Our summer vacation :: August 7th - 15th, 2004
--by CA, and Dave

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Dave and I left Saturday morning and headed north towards Wyoming. After he ate Kashi cereal and I ate a muffin for breakfast, our first stop to pee on the road was in Chugwater, WY, hence creating our road trip names of Kashi and Muffin Chugwater, which I shortened to Mr. and Mrs. Chugwater. It was in Wyoming that we noticed an abundance of motorcycles headed to Sturgis. (For those of you unfamiliar as I was, once a year, approximately 60,000 bikers descend upon this small South Dakota town and party for a week. http://www.sturgis.com/ Imagine what you think bikers from all over look like and multiply that to be 10 times more disturbing and that’s Sturgis.) We made it up to Devil’s Tower by mid-afternoon and walked around the base (1.3 mi.). The night before, to prepare for the road trip, we had watched Close Encounters (me for the first time) and made mashed potatoes for dinner. We then headed off to Rapid City, SD, where all of the hotels in this tiny town had doubled their rates because of all of the bikers. My big toothy smile and hair flip were not working for me but luckily David had the hotel karma and got us a room at the crap hole Super 8 for $80, a steal compared to the other places. After getting used to the convalescent home odor, the Laverne and Shirley below street level feel, and the dorm room quality furniture, I decided the only way to make it through the night was to have several drinks at dinner. (Can you say princess?) We followed this with $1.50 Corona’s and keno/video poker/black jack in an old fast food joint. (South Dakota is like Vegas for Denny’s clientele.)

We got up early on Sunday to fight through biker tourists and check out Mt. Rushmore, taking random shots trying to put our faces in as the 5th head. Afterwards, we went to the infamous Wall Drug, SD, before going through the Badlands, which was a very beautiful drive, reminiscent of a mini-Grand Canyon. Later that night, after eating and gazing into each other’s eyes across plates of iceberg lettuce, (mental note: SD not big on cuisine) we stopped to admire the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, another great tourist site. It is a huge building covered in murals made from cornhusks. We then decided to drive a few more hours to get away from all of the bikers, and made it to the middle of Minnesota, where they still had inflated room rates because of Sturgis. But David worked his magic again and got us the AAA discount rate.

Early to rise on Monday, drove a few hours to St. Paul, MN, where we stopped at a cool coffee shop for a yummy latte and directions to the hip section of town where we did a little bit of shopping. At J. Screw, David bought a few pairs of Dr. Seuss-like stripped socks, the importance of which came later in our trip. The rest of the day was spent driving through beautiful Wisconsin and into Escanaba, MI. We went through the city (approximately 6 blocks) and drove around the neighborhoods facing Lake Michigan and day dreamed about owning one of the huge beautiful homes facing the lake (which were a steal at only $209,000). By 9pm, having no place to stay, we again decided to get our information from the local coffee shop and ask about possible Bed and Breakfasts in the area. After learning the nearest B&B was 8 miles up the lake, we made a call and found out they had room availability. It was late, but Anne, our gracious host at the Kipling House (www.kiplinghouse.com), was out on the porch ready to greet us. She gave us a tour of the entire B&B that she and her husband Ralphie had taken 3 years to gut and completely remodel to open in 1997. Their hospitality was amazing and David and I chose the lighthouse room, as we were the only guests that night. When we got up early in the morning, the large dining room table was set for us with water, coffee, and juice. Anne had made fresh peaches with blueberries, and Ralphie cooked us his famous homemade French toast with slivered almonds and hazelnut syrup. Even though it was in the middle of nowhere, the Kipling House has made me a Bed and Breakfast convert. It was so much better than any hotel experience.

We traveled Tuesday morning through the Upper Peninsula along Lake Michigan, stopping only for Pasties (a potpie sandwich type local cuisine??) and to stick our feet in the water. After crossing the Mackinac Bridge we stopped in town to buy fudge and other gifts for our friends at Burt Lake. It was here that David and I bought faux wedding rings to cement the relationship between the Chugwaters and perhaps attempt to freak our friends out. We had a quick roadside ceremony with vain promises to wear the rings until either the end of the road trip or until they turned our fingers green. Ahhh, wedded in holy triptrimony.

We arrived at Burt Lake on Tuesday afternoon and stayed until Friday morning. Cynthia questioned the rings the minute we stepped out of the car and told us that we would have to switch hands so as not to give her mother a heart attack. Even though the weather did not allow us to do much frolicking in the water, our days were quite full. David waded into the water to catch crayfish so we could fish off the dock. We went for walks in the woods, played tennis, and sat around by the fire each night playing Uno, and making s’mores. I also played piano for a few hours each day, something I haven’t done in over 15 years. There was a piano book that I went through page by page practicing songs and if I knew the song, I would play on. Much to the horror of everyone, I insisted on playing the “Wedding March” and “Here Comes the Bride”, but I swear I wasn’t sending any signals. Other highlights from Burt Lake were David announcing to the Sheldon’s “Everyone I know in Colorado smokes pot!”, to which Virginia gave an “ahem” and I asked in my best angelic voice “What is this thing you call pot marijuana?” The hilarity of course was that he was not talking about anyone at the table but still managed to drag us down on his sinking ship. Another great line from David was in discussing his sugar sensitivity, and how too much sugar changes his mood and makes him angry. It was then that David said he used to take his anger out on his ex-girlfriend, the implication being that he beat her. HA! Despite the foot in mouth incidents, Virginia and Archibald both repeatedly invited David back Burt Lake.

Sadly, we left Burt Lake on Friday morning to drive to Amish country in Northern Indiana to meet my family for lunch at the Dutchman Essenhaus. This was David’s first time meeting my parents and though neither of us was nervous, we naturally wanted it to go well. That morning when we had left Burt Lake, it had been a bit chilly and David was wearing shorts, a plaid shirt, and his new red and blue-stripped socks (pulled up to his knees), and Tevas. While fine for road wear, it perhaps wasn’t the best first impression outfit. Stopping for gas, I caught a full view of him in his several miss-matched shades of red and blue and told him not so delicately that before we got to my parents he was going to have to “at the least” push his socks down, to which he replied “Are you the boss of me??” Upon leaving the gas station, a truck pulled up and two Michigan men got out, caught one look at David and said “Nice socks.” and “Did you get those at the same place as your shirt?” and upon doing a double take and not seeing me in the car, said “Does your wife know you left the house looking like that this morning?” To which point I start cackling and telling the guy that I had just been mocking him for his outfit. Priceless. Obviously the trip would have been a tepid bore had David not provided us with such quirky material. After David took his socks off and I made a sock puppet to mock him some more, we met my parents at: http://www.essenhaus.com/ in: http://www.middleburyin.com After lunch at this Amish village, I drove in my dad’s new BMW 6 series. So fancy. After 3 hours, we had to hit the road for another 5 hours where we spent the night in Moline, IL, the John Deere capitol of the world. They were having a big convention and you couldn’t spit without hitting a tractor or lawn mower.

Saturday brought us back to South Dakota (through Iowa) where I got to see Yankton, the town David grew up in. We spent some time with his parents eating dinner and they were so great to make us breakfast the next morning before we headed back home again. All in all, I hit 3 states I had never been in, and each day was a new great treat!