Wistful Musings of a Kiwi Au Pair in America: A Roadtrip of Gargantuan Proportion

For a long time I have been trying to convince my dad, Bruce to come and visit me in the states and do a big roadtrip with me to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Bruce has always wanted to see the massive sculpture of Crazy Horse, the great Native American chief, carved into a cliff. It is the already the biggest sculpture in the world, and so far they have only completed the head! It is much much bigger than Mt Rushmore, and only 30 minutes drive from Mt Rushmore. Important for me was to see Yellowstone National Park, so we made sure to fit that in too. In the end we went to many more places than we anticipated. We went through a total of 5 states (Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, South Dakota) and drove 3100 miles.

Each state we passed through was a different experience, different because of the landscape and different towns, different stores; but also a different experience based on how we were feeling and what time of day or night it was. Some little towns were a refuge for us, providing us with hearty meals and warm showers. Other towns were special treats for us - delighting us and rejuvenating us for our next leg of the journey. Our trip was to the Black Hills of South Dakota, but it became so much more than that because the journey was all part of the destination, the journey was our holiday. What was also great was that we chatted to all sorts of different people and asked for their opinions on what to visit. Because of that, we went down highways and byways, to different towns, monuments and sights we would not have seen otherwise. Having those little detours made the trip extra special.

Some of my best memories were just driving down huge stretches of free way, sunroof open, windows open, music blaring, cruise control on (whenever it decided to work), bed in the back; absolutely free in the knowledge that I was living out my dream. All my life I have wanted to road trip America, and here I was, with my very own car, driving for thousands of miles, sleeping in the back, singing at the top of my lungs, laughing and joking with my dad, eating on the run, and sleeping in rest stops. Even thinking about it now makes me smile because honestly I just loved it, every minute.

Friday:

After driving all night from Seattle, we arrived at Spokane about 5am. We had breakfast at Dennys and then drove through the early morning dawn in Idaho and Montana. We stopped a few times along the way, and we ended up staying the night in a motel in Sheridan, Wyoming.

Beautiful dawn mist in Idaho

Bruce and I in small town America, St Regis, Idaho

The packed Stallion!

Father and Daughter chillin in the Stallion

Saturday:
We left the motel in Wyoming in the late morning and headed on our way to South Dakota. We stopped at Devil's tower on the way at the suggestion of a biker, and then arrived in Custer, South Dakota (home of Crazy Horse monument) at around 9pm, just in time to watch the laser show on Crazy Horse mountain! Incredible! That night we slept in a tipi, thus fulfilling my childhood dreams!

The long open road

Stopping to make snacks - crackers with avocado and tomatoes - gourmet roadtrip fodder!

the gal loves her Stallion!

This is Devil's Tower. It is the monument made famous in the movie Close Encounter (aliens on Earth, do you remember?). We were not planning on visiting this at all, but on one of our bathroom breaks we got chatting to a bikie who suggested we take this detour, and boy was it worth it! What a neat sight to see on the landscape!

Looking up at the lines and crevasses on the tower.

It was here at Devil's tower that I saw my first prairie dog. I had mentioned to Bruce how cool it would be to see one, and people had mentioned that they could be seen at the base of devil's tower. At first I could not see any, but then, as we looked at the fields more and more, we began to notice them everywhere! and they really were everywhere! They were so cute and tame!

I was able to live out another one of my dreams: to sleep in a tipi! It was near the base of Crazy Horse, and so we were able to sleep there (fulfilling my childhood dream) and then be right at Crazy Horse monument for the morning! Perfect!

Sunday: On Sunday we went to Crazy Horse, then over to Wall to the Wounded Knee museum and the roadside famous Wall Drug store, then over to Mt Rushmore, through Sturgis (to see the motorbikes of course!) and then we took off and drove all the way to Sheridan, Wyoming and slept in a rest stop in the back of the Stallion before our big long haul drive to Yellowstone.

Crazy Horse monument as it stands right now - just the head is completed, the rest of it, including a horse's head and Crazy Horse's arm, are yet to be created by blasting away rock with dynamite.

The scale of this face is beyond belief! Look how small we are compared to Crazy Horse's lips!

So it just happened to be that while we were on our trip, a massive motorcycle rally at the nearby town of Sturgis was on, flooding the entire area with approximately 400,000 bikers on their Harley's! It was so fantastic!

Wall Drug

Mt Rushmore

All the bikies hanging out at the pub

Monday:
Monday was a big day, we raced across Wyoming to get to Yellowstone national park, drove all through the park. Bruce was not feeling so well, so he slept in the back pretty much the entire time. We saw Old Faithful blow, I saw buffalo, elk, deer, black bears and even a coyote! We also had a lovely lunch. When we had seen all that we had wanted to we drove down through the Grand Teton mountains (which were incredible!), in to Jackson, Wyoming. We had a shower and a meal there and then left towards home - driving all night through Idaho back into Washington.