South Dakota
Shortly after entering South Dakota we arrived at the famous
Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is a mountain in which the faces of George
Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt have been
engraved. The mountain is an international tourist location, and is extremely
commercialized. In my opinion Mount Rushmore is overrated and over exaggerated.
The mountain is worth stopping by if one is already passing by, but not worth a
trip by itself.
After Mount Rushmore we drove down the road to the Crazy
Horse monument. Crazy Horse was a Native American chief who had gained much
respect from the locals. The statue when finished will be the world’s biggest
statue. Sadly, the statue has been under construction for the past sixty-five
years, and has no end in sight. Once again, this memorial is not worth a trip
in and of itself.
We were extremely let down by the monuments, and were
starting to realize the reason that the plain states had very low populations.
We decided to continue on our way to the Badlands towards the end of the day
hoping to have a better end to a disappointing day.
The Badlands received its name because of its
inhabitability. In all languages, including the local Native American language,
it is call the Bad Lands. The terrain has stone spires that rise from the
ground making it hard to walk around. At the edge of the spire’s area begins
the grassy plains where wild deer and goats eat. According to the park
information signs several settlers tried to inhabit the grassy plain, but could
not grow crops in the ground. Eventually the settlers abandoned the Badlands,
like everyone before them.
While in the Badlands we met two Hassid guys, and an
engineer from North Dakota. The engineer
is planning to have spent a week in every state by next October finishing his
several year hobby. We exchanged experiences about our trips. The Hassids
didn’t talk much, so we couldn’t really connect with them.
We continued our trip towards Minneapolis in Minnesota, and
slept in the car once we were exhausted and could not go further.
Minnesota
We stopped at a gas station in the morning to go to the
bathroom, and wash up. Tani bought himself a cookie. While Tani was eating his
cookie he put the car into reverse in order to start pulling out of the gas
station. While backing up he didn’t realize the eighteen wheeler right behind
us, and backed up into it. He jumped out of the car to assess to the damage,
and once he saw that there was none began to return to the car. A State Trooper
who was filling up on gas saw Tani returning, and told him to wait for the
truck driver to return before driving away as required by law. The driver
returned, and thought that his truck had been ruined, because of the commotion.
Once he had assessed the damage himself, and realized that there was none he told
us to drive off. This was the only time we were approached by law enforcement.
We drove into Minneapolis, and spent the afternoon in the
Mall of America. The Mall of America is the world’s biggest mall with hundreds
of stores and an amusement park in the center. There are nice hotels all around
the mall.
Wisconsin
We crossed over to Wisconsin, during the day. I would write
where we slept every night, but at this point we were sleeping in the car and I
do not remember the exact places. We tried to find things to do in Wisconsin,
but from what we understood from the internet there is not much to do. We just
passed through.
Illinois
We Arrived in Chicago at around noon, and made the mistake
of driving Downtown. The City is amazing, but extremely congested. Its citizens
have no sense of pedestrian safety, and walk in front of moving vehicles.
We drove to the Bean and next to America’s tallest building.
Tani wanted to go to the top of the tower, but I have a fear of heights. The
Freedom Tower in New York City will be the tallest tower, but it is not
completely finished at the moment. The Chicago Olympic Park is full of great
art and structure, including the bean.
We decided to spend the afternoon at a beach on the great
lakes so we continued our drive out of the city.
Indiana
Being back near the east coast meant being back with the
toll roads, which was a bummer for me. We drove through Indiana until we
reached Michigan.
Michigan
We drove into Michigan and spent a half an hour on the beach
before we got bored and started driving again. We started driving towards
Detroit, as Waze was directing us. We realized that Waze was taking us through
Canada to Niagara Falls. I didn’t want to go through customs with our whole
car, so I personally refused to let us go. Tani was not too thrilled about my
irrational decision, but respected it. So we changed our route, and came down
towards Ohio.
Ohio
Now we were intent on arriving in Niagara Falls as quickly
as possible, because being in the car and the trip as a whole was becoming
psychologically hard on me. We passed next to Cleveland, and continued driving
until we decided to sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment