Monday, July 02, 2007

Tales from a Traveling Innovator: Saturday, June 30

The following entries are a collection of some notes from my drive from Chicago to Boise...

It used to be that every little town had a “welcome to…” sign with all the Lions and Rotary clubs meeting times posted. Now, if you don’t have a big granite block and a statue, you can’t even be called a real town.


We also crossed over the biggest brand of rivers: the mighty Mississipp. However, being from Louisiana, we did find this to be a rather small version of the great river. But maybe this is like our company – starting small and growing as we get in the flow.


Highway 61 Revisited. After seeing this sign and realizing we were in his homestate, we plugged in the iPod and listened to Bob Dylan a while. How many highways can you name that are featured in songs? Reply by posting a comment below.


What would a great car vacation be without stopping at the tourist traps. The Spam Museum in Austin, MN pays tribute to the greatest brand of…of…of…whatever Spam is. And the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD is the World's only building covered with Corn. “An outstanding structure which stands as a tribute to the agricultural heritage of South Dakota.”









All across southern Minnesota we saw these huge wind power generators. Some were operating. Many more were being erected. And we even saw some propellers being carried by truck to their cornfield home. With as much wind there is across the plain States, I wondered why Illinois, Wisconsin, South Dakota, and Wyoming don’t have more wind power.

The Badlands of South Dakota are surreal. One minute you’re driving through grassy prairies, then all of a sudden the terrain looks like Mars. It’s definitely a scene out of Star Trek or Star Wars. Two thoughts: 1) if they did fake the moon landing, they could’ve done it here; and 2) if the aliens ever picked a place to land, they’d feel right at home here.









Custer State Park is just west of Rapid City. We really enjoyed the wildlife and gorgeous views. The burros walked right up to the car (probably because people feed them potato chips; can’t they read the signs). We experienced a HERD of buffalo, including dozens of young calves. It was a scene from “Dances With Wolves”. Big horn sheep were sitting just a few feet from the road. And we saw the biggest rainbow – an entire arc over the whole sky.



2 comments:

Patrick Smith said...

Lake Shore Drive - Aliotta Haynes Jeremiah
Highway 61 - B Dylan
Stairway to Heaven - Zepplin (Does this count?)
Highway to Hell - AC/DC Does this count?)
Route 66 - Chuck Berry
PCH - ZZ Top
Pan Am Highway Blues - ZZ Top

Patrick Smith said...

Ooops. Meant to paste over Stairway with Highway. :)