My Amazing Trip East, 2024
by Jeff Jacobsen
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This was my third long-range trip. The first was to the northwest, the second to the northeast, and this third was to the southeast. Each was about 4500 miles in a bit more than 2 weeks. Lots of driving. Kinda dumb. Actually, I was planning this time to stay in Charlottesville, Virginia for a month as a base, then take Amtrak or drive to places back east I wanted to visit. This idea fell through, though. So, once again, on the road.
Where did I want to go and what did I want to see? The first thing was Serpent Mound in Ohio. I tried twice before to go there but things just went awry. I wanted to see Civil War sites, which don't exist out west. The Hunley submarine, for instance, was on my list. I wanted to visit good museums, Indian ruins or petroglyphs, and a World War II ship. Of lesser concern would be a boat trip somewhere, since I've hardly ever been on a boat. So, I made a list of major things then looked for a good route to catch all those. Then I looked at my atlas for other interesting places along the route. Also, I went to the Atlas Obscura web site which lists unusual locations in each state. By then I had a good list of things to see pretty much daily.
This time I decided to only book hotels out one day in advance instead of two. I don't really know why I regularly booked two days out on my other trips, but I noticed it made my schedule much less flexible. I think the fear back then would be that the cheaper hotels would be full, but since I like to travel in September or May, that usually isn't an issue anyway. I use a hotel chain's web site for booking, and if they're not available, I use maybe kayak.com or one of those types. The discounts for loyalty, though, are worthwhile.
So when to go? My sister visited in August, and we went over to Wyoming, then eastern South Dakota, playing tourist. I was planning to go east in September sometime, and after my sister left, I thought, why not go soon while the weather seems good? So rather than later in the month, I decided to leave on the 6th. The date I leave is partially dependent on when museums and such are open along the way, but the 6th seemed to line me up properly to find things open when I got there.
Knowing approximately what days I would be where on my route, I made a list of the major things I wanted to see, which would wind me up in South Carolina at the Hunley, the farthest point east. I would go on a more northerly route, then come back through southern states. Total time, probably 16 days. The weather everywhere looked warm but otherwise ok, with a chance of a hurricane or something coming up from the gulf later.
I don't bring a lot with me: clothes for 8 days, my camera and tripod, quadcopter, some tools, road atlas, notebook, general schedule, water bottle. I have Sirius in the car which is wonderful for long drives. My car seemed to be in good shape. I asked a friend to water my plants about a week out (I don't have any pets).
DAY 1, Friday
Since I've been to pretty much everything I want to see within about 400 miles of my home town, I figured the first day would just be to zip out of that circle. So I just stayed on the interstate and only stopped for food and such. Since my car can go over 400 miles on a tank, I generally just fill up when it's in line with stopping for food or a needed restroom break. And food breaks I'm pretty flexible with. The night before I'll check for possible places to eat, but if needed I will easily skip meals to stay on any necessary schedule.
I wound up in Worthington, MN with no problems and good weather. I checked next day's schedule and things seemed to be fine. Flip the channels on TV a bit, off to bed. I should explain, I don't own a TV, so seeing what is on is part of my routine when I take a trip.
DAY 2, Saturday
Another planned forced march down the road. The only interesting thing today was all the windmills along the way. I stayed in Janesville, WI.
DAY 3, Sunday
I stopped at Abraham Lincoln's parents farm in Illinois. The most interesting thing to me was, how did they choose to be out in such an isolated area even back then? Their house has been rebuilt on the same site, and it's kept up as a small farm with a few sheep and chickens. Interesting history.
Lincoln's parents farm
As part of my usual food excursion, I hit Sarku of Japan in Champaign, IL. I love their chicken and rice bowl. But there's nothing like it near me in South Dakota. Franchises I like but are nowhere near my I try to hit up along the way.
As I traveled mostly non-interstate roads I noticed a few Trump yard signs here and there. There were not nearly as many Harris signs. I noticed this all the way on my trip.
I wound up in Vincennes, Indiana for the night. Another day of many miles.
DAY 4, Monday
Vincennes has a pretty good military museum. I got there before they opened at 9am, checking out the tanks and planes on the outside. They also for some reason have the conning tower of a submarine on their lot. Part of the inside museum is a re-creation of a World War I trench, with rats included. They have a howitzer like the one my grandpa worked when he was in the army way back when, before World War I.
A Howitzer like the one my grandpa used in the army
Vincennes also has a very long history with French traders setting up there in 1702, and the city being formed in 1732. There is a lot of history to check out. But about the only other thing I did there was climb Sugar Loaf Mound, which was an important landmark for Native Americans (it's a natural mound, though, not man-made). Here's an example of me just zipping down the road too fast.
Heading northeast out of Vincennes, I wound up behind a piece of a windmill tower on the 2-lane highway. It had a flag car in front, 2 in back, and a sheriff bringing up the rear. I eventually wound up behind the sheriff as other cars turned off here and there. The truck was doing about 10 mph up the winding hills, and maybe 40 mph going down a hill. There was absolutely no way to pass, and in fact vehicles coming the other direction had to scoot over onto the shoulder to make room. After about ½ hour or so the windmill went straight and I went left on a different highway. This is another reason why I shouldn't plan so many miles per day, since you never know what might slow you down. The thought in my head is to do less than 300 miles per day, but I seldom adhere to that. Just habit or something.
A windmill tower part going as slow as 10mph, cramping my style
While bypassing Cincinnati on I-275, I watched carefully for the turnoff for the highway number that I planned to take but never saw it. I became suspicious and pulled off to check on Google Maps just where I was. Turns out I missed it somehow, so I lost another ½ hour or so backtracking a bit on back roads to get to Hillsboro, OH.
DAY 5, Tuesday
I first went to Fort Hill, which is an ancient Indian ruin on top of a flat hill. The park is an area whose purpose is not just to preserve the Indian ruins, but also to preserve the pristine forest in its natural state. So there were not even signs anywhere along the 4-mile trail except one showing where the trail intersected with another trail. The mounds are therefore not that easy to spot as you get near the top of the hill. And besides that, the 2000 year old structure is simply 4 to 10 foot high mounds that border the hill edge and make a huge circle. How anyone found the structural nature of these mounds in such a thick forest I don't know, but it is pretty interesting. The museum, unfortunately, was closed. I was the only person on the trail.
Fort Hill mound, if you can see it
The 4-mile Fort Hill trail is very nice. I was the only one
there.
After that great exercise I headed to one of my main destinations for this trip - Serpent Mound. Third time was a charm, and I got there no problem. The only discouragement was seeing that the observation tower was closed. The serpent itself is probably coiled up in about an acre or so, so seeing it from above would have been nice. No drones allowed. Two things I learned while there – it's built on a hill right next to a cliff, and it's built inside an ancient meteor crater. Cool. The serpent coils this way and that and is strange and wonderful in many ways. I'll bet kids loved running up and down the different segments of the serpent when it was made. You're not allowed to walk on it now. There were just a few other people there, including one guy who seems to travel the country visiting ancient Native sites. He was quite willing to talk, possibly for the whole day, but I gradually got away and headed back to my car.
Serpent Mound at ground level. The tower was closed.
I tried hard to get to the final Beckley WV Coal Mine Tour at 4pm. I decided last night to do this tour instead of touring a plantation in Virginia, just for logistical reasons and because it seemed pretty cool. I did get there in time, and about a dozen other tourists (including 2 surface coal miners from Wyoming) and I hopped into the little coal train and headed into a coal mine.
The original tunnel for the mine was only 3 feet high, as that was the thickness of the coal seam. But in the 1980s the city bought the mine and opened the tunnel to about 7 feet, in order to turn it into a tourist attraction. Our guide started in the business in the 1970s and mined for several years before switching to a government inspector position. So he had been in coal mining 45 years total. He showed how the original miners would have to crawl around and dig out the underside of the seam to maybe 8 feet by 4 feet. Then he would drill holes for dynamite to blow out that portion of the coal. Miners in 1910 were paid 20 cents per ton of coal brought out, and were expected to bring out 10 tons per day. And they did this in the early days with a simple candle for light. There were a lot of anecdotes from the mining days, and demonstrations of mining equipment, including the evolution of the lighting systems. We made 2 or 3 stops along the rail track so the guide could explain different equipment and aspects of the mine. He spent quite a bit of time explaining the danger of gases and how they checked for such dangers. I'd say the tour took about an hour.
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Miners were expected to fill 5 of these per day
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Since the tunnels were only 3 feet high, miners made scooters
I was happy with the day as I had originally planned to do the coal tour the next day, so this gave me a little more wiggle room on my schedule. I spent the night in Beckly after driving around checking out the town. Very hilly. Very skinny roads.
DAY 6, Wednesday
I visited Montecello, Thomas Jefferson's plantation. The house (mansion?) is built on a high hill with a large flat top that allowed for several buildings and a huge garden/yard. Along the sides of the house were buildings for the kitchen, slaves' quarters and such. Unfortunately the house itself was locked up for some reason. Perhaps you could get in on a tour, but I ran around on my own. My brother had done some art work for the childrens' discovery center below at the museum area, but it was closed when I was there.
Monticello slave quarters. 168 square feet.
I then went to Charlottesville, Virginia, which is where I had hoped to live for a month and play tourist from there. After running around checking out the town, I'd say it's heavily influenced by the University of Virginia. The whole town seems to just be a support for the university. It's a nice, vibrant place but for whatever reason it didn't appeal to me.
One of two close calls happened in a parking area while I was heading to a lunch spot. I stopped at a stop sign, looked left, looked right, looked left, looked right, started to drive forward and out of the corner of my eye I see this car coming at me from the left probably 30 mph. I stopped but was still in his flight path, but fortunately he swerved and stopped and all was well.
The rest of the day was just spent doing laundry and re-planning the trip.
DAY 7, Thursday
On the way to Appomattox, I passed a Civil War Museum, so I stopped to check it out. It turned out to be a private museum, but it had a lot of good stuff, including Robert E. Lee's sword and death mask. Two interesting things; the museum viewed the war from the Confederate side, and about half the museum was dedicated to showing how bad currency is for the world. So this was obviously some rich guy's project. I still thought the civil war part was educational and fine.
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Confederate Museum display. It's an informative place.
I went to the McClean house, which is where Robert E. Lee surrendered to Ulysses S. Grant. The original house had been torn down, but the architectural drawings still existed, so it was rebuilt on the foundation of the original. So, in essence, the room where the surrender happened was right where the new room is now. The room is set up exactly as it would have been during the surrender. There's a sort of little town left around there, so I checked out a few other buildings before leaving.
Where Robert E. Lee surrendered to General U.S. Grant
Next was the Petersburg Battlefield site. I especially wanted to see the crater created by Union miners who dug under Confederate lines and blew up a huge section of their lines. The explosion worked, but the Union side failed to grab the moment and dithered around until the Confederates reorganized and seized the line again. The tunnel entrance has been rebuilt, but the crater has been left, though through time it has filled in some. That was about a 500 foot tunnel.
Petersburg tunnel entrance rebuilt. 500 feet long
Recreated battlements, Petersburg
The Battlefield site is a huge area that you drive around through, with lots of monuments and signs marking where different units and generals were. I find these sites sort of strange because they take up so many acres, when the story could be told without having to preserve such a huge battlefield area. It's sort of like showing an over-attachment to war. Nevertheless it's fascinating history for somebody from the west.
I stayed in Greenville, NC and decided that my trip was overly ambitious so I should shorten it by a day. So I cut out going to Charleston SC, where the SS Hunley submarine is. I also planned to take a boat tour and see the Old Slave Mart Museum, but that's a full day's stuff, plus driving there. The original plan would have made a 17-day journey, but about halfway through I was already getting a bit tired of driving so much.
DAY 8, Friday
I noticed last night that near the USS North Carolina battleship was the Bellamy Mansion, which was a really old mansion from the mid 1850s. I toured that and found it very big and well-kept. It had 5 floors I think, including the top floor which is mainly a room with windows you can open to help circulate air through the house. As usual, I skipped the tour and just roamed the place myself. There was supposed to be some system where you could listen on your cell phone in each room for a description, but I couldn't get it to work. Outside the walkway was partially filled with oyster shells. I know these were actually used to make a type of concrete back then as well, but I didn't see anything there about that.
The slaves built the whole place. They built the slave quarters first, since the slaves needed a place to live while building the mansion. There was an explanation that some of the slaves sort of had their own business or something, so they were utilizing well-trained people to build this place. It was a good tour.
The slave quarters were built first
mansion entryway
main floor
The battleship is about 10 minutes away on the other side of the river. It's huge. While I was there it rained off and on, but it's that weird gentle rain that I've only felt before in Florida. It's like taking a shower but from a shower head that wants to just snuggle you with drips rather than spray you. So it was also hot and very humid. This meant that after my 2 hours of scrambling up and down ladders and walking over every part of the ship I could get to, I was soaking wet, partially from rain and mostly from sweat.
I started going over the whole deck. Huge!
This was probably the highlight of my trip as I've always wanted to see a World War II ship of some kind. I had been in a few submarines from then, and toured a Liberty ship in Tampa, but this was an actual surface warship. And everything about it was huge. I walked all over the top deck first, then went up I think 4 levels to the captain's control room. When I got back down I found an entrance to below decks, and I think that also went down 4 levels (that you could access). It was like a small city, with a bakery, barber shop, cobbler shop, printing shop, etc. And of course there was the engine room, and maybe most interesting the 4 levels of the main 16 inch guns. The bottom level is where the gunpowder and shells were stored, and each level up was just for the 3 guns in that turret. I think a sign said how many sailors were needed for all that but I don't remember. And the ship was well peppered with explanatory signs all over, which was nice.
I then went through everywhere allowable.
So I finally emerged sweaty and happy
before heading out once again. Wilmington was the far point of my trip,
and here I had gone about 2400 miles.
Berthing down below
From here on clear to Arkansas I passed through some towns that seemed really run-down by my standards anyway. Fair Bluff, for instance, stuck in my memory because the hightway went right through downtown, and EVERY BUILDING on both sides of the 2-block downtown was empty.
My second near-accident was my fault. I was coming up to an interstate and wanted to go north, but was having trouble figuring out the signs. Sometimes you need to be in the left lane to go left, other places you need to be in the right lane to make that loop onto the interstate. So finally here's a sign that shows both north and south... go right here for south, and go straight for north. But I was already almost turning on the south onramp when I caught myself. I tried to scoot over one lane which looked open, but just then a car turned into that lane, which gave me no room for anything, so I practically stopped to let this magically popped up car go by. But that's a bad idea on a highway, so I used every inch of curb possible and lots of speed to try to get back into the groove. Close call.
I spent the night in Florence SC.
DAY 9, Saturday
Yesterday I started hearing a sort of growling sound from the front of my car. It sounded somewhat like my big aggressive tires on my truck. Great. But I thought if it doesn't get any worse, maybe I can get home then see what the problem is. Besides, it's the weekend now so I probably couldn't find anybody to check it out. But I stopped at the Kia dealership in Columbus, GA just in case they could take a peak at it. The parking around the service area was completely full, and there were people milling about everywhere, so I quickly gave up on that idea and kept going. The noise kept bothering me, though, especially because I couldn't think of what it might be. U-joints maybe? Bad tire? I passed a plantation I was planning to see because I wanted to get to Macon where I was going to stay.
Okmulgee Mounds are just outside Macon, so after dismally failing at navigating the strange road system there, I finally made it to the mounds. A woman was there directing traffic, and wouldn't you know, today was the annual Native American gathering at Okmulgee Mounds! This was actually kind of cool, but the woman said I had to go back about 2 miles to a lot where I could park and grab a bus back to the site. As I was driving to the lot I decided I didn't want to leave my car with all my stuff in a strange lot, so I just went to the hotel. After signing in, the manager mentioned Oh By The Way, our wifi doesn't work. What? I live and die by my laptop every night, checking email and such, booking hotels, and planning routes and stopping points for the next day. So I bailed out of there, and fortunately the hotel practically next door had vacancies, AND wifi. I ate at Waffle House next door just for the experience, but I was the only customer in there. I do not see the draw of Waffle House.
So this was probably the worst day of the trip. My car having mechanical problems, missing a stop, missing out at the mounds, having to switch hotels. Not good.
DAY 10, Sunday
I thought today I'd try to make it to a big city so I could find a dealership to look at my car more easily, so I headed off towards Jackson, MS. As the day wore on the car noise didn't seem to be getting any louder, and I still couldn't think of what it might be to help me decide whether to just stop somewhere. So I kept going.
I went to Selma, AL and walked across the famous Edmund Pettis Bridge where the civil rights activists got clobbered by the sheriff and his deputies simply for marching across that bridge. There's a sort of rundown memorial park where the altercation took place, but otherwise you wouldn't know that it's a famous bridge from visiting it. One thing I did noticed was how high the bridge actually is from the river. If the sheriff had decided to be really mean, I suppose he could have tossed people right off that bridge.
I did a pilgrimage to a famous civil rights location
the park at the end of the bridge. It's kind of a hodge podge
of stuff.
Selma was one of those surprisingly rundown small
cities that I went through. There was a multi-story senior center that
had burned that was just a fenced in shell (I have no idea when the fire
happened). Several dilapidated empty houses sprinkled the side roads
through town. But the downtown did seem to have some life to it, so it
was sort of a mix.
Selma center in bad shape. I don't know how long it's been like
this.
I decided that I should actually make it clear to Jackson instead of Demopolis before stopping (probably 400 miles total). I was thinking that should I decide to get the car checked out, Jackson would be an easier place to find a mechanic that could see the thing without me having to wait a day or more.
Along the way I finally found a good place to turn off to take photos of the kudzu plant. Kudzu is a vine that grows fast and covers pretty much anything else in its area. It climbs trees, bushes, telephone poles, whatever. It's just in patches here and there and the previous places where I saw it there was no place to park.
Kudzu vines cover anything and everything
DAY 11, Monday
I called a few Jackson car places but didn't have any luck. I called the Vicksburg MS Ford dealership, which is also AAA certified and not far down my route. I asked if they could see my car, and they said sure, bring it right in. That surprised me but I was ecstatic that they might fix it right then. When I got there, the mechanic came over and asked me to drive so he could hear the noise. Just half a block down the road he said “bearings.” Of COURSE!! I had never thought of that for some reason, and if I had I probably would have just stayed somewhere to get it fixed. But he said it would probably take about 2 hours to fix. So I grabbed my book about false messiahs of the Middle Ages and settled in to wait. After about an hour, the office lady came over and said sorry, but we need to replace the axle too. Ok, I say. About 45 minute later she comes back and says the other axle needs replacing too. Sigh, ok. I don't really have a choice. It seems weird though that both sides went out at the same time? So I walk over to the nearby McDonald's for lunch, then come back and ask how it's going. Maybe another hour, she says. Fortunately, this is an interesting book.
Now it's too late to cancel my Little Rock, AR hotel reservation, and I make one for a Vicksburg hotel right near the battlefield site.
About 4:30 I asked again how it's going. Maybe another hour, I'm told again. About 5 the lady comes over to talk to another customer, and says to me “we're not leaving until your car is done.” that was nice in a way, but also disheartening, since I thought I'd have my car by noon.
Finally about 6pm my car was done! Yay. The mechanic talked to me about why it was so hard to fix, and mentioned rust, but I didn't quite catch all that he said. I thanked him profusely and shook his hand, then paid the huge bill and took off. As I was driving toward the hotel, when I turned left the car squeaked really loudly. Oh great.
So that was one day saved by skipping Charleston, SC, and one day lost by car problems. Oh well. And I suspect the car was in worse shape because of my insistence to keep going despite the noise. That probably cost me a pretty penny.
DAY 12, Tuesday
First thing in the morning, I took the car in to have them check the squeaking sound. It was not as bad this morning, but I didn't want to drive 200 miles down the road to discover a problem. So I told them the problem and walked over to McDonald's for breakfast. When I got back my car was where I had parked it. The lady told me that it was “just dust in the brake shield” which didn't really impress me, but I said thanks, and took off.
I went immediately to the Vicksburg battlefield site. This again is an area that you drive around and see battlefield sites amongst the many memorials scattered about. The first impression I had was that it was a very hilly area rather than a flat field. But this makes sense since the Confederates were defending the area on the hilltops, making any attack more difficult. There were large memorials here, including a large dome that I think was Maryland's. I was the only person in the dome and enjoyed whistling and yelling for the echo inside.
the hilly Vicksburg battlefield, and the only surviving house
battlefield memorial with a great echo inside. I was the only
one in there.
But the BEST part of the battlefield site is the USS Cairo. This is a real Union ironclad ship that was pulled out of the river not too long ago and set on display. Of course, only part of it was left, but the steam engine, paddlewheel and lots of other parts were saved. They built a frame around the remains so you can walk through the ship and see how big it was and how it worked. Quite wonderful. And the museum was closed because I was there on the wrong day now. Factoid; the Cairo burned a ton of coal per hour in its steam engines. Where did they get all that coal during the war?
USS Cairo, original civil war ironclad
USS Cairo original paddlewheel and drive
Having messed with my original schedule, it appeared that I would miss the USS Razorback submarine in Little Rock since that didn't open until Wednesday and I was planning to pass Little Rock now. If I'd had any brains, I could have spent the night in Little Rock and seen the sub in the morning, but I didn't think of that until a few days later.
There was a cotton museum in Lousiana that I passed. It looked closed, but I turned around anyway to see the buildings there. There were old cabins and stores, and yes the museum was closed. But I also walked across the road to stare at the cypress trees that grow out of the river. I had never seen such trees before and they look strange, with the roots sticking out everywhere.
cypress in Louisiana. New to me.
Somewhere along in Arkansas, I saw ahead of me what looked like a crop duster airplane that apeard to be landing on the other side of the divided highway. It was at max about 40 feet above the road, but then it turned sharply to the right and went up a bit. It swung around and I wondered if it would do that again, so I tried to get a photo with my phone. I have no idea what it was doing and just kept going so I didn't see anymore.
a cropduster divebombing the highway for some reason
I stayed in Russelville, AR, past Little Rock.
DAY 13, Wednesday
I went to Spiro Mounds, which is a multi-acre area near the Arkansas River that was somewhat like Cahokia. It had several mounds but none all that big. However, there was a huge amount of archaeological items that makes the place famous. The main mound had been dug up by early archaeologists so there's a big gash in it. I walked around the path of where this community was, then went to the last area near the river. As I was walking that way I heard a ruckus of crows screeching on and on in the woods. So I walked over to the edge of the woods but couldn't see where the birds were. I then heard what sounded like an eagle screeching too. So it must have been some argument between crows and eagles. This went on for at least 15 minutes and was still going on when I got back to the museum. I recorded some of it.
Sprio Mounds largest mound, but has been dug into
Spiro Mounds museum canoe
Next was the Five Civilized Tribes Museum in Muskogee, OK. This is in the original building used by the federal Indian agent to deal with the tribes who had been forcibly relocated to Oklahoma. The main floor was typical museum stuff, along with information about the tribes who were relocated. But the upstairs had paintings and art work by current local native artists, and a lot of it was really good. I noticed some Oscar Howe influence in some of the paintings. I was told not to take photos of the art work.
Now I had to rush to Guthrie to see the Territorial Museum before they closed at 5pm. I got there at 4, which was just enough time to see most of the exhibits. It's basically a history of how the state went from Native lands to the official state of Oklahoma, including a lot of the political intrigue that went on. They also have preserved their original Carnegie library on site pretty much as it was in the 1920s or so, so I ran around in there by myself for a while.
Wherever I ate in Guthrie I ordered the lasagna because they didn't have small pizzas. I often try lasagna because I look for some that is as good as the place in Scottsdale, AZ where I used to eat a lot. This was good, but still not as good as the AZ variety.
I stayed in Blackwell, OK.
DAY 14, Thursday
First thing today I went to South Haven, KS, which is a tiny town just across the Oklahoma border. When I was a teenager my dad and I were driving to Arizona I assume from our farm when the car engine failed. A mechanic in South Haven worked on it. He had us helping him, I suppose to save money for my dad. I was having trouble pulling out a bolt when the mechanic came over to help me. Just then the bolt shot out and hit the mechanic in the eye. He had to go to the hospital but that's all I remember or know of what happened. It's something I've felt guilty about since. Anyway, I ate breakfast at the only cafe, then looked around for what might have been a mechanic's shop. Right next door to the cafe was what looked like an old 2-bay gas station that said Road Service on it. I assume this was the scene of the crime, but it was closed. I took some photos and headed out.
There is a town called Clearwater that wasn't too far out of my way, so I went there just to take photos of the water tower. This is just because I lived in Clearwater, FL for a time and like to send photos of my Clearwater travels to my friends who still live there.
Clearwater KS water tower, for no reason
I snooped a bit in Wichita and Salina, KS. They both seemed like nice towns. But way out in the middle of nowhere is Rock City. This is a small area that has different sized naturally rounded rocks up to maybe 15 feet in diameter. I have no idea how they were made. When I pulled up it looked like some event was going to happen, so I asked some people there and they said they were setting up for a sort of marathon around the area. I thought this was a bad idea because it was hot and muggy but the people were busy getting things ready.
Rock City pano
Rock City tunnel. How did that hole get there???
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Rock City rocks
I started walking around taking photos. Some of the rocks were labeled with names. One was like “eye of the needle” or something, which was the strangest rock of all. It was maybe 6 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 15 feet long. Through the middle of the length was a tunnel that looked just big enough for a small person to go through. I was no small, spry person but I wished I could take a photo of somebody coming out of the hole. Just then a family with 3 small, wiry kids (the only other visitors there) started walking my way. When the first kid got there I suggested he could crawl through the hole. As the parents and grandparents got closer the kid was crawling but seemed to be having trouble. I asked the mom if I could take a photo of the kid when he came out. She said sure. After some struggling the kid came out and I got my photo. His two siblings went through the hole seemingly without problem. The family then asked me to take a group photo of them, which I happily obliged.
I walked around the maybe 2 acre area taking lots of photos. On the way back I stopped at a little cabin next to the parking area (I parked farther down to ask the people what was going on). I think they charged $5 to see the rocks but I could have easily left without paying. The people at the cabin were also concerned about the race coming up, but they said the sponsors were adamant to do the run. I used the outhouse and left.
I went to the Orphan Train Museum in Concordia because I barely knew anything about the Orphan trains. This was an old train station that explained the history of the movement, as well as an old restored train car. I first watched a 15-minute video that told how some religious people responded to the growing number of orphan kids in New York City by seeking homes out west for them. The video and the presentation at the museum was almost all positive about the endeavor, but there was some explanation of how the placement of kids didn't work out with some families. In general, though, it seems this was a successful project to find kids homes. Before I went there I read that there was criticism of the movement because it was mostly sending kids to farms that could use extra hands, so it could have been considered slave labor. I'm sure that happened, but the group running the system tried to do monthly checkups with each child, so they did attempt at least to make sure things went as well as possible.
I had to zip once again to get to the Pawnee Archaeological museum, also out in the middle of nowhere on a long dead-end road. This was an ancient Pawnee village on a bluff above the river. The museum is basically a building covering the largest building foundation, which was about a 50 foot circle in size. The village was essentially a permanent home of about 1500 people, and you can see the depressions of where other buildings had been. The river is maybe ¼ mile away down a hill, so I asked where they got their water. The dude there said there was a spring on the side of the hill where they got drinking water, and they also took water from the river for other needs. As we were talking he mentioned that the Pawnee never ate fish. They've found no spears nor fish hooks for fishing in the entire village. I thought that was rather strange.
Pawnee Museum in Kansas
I stayed in Hastings, NE.
DAY 15, Friday
A few people I met along the way told me to check out the Stuhr Museum in Grand Island, NE. So I checked when they are open and planned accordingly. When I got there the lady at the terminal said that this part is closed for the year, that part is closed for repairs, and this main part is closed because the city event planned for tomorrow has been moved to today because of weather fears. BUT, I could still see “the rest” if I wanted. No thanks.
Down the road in Lexington is the Heartland Museum of Military Vehicles. I was about the only tourist there and thoroughly enjoyed myself. They had a good collection of all kinds of things. The best part was a Bradley vehicle that you could go into. This is an agile armored troop transporter with a 25mm cannon, so it's very versatile and the Ukrainians love them. But inside is extremely crowded. I'm convinced this was originally made for midgets, and my 6'1'' body was not comfortable in the stations in there at all. But it's all pretty cool.
Bradley fighting vehicle you can to into. Built for midgets.
They had a diesel motorcycle made exclusively for the military. Hayes Technologies, which built those, showed one at the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally many years ago, stating that they were going to build a civilian version, but they never did. I got all excited thinking that traveling the country on a bike that gets 105 mpg would be great. But it turns out the diesel engine makes the bike vibrate quite a bit, so it would not have been a comfortable touring bike anyway.
I probably spent an hour and a half at this museum before moving on.
I went to Gothenburg next to see an original Pony Express Station built in 1850. It's a small log cabin in wonderful shape plunked down in a city park. The guy there said it's made of cedar wood, so that would explain it's long life.
Pony Express Station, made from cedar, 1860 I think?
From here I was just winging it. I stopped at the territorial museum in North Platte, which had several old buildings, including a Sears house. This was good and actually pretty big.
I ate in Alliance and stayed in Chadron. Now I'm in my hometown circle where I've seen pretty much everything.
DAY 16, Saturday
One place in my hometown circle I hadn't been to was the Dawes County Historical museum in Chadron. I think it was closed last time I came through. This was also good but nothing exciting. They also had a few buildings outside. And from here I pretty much just drove home. Final miles: 4,833.
So, I had missed several things that I planned to see but stopped at several cool things that were not on my original list. All in all it was a good trip. Apparently I will never learn to drive fewer miles per day and just plan for extra time all along the way.
Just a catchup on general things. Gas was 3.29 a gallon when I left on the trip. The cheapest gas was in I think South Carolina at 2.77 a gallon, and when I got back home it was about 3.10 here. My kia was getting 40mpg without the air on and about 37 with the air on. Not bad. Weather wise, going east was nice but a bit warm. When I got to North Carolina it then rained off and on until I got to Mississippi. It was generally hot and muggy, which I don't think I could ever get used to the high humidity.
As a bonus, here is some of the weird carpeting in hotels.
hotel carpet
hotel steps, if you can find them
Probably from here on I will not make long tourist trips, but rather travel to events or to see people. I've been to most all the destinations I've wanted to go to in the US. I've been to all 48 of the lower states.
Next trip? Somewhere on Amtrak, which I've never done. Maybe to a place where I can take a boat tour. And see a submarine. And go to a museum. And eat Sarku of Japan chicken and rice.