So I and two weeks of vacation time coming....

I have finally gotten around to going through all my vacation pictures. We hadn't taken a long vacation in some time, and since the wife was improving she wanted to take a road trip and decided on Mt Rushmore as the thing she really wanted to see.  After collecting suggestions here, from friends and family, and the Google we loaded up Gary the Jeep and headed... East.  Our first stop on the way to South Dakota was going to be Radwood in Boston.  This is the third one we've been to and always have fun.  

It was raining most of the day so we were prepared to see and empty lot.  I grew up with friends that had ISCA show cars, and worked in at a Corvette restorer so I'd been told that show cars will wilt and melt in poor weather.  The turn out was good in spite of the weather and like always there were always plenty of interesting cars, my favorites being Chris' Delica and Christopher Cross's BMW M1:

 https://www.facebook.com/wally.miller.9022/posts/134679364602602

Gorgeous

Anymore pics of the Defender 130?!

In reply to mr2s2000elise :

The gray one in the top pic? I should have a few, I'll check.

After a soggy day at Radwood we were headed west.  I tried to put as many miles in as I could the first couple days while the wife was feeling good and we were in familiar territory, then as the trip wore on we'd stop more frequently at some of the best/worst tourist traps we could find to get a break and stretch her legs. While we had a general idea of where to go there were no solid plans or reservations.  After a day and a half on the road we arrived in Cleveland and the Christmas Story House shortly before closing.  I'm not as big a fan of the movie as others but my sister and her kids love in so we hit the gift shop for some fun Christmas gifts.  This would also turn into a habit. I don't think we've  ever taken a trip when I had a little money so we came back with stuff for pretty much everyone we know.  
 

Moving right along we crossed into Indiana, our first new state of the trip, and the Studebaker museum. The Studebaker company went back before cars and the museum had a nice collection that spanned from horse carriages and sleighs up to the last cars. 

the first Studebaker:

I wouldn't mind a bulletnose convertible:

Converted to Porsche Power:

A bear's natural habitat:

After leaving South Bend our next stop was Indiana Dunes National Park.  Given enough time we're eventually going to stop at every National Park. I was looking forward to this stop, as situated along the lake are five houses of the future from the 1933 Chicago World's Fair. The pink Florida House is pretty much the vacation house I'd build if I won the lottery, though on a warmer lake. 
 

We had no set route or itinerary but thanks to my navigator's short attention span we took a nice ride across an unexpected part of the Midwest.  We planned on stopping at a big pink elephant off I90 near I think Madison. After a few hours off the interstate I should have suspected something was amiss but I was enjoying the ride across some two lane roads through Wisconsin to a different pink elephant on the Iowa border.  

Wrong Elephant:

Sorry we couldn't get together i berkeleyed that up big time by leaving my phone in the house to charge.  

In reply to Wally :

Yes thanks 

Thanks for the kind words on my Delica, and great pictures.  My Delica wasn't even the coolest Delica there however.  Too bad about the rain. I loved following your adventures on Facebook. I'd love to take a trip like that someday. Maybe when I'm retired. I remember joking about you guys going to see the largest ball of twine, but then you said you were planning to do that very thing. That was hilarious to me.

In reply to Patrick: :  

No problem, without a schedule it was hard making plans.

In reply to Mazdax605 :

I may never get to Minnesota again so I couldn't miss the twine ball.

The next few hours were spent meandering through the farms of Iowa.  I'm still in awe of how far you can go and see nothing but grain. Farms are nowhere near as large back here.  We took a quick stop off in Cresco then on to Minnesota.

Our first stop in Minnesota was the Spam Museum.  Everything you could ever want to know about the famous canned pork. All 13 varieties are in the gift shop, two that aren't normally Available in the mainland US.

After our educational Spam stop it was on to the fabled Biggest Ball of Twine in Minnesota.  It was pretty far off the beaten path and I wouldn't recommend it if you're trying to get anywhere on a schedule.  However we were wandering aimlessly and I'm a big fan of Weird Al so I felt I had to go.  
 

It's big, both larger and heavier that our Jeep.

Another three hours on Minnesota farm roads watching the harvesters loading the year's crops brought us to Blue Earth, our stop for the night and home of the Jolly Green Giant.

Continuing west we reached South Dakota and the Corn Palace.  Many of you said it would be a waste of time. You underestimate how easily I'm amused. We were luck to get here when we did as a crew was starting to peel the corn off for winter.  For murals made out of corn stapled to a building it was pretty impressive.

After the Corn Palace we started seeing billboards for 1890s world, which looked to be a neat cowboy themed tourist trap.  We should reach it about the time the navigator would need a break and Gary the Jeep would need fuel.  This would be the first disappointment of the trip.  Apparently the cowboys head south for the fall. No Wild West show, no lunch in a dining car, and worst of all no fuel for Gary.  

 

Lucky for us the next exit had what I guess was 1953 town.  We pulled of to a little gas station and after filling up I went in to pay and the older lady behind the counter was quick to tell me they don't take out of town checks.  I'm not sure if I have a checkbook so I was ok.  She did have some fresh baked cookies so I had that going for me. A tank of gas, some tasty chocolate chip cookies, and we were back on the road. 

Next up I worked in a little history lesson on mutually assured destruction.  In addition to the farms, prairies, and cattle are the ICBM silos that kept the Godless Communists at bay.  Right off the highway is a small visitor center dedicated to the Minuteman Missile program. In addition to the visitor center there's a command station and silo you can visit but today we were hitting the welcome center then into Badlands National Park. 
 

[free Chicago canoe bump]