Adventures with Carrie and Grace part 2, 2021

 Part 2 of this log described Day 1 of my June 4th, 2021 trip heading to Sioux City, Iowa.

Reaching Sioux City on June 5th, the laundromat was my Saturday. The daughter works midnights so Carrie and I loaded all the laundry into the Dodge and spent the next hours washing, drying and folding. 

The remainder of Saturday was a rest break and the following Sunday also. Monday we headed to Omaha in my rental Corolla to collect Grace from the airport. Grace is Carrie's friend and she was to accompany us on Adventure 2021. 

Grace lives in a 5 bedroom house with multiple bathrooms. Carrie lives in a rental with one bathroom. I wondered how Grace would deal with the living conditions of the old two bedroom, one bath aged Craftsman house that we would be inhabiting for the next week before moving on to our trip. Taking bids for who uses the bathroom next, sleeping on an air mattress and functioning in a small space, Grace was a champ. I also was a bit hesitant about taking someone else's child on a trip that Carrie and I take which sometimes has it's challenges. This trip was especially challenging as I had no rental for the first week or so and was using the daughter's truck in the daytime while at night she drove it to work.

 We explored Sioux City, the girls visited the park, walked around with friends, shopped and had their nails done. 

Eventually I was able to secure a rental (the Jeep Cherokee) and we packed everything into it, the girls occupying the back seat as I had the cooler in the passenger seat. It's early Friday AM and we are headed to Mount Rushmore. I had hoped to stay in Keystone, at the base of the monument but all the rooms were reserved. We rented a room in Rapid City. This room was 189.00 a night, a queen size bed. Most hotels were full or the rooms were over 300.00 a night. 

After many trials on sleeping arrangements which tried was one sleeping on the floor, or one in the Cherokee, we found the solution. Stripping the linens off the bed, we positioned ourselves ACROSS the bed.

 

Again I wondered how Grace was taking this "roughing it" but there was no complaints from her at all. I'm sure she was experiencing a different vacation then what she was use to. Usually Grace visits the beach multiple times in the summer, staying in a beautiful condo, and dining out every night.

Forewarned about "adventures" and my style of vacationing, and hesitant about including another person other then Carrie (who goes with the flow and without argument) again Grace was without complaint and still excited about the trip. The cooler was packed with water, cokes, pepsi and Mountain Dew. A loaf of bread and bologna and a squirt bottle of Mayo was available. 

Before reaching Rapid City, we visited The Badlands National Park.

As the girls walked to the edge and my fear of heights was now full blown and having warned them of the dangers of getting too close to the edge, I had to turn away and not watch them. My screaming wouldn't have helped so I refused to be an audience. 

We munched on our bologna sandwiches and sipped on cokes from the cooler and slowly drove around the park, stopping to collect rocks and take some photos. Our next stop was Wall, SD. where we spent some time at Wall Drug Store. This was my first visit to Wall, SD. The drug store is huge and comprised of shops displaying agates from the region, leather goods, clothes and a restaurant. The girls tried on cowboy hats, picked up agates, and Grace bought a "Badlands" crew neck shirt and we were off once again to Rapid City.

We checked into our "queen sized bedroom', unpacked and headed for Keystone to watch the lighting ceremony of Mt. Rushmore. With time to kill, we got hamburgers (not bologna) at a Dairy Queen and moved up the mountain to the monument.

Seated in the  outdoor amphitheater, we waited for the show to begin. I had warned the girls to take warm clothes as it would get chilly during the evening. This is not my first visit to Rushmore and the Black Hills. History of the faces of Rushmore, the visitors singing the national anthem and the lightning of Rushmore, and back to Rapid City for the night.

The girls are used to staying up till 3 AM. I hustled them out of bed at 7:30. There was no more late nights for them after that. They were happy to be in by 9PM. Early to bed, early to rise...lol.

We made our way back to Keystone. Carrie loves going through "Bear Country" so we paid our admission and took an hour cruise through that park. Plenty of bears to see and Grace was squealing when one walked right up to her window. Reindeer, antelope, fox, mountain lions and buffaloes were present.

Initially, had I not wrecked my auto, I wanted to go to Deadwood. I haven't been there in years and wanted to revisit. We instead went to Keystone again and did a tram ride

up the mountain then did the cave.

Here is where my trip became unpleasant. Losing my car I thought would be the worst part of this trip but that was only because I had never done a cave.

We climbed stair after stair after stair to get to the entrance, bought our tickets and waited for our group to enter. As soon as we walked down the narrow path into the cave, entered the cramped room with rocks and narrow pathways, I knew I was not going to be comfortable in the bowels of this mountain. Too late. I was trapped and trapped I felt. Uncomfortable in small enclosed spaces, I took some deep breaths and tried to calm myself. The girls were having a great time and excited to be trying something new. 

The next hour was spent following our guide, wiggling through tight corridors and descending deeper and deeper into this cave. Ducking to avoid rocks encroaching into the narrow passages with the guide calling out "watch your head"... Occasionally we would get to a small room where we all gathered to listen to our guide explain the rock formations above and around us. At this point all I can think about is getting OUT!

Stair after stair, steps taking us up to another level and stairs taking us down into more openings and then a warning from our guide that the next set of steps would take us to....WAIT FOR IT....a ladder we had to scale to get out of this cave. She said that this would be the worst part and that anyone not wishing to go further could turn back and go the way we came in. Really? Alone?  Not I!! Alone through those passages, I would have surely had a panic attack wondering if I was going in the right direction and not veering off into a dead end passage. Again with the deep breaths. Forward....and be damned,  I was exhausted, my legs were trembling as I climbed that ladder but the end was in sight and I was more then ready for this to be over!

I have done my first and last cave. The girls loved it and were having a great time. 

Stumbling out of that cave and down the stairs, we made it back to our car and headed south. 

1400 miles from home, we stopped two nights on the road on the way back. 

Home and the unpacking begins, the rental cleaned and returned to Enterprise.

I'm sure someone was waiting for a rental as Hertz has sold all their fleet during the pandemic, leaving Avis and Enterprise the choices of travelers. 

 

Adventures With Carrie and Grace June 2021

My blog has been seriously ignored. The reason? Maybe because the past year and part of this one has been one long Covid experience. As vacinations have begun and the death rate/infection rate has dropped, people have begun moving about. The motels are filled and car rentals are a near impossible thing to accomplish. 

Packed suitcases and a cooler full of shrimp, sausage and rice dressing mix, I left my driveway at 6AM, June 4th. My destination was Sioux City, Iowa to visit the daughter.

10 hrs later, driving through Fayetteville, Arkansas, rush hour and 5 lanes of traffic at 70 mile an hour, I crashed my beloved Mercury Grand Marquis. (this described in detail on my Facebook page). I staggered out of my car, walked to the front and took this photo.

Replacing this car will take some time. I'll scour the 'for sale' advertisements and who knows how long it will take to find another with low mileage at a decent price. You see, these autos were discontinued in 2011. The last time I had to look for an auto, I test drove what the market offered and was not impressed. Most SUV's were so small that you could rub elbows with the person in the passenger seat. The Rav4's were so squirrely on rough roads, the Subaru too tiny as most of the other ones I drove. The Tahoe and the Yukon were a mighty vehicle but I'm unwilling to pay the price of the privilege of driving something that depreciates as soon as you drive it off the lot. 70,000.00 for a vehicle is something my mind just can't deal with. 

For that much money, I want an appreciable asset such as land or house so I will be on the hunt for another MGM. The truck space, the roominess and the comfortable ride plus it being one of the most dependable autos on the road is what I'm looking for. 

I rented a Jeep Cherokee for the remainder of this trip. It must have been a 4 banger and was gutless. There was no 'passing' another vehicle. No guts to make it around and back in time. My 8 cylinder Merc  had those guts. Punching it into passing gear and that land barge would blast pass traffic. I felt safe knowing I could move out and beyond and back into my lane. 

As I was standing in front of my wrecked Marquis, which had climbed an 8ft. concrete wall and slid back down, all tires blown, the hood "V" shaped, the radiator laying on the ground and the front wheels folded back under the car, I mourned the loss as replacing her was going to be time consuming and difficult. The paramedics were impressed that I was alive and uninjured. 

Moving on, a rental Corolla was found and I was back on the highway. I did rent a room about 100 miles up the road and quickly showered to wash off the 40 oz. coke that I was wearing when the accident happened. Next order of business was to dump everything out on the bed that had been tightly packed in my Merc and organize it into something manageable and then to sleep. 

4AM in the morning and I was back on the highway headed for Sioux City, Iowa. I expected to be sore in mystery places but that didn't happen. The large knot just above my foot was the only bodily area that would witness the accident I had survived. 

After arriving in Sioux, I turned in the Corolla and drove the daughter's Dodge truck until I left Sioux City and rented the Jeep Cherokee.

This post is just a memory log of that day. A post will follow recording the days after arriving in Sioux City. 

What???

I have to type quickly ...I don't want to have this fade.

I went to bed around 9:30 knowing this was way to early for me to do this. I'll be awake at 3AM having slept my normal 6 hours so I usually make myself stay up until 11PM. Sleep I did.

It was snowing and cold and Carrie and I were riding through the Rockies at night. We had to order a Pizza for mom and my sister who were waiting on us in Louisiana. Both Carrie and I were wearing shorts. This trip wasn't planned.. We just jumped in the car and took off.
Sometime later we exited interstate and arrived at a motel where we would spend the night. We got a room and decided to go for a little walk. I know there were young men a few years older then Carrie in the halls of that motel, doors open across the way and of course they immediately struck up conversations with Carrie. '
Some time later and soon, Carrie and I decided to go for a walk and we stopped at snowy scenes to take some pictures of her. The Tetons were in the background. A strange young lady appeared and posed with Carrie but before I could get the shot, she disappeared out of the camera viewing area.
Carrie and I walked a bit further and on a ledge we sat down and laid back watching the snow fall on us. Soon two couples joined our area. One was newly weds and the other couple was a lady a woman with multiple ailing. Though her health was compromised, she was very friendly. We talked with them a while.
We decided to leave; we still had a pizza to find.
When we got back to the room and walked to our room, loud music and open doors down the hall with garbage strewed about. What kind of place is this. We went into our room and the young men were there. They had rented part of our room. Because of the virus, that was the new policy of the motel. Share a room. Carrie and I headed for the managers office. the window was closed and there was a bell to ring to get her to come to the door. We moved on. Staying the night was not an option.

The next thing I remember was we were at a building and there were a lot of people there. We decided not to stay:  the group was really drunk and rowdy. Suddenly I started missing my purse. I knew I had left maybe on the trail  so now I'm really frightened. The purse, credit cards and ID was missing. Did I set it down on the trail. Big fear of mine when traveling far from home is losing my means to survive ie. credit cards, cash and driver's license.  Still whimpering and saying 'no, no and no, I drifted upward and our  of this dream; still whimpering about losing that purse. It took me a few minutes after waking to realize it was but a dream and a weird one. I immediately grabbed my laptop to record everything. Memories of dreams fade so fast.

My thoughts on this? The Covid 19 is ever present in our daily lives. I was talking to my friend about not being able to take a long trip this summer with Carrie. I have the means but I don't have the ability. Too scary to travel right now and the national parks have been closed. Going into another state with this virus everywhere would be a thing to consider. The people in this dream, the lady with all the ailings? Was she tested positive?  The motel and sharing a room? Were renting motels to present a problem? Sharing with strangers and keeping our social distances?  

It was snowing and we were in the Rockies; a place I love and always willing to visit.

This post isn't supposed to make much sense. After all it was a dream and just something I wanted to record before it faded.
3AM in the morning, in my bed and back to sleep after swallowing an Ambien. Good night.