Posts Tagged “state signs”

We left Milford this morning and headed over to Norwalk, Conn., because we had heard of this place called Stew Leonard’s, reputed to be the World’s Largest Dairy Store. When we got there, we were kind of disappointed to see what looked like just a regular grocery store from the outside, but we decided to venture in anyway, just in case. We were not disappointed! Stew’s houses its own milk bottling plant right inside the store:

And as if that weren’t enough, it also houses a variety of animatronic figures that sing and dance while you browse for groceries. For example, there is singing animatronic butter:

There’s also a band of singing milk cartons, a lobster trapeze artist, singing lettuce and bananas, a talking cow, etc., etc., etc. The other cool thing about Stew’s is that they have information readily available about where their products come from with photos of the farms and the like. They also have a live video feed of their own dairy farm:

As Brian said, that’s transparency!

So after that, we got on the road and went through several states, starting with New York:

Then, New Jersey:

Then, briefly, Delaware!

Then, Pennsylvania:

In Penn., we made a stop at the Herr Foods snack factory to take their factory tour.

It was a great tour — one of the best we’ve done. We learned all about how Jim Herr started the company with, like, a single kettle and a potato peeler, and we saw pretzels, popcorn, and chips being made. We were the only people on the tour at that point (we totally dodged a bullet because an entire busload of schoolchildren had been on the tour before ours), so that was really fun. Our tour guide went onto the manufacturing floor towards the end of the tour and filled a giant bag of freshly cooked potato chips just for us! They were still warm and everything. Obviously, we are now obsessed with Herr’s. Check out our giant potato chip bag!

Thanks, Herr Foods!

After that, we continued into Maryland:

We met up with some friends for dinner, which was fantabulous as always, and then we headed home. We’re back in D.C. now and have about a week to recover before we get back on the road again!! We have a lot to do this week, of course, but we’ll try to check in, especially if there are any balcony updates.

Today was all about the drive, obviously. The good news for you is that I have a record number of state signs for you to enjoy! But first, we had an exciting find in Indiana:

That’s right; it’s the other Hagerstown. Thanks, Indiana!

Before we knew it, we were back in Ohio:

Look what happened while we were gone!

Then, Pennsylvania!

Then, West Virginia!

Then, Maryland!

Ahem. I lived in Maryland for 18 years, and I had to go to California to see a bear. I feel totally ripped off!

We drove through Sideling Hill:

What’s Sideling Hill, you ask? Wikipedia answers!

The Sideling Hill road cut is a 340-foot deep road cut where Interstate 68 cuts through Sideling Hill, about 6 miles west of Hancock in Washington County, Maryland. It is notable as an impressive man-made mountain pass, visible from miles away and is considered one of the best rock exposures in Maryland and the entire northeastern United States. Almost 810 feet of strata in a tightly folded syncline are exposed in this road cut. Although other exposures may surpass Sideling Hill in either thickness of exposed strata or in quality of geologic structure, few can equal its combination of both.

We enjoyed more foliage:

And then, this glorious moment:

Welcome home, us.

After we left Junction City this morning, we got on the road and left I-70 for a quick lunch break in Kansas City. On the way, we saw this guy:

Soon, we were in Missouri!

We drove straight through and went down to visit our friend the Gateway Arch in St. Louis:

We met the Arch in 2005 when we had been dating for a few months and Brian had to go to St. Louis for a conference, so I tagged along. At that point, we actually took the tour up to the top of the Arch, which was a terrifying journey in a very small, rickety space pod–looking thing. This time, we could only stay for a quick visit.

Then we crossed the Mississippi River and were in Illinois!

And then we drove through Illinois and found ourselves in Indiana!!

As you can see, we are really focused on getting home now. We’re staying at a Super 8 in Greenfield, Ind., and we are hoping to push ourselves to make it home tomorrow evening. Woo hoo!

Today was all about driving and trying to get as far east as possible, so I thought I wouldn’t have anything to report… but I do!

First of all, when we came into Georgetown, Colo., last night, we noticed a sign for a bighorn sheep “viewing area” in town. Before we left this morning, we went into the Georgetown Welcome Center to get the scoop. We really wanted to see a bighorn sheep to add to our collection of large wild mammals we’ve gotten to see on our trip. The lady at the welcome center told us they have this huge herd of bighorn sheep that live near the town, and she directed us to the viewing area (where there is information as well as pay telescopes) and also told us the next town over often enjoyed the pleasure of bighorn sheep standing in residents’ yards. Soooo, we were very determined, and after trying the viewing area and making two trips across a small stretch of I-70 and back, we were successful!!!

They’re kind of hard to see because they are the same color as the rocks, but these were relatively easy to spot because some dude had decided to double park his car on the shoulder of I-70 and walk straight into the herd with his point-&-shoot camera. Um… wild animals are dangerous?! But go for it, I guess. Anyway, because this guy had disrupted the sheep, they were walking around a bit, possibly in order to get the best angle from which to charge the guy and ram him in the chest. We didn’t stick around to find out. Instead, we drove to Kansas!

(I have to tell you that before we left Colorado, we visited the Colorado Welcome Center at Red Rock Amphitheater, which is a really interesting place where there is a natural amphitheater formed by rocks. We were hoping to find something quick and iconic we could do when we passed through Denver, but the guy we spoke with at the Welcome Center [who was very nice and quite enjoyable to talk to, but reminded Brian of Abe Simpson] had no suggestions whatsoever for Denver and instead told us all about a restaurant in Abilene, Kansas. He also had a lot of difficulty remembering the names of things; for example, he referenced “a big hole in the ground.” He meant the Grand Canyon. We loved him!!)

We made a stop in Goodland, Kan., to see this giant easel:

That easel is 80 feet tall. See Brian (who is 6′2″ tall) in the bottom right corner of the photo? The Van Gogh sunflower reproduction is 24 by 32 feet. Pretty awesome, Goodland, Kansas!

As if that weren’t enough, on the back of the painting, we discovered a bird condo.

See them??

The next highlight of the day was finding a place that had gas for $2.85 a gallon:

I haven’t seen numbers like that in a while. Other than that, the rest of day was mostly like this:

We’re now at the very, very lovely Econo Lodge in Junction City, Kansas, and I mean it when I say it is lovely here. Its loveliness is especially poignant tonight because we had to leave our first hotel, the “Red Carpet Inn,” because it was infested. I sure wish I were joking, but I’m not. That’s what we get, I guess, for trying to save, like, five dollars. Really, almost every place we’ve stayed in has been completely fine and at least clean; I’ve stayed in a lot of cheap motels in my life, and this is the first time I’ve actually had to get my money back and go elsewhere! But anyway, the Econo Lodge suffers no such problem, and we are clean, happy, and unafraid to use the shower. Plus, I think my heart rate is coming down from my near-panic attack in our former room. Hooray!

We’ll have another day of driving tomorrow. I can’t promise more bighorn sheep and giant easels, but you never know!

Our day began in Moab, where we had breakfast at Eklecticafe (a fun place with good food — another Utah haven with vegetarian choices, organics, etc. — we quite liked it except for some reason the girl at the table next to us decided to have an in-depth discussion with someone who worked there about her recent medical procedure complete with bloody, vomity details… kind of spoiled my appetite!!), then we visited Lin Ottinger’s Rock Shop:

(Scott, is this where the guy wouldn’t let you bring in your coffee??)

We went there because we had a coupon for a free dinosaur bone, which we got. Awesome! It’s our first rock shop trip (we’ve seen dozens along our route, but we’ve never actually gone into one).

Anyway, then we went into Arches National Park! It was very exciting!! We saw so many great things even within our relatively limited time. For example… the Three Gossips!

A place where an arch probably used to be next to Sheep Rock! (They all fall down eventually, you know.)

Check out Sheep Rock!! It was one of my favorites of the day.

Balanced Rock!

Windows!!

Double Arch!

Of course, the iconic Delicate Arch!

And Brian’s personal favorite of the day, Skyline Arch!

We saw one of the handful of whiptail lizards (the only wildlife we observed today) we got to meet on the short trail up to Skyline Arch:

Yay. We agreed that Arches was one of the most beautiful and interesting places we’ve been on the entire trip. We hope to come back and hike more of the trails!

After all that, we left Arches and went up to I-70. I think we better get used to looking at this sign:

We’re going to be seeing it quite a bit over the next few days as we head home. When we first decided to go on this trip, we thought we would be able to enjoy a leisurely drive both out west and back east. Of course, we didn’t really count on getting sick in South Dakota!! So, we have to be back by Saturday at the latest so I have a few hours to recover before I teach on Sunday. Fortunately, Arches didn’t take as long as we had allotted for it, and we were able to eliminate a couple of other places we had hoped to visit on the return trip. In a way, I think it’s fitting that Arches was our final planned destination before heading home, since Utah started it all for us!

We drove through Utah and entered Colorado again before the debate started:

Tonight we’re in Georgetown, Colo., at the “uniquely western-themed” Super 8. It’s a perfectly nice place, but the woman at the desk acted like she was doing us a huge favor by honoring our reservation (and we all know how I feel about sub-par customer service). Hopefully we won’t become ill from the secondhand smoke fumes seeping from next door into our non-smoking room! Lovely!!

We got up this morning in Cortez and drove to Mesa Verde National Park. Mesa Verde is famous for the many ruins of cliff dwellings (structures used as homes, communal areas, ceremonial places, etc., built into the sides of cliffs) of the Ancestral Puebloans in the 12th and 13th centuries. It takes quite a while to get into the park (probably about an hour); the visitors center is about 15 miles from the park entrance, but because you have to drive a bunch of switchbacks and the like, it takes quite a while to get there, and then the cliff dwellings themselves are beyond the visitors center. So on our drive out, we enjoyed the diversion of seeing a deer convention:

There are many, many cliff dwellings within the park, but only a handful are actually open to the public. To see most of the major sites, you have to buy a ticket for a ranger-guided tour at the visitors center. We were able to get tickets to two different sites: Cliff Palace and Balcony House. Cliff Palace was first!

Cliff Palace is really interesting and beautiful. We had a great guide who was very passionate and informative. No one knows for sure what exactly went on in the cliff dwellings or why they were abandoned, but they think that Cliff Palace was probably used primarily for ceremonial activities due to the very large number of kivas (rooms used for religious rituals) in the site.

In order to get in and out of these sites, the Ancestral Puebloans apparently just scaled the cliffs with their bare hands. We didn’t have to do that, but we did have to climb a series of ladders and the like to get in and out of Cliff Palace. It was a mere preview of things to come!

Our next tour was at Balcony House. To get in there, we had to climb this 32-foot ladder:

Eek. It wasn’t too scary, though, as long as we followed our guide’s advice to look straight ahead (never look down!) while climbing. Anyway, this site was a residence for two families. At Cliff Palace, you stand around at an overlook of the site before taking the tour; not so with Balcony House (to see the whole site, you have to go to another trail), so it’s quite a bit more difficult to photograph, but we did our best!

Getting out of Balcony House was quite a thing. The guide (accurately) called it the “Indiana Jones exit.” First we had to crawl through a narrow tunnel:

(That’s not Brian, by the way; that’s just some bloke. Sorry, British guy we secretly photographed!)

After that, we had to climb more ladders and then scale this rock thing where you have to place your feet in toeholds and hold on to metal chains on the side so you don’t fall off the cliff (!!):

The fear and the high altitude just made the whole thing more intense, but we both survived!

After we recovered from that adventure, we went to Spruce Tree House, which is one of the few sites in the park where you can take a self-guided tour:

(To reach this one, by the way, we just had to walk down a paved trail… no ladders or rock scaling required.)

At Spruce Tree House, there is a reconstructed kiva with a roof and everything that you may climb into, which was very interesting:

We had a lovely meal at the Metate Room Restaurant inside the park and then left Mesa Verde and drove back through Cortez while enjoying this beautiful sunset:

Then we headed back into Utah — normally I would have a photo of the Utah welcome sign for you here, but it was so dark by the time we reached it that I couldn’t get a decent picture, but it looked just like this one:

Now we’re at the charming Days Inn in Moab, Utah, and we’re ready to enjoy one more national park before we have to start the journey back to DC. Check back tomorrow!

We left Flagstaff this morning and drove on what I believe will be our only tiny stretch on Route 66:

Initially we thought we would travel more on 66, but things just didn’t happen that way.

Anyway, we made a quick stop at Sunset Crater National Monument on our way out of town. It’s a very interesting park where a volcano erupted as recently as the 13th century. Apparently there used to be a trail up to the actual crater, but it sustained significant damage from hikers and had to be closed. You can still take a short trail around the base of the crater, though:

While we were there, a ranger pointed out that we could see a snowstorm happening on the mountains in the distance:

We didn’t have any snow, but we did run into some very dark clouds and some rain as we drove through Arizona. We saw some really pretty scenery!

Then we arrived at Four Corners Monument! This is, of course, where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah all touch corners. Nice!

With that, we were able to add two more states to our list:

After the rain and clouds today, we caught some truly amazing rainbows, too:

Now we’re at the lovely Days Inn in Cortez, Colo. Tomorrow: cliff dwellings!!

Unfortunately, I was still pretty sick for most of the day today. However, we don’t have time for sick days anymore, so we did walk and drive around Las Vegas a bit before we left!

Brian and I both think we need to go back sometime, no sickness allowed. Oh well; this was supposed to be just a taste anyway.

So we got on the highway and drove north! We passed (very briefly) through Arizona!

This was very exciting since Arizona is a new state for both of us, but today was just a drive through. We got to see some pretty neat stuff, though!

Then we were in Utah!

As many of you know, it’s actually Utah’s fault that we wanted to come explore the west. We came to Salt Lake City last spring for a conference; while we were there, we rented a car and drove out to the salt flats (in fact, the photo in our header at the top of this page is from that day trip) and to Antelope Island. We were soooo pleasantly surprised by how fun and interesting and beautiful and alien Utah was that we had to see more… and now, here we are again. Hooray! Our first Utah destination was Zion National Park!

The part of Zion we were in is Zion Canyon, which is basically made of sand (!), and one of the interesting aspects about it is that it was formed by exfoliation rather than erosion (meaning that big chunks of rock slide off in huge pieces after getting waterlogged, rather than the formations being slowly eroded away by water).

They don’t allow cars through most of Zion. That’s because it’s the 8th most visited national park, and apparently it used to be a constant solid traffic jam, so in 2000, they implemented this shuttle bus system. You have to take the shuttle bus up through the canyon. The bus stops at a few points along the way where there are trails you can take and the like. With me being in the state I’m in, though, I just wasn’t really up for that, and we got there kind of late anyway due to the fact that we forgot about the whole time zone thing. But!! We actually got really lucky because the bus we happened to choose was driven by one Chris M., who is extremely passionate about Zion and told us all kinds of interesting information about the park as we rode along (in fact, he had made his own mp3 recording that he played as we went). That’s how I know about that whole exfoliation thing. Chris was truly informative and a delightful guide! So we stayed on his bus all the way up the canyon and all the way back.

In general, though, I don’t know if I’m 100% behind the shuttle bus system. It’s definitely a greener choice for the park, which is awesome obviously, but the design of the buses is such that it’s extremely difficult to see anything while you’re in one (there are heavily tinted windows and lots of blind spots), and also I don’t think the other bus drivers tell you all kinds of fun facts. Because we had Chris, we had a really good bus experience, but sans Chris, it might have been kind of lame. Oh, but Chris did say that winter is a really good time to visit Zion. It’s not too cold, it’s not crowded, it’s cheaper to stay in the lodge in the park, and the shuttles aren’t running, so you can drive your own car in.

Anyway, here’s something else I learned:

See that? That’s a trail you can take. The walking path up there is only about 3 to 4 feet wide… and it’s a drop of 800+ feet on both sides. But people do it all the time, apparently! I would pass out and die, I think!

We did enjoy Zion, and now we’re holed up in a Super 8 that’s in transition to become a Rodeway Inn in Kanab, Utah. Tomorrow, I think we may stay in Kanab but move to a different motel — this one is okay but kind of expensive and there’s no guest laundry (and I am about to be in a desperate laundry situation). Other than the laundry situation, though, I think I’m starting to feel better, thank goodness!!

Today was mostly just a driving day, so I don’t have too many interesting stories to report. We began the day in Nevada and drove through miles and miles of deserty Nevada-ness:

We took a quick detour through Reno, but there was a huge street festival going on, so we couldn’t really check anything out. Sorry, Reno!

Shortly thereafter, we found ourselves in California!!

That was an important milestone for us… the goal was coast to coast, and now we’ve hit our west-most state. Hooray!

Shortly after we crossed into California, we had to go through this checkpoint thingy, which looked like a tollbooth plaza but wasn’t. A guy there asked us where we were from and whether we had any animals, plants, or fresh fruit in the car (um… is crossing the state line of California like going to Canada??), then inspected our trunk for gypsy moths before allowing us to pass. It was weird. Can someone explain to me what that was about?

Anyway, we passed inspection, so we were allowed to drive along and enjoy the sunset and palm trees along the way to Sacramento.

We’re now at the lovely Sunset Inn & Suites in West Sacramento. Tomorrow we will touch the Pacific!

We left Jackson Hole this morning, and soon we were in Idaho!

Check out these amber waves of grain:

But when you think of Idaho, you don’t think of grain, do you? Neither do we. So we went to the Idaho Potato Museum in Blackfoot, Idaho!

The museum contains the world’s largest potato crisp:

And a huge collection of vintage potato mashers:

We also got to watch a video produced by the Idaho Potato Commission all about how potatoes are grown and harvested and see a lot of old-school harvesting equipment. Then we got to go to the potato gift shop! They have a variety of potato items such as potato-shaped soap, potato-shaped recipe cards, and this:

It’s potato fudge shaped like a baked potato in foil with butter and sour cream! NICE!

We also each received boxes of freeze-dried hashbrowns for visiting the museum — delivered to us in a genuine Idaho potato sack:

We drove through some really beautiful parts of Idaho. Check out this crazy bridge we drove over:

It’s the Hansen Bridge, it goes over the Snake River canyon near Twin Falls, and it is over 400 feet tall!

Eventually we crossed over into Nevada:

Now we’re at a Days Inn in Elko, Nev. Tomorrow’s another driving day!