Day-44.  Home again after 6,037 miles in total!  We left LeClaire IA at 9 AM (ET) for the 381-mile trip to St. Johns.  After a stop at Turkeyville for lunch,  we arrived home at 4:15.  The traffic conditions on I-80/I-94 south of the Chicago/Gary area were, as usual, horrible.  We were stop-and-go for many miles.  The westbound side was just as bad.  A check online showed that the road delays extended 40 miles!  There were serious accidents on both sides.  One on our side involved 11 vehicles, 4 or 5 of which were seriously wrecked.  There was another nasty roll-over wreck on I-69, south of Charlotte.  We saw many instances of incredibly foolish driving on the crowded interstates of Illinois and Indiana and it is no wonder that accidents abound.  But our 44-day roadtrip through the West could not have been better.  The National Parks, National Monuments and many other natural and historic sites were what this great country is all about.  But it was some of the unanticipated experiences, such as the sudden blinding snowstorm at 9,000 feet in South Pass, Wyoming, that were also highly memorable.  The hiking in areas new to us, such as the trek to Butler cliff dwelling in Utah, was always exciting.  All told, my FitBit pedometer indicated that we walked a total of 144 miles over the 6+ weeks.  We may have more to say about the trip a little later but right now we have a lot of unpacking to do.  Adios for now.

Happy to be heading for home tomorrow!

Mississippi view from our hotel window. The sign was funnier on day 2 of the trip when it advertised the same deal for dear Mom on Mother's day.

 

Views from lunch. The wind was blowing so hard from the south, the white caps were pointing upriver. A 225 year old elm tree that anchored the levy until 1965 when it was killed by Dutch elm disease.

Day-43, 215 miles on I-80, Stuart IA to LeClaire IA on the banks of the Mississippi.  The Interstate is fast but the heavy truck traffic makes it pretty tedious as you leap-frog one 18-wheeler after another, while also dualing with the type-A truckers who like to hang out in the fast lane.  Not too many years ago you could actually use cruise control for substantial periods but since heading east from North Platte NE the heavy traffic has made automated cruising impractical.  In Le Claire we had a nice lunch at Sneaky Pete's, our favorite very informal restaurant in the town and then hiked over to Antique Archaeology to see what the Pickers, Mike and Frank, have come up with.  Didn't buy a thing but it's always fun checking the place out.  LeClaire is an historic river town, birthplace of Buffalo Bill Cody, among other notables, but it is also a very busy tourist mecca, with crowded streets and lots going on.  We stopped at the Buffalo Bill museum for an hour or so after checking out Antique Archaeology.  Tomorrow we head for the barn, that is, HOME!  It will be so good to see all the folks we've missed, and to not have to remember our hotel room number.  Tomorrow will be Day-44 on the road, a little over 380 miles, Le Claire to Saint Johns.

Seasick yet? TV on the fritz?

Goodbye Platte River, hello Iowa farmland.

Day-42  (6 weeks on the road and 5,300 miles so far!)  Today was mostly driving, North Platte NE to Stuart IA, 371 miles.  Now relaxing at the hotel.  Tomorrow we head to Le Claire IA.

Spaghetti anyone?

Golden spike tower.

Nebraska sand hills, Carhenge, Platte River again.

Day-41.  Chadron NE to North Platte NE, 235 miles.  At Alliance NE we made a quick stop at a roadside attraction known as Carhenge, consisting of a large circle of old wreck cars sticking out of the ground.  Definitely NOT the 8th wonder of the world.  In North Platte we stopped at an antique mall we had been to previously on the way west to pick up a few more antique bottles that had been dug by a local collector at a variety of frontier forts.  The collector had let us know he had added some more of his finds to his booth at the mall.  From there, we visited the Union Pacific's "Golden Spike" tower overlooking the Bailey classification yard, the largest such railroad yard in the world, 8 miles long and over a mile in width.  Tomorrow we have a long drive to Stuart IA, an intermediate 1-night stopping point en route to Le Claire IA.

Massacre site now and then, parking lot Lakota family and police, entering the rez, local art, R and R at the end of a long day.

You can see how Pine Ridge, town and reservation, get the name.

Massacre description, massacre  site, adjacent  cemetery where the bodies were buried  5 days later (a snowstorm  intervened ).

Day-40, still in Chadron NE.  Today we drove 55 miles up to Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota and then another 15 miles to the Wounded Knee Massacre site.  The massacre of Indians in December of 1890 by Federal troops, triggered by some threatening moves (probably on both sides), resulted in at least 170 Indian deaths, including many women and children killed by canon fire.  Something on the order of 25 soldiers were killed.  This was the last major conflict of the so-called Indian Wars period.  A massive tragedy.  The site is now an open field containing some rustic structures that are probably used in ceremonial gatherings.  We bought a trinket from an Lakota woman at the site.  We then visited the Heritage Center in Pine Ridge and viewed a great variety of Native American art.  Adjacent to the Center is the cemetery in which the great Lakota Chief, Red Cloud, is buried.  The Native Americans we've met have been so incredibly nice and kind, making the Wounded Knee Massacre all the more difficult to fathom.  Tomorrow we head to North Platte NE, 220 miles to the southeast.

Views from today.

Day-39, Chadron NE.  Today we drove to Fort Robinson, about 25 miles from Chadron.  The fort was first commissioned in 1867 to protect the Red Cloud Agency which provided resources to 13,000 Indians who had agreed to a peace treaty.  The fort was in operation until the end of WWII and for a time operated a large prosoner-of-war camp for captured Germans .  It is a huge place, now part of a 22,000 acre state park, with many large brick structures as well as very early wood frame buildings.  It is famous as the fort where Crazy Horse, an Ogallala Chief, was bayonetted and killed by a soldier in 1877.  The spot where that very controversial incident occurred is well marked with signage. From Fort Robinson we drove back to Chadron for lunch at a Chinese buffet.  Next, we went back to the Fur Trade Museum just outside of town.  The museum is privately run and contains an array of Americana going back to the 1700s that can only be described as spectacular.  It is a must-see next time you're spending a little time in Chadron.  Chadron is a small prairie town with limited services.  This morning there was a fellow at the hotel who had flown in to the town's tiny airport late last night only to find the rental car he expected to be waiting, was not.  He eventually got the local police to give him a ride into town.  And this morning he was still stranded, at the hotel.  No rental car, no taxi service, no way to get around.  Maybe Chadron's population has just increased by one (?)   Tomorrow we plan to go up to the famous Indian Reservation known as Pine Ridge, with historic Wounded Knee nearby, site of the last major and tragic clash between U.S. troops and Indian warriors.   Pine Ridge is about 55 miles from Chadron.

The chain link fence is not a bad design.

Hot Springs,  voyeur canoe (36 ft, 4 ton capacity), Bordeaux trading post.

Custer State Park