center before heading east.

Day 32 & 33 - Yellowstone Experience

We really enjoyed our stay at the Glacier Park Lodge as it was an unexpected treat. We enjoyed a great breakfast buffet in the dining room before heading to the next stop on our itinerary, Yellowstone National Park. We made a decision that we were going to drive straight through to Yellowstone and we did. It was a longer day than we expected, but we made it. We were able to get rooms at the Days Inn in West Yellowstone and would be ready to enter the park in the morning.

The West Yellowstone park entrance was just down the street from the hotel. We showed our passes and headed off hoping we would see the wildlife we have always heard about. It wasn’t long before we pulled off the road to watch Elk grazing. No sooner had we pulled off the road when we saw Jack & Jo pulling into the turn out too. They got an early start from their visit to Glacier National Park yesterday and were able to join us as we toured Yellowstone. Our next stop was to an area where Buffalo were also grazing. Neither of these sightings was large, but they were hopefully representative of what we might see during our visit.







Of course Yellowstone is also famous for its geysers and we saw plenty of them, in all shapes and sizes. We did the typical tourist thing and took the small loops, one of which took us to White Dome Geyser. It looked pretty cool, with its tall cone spewing steam. We were just about ready to leave when it erupted.





The Model A’s gave lots of other visitors some Kodak moments while we visited as many of the geysers, pools and mud pots as we could. We eventually wound up at Old Faithful to see the famous geyser. Needless to say, the parking lot was very crowded, but we did find parking. The new gift shop was a hit with us as we all managed to find something to take home. We did make it to Old Faithful in time to watch the eruption which was deemed “short” by the Park Ranger. It still looked good to us. Dick was experiencing some skipping in the Woody, so the O’Briens went back to the hotel to fix the problem (it turned out to be a broken spark plug). We (Doug & Nan and Jack & Jo) wanted to visit Old Faithful Hotel which was really spectacular. I’m so glad it was spared during the 1988 forest fire. The structure of the hotel was really unique and the lobby is something you have to stand in to appreciate. The Hotel also had some unique items in the gift shop which some how managed to make it into our bags.

Leaving Old Faithful we followed the Lower Loop Road which was going to take us through an area where large amounts of Buffalo were reported. Not only were there buffalo, we also saw more elk and even a BEAR. Yes, a bear! Well, OK so it was a guy dressed in a bear suit. It turned out to be the funniest thing of the day, thanks to Chris Klingel, the ultimate Chicago Bear fan. We would have missed this performance if we hadn’t turned around to take some pictures of Elk on the side of the road.

We left Chris and his bear suit, still laughing, and we soon came upon a large heard of buffalo that were grazing and crossing the street. We had to wait for them to move. Nan was so busy taking pictures that she didn’t see the two buffalo that were right beside her door. Hello! But please go away. Park Rangers soon came to get them moving off the road by using their cruisers PA to make clicking noises that got them moving. We ran into two more of these large herds that caused the same traffic jam. Fortunately we were heading the opposite direction as the line of traffic was very, very long.

Buy the time we got back to West Yellowstone it was 7:30 PM and we met the O’Briens at the Montana Steak House. Tomorrow it would be back to Yellowstone for more sightseeing.