Grand Rapids

I used to live in the Grand Rapids area - granted, it was many years ago, but I don't remember it being so interesting.

Last month I was in the city for a short conference, and I was pleasantly surprised at both the diversity and cleanliness of the downtown area as well as the tour of the Fredrick Meijer gardens that was one of our evening entertainment events. The only thing I really did not like was the room in my hotel.

As I arrived, the downtown area was very busy with the Art Prize event. There were art pieces on the sidewalks and in the downtown museum, and there were crowds of people strolling the streets to look at them. The weather was sunny and crisp, which was perfect for viewing the pieces. There were a lot of great pieces, but here is one I liked - an ape made of forks.


The evening excursion to the Meijer garden was also art-related. There is an outdoor sculpture garden, indoor greenhouses (I especially liked the greenhouse containing the carnivorous plants), and an art gallery. The latter had a piece I really loved - it was a light installation with mirrors and pieces of colored glass that filled a wall. There were only two small, powerful spotlights, but the reflections, deflections, and color changes made a great piece. I really wanted it but I don't have that much clear wall space. Tragically. I don't know how you buy a piece like that, anyway. Do they come to your house and install it for you?

The hotel was, of course, the Amway Grand (that is the major conference hotel in Grand Rapids). The meeting rooms are beautiful, and the reception we had in the 27th story restaurant and bar was wonderful and gave a great view, but my personal hotel room was in the "old side" of the building and was not very comfortable. The obvious things were missing, such as a coffeepot and a fridge. The layout was a bit strange, with a lot of open space in the middle of the room but the desk faced away from the bed and the TV and was poorly lit for working.

But the trip was nice. I would spend more time in Grand Rapids.

Boston

I returned to Boston for a conference last week, but really, I didn't see or do much (the weather there was hot and humid, as it was in fact across most of the country).

Boston this time was all about food. My single vow was to consume as much seafood as I could while I was there, and I was pretty successful.

The first evening, I met a few friends when I was scoping out the convention area and attached hotels and mall. We ended up at a small restaurant on Columbus Avenue near Dartmouth, called Coda. We were wandering along looking at the menus posted outside when a young man stopped and told us, "Don't bother with that one, there's a better one around the corner." That's how we found Coda. It was a nice, quiet, and not too busy bar and grill. I had Prince Edward Island mussels.

The second evening, I went alone to Legal Seafood - there are many of these in the Boston area. Because I was alone, I sat at the bar and had a Sam Adams, then the special (chowder, a 1.5lb lobster, and strawberry shortcake). Another lone diner two seats down had the same meal, except for wine rather than beer. He decided I was his dining buddy and talked to me throughtout the meal. (Apparently, he also knew everything about pretty much everything.) I did like the food, though.

Third evening found me in the Cheesecake Factory with several colleagues, where I had their New Orleans shrimp (made with andouille sausage) and a half-slice of carrot cake. I had heartburn that night, but it was so worth it.

The final evening in Boston, I met another friend and we ventured to Newbury Street and had sushi at a sidewalk cafe, where we could watch the passers-by and catch up. Also excellent.

On my way home at Logan Airport, I must admit I also picked up a crab cake sandwich. I just didn't get enough seafood, even though I did have it every day. I would like to visit again, just for the food.

Going West

I chose South Dakota as my next state to visit based upon recommendations of a couple of my pen pals. One of them lives in Lead, SD (pronounced like the metal, not like the lead in leadership). Another of my correspondents who lives in New York State has been there several times and had some good recommendations also.

I noted that if I stayed in Rapid City, I would have access to not only Mt. Rushmore, but also would be within a day trip of Devil's Tower in Wyoming. It was hard to tell whether Montana and/or North Dakota would be within driving distance.

The trip didn't start out well. I have to remember the tendency of United Express to be late out of Lansing. This was the second time I could remember a delay in leaving -- this one well over an hour. The only good thing about it is that I had a three hour layover in Chicago, so I didn't miss the connection to Rapid City.

The Rapid City airport was even smaller than Lansing's, with five gates and a single baggage carousel. It was simple to find my bag and the car rental counters, and only took a few minutes to get out of the airport and drive down a long country road to the highway and my hotel.

I hadn't realized that the Central/Mountain time zone boundary actually went through the middle of the state, so landing in Rapid City, on the far western side of South Dakota, I was two hours behind my start time, ending up in Mountain Daylight Time. (I found that interesting, also, in that one of the major TV stations in SD was in Souix Falls, in the east, and their broadcast schedule was CDT. It meant everything on TV was two hours earlier.)

The good thing about the time change meant that after hours of traveling, I arrived with most of the afternoon left. I landed at 1pm, was checked in to the hotel by 2, and was on my way to Mt. Rushmore shortly afterwards. I had chosen Rapid City as my base due to the proximity to Mt. Rushmore, to start with, and I was happy to get out on the road on a sunny Sunday afternoon.


Mountain driving is always a challenge for me, although I am not as afraid when I am actually doing it as in thinking about it or, worse, in my dreams. I have vertigo and in my dreams I have no control over it. When I am actually driving it, I manage to keep my mind on the driving and not on what might happen if I make a mistake.

The route to Mt. Rushmore had steep roads but beautiful scenery. Before the monument, the road went through Keystone, the nearest town - population 311 according to the sign. It is obviously a tourist mecca that reminded me of Mackinac Island - full of shops selling souvenirs, cafes, ice cream shops. And there were lots of hotels.

I also find it really hard to concentrate on driving when approaching a monument - I could get glimpses of Mt. Rushmore as I drove in and it was hard not to look until I was safely in the parking lot. But I got there and it was pretty neat. I walked about the monument, took photos, bought some postcards. On the way out, I saw and photographed a wild goat who was calmly cropping grass near the parking lot. Several men were gingerly taking turns posing sort of near the goat while others in their group took pictures.

I turned the wrong way leaving, but that was serendipitous since I ended up finding another view point called the Profile Turnout, where one could see Washington's face in profile, although the others were all hidden behind him.

I made my way back to the hotel by another route, so I had a little tour of Rapid City. It became obvious that a lot of the economy of the area is around tourism. The highway exit where my hotel was located had about a dozen economy hotels and motels around it, along with a variety of restaurants like Denny's, Burger King, Perkins, Golden Corral, Subway, Arby's, etc. It did mean that I was close to a variety of places to eat. And I found a couple of Starbuck's, which is always important in view of the cheap coffee that is usually included with hotel coffeemakers.

At my hotel, the desk clerk was a twenty-ish woman with a UK accent. I did wonder how she ended up there. The hotel also had breakfast included in the price (extremely cheap nightly rate of $40) but as I discovered the next day, it was not much of a breakfast and after the first day, I went out for breakfast each morning.

The Black Hills meant that I had some great scenery on my drives. The hills were beautifully hilly, although I don't know why they are called black. The soil is dark red, but in May there was a good covering of grass. There isn't much between towns, though. And I was pretty surprised to see signs on the interstate highway before the final exit at each town that had lights and an actual gate that could be used to close the next stretch of highway. These were so common on each stretch of road that I concluded there were enough serious snow storms there to justify it. And I began to notice the stretches of snow fence along the highways as well.

Monday was sunny so I wanted to take advantage of the weather (as the forecasters were saying that there would be rain throughout the rest of my visit). I drove west from Rapid City to Wyoming, with the goal of visiting the Devil's Tower monument there before heading north to Montana.



The Devil's Tower monument is amazing. Again, in driving toward it, it is visible from the highway a long way off and it is hard to keep your eyes off it and on the road instead. Although I was not driving in mountainous terrain today, it was an extremely windy day (gusts to 45 mph) and I did need to pay attention to keeping the car on the road. It was quite something, and I did stop at a couple of viewpoints to take photos before I got to the park proper.

There is a hiking trail about a mile long that circles the base of the Tower and I found this just perfect for a nice walk and a number of good vantage points for photos. The Tower itself is made of igneous rock (magma) that is believed to be the remnants of volcanic action. The sedimentary rock around it wore away over eons, leaving the tower itself. Large chunks of magma have peeled off the tower in years past and now litter the base. I walked past one shard about the size and shape of a boxcar lying along the trail.

One can climb the tower, if one has the skill and registers with the park office. I saw a climber, laden with ropes and carbiners, but because of the wind, he had decided not to make the climb. The literature says the top of the Tower is about the size of a football field. I was not about to find out in person. The walk about the base was good for me.

Then I was on the road again, heading north to Hulett (population 400-some), to find highway 112 north to Montana. It wasn't prominently marked and I drove past it the first time and had to head back to find it. Then I drove 30 miles without seeing another town until I got to Alzada, Montana (barely a widening of the road) where I stopped for lunch at a saloon that advertised "cheap drinks -- lousy food". It wasn't much of a place. I shared the place at lunchtime with the heavily-tattooed, dyed-blond waitress/cook and a solitary beer-drinking rancher who had decided that the high winds had ended his work day early. I had a buffalo burger, tater tots, and coffee while trying to peruse the various tattoos on the waitress without obviously staring. She wore a black camisole dress, stout black work boots, and heavy-framed glasses. The bandana around her neck was tattooed, not cloth.

After that, I decided since I had eaten and used a restroom in Montana, it counted as a stopover in the state. I hope one day to actually visit again, on the western side, and see Glacier National Park, but Montana is so large that I would have had to drive another two hours to reach the nearest city. I was done for the day. Instead, I drove back through a long stretch of Wyoming that was pretty much uninhabited, then crossed back into South Dakota and stopped for gasoline and some diet sodas in the town of Belle Fourche, at an elevation of a more normal 3017 feet above sea level. Devil's Tower, at the base, is 4250 feet, while at the top, it is 5112 feet high.

I returned to Rapid City via Highway 85 to interstate 90, having visited three states in one day. I had coffee at a Starbucks, dinner at Golden Corral (salad, shrimp, ribs, and dessert), and an early night in.

Tuesday, though overcast, was not raining, so I headed east to visit the Badlands. This was a highlight of the trip. I expected spectacular views at overlooks, which there were. I didn't know I would be driving through the Badlands and have many, many spectacular views from both over-looks and in the heart of the Badlands - but I did. I kept stopping to take more photos, to walk the trails, and seeing view after view that was even more amazing. After a while I felt ridiculous taking more pictures, yet I could not resist stopping at each view spot to take even more photos. I almost felt that I couldn't hold any more incredible experiences - some overcast, some light rain, later some sunshine but all the views were just amazing.


I went back to Rapid City and had lunch at the Rushmore Mall food court where I got a sandwich at the Subway there, perused my email, and got a coffee at the Starbucks there. Then I went back to the room for a nap. Out to the Mongolian Grill for an early dinner.

Wednesday - there had been rain overnight but it wasn't raining when I went out for breakfast and then headed southwest to Custer State Park. However it was foggy, and I had a nightmare drive. I didn't realize I could have accessed the park by a fairly conventional entrance and instead came in via a nightmare drive through highway 16A - Iron Mountain Road - that had switchbacks, spiral drives where the road went over itself, and split into single lanes, and went through tunnels that were single-car widths - pretty awful!

But once I got in, I drove the wildlife loop and saw antelope, wild turkeys, and some buffalo - close up - including some with nursing calves. Pretty cool. I also saw a black-billed magpie, which has an extralong tail. But after the stressful drive in, I was ready to be done with driving for a while. I had lunch at the mall and a coffee at Starbucks and read a while, then back to the hotel. I did some time on the treadmill there, then went to Red Lobster (a treat for me!) for crab alfredo, salad, lobster bisque, and those cheddar biscuits. Yum.

Thursday was my travel day home but the daily plane to Chicago doesn't normally leave until 1:45, so I had a wait at the airport. And of course, the plane was late arriving so late leaving from Rapid City. Again, since I had a three hour layover scheduled in Chicago, the late departure didn't affect my arrival time home. But again, makes me wonder why I book United.

Indianapolis

A short business trip to Indianapolis last week didn't glean me much in the way of new sights or travel experience. Long travel days were the standard - a shuttle bus to Detroit (2.25 hours), a flight to somewhere else than Indy (outbound, Chicago - inbound, BALTIMORE FOR GOODNESS SAKE!) - and then another flight to my destination. Travel time was more than 6 hours each way, which in good weather would have been a shorter drive than that. However, it is January, and Indiana had a major snowstorm which began shortly after I arrived. So I am glad ultimately I flew.

It was my first time flying Southwest - which had an incredibly cheap fare offer but partly explains why I ended up with such a peculiar routing. Apparently nothing goes direct. All the planes are on their way somewhere else... Detroit to Chicago went on to Kansas City. Chicago to Indianapolis was going on to Orlando (wish I could have also).

On the other hand, because Southwest doesn't have assigned seats, just boarding numbers, I could always get an aisle seat. Also, the planes were not full. Not one of the four. Which meant that practically no one had to sit in one of those cursed middle seats. They were all empty and that was great.

The only thing I actually got to view in downtown Indianapolis before the snow began was the Soldiers and Sailors Monument. It's impressive and kind of neat to look at.

Other than that, it was an uneventful trip. Most of the time I was in a meeting room in the hotel, in the workout room or the restaurant or in my own room. I saw very little.