2012--Day 15

Day 15

So here is how it all ends.  We spent the night in Fort Collins (third time during this trip, but different hotel).  On the way to the airport (79 miles—shortest day yet!) we could see the smoke from the fires hanging over the area to the west.  One of our students was on a quest to photograph license plates from every state/province.  On the trip to the airport we saw Alaska AND Hawaii.  It always amazes me when I see Hawaii plates on the mainland, as it’s a long shipride for that car.

On the way we discussed the highs (aside from the tornadoes, of course) and lows of the trip and what we learned.  Fortunately the highs overwhelmed the lows by a wide margin, and the general takeaway message was the incredibly valuable hands-on experience and application of the material we cover in lecture.  It’s a shame that we can’t do this for every student.

We dropped the kids off at the airport and took the van back to the rental place.  We started at 3,647 miles on the odometer, and ended at 10,421 miles, for a final tally of 6,774 miles driven over a two-week period.  The van was overdue for two oil changes.  If you recall my prediction in Tulsa on Day 5, I was off by 26 miles.  My best forecast ever.

Just prior to going through security, we said goodbye to our first student, who had a much later flight than the rest of us.  One of our other students had an even earlier flight, but we’d meet up in Chicago.  After lunch, our two New Yawkers had to leave us for their flights.  We arrived at our gate to find that our already-delayed flight was delayed even further, by about an hour in total.  When we finally did board, Gustavo (being the extra-special world traveler) was naturally first.  When he told the gate agent he was the leader of our little group, we got to bypass the madding crowd and head up the specially-carpeted aisle—thank you Dear Leader!

The flight was relatively uneventful (a bit bumpy), but the delay made for a rather quick hustle through O’Hare, from one plane directly onto the other...where we proceeded to wait for the pilots to arrive.  The only advantage of having a seat in the ass-end row is that it’s a short trip to the loo. 

We landed in Rochester and met up with the parents and friends of our kids…and my lovely wife.  My son was waiting at baggage claim, and it was time to officially call it a trip.  While we were all ready for it to be done, I think we were all a bit sorry to see it come to an end…but not that sorry, either. 

Taking stock:

  10 fantastic students

  2 phenomenal faculty

  6,774 hard-driven miles

  12 states (Colorado, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Arkansas, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Minnesota)

  1 province (Manitoba) 

  4 national parks and monuments (Devil’s Tower, Rushmore, Badlands, Minuteman)   

  2 iPods (1 distinctively more popular than the other)

  150 shades of banality (Fifty Shades of Grey + Fifty Shades Darker + Fifty Shades Freed)

  2-inch hail

+3 tornadoes

=1 hell of a great trip

That’s a wrap!

2012--Day 14

Day 14

8:46 am came much too quickly in Pierre, SD.  After briefing we hit the road (today being a travel day), heading toward the northeast entrance of Badlands National Park in the hopes of getting to tour the Minuteman silos.  A sunny day but also a very windy day, with strong gusty northwesterly winds making for some nasty crosswinds as we drive west on I90.  On the positive side, the waves in the long grasses were beautiful, like leopard spots (sadly, pictures don’t do them justice).

Amazingly, I just noticed the first (of what will likely be thousands) of signs for Wall Drug.  If you’ve never been, it’s worth a stop, just for the sheer magnitude of what started out in the early 1930s as a town drug store.  The Depression threatened their business, so they invested in billboards along the highway advertising free ice water and 5-cent coffee (which they still offer to this day).  A tourist trap that can likely be seen from space mushroomed from this simple yet brilliant marketing plan.

Sadly, our plan to visit the Minuteman launch site was a dud.  It turns out that the launch facility is very popular, and we would have had to have returned later in the day to tour the underground portion.  The ranger was very pleasant and as accommodating as he could be, though.  We did get to see some of the paraphernalia, however, along with a short film about the Cold War and the Minuteman missile.  Sadly, it reminded me of an elementary school filmstrip I saw in 1972—Plan 9 from Outer Space had better production values.  There were at least two instances of Clutch Cargo-type mouth animations (or more recently from Conan O’Brien’s old show on NBC), which I found just spectacular.

The time savings we had from not going underground (literally) was partially applied to our visiting a Minuteman missile silo about 15 miles away, and a stop for lunch at the aforementioned tourist trap.  After paying $17+ for a chicken sandwich, a bowl of soup and a soda I can now fully understand how they can afford to give you a cup of coffee for a nickel.  They had a healthy number of international interns busing tables (their home countries were listed on their nametags).  I saw a couple of young ladies from Macedonia and Slovakia.  I feel for them—I can’t imagine wanting to move 10,000 miles from your home, your friends and family, your culture, your foods, your language, for the opportunity to go to America, where I imagine they must think New York, LA, or Chicago.  So you get top grades in school to end up clearing tables in the middle of a cafeteria in rural South Dakota (I know, the last three words seem redundant).  I hope they’re at least getting a modest salary and a decent place to live, along with some free time to see the sights.

Playing around with the routing software, I decided to see what our equivalent mileage would do for us if we did a big loop around the country.  It’s a bit of an overestimate, but our trip is basically the equivalent of going from New York City to Chicago and then to Seattle, then down the coast to LA, and then back to NYC (about 6724 miles).  Put another way…we could have driven from NYC to LA and back, and still have about 1000 miles left to go (5557 miles).

We are doing a bit of a reunion tour of sorts.  We’re currently in Chadron, Nebraska (the site of the most vivid and scary lightning I’d ever witnessed from the last storm chasing trip), on our way to Alliance, home of Carhenge (also from our first trip).  We just drove past the hotel and restaurant where we saw the lightning, and now we’re taking a short break at Wal-Mart (also a stop from last year).  Just before we reached Chadron, we were behind a humane society van with some rather creepy ‘cats’ in the back window.  I’m sorry, cats shouldn’t be allowed to have pinwheels.  The ‘dogs’ in the side window looked nicer, but still kinda creepy.

In order to get to that Wal-Mart, we needed to turn around.  We did so just behind someone in a Prius that was stopped in the same place.  As we are a large vehicle, it takes a bit of doing to maneuver.  I can only imagine what the folks in the Prius were thinking about seeing this white van pull up and stop behind them at the same time they did in a small Nebraska town.  I’m betting they were wishing they had something with a bit more torque and horsepower than their toy electric car.  I think they were getting ready to make their move when we did a 15-point turn and headed away in the opposite direction. 

We stopped in Alliance, Nebraska, home of Carhenge, the replica of Stonehenge made out of old cars.  One great discovery: the (former) electric blue Chevy Vega wagon that looks much like the old one my mom had (and hated).

 

Find of the day: from the Pierre (S. D.) Capital Journal classifieds:

PAWS ANIMAL RESCUE has [exact name as student on trip], an 8-month-old, spayed, female , reddish tan, Husky mix dog.  Call 605-223-CATS or visit www.pets4adoption.org.

Visiting the website provides a more detailed description:

[name] is an 8 month old, spayed female, Husky mix. She has a reddish tan, heavy coat and has one blue eye, one brown eye. She loves to be with people and other dogs. She seems to be house trained. [name] is adjusting to being in the crate, she only whines, cries or barks when she needs outside. She does well in an indoor/outdoor kennel with her foster family dogs. She is not food aggressive, loves treats, praise and attention. [name] sniffed the cats but was not aggressive and did not go chase them. Her approximate date of birth is July 17, 2011. Go to this link for information on Siberian Huskies.

Of course there are pictures.  She looks like a real sweetie, just like the student on this trip whose name she shares.

We entered southwestern Nebraska during the evening.  The bluffs are spectacular; no pictures, as I was driving.  We continued west into southeastern Wyoming, and after a raucous dinner at a well-known faux-Australian steak establishment, we headed south toward Fort Collins and a very packed hotel.  The nearby wildfire has sent evacuees scrambling for temporary housing.  As I sit and write this, I am enjoying my gift from Saturday night (thanks again, Precious—much appreciated!).  Final tally for the day: 602 miles.  Thank God we’re only about 75 minutes to the airport!

2012--Day 13

Day 13

O Canada!  After a very late night (3 am) highlighted by updating the blog, switching rooms (see day 12), and watching some very old Simpsons episodes on The Comedy Network, I finally fell asleep but had numerous waking dreams about subjects simultaneously delightful and disturbing.  As good as these beds are (and as good as this trip has been), I am looking very much forward to my own mattress and pillow.  Gustavo’s cell went off way too early, and we prepared for the morning briefing. 

Today and Monday are travel days, as we need to get back to Denver by Tuesday.  We checked out of our wonderful hotel (located conveniently across from the MTS Arena, home of the Winnipeg Jets, meaning it’s a good thing they’re not in the hunt for Lord Stanley’s prize) after taking some shots of the city views.  Gustavo expertly navigated the van out of its claustrophobic parking space and we were off.  Before leaving the city we sampled Canadian cuisine at a relatively famous donut and sandwich shop founded by a former Maple Leafs defenseman.  It was really good—shame we don’t have one that’s open 24/7 near the corner of Routes 19 and 31 in Brockport.  Oh well, when in Winnipeg, do as the Winnipeggers do.

We crossed the border back into the U. S. in a shorter amount of time than going the other way yesterday, but the return was decidedly more curt in tone.  The questions are followed in parentheses by the answers given by the voices in my head:

What are you doing?  (What part of ‘storm chasing’ confuses you?)

Why are you driving a Colorado-plated vehicle?  (We van-jacked it there.)

What were you doing in Canada?  (Looking for donuts, cheap legal weed and temporary companionship.  And storms.)

How are you all affiliated?  (We’re all congregants of the Church of the Vertical Rotation.)

How long were you in Canada?  (A week.  I mean a day.)

            Was it a week or a day?  (A weekday.)

Good thing Gustavo was doing all the talking.

We were asked to pull into the garage, where we were subjected to brief questioning by decidedly friendlier female agents, but nevertheless was not particularly heartened by the fact that they were putting on latex gloves.  At least they kept the lube in the drawer.  I had visions of them disassembling the van.  They enjoyed watching the cavalcade of students piling out of the vehicle (‘like a clown car’).  They seemed fine with our bizarre explanation (then again, firefighters run into burning buildings), and we were on our way.  A significantly cooler welcome than we received from their Canadian brethren—welcome to Dick Cheney’s America.

Driving south through eastern North Dakota we’re encountering some heavy rainfall.  I suppose it’s our own fault—after all, we did wash the van yesterday.  We also saw lightning, which brings the lightning days on the trip so far to at least 12 if not 13.

The weather lightened up considerably as we left Fargo, where we stopped for gas.  The place we went to was a small city in itself, with food and drinks, a restaurant, laundry, showers, and a movie theatre—in other words, you could almost live there.  It had more going for it than a number of the towns we passed through.  (I’m looking at you, Goodland, Kansas.)

On our way down US83 through South Dakota, I saw four or five pheasants walking along the side of the road.  Very cool looking birds, but since I was driving I couldn’t take any pictures.

We finally arrived in Pierre, SD around 10:15 pm, 583 miles, a state, a province and a country from where we started this morning.  We face another huge drive to Fort Collins tomorrow, and on Tuesday we trade the tiny confined space of the van for the tiny confined space of two aircraft.