Geology Tour and Hotel Review 2013!

So you're probably asking yourself, "Self?  Where's the Merrie Quilter family?"  Well, my friends (all five of you), we've been trekking across country enjoying the many fascinating geological features of the Northwest and Midwest states, and staying at a variety of hotels along the way!  From inexpensive, quality hotels to absurdly expensive holes in the Wall (SD), we have seen it all!

Leg 1:
Where did we start?  Well, home, of course.  As you know, we live in the Seattle area, so we started from the salty West coast and traveled EAST (caps for emphasis...I'm always getting east and west mixed up...it's just some kind of directional dyslexia that runs in the family) over Washington state, catching a view of this rare double-bus at our first lunch stop.  To make it even more entertaining, the people driving this bus were performing out front--with banjos--trying to earn a little extra cash.  Presumably for gas.  And pot.  We continued east over Idaho's panhandle (the skinny bit at the top), across the Continental Divide, and into the small town of Deer Lodge, MT, just outside of Butte.

We stayed at one of only two hotels in the area--a chain hotel--that was about as run-down as they come.  The lobby and hallway floors were a bit bouncy and sounded hollow, the paint was peeling all over the rooms, and the beds were so springy that when Kelly rolled over, I nearly bounced out.  I slept horribly.  The room was also tiny.  The air mattress we brought for those occasions when we didn't have a roll-away or pull-out couch had to be placed by the door.  The "dining room" for its continental "breakfast" had ONE table and 3 chairs.  Really.  You had a choice of toast, waffles, or dry cereal.  Not very inspiring.  And the hot water smelled like coffee, which means that they ran the water through the coffee maker.  The view back toward the mountains that evening was spectacular!

Leg 2:
Left Deer Lodge and zipped the rest of the way across the state to the Best Western Ramkota in Bismark, ND.  Loved the weird brickwork there.  Looks like it was done by a drunken Frenchman (a la "A Year in Provence").  They had an elaborate pool area with waterslides, hot tub, and kiddie pool.  They brought in a roll-away and although we had to do some furniture tetris to get it fitted into the room, it was fairly comfortable.  They also had a pretty good bar downstairs.  I don't remember if they didn't have a continental breakfast or if I just didn't partake.

On our way out of town, I found a Geocache in the park, which we found sort of by accident...and with some difficulty.  We were trying to find a grocery store and got turned around by the GPS, and ended up at this really cool park with a giant eagle statue.  I pulled out my Geomate Jr., which was supposed to work all the way to Wisconsin, but it quit 30 miles before we left Montana, so there was no chance of getting help from the gizmo, which I named Fritz.  I got on my phone and found a hint that sent me in the right direction and within a few minutes I had it in hand.  I later found another two caches at a rest stop in ND after I used the WiFi at the rest stop to update the unit.

Leg 3:
Arrived in St. Cloud, MN.  The hotel there was very nice!  We stayed there two nights while we toured the area of my early childhood.  They had a pool also, and a very nice breakfast area.  Their buffet included a full spread and lots of tables for the guests to spread out, including an "overflow" room that they opened up.  A block away was a restaurant called RJ's, where we had a sit-down dinner, including an appetizer order of "walleye fingers".  Now, I didn't realize that walleye had fingers...but it was great to have some local fish!  The kids tried some--Ben and Cammie really liked it!

I got in contact with Laura, a former playmate of mine and resident from the old neighborhood (don't you just love Facebook!?), so we made arrangements to meet at the lake and walk around the circle. We arrived a little early to drive around a bit.  I found the street easily enough, and decided to go around counter-clockwise, driving past the Kampa's, the Brown's, and the Wilson's...then turned my head to the left to see my old house...only to see that it wasn't there anymore.  Dumbfounded.  Absolutely aghast.  My childhood home was gone.  The home that my father spent years building, gutted to the studs.

This is what it looked like before...

(OK, imagine it not crooked and with blue siding on it--this is the only photo I could find with the entire front of the house in it)

This is what is there now.  This monstrosity looks ridiculous next to all the small, modest 60s homes in the neighborhood.  While this will probably be someone's summer cottage (it's on the market), the rest of the homes are occupied year-round by locals.  The entire layout of the home has been changed, and another level added on top.  The owner was kind enough to let me wander around inside, and to be honest, I wasn't able to make sense out of some of it.  The walls were all at weird angles, the bedrooms were TINY and I couldn't figure out where the kitchen was.  Bizarre.

We went down to the lake and let the kids swim and enjoy the muck near Banana Bay (or as Laura called it, Auer-Bay -- Pig Latin for Bauer, her last name).  Laura brought her son, who is about a year younger than Ben.  They splashed around for a couple hours, collecting snail shells and trying to catch minnows.  Afterwards, we headed back to the hotel for one last night in town.

Leg 4:
We left St. Cloud in the morning and stopped for a picnic on the Wisconsin side of the border.  I found a Geocache there near the river and we watched the boat races.  I couldn't figure out who won or if they were just practicing.

Later, we arrived at our hotel in Germantown, WI; a newly-acquired facility.  The hadn't even gotten a proper sign for it, but had gotten a large banner made that said "Germantown Inn and Suites" and tied it over the old sign.  It was clear that the place was a little older--I'm guessing from the early 90s, based on the decor--and they were in the midst of remodeling and modernizing, but overall the place was pretty well kept.  Clean, comfortable, and the staff were polite and friendly.  Breakfast varied a bit--they had eggs and sausages one morning, and sausage patties and biscuits the next along with a waffle maker, cold cereal, juices, bagels and muffins.  Of course, the water smelled like coffee.  They had a pool and hot tub (very nice) and the kids went down there several times to play.

We toured around the area, checking out my old house, which looks lovely in yellow!  It was good to see that they hadn't torn it down or changed it significantly.  We went to Kathy & Jim's and dropped off the quilts that had hitchhiked with us for 2000 miles.  They took us out to the Kiltie, a local landmark drive-in.

While we were there, we were buzzed by Batman and Robin.  Apparently, there were only a couple of these cars made for the show and this is now driven around by these costumed crusaders...presumably for giggles.  They drove into the parking lot and asked my kids if they were behaving.  It was hilarious!

We were staying in Germantown, so of course, the town was German.  The local grocery store was very German, too!  It was a cute, quirky little town that I didn't get to see very much of.  I did do a little Geocaching in the area, finding a few caches here and there.

One of the things that you can see from all over the area is Holy Hill church...I had never gone to Holy Hill before (although I had been to the Fox and Hound, a swanky restaurant down the road from there), so I decided to make a trip of it with the family.  It turns out that this church was recently declared a minor Basilica by the Pope, and people come from around the world to see it.  One of the signs said that if you climb the stairs to the top, you will receive a blessing.  I thought that since we are driving 5000 miles across the country and back, I needed a blessing from crazy drivers.  We did it!

This area of Wisconsin is known as the Kettle Moraine scenic area, named for the glacial effects of the last ice age.  Kettles are the lakes formed by large chunks of ice that melted into the valleys, and moraines are the rocky piles of runoff from the melt.  So it's a hilly, lake-filled area.

Afterwards, we headed toward Janene's home in Colgate and arrived shortly after noon where she welcomed us with a lunch of steak, brats, salads served on fine china.  She knew that we'd be tired of eating food out of bags, baskets and buckets by the time we arrived, and she went above and beyond with hospitality.

The kids were excited to find out that they had a horse on the property--a loaner from a neighbor who needed to find some more grazing area for Bill the horse.  He's a very tame Amish farm horse; a huge Belgian whose feet were a huge mess.  They had a farrier come out who said that his feet were fine, but several friends who have seen this picture can see that his stance is compromised and he NEEDS to get a trim.  Hopefully the owner will make sure it gets taken care of before he's crippled.

We spent a few hours at a tractor show near Beaver Dam the day of the reunion.  The younger kids seemed to have a pretty good time.  Emma was bored.  Of course.  Things improved when we went to lunch--at Culver's!  We got some really good burgers and chicken strips and chased it down with some frozen custard.




The reunion was held at a local park in Stone Bank, and only about 30 graduates attended...pretty sad since we had somewhere around 450 in our class.  I think there were a number of factors--one being that it was a one-night affair and that it was a potluck in the park, not a sit-down affair.  I may end up working with a couple of classmates to make it a more well-attended affair next time.

Leg 5:
GREAT AMERICA!  This was a place I used to go to at least once a year for the last few years I was in SE Wisconsin, so it only made sense that I would take my kids there to ride roller coasters.  Ben and Cammie had never been on one before, so we started with the Whizzer.

Ends at Delafield where the hotel was VERY nice, but we left too early to enjoy breakfast.  They had just set up and you could smell the bacon from the third floor.

Leg 6:
Left Delafield, WI and arrived at Wall, South Dakota.  The hotel was dingy and old and sorely in need of updating.  It was a long long day of driving and we arrived with just a couple hours to eat dinner and look at some touristy stuff and get some trinkets, but otherwise we just got there and slept.  This was where we began seeing more than our fair share of motorcycles.  I didn't realize that our trip around Yellowstone was scheduled for the same week as Sturgis.  Yup.  At the end of three days, I was so sick of seeing motorcycles.

Leg 7:
Drove from Wall, SD to Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Devil's Tower.  I think Crazy Horse was my favorite--they've taken 50 years to get this much done on it, but for the longest time, it was one man working on it with sub-standard equipment.  Just the face alone is as big as the Mt. Rushmore monument.  In the last few years, they've increased the number of workers and opened several buildings with artifacts and educational displays, which brings in money to pay for it all.  It's all privately funded--no government influence.  Gotta love that! It's a long time coming, but hopefully they'll be able to make a lot more progress on it over the next 10 years.  It would be great to see it completed in my lifetime.



Then on to Cody, WY.  On the way to Cody, we switched drivers at Sheridan, WY, which proved to be rather devastating for our time-frame.  I assumed that we needed to keep following the same highway, I-90, when we should have taken an exit for Hwy 14 (later Kelly said that he probably would have made the same mistake).  We ended up driving about 20 miles further than we should have, and turned back to catch the correct road.  This took us through a spectacular pass through the Bighorn National Forest.  I wish I had been able to see it in the daylight--we climbed really high and spent the next couple of tense hours watching for deer--we saw eight that were either right beside the road or right IN the road.  The last 30 minutes were the worst--Ben was exhausted and wanted to lay down and sleep, but he doesn't have his carseat with the headrest anymore and hadn't packed his pillow and blanket to snuggle down.  Cammie was stuck in the back and the cooler kept sliding over on her, squishing her as we went around all the hairpin turns.  Tensions were high but we finally arrived at the hotel sometime around 1 a.m.  The hotel at Cody was equally abysmal--a "Super 8" that was really not so super.  For the outrageous rate of $200 a night, I really expected a lot more.  Breakfast here was a selection of two kinds of cereal, frozen waffles, toast, and pre-packaged cinnamon rolls.  No fruit, no protein, and again, coffee-flavored water.

We toured Yellowstone for the day, the upper loop, visiting some of the coolest things in the world--or rather, the HOTTEST things!  Yellowstone is all about the volcanic activity happening under the earth, making surface water boil.  Apparently, the area used to be oceanfront property, so the salt water filled in the holes created by the lava, then the surface water--rain and snow--on top causes some of the reactions.  I don't understand all the science of it, but it's all cool!

Getting photos of the family turned into a challenge of timing and cajoling.  I remember when I was a teen, we took a family trip to Hawaii.  HAWAII!  One of the happiest places on earth, and we hiked to the top of Diamond Head. We got a group photo of our family which has me with a sour look on my face while everyone else looks overjoyed to be there.  Yes, I was 15 and moody as hell, and although we were in one of the most beautiful places in the world, I look miserable.  I hate that photo and I don't want the next generation to have photos like that.  Even if they're feeling cantankerous, I am trying to make the extra effort to make sure there are good photos for them to remember.  This can take more than one shot to get it right.




This was taken at the Mammoth Hot Springs, the furthest north in the park.  It smelled like rotten eggs, like most of the hot springs in the park, which acted as an appetite suppressant.  It also gave me raging headaches.  I'm rather glad we weren't camped in the park.

We started the day with a picnic in the park along the river, and headed up the road to see a few things.  We saw the mud volcano and a gorgeous waterfall before we went up to the Mammoth Hot Springs.  We had dinner at the park--burgers and fries, although by this time I was so sick of burgers and fries that I couldn't stomach the thought of eating another one, so I ordered a chicken ceasar salad.  We did a little shopping at the gift shop and returned to Cody for the night.  We got up early to go back to the park to see the South loop of the park.

Woke up the next morning and got everything packed up.  Kelly had run into town to get some errands done; he got some new windshield wipers, ice, gas and lunch goodies.  That's when it started...the car trouble.  At first, it was just the air conditioning.  Kelly does some troubleshooting, swapping out some fuses in the box, but the fan for the air conditioner did nothing.  It seemed like things were OK, but then...the engine light comes on, so we head over to a dealership in town to do a diagnostic.  They plug in the gizmo and push a few buttons, waiting for the computer to talk to it and let it know if anything is wrong.  It reveals nothing out of the ordinary except for the air conditioner fan's motor, which should have no effect on the rest of the engine, so we head over to Yellowstone to do some more sight-seeing.

This time, we did the lower loop of Yellowstone, which included the West Thumb Geyser Basin, Old Faithful, and Fountain Paint Pot.  While they seemed to enjoy seeing the bubbling water and the gorgeous colors of the puddles, they all agreed that the smell was hard to come to terms with.

Here's a few random pictures of the trip:


We had another long day and left for the West entrance to get some dinner at the nearest town.  Luckily, there was a small town called West Yellowstone that had a variety of dinner options.  We chose a place called the Slippery Otter Pub and had steaks and pizzas for dinner.  YUM!

Afterwards, we kept driving down the road to Idaho Falls to our hotel.  We stopped at a funny little place to use the bathroom.  It was a gas station & convenience store, which was flanked by a bar and a restaurant...all of which were connected...and shared a bathroom.  So you walk into the bar for a drink, and when you have to go to the bathroom, you walk through the convenience store (which was unattended).  Restaurant workers would get a drink order and walk through the convenience store to the bar to fill the order.  Weird.

Leg 8:
In the morning, we headed out to the Craters of the Moon, which Kelly remembered visiting as a kid.  They have lots of volcanic rocks and lava tube caves, which he wanted to see again.  We started by having a picnic in the shade of a tree, and were entertained by local wildlife.  Here are a couple of rare North American Tree Monkeys.

There was also a cute chipmunk that we helped with running some water from the spiggot, which he lapped up off the rocks below before it very quickly evaporated.  The bees also went crazy slurping up the water--given this incredibly dry environment, it was no surprise that any kind of moisture would bring in the wildlife.

We headed up the hill and had more car trouble in the hottest place in the world...OK, maybe not the HOTTEST, but it was on black pavement next to lots of sharp, black A'a lava and a couple kipuka islands of native growth.

Unfortunately, we got to the top of the hill where the Inferno Cone lookout was, the temperature gauge rang out and I pulled in immediately.  We shut off the engine and let it cool.  We called the insurance company who sent out a tow truck.  While we waited, Kelly and the kids walked up the hill to see the sights.

From the parking lot, you can see the kipuka--the island of native growth that was surrounded by lava as it flowed through...literally an island in the stream.  This is great for botanists to study the plants that are native to the area, as opposed to plants that were later introduced.

Within an hour, the tow truck came to our rescue!  When the tow truck came to get the car, they sent another driver to bring the rest of us back to town.  That's something that you need to remember if you have more than one person in the car--the tow truck generally can only take one person back with him, so if you have more people, let the insurance agent know and they'll make arrangements to have transportation for the rest of your crew.

Cammie loves this car and was really sad thinking that we'd have to replace it.  Luckily, it turned out to be a minor repair and we can keep this puppy running for a little longer.  I mean, the air conditioner is still broken, but when we were driving, the vents pushed air through the a/c and some cool air was coming through, so it was tolerable.

Back to the small town of Arco, where I found a couple of geocaches, and we learned a great deal about the nuclear power, nuke subs, and the local hillside "art".

The guy who drove us was a local who gave me some insight on the local history.  The graduating classes have organized to have their number drawn on the hillside every year since at least 1922.  Environmentalists have pressured locals to stop doing this, but their response has been something along the lines of "It's our hill.  Shaddap and go away."

The mechanic took a couple hours to diagnose the problem, which turned out to be a bad fuse for the radiator fan, which caused the car to overheat when it drove slowly.  While it was in motion--at 60 mph or so--it pushed enough air through the engine to keep it cool.  It was a miracle that when the engine overheated, we were at the top of the hill, where we had a cell signal.  At the bottom of the hill where we had our lunch, there were zero bars.  Nothing.  It's hard to wrap my brain around--a tiny little part like a fuse that costs a couple bucks can totally destroy your engine if it fails.

We had pizza at the corner diner, which was good, but the place was pretty run-down and dirty.  Lots of flies, the seats were torn on most of the seats, and other than the two ladies that worked there, there wasn't anyone else in the store.

Due to the circumstances, we cancelled our reservation at a hotel in Baker City, OR since we knew that with the long delay fixing the cooling fan that we'd never make it that far, and settled for a hotel in Mountain Home, Idaho.  On the way, we passed a number of forest fires that were burning in the hills.  This is the view from our hotel room where you can see a lot of smoke rising out of the hills.  With the fires, a number of deer were down in the lowlands in the farmers' fields, including two HUGE bucks...big racks.  I didn't get a picture (I was driving this leg), but they were impressive.

We arrived at the Hampton Inn around 9 pm, just as the sun was going down.  This was probably the nicest of the hotels.  We paid a few bucks more than their standard rate (and I mean maybe $10) to get a larger room with two queen beds and a pull-out couch, but it was almost half the price of the scuzzy Cody hotel.  It had granite countertops, a spacious bathroom, lots of floor space, and access to the pool, exercise room, and had a coin-op laundry room down the hall.  What a difference!  The breakfast area was large and they had a nice selection of foods, but again...coffee-flavored water.

Last leg:
From Mountain Home, we calculated how long it would take to get home, and decided that 8 hours would be a long day, but do-able.  The first four hours Kelly drove from Idaho through the Eastern top corner of Oregon, and I took over just before entering Washington state.  The first couple of hours were uneventful, but I just about lost my mind on the way back from Ellensburg. We were approaching Cle Elum when the skies opened up and all forms of plague and pestilence came upon us...rain and hail as big as large peas or marbles...a few even bigger. This lasted until we reached the pass at Snoqualmie. I was worried I was going to lose a windshield. I think a few more hairs went grey.  When we got to the pass, it was just rain, and we pulled over to use the restrooms and let my nerves calm down before driving the last 90 minutes.  

It was a fun trip, and I hope that if we do it again, we can drive a pick up truck with an RV trailer and stay at KOA campgrounds or something.  All the packing and unpacking was stressful, and the inconsistencies of hotel quality for the price was astounding.