The Windy City...

All lies - it wasn't windy at all.

We spent a couple of days sightseeing in Chicago but before we got there we stopped at Lake Geneva for a game of mini golf in the pouring rain!  Rob won of course, I had to let him or there would have been tears ;-))

I think he was confused, see why I had to let him win!

She'd gone a bit mad!

Chicago was actually much better than we had expected!  Based on some of the news reports (364 murders this year so far!) and things we had seen, we were expecting it to be a bit shady, but it wasn't - well not the places we went to anyway.

We did a load of the touristy things....

• Rode the double decker train into downtown
• Visited the Willis Tower, previously known as the Sears Tower - Mrs Stephenson you would have loved it!  Stood on the glass floor and looked down 103 floors - scary (for Lisa, not Rob!)

Us on the glass balcony 103 floors up

The Willis Tower!

• Had a tour of Millennium Park by Maureen the English guide.  She talked/verbally gushed about the architecture, gardens, how everything was 'unique' and how fantastic Chicago is.  She needed a bit of a slap really.  The park was good though - we especially liked the Cloudgate sculpture which was designed by an Indian guy based in London!

We're in the reflection!

The "cloud"

• Walked the magnificent mile.  Magnificent? Ish I guess.  As Americans have no history I understand why they rave about it as it has a load of buildings that were built before 1980!  It was a pleasant wander though with the highlight being the old water tower.

• Buckingham fountain was visited and that just had to be done. Very grand it was too just like Rob ;-)
• Navy pier was just dreadful.  It had the most comprehensive collection of tacky shops and cheesy "attractions" this side of Great Yarmouth!  A dream holiday destination for a chav.

Hell!

So how would we sum up Chicago.  Well as cities go it was nice enough, has a surprisingly safe feel about it, but it doesn't have a "must see"tourist attraction.  Even so, we really enjoyed our time here and it was also nice not to drive a long distance for a couple of days.

The next update will cover our adventures back in Canada - Niagara Falls, Ottawa and Montreal.

South Dakota - done!

Having left behind Wyoming we continued our road trip heading east towards Mount Rushmore and the Badlands (oooh, scary) .  To be honest, there wasn't very much to see on the way across - its a pretty flat and dull expanse.  Didn't even know we'd crossed into South Dakota - no signs or anything - rubbish!

On the way to Mount Rushmore we had seen some ads talking about the 'Crazy Horse Monument' that was apparently "in the process of being completed".  As this is the largest mountain carving in progress in the world, we thought it would be worth a look - wrong!

Now call me (Rob) tight (and I have been many times), but I think paying $20 to see this:

when it should actually look like this:

is a rip off.

Apparently they are trying to get it completed by private funding only and not taking anything from the government.  Stupid idea bearing in mind this was actually started in 1948! Here's a tip - take the money you numpties and make a proper thing that people wouldn't mind paying to visit.

Moving on from this geological disappointment, we got to Mount Rushmore.  Couldn't believe it - someone had finished the job.  Good work.  To be honest, before we got there we were pretty sceptical about the place, but it turned out be better than we thought and we really enjoyed it.

You could see the carvings from a main viewpoint, but we also took a small boardwalk trail which was good and allowed some different views of it.  It was also amazing to see the amount of "exhausted" Americans taking this easy stroll.

If you look close, check out the glasses on Theodore (3rd from left) & the eyes - really clever!

They also have a "lighting ceremony" each night which is basically 45 minutes of spouting how wonderful the Americans are and how they are the greatest country in the history of the world - EVER! Oh yeh, and then they turn on the lights so you can see the mountain ;-)

How we stopped ourselves from throwing up we're not quite sure.

The following day we decided to do some spelunking.  Well not quite - we went on a tour of Fart, I mean, Wind Cave :-). We'd never done anything like this before and it was quite a neat experience - plus it was a nice place to cool off from the 100 degree heat outside!.  The cave system contained things like boxwork, popcorn and frostwork - nope, that didn't mean anything to us either!

Frostwork!

Boxwork!

Trolls!!!

On the way to Custer State Park we stopped by the local prairie dog town to watch the locals going about their daily business, these little rodents are really entertaining and really do bark like a very small dog!

Next were the Burros - a donkey to you and me.  These are wild in the park but have obviously got used to people in cars over the years, they wander beside the cars and poke their heads in through the window to see if you have any food for them. One of them got a bit frisky with Rob, greeted him with his massive tongue out, Rob puckered up as he thought his luck was in!

Whilst heading east we checked out Badlands National Park.  The landscape here was strange and at times it seemed like you were on a different planet (Lisa often is!).  Colourful rock formations appeared out of nowhere but after about 20 miles of it though it did get a bit samey!  This is where we've experienced the highest temperature yet, 103 degrees Fahrenheit - nice and toasty!

The last few days have been spent driving for the most part.  We've now left South Dakota and crossed through Minnesota.  We stopped in Wisconsin briefly, looked around the State Capitol building and Rob finally got his haircut after putting it off for a while.  He didn't end up with a weird mullet or anything, so relief all round!

That's genuine concern/fear!

Everything is under control in the Governors Office! 

Just having a rant!

We're still heading towards the east coast in time for the Fall colours in New England and we'll be popping into Chicago over the next couple of days for some big city action - will let you know how that goes...

Still here...

Finally a monster update after well over a week - sorry about that.

So, we made it to Yellowstone and were greeted with some more lovely sunshine, loads of annoying tourists and a lone black wolf having his lunch.  The wolf was fairly close and eating a carcass of some sort (sadly don't think it was an annoying American!) - even though his culinary choice was a bit grim, watching the wolf so close was excellent.

Mmm, yum!

Yellowstone is a pretty cool place and has a good variety of nice things to see (if you like that sort of thing - fortunately we do), such as...

Old Faithful to see the geothermal activity - lots of geysers and springs

Heart Spring and a geyser going off in the background

Lamar Valley to look for wildlife.  We came across some bison jams (as in traffic, not stewed in a jar ;-) ) and some pronghorn (Lisa's favourite)

The Grand Canyon of Yellowstone.  We did the Uncle Tom's trail which involves walking down a few steep hills and 350 steps.  Walking down was fine, walking back - knackering.  View was worth it though.

Climbed a mountain to get an elevated view of the impressive Grand Prismatic Spring - you can see it from the ground and that's where most of the tourists go, but the view is a bit cack.  The climb was quite difficult hoisting yourself over some dead trees but was a good experience.  We were filthy by the time we finished but is was a "wow" moment when we got to the top.

Silly boy!

After all of this exercise we decided we deserved a good feed, so we popped to a small burger joint in a town called Gardiner and Rob gorged on a "Hateful Hamburger" - this was a monster!  One pound of beef, 3 cheeses, bacon, mushrooms, onion rings, salad and he polished off the lot with fries and washed down with an ice cream milkshake.  Ok, not exactly "Man vs. Food", but one word springs to mind - piggy!

After Yellowstone we headed down to Grand Teton. This national park is not as big and doesn't have as much variety as Yellowstone - it's mainly about mountains and wildlife. Moose were around and we did see a few bull moose along the riverbank. It's rutting season over here for the bison, moose and elk so we have seen a few of the fellas trying to charm the ladies!

Rob dragged me out of the tent early a couple of mornings for sunrises over the Teton mountains, one was pretty clear the other way too cloudy.

We also exchanged our rental car whilst in the Tetons as we've done over 6000 miles and the Ford Fusion needed a service.  After an argument with Alamo for the second time this trip and spending 2 hours in their office, we finally got a replacement car.  This time a Chrysler Town & Country "minivan" - a people carrier to you and me.  It's great - much more room to throw our stuff around in.  You can actually sleep in this one too, which we did the other night - quite comfy actually and not quite as chilly as the tent.

So... after having camped for 6 nights and having a fab time in the national parks it's time to head east to a whole load of places we've never been before...

Bye for now Canada and hello again USA

It's Labor (stupid spelling) Day weekend (bank holiday to you and me) here in the USA and we managed to cross the border from Canada without the need for any cavity searches (phew!).

We left Canada having experienced a massive thunderstorm whilst sleeping in a tent in the middle of forest.  I must admit I was a tad scared (Lisa that is!). 

Yellowstone National Park is the plan for the next few days.  The internet connection we have at the mo is a bit poor so we'll do a proper update and add some photos when we have a better one.

That's about it for now..... as we're off to have fun!!