Seniors gone wild - Day 6

Today was a big day for me, historically. Today we went to Nevada City Montana, site of the hanging of George Ives, an ancestor of mine! Isn't that wild!?

We spent a good portion of the day here. It was pretty cool. Again, some of the building are original to the site and some of them are from neighboring towns. It's a nice presentation though and except for all the grassy area, it gave you a good feel for what it was like to live there in 1863. 

 This is the Sheriff's office

This is the old hotel...see to the left, that 2 story outhouse??? I don't even know how anyone thought that was a good idea!!!

Poor George. He was just an innocent scapegoat. I hear that they still hang him in effigy every year. They should stop doing that. 

Nevada City isn't really the tourist attraction that it could be. I hope that's by design. The next little place, Virginia City, was very touristy.Clearly it was very old but they added to most of the building to make them retail worthy. That just cheapens it for me. We drove through but didn't stop. We did hit their BootHill Cemetery on the way out though. It had the best view, up on the hill. 

On to Idaho!!

Seniors gone wild - Day 5

That's a big sky for sure!

When you're a flatlander, it's always so awesome to see this in the distance. We always forget how much we LOVE the mountains. We can't wait to get there!

We really loved Montana. It's so pretty and spread out. Some of it is old some of it is new. And even the big cities are small in comparison to Indy. Our original plan was to go north and visit Glacier National Park, but their website said that they didn't expect the roads to open until mid June. Other than that, we didn't really have a plan for Montana. So, on a whim, we decided to go to the World Mining Museum in Butte. Butte is a fascinating city. You can read about it in Wiki.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Butte,_Montana

 Anyway, surrounding the museum is an old mining town. There are probably a couple dozen buildings, 17 of them original to the area. A few were from other old towns and a few were recreated. 

This is in the old original church. I love these old stoves. I don't imagine that the church got a lot of use in a mining town though...

...because the biggest "business" in town was the brothel!

And of course, the bank.

These things are spread out ALL OVER Butte! Easily 50 or so. Some of them are just right in the middle of neighborhoods. There are only a couple still in use though. 

They offer a tour of one of the old silver mines. Of course we signed up! It was only 100 feet down but it was a pretty steep walk in places. 

 They have a nice Memorial for all the miners that have died doing their jobs.

Butte has an incredibly toxic history. We drove around the old part of downtown and the homes are all 100+ years old, beautiful, unique, quirky for sure. Half of them are just abandoned and/or boarded up but a lot of them are being renovated now. People are starting to come back to Butte. Really interesting city. 
We spent the night in Butte and had dinner at a the local diner/casino :-)

Seniors gone wild - Day 3 and 4

North Dakota has it's plus and minuses. Our memories of ND will always be tainted by our adventure with ticks. Ewww. For 3 days after visiting Fort Mandan, we were picking ticks off of ourselves. Yuck. But there were plenty of cool things too.

For instance, the National Buffalo Museum is in ND. Along with everything you would want to know about buffalos, they have a nice exhibit of Lewis and Clark items. They have their own buffalo herd too. It has an albino buffalo! It's an offspring of the stuffed buffalo (White Cloud) in the museum.Very cool to see. Also, they have the largest buffalo statue in the world! How fun is that!?

great hat, huh?!

(White Cloud)

This was part of the display for the medical supplies. See if you can tell why I took a this picture. It's totally 5th grade.

After the museum and looking at the herd, we moved on to Fort Mandan, and the tick attack!

 BEWARE....TICKS!

Fort Mandan

It really was interesting though. Can you imagine what your life would have been like? Ticks, poison ivy, snakes, wildlife that could eat you! And the quiet. And how heavy your clothes would've been. The accommodations really weren't that bad though.

On our way out of ND, on some back highway, completely by accident, we found this;

Awesome, right?

Our last stop in North Dakota was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and the badlands.

This is Teddy's cabin. It's actually a pretty good size for 2 people. It's neat that you can go inside.

We saw the park's version of Prairie Dog Town. Soooo cute. I know they're a nuisance to the locals but, soooo cute. We also saw a small group of wild horses and some bison. We didn't get very far though. The road is closed between mile 7 and 11 because of erosion/deterioration. Only foot and bicycle traffic are allowed.

Next up, Montana!

Seniors gone wild - Day 2

Our first adventure for today was a bust!

That's the road to Fort Snelling. Closed due to flooding. Rats!

Onward - Saint Paul's Cathedral. This is only my 2nd cathedral. It was spectacular! Catholics really know how to decorate.

After that, we went to the mall...you know, the BIG one!! It was crazy. First of all, why is the biggest mall in America in Minnesota??? Second, way to many people. Thousands I bet! This is a picture of the amusement park, in the middle of the mall. 

see those tiny people?!

We did have lunch in the mall, at a place called Crave. This was the first time he had a burger with an egg on it. He said, "it's the only way to eat a burger! Like butter on toast!" Wow, who would've guessed??!

We also went to the Minnesota State House.

Our Statehouse is very traditional so this was really surprising to me. Super pretty. 

Our last stop was the Sculpture Garden. You've probably seen this one;

There were other odd things, like a blue rooster and tree with a bunch of wind chimes hanging on it. I just don't get modern art. 

It was a great day, full of adventures!

Seniors gone wild; day 1

Well, we hit the road about 8:30 in the morning, with a car full of stuff!

Our first stop was in Merrillville IN, the home of Albanese Candy Factory. They make the best gummies!! I wanted to stop there because I used to work for a man that loves gummies and he always brought some back for me if he had to travel up there. I wanted to get some for him...and me.
They have a huge bin full of "gummy goofs" - wrong colors, squished together, too flat, etc. So I bought a couple bags. It was A LOT of gummies!!

Then, on through Illinois.  Where there are toll roads...many, many toll roads. At one of the automated toll booths, we couldn't get the machine to take any of our money! It was stressful - so we didn't pay. We just drove through! Seniors gone wild!! Stupid toll roads.

Next stop, Ives Grove Wisconsin. So named for an ancestor of mine! Cool, huh?! Now, it's just an unincorporated little town filled with old houses, and a golf course! 

We ran into rain off and on but it was a pretty good driving day so we just kept going. We made it all the way to Saint Paul! It was close to 8:00 by the time we got to our hotel. We were pretty tired and looking forward to a good nights sleep. Imagine our surprise when we discovered HUNDREDS of bikers having a party behind the hotel!!! complete with live music and a huge cookout. Whoa!!

Thankfully, they were all gone by 10ish. Whew. Not that I don't love a good party...just not after 12 hours of driving. But look, we've already had an adventure!! :-)