Dogsblog

DAY ONE

All packed and ready to go

Today we started our big adventure: A road trip to Rockford Ill with our little dog, Bandit. It took a while to get going this morning because we had to get all our stuff together and loaded into the car, but by about 10:30 we were on the road. For the first time we agreed to share the driving duties on this trip. Marlene started out after our first stop right in Camas at Burgerville for breakfast. She then drove from there all the way to Arlington Oregon. We were a little disappointed with that stop.. We were expecting to have ice cream at this nice little ice cream shop that we have stopped at many times in the past, and to let Bandit walk in a beautiful park near the river, but the ice cream shop was gone and the park didn’t allow dogs.

I took the next leg back into Washington past the Tri Cities and then North to Spokane through miles and miles of hot wheat fields until we finally found a rest stop with a beautiful grassy area that would have been perfect for bandit…but they didn’t allow dogs. The dog area was in an awful sagebrush hilly area that looked like it might have rattle snakes and was full of dog poop, but Bandit didn’t seem to mind.

Marlene did the last hundred or so miles into Spokane to our hotel. The Oxford Inn is a nice hotel right on the river. We took a walk along the river trail and then had dinner at the hotel restaurant.

Bandit did great today, slept a lot and didn’t complain. He loves having his bed from home in the hotel

We have pictures to add to this blog but none of them have down loaded yet

Tomorrow on to Missoula Mt.

DAY TWO

We started the day with an early morning walk along the river in Spokane near our hotel for Bandit as well as ourselves. We had the free breakfast at the hotel which was OK and then we got on the road again.

First stop was at a gas station to fill up and the gas was expensive at over five dollars a gallon. We then got on the road to Missoula, Montana. It was all on highway interstate 90 which was basically a good highway with the exception of a lot of construction work along the way by the time we got into Montana, the speed limit in most places raised up to 80 miles an hour. Our first stop after about two hours on the road was at Saint Regis, Montana, where there was a huge touristy travel store claiming to have the best huckleberry shakes. Marlene and I both decided to have one. I have to say they were very good but the best shake I’ve ever had, not so sure. We bought a couple of things at the travel store, a Montana Christmas ornament for our Christmas travel, ornament collection and a jar of Huckleberry preserves.Oh, and Martin succumbed to some walnut chocolate fudge.

After that stop, we just had about another hour to drive to reach Missoula.After we found our hotel and checked in, we took a little drive to a great historical area. It was the old Fort Montana. It was a very interesting place to visit. A very large grassy area with several historical buildings from the old Fort scattered around. We started out with visit inside the museum and saw a lot of artifacts and displays from the history of Missoula. We then went outside and began to explore the grounds and the buildings that were there. We saw an old school, church and a cabin among other things. One of the surprising things we found out about this fort was that it was the home to a bicycle Calvary unit at the turn of the century that was composed of African-Americans and others. During the second world war, it was an internment camp for Japanese Americans, and most surprisingly to us, Italians and some Germans. The Italians were Italian nationals that had been working in America at the world’s fair when the world war broke out, and some that were on ships that had been captured.

We finished the day with dinner at an Irish sports bar a then back to our hotel.

DAY 3

Missoula to Billings

Today was a day mainly of driving With about 350 miles between Missoula and Billings. Marlene started out and drove more than 100 miles to a place called Saint Regis Montana, where there was a travel stop where we stopped and had a subway sandwich and bandit had a chance to walk around and sniff and pee. I 90 on this portion of the trip was fairly curvey but the speed limit was still 80 mph most of the way which seems a little excessive, especially on mountainous winding roads. The day started out rainy, but became sunny all the way to Billings. The drive has been absolutely beautiful and we talked to many friendly people every place we stopped. Bandit met a lot of four legged friends and he did great. We found out that Bandit is quite a conversation starter.. Any store we went into people would come up and talk to Bandit, usually to tell us a story about a dog they knew. Even the woman at Subway, where we got our lunch, gave him a special free treat of some meat at no charge. We didn’t take many pictures today because it was all day in the car. We did go out for a nice dinner at a restaurant in Billings. Tomorrow onto South Dakota!

DAY 4

Billings to Deadwood

Today’s drive was about 280 miles. Martin started it out driving from Billings with our end goal of Deadwood in South Dakota through a little corner of Wyoming, and then into South Dakota. Someplace around a Little Bighorn we got off the freeway and on to a state highway. It wasn’t a bad road. The highway was mostly clear without a lot of traffic and pretty straight although kind of bumpy and in disrepair in places. We saw some antelope on the way and some deer, And though it wasn’t a planed stop, we decided to stop at the Little Bighorn national monument where Custer had his last stand. It normally cost $25 for a car to enter but because we still have the honored citizen national park card that we got probably over 20 years ago and I don’t believe they are still available, but it’s still honored so we got in free. We put bandit in the stroller and walked up the hill that has the monument to the battle and is the resting place for all of the soldiers who died in the battle. There has been in the past a visitor center, but it was closed because they were doing a total reconstruction of the facility. We took a few pictures of the national cemetery that’s part of the national monument, as well as some of the monument to the fallen soldiers in the battle, and the battlefield itself where there are gravestones, marking the places where each soldier fell in the battle, although those soldiers had been taken out of those graves and reburied under the big monument on top of the hill.

After that visit, we drove on until we got to a tiny little town of Boardus, where we got some coffee and let bandit sniff around and pee in a very pretty little park. Marlene then took over the driving and we went further on the way until we reached the town of Belle Forche which has the Distinction of being recognized as the centerpoint of the United States. That designation came to this little town after the states of Hawaii and Alaska were added to the map. There was a very nice little museum and gift shop there as well as a nice walking path amongst a forest of state flags. All 50 states were represented, and we found Washington.

And then after that stop, Marlene took us the rest of the way which was about 35 or 40 miles to Deadwood. We found our hotel and we decided to book it for another day to rest and enjoy all the interesting little stores and casinos and places to eat in Deadwood . We ended the day with dinner in a restaurant that’s been in Deadwood for probably over 100 years or so and it was pretty good. While we waited for a table, Bandit took a seat at the bar.

Day 5

Today was a day of rest in Deadwood. Bandit and us really needed a more relaxed day. We spent the day walking around the town and looking for good places for bandit to pee and in going into the numerous casinos, some of which were large and some were very small, and finding places to eat. Not much more to tell about today, we’re going to get up early tomorrow for a fairly long day of driving to Mitchel South Dakota, which will be over 300 miles.

DAY 6

Today was our sixth day on the road. The journey today was from Deadwood to Mitchell South Dakota, which was over a 300 mile drive and we crossed into the central time zone. The drive didn’t seem to be too difficult because we switched driving two or three times and neither one of us had to go more than about 100 miles at a time before we changed drivers. Our first stop was at the famous Wall drugstore that both Marlene and I had been to in the distant past but neither one of us really recognized it from our past visits. It seems to have grown a lot, and there are a lot of other businesses now around it as well. Mostly souvenir shops of various different kinds and of course Black Hill gold jewelry stores. We browsed around a bit and then had a snack at their café plus their famous five cent coffee. Marlene had a piece Of homemade cherry pie, and I had a homemade doughnut and a breakfast sandwich so that I wouldn’t go into a sugar coma. We went out in the back of the store where they had various interesting little displays like the Jackalope and miniature Mount Rushmore.

Our next stop was at a wonderful South Dakota state rest stop and visitor center on a Bluff overlooking the Missouri river. There is a fantastic statue of Sacajawea and a great little visitor center with all kinds of interesting displays. Also plenty of room to walk Bandit around and find lots of good places to pee and sniff.

Bandit met a giant prairie dog who was kind enough to hold his leash for a minute

The fantastic Sacajawea statue

The Missouri River

DAY 7

Our drive today was from Mitchell South Dakota to Minneapolis, Minnesota. It was another 300 mile drive and we took turns driving again so that neither one of us had to do too much at one time.Mitchell South Dakota was not too far from the Minnesota border so we reached our first rest stop just over the border driving probably not more than about an hour or so. We changed drivers then and continued on until we got close to lunch time so we pulled off I 90 to a very small town called St. James, Minnesota to look for a place get a bite to eat, but there wasn’t a lot of choices. We found one decrepit apparently Chinese restaurant with a similarly decrepit man inside who looked confused. There were tables that looked like a restaurant but nobody was there The confused looking Chinese man mumbled something about what do you want or what will you have and I turned around and went back to the car, then we looked down the street and saw a little Dairy Queen We drove a few blocks to the Dairy Queen, which was a cute little one, but they didn’t sell hamburgers just hotdog and various ice cream concoctions. Marlene and I both had the seven dollar special which consisted of any hotdog you wanted, a bag of chips and a sundae of your choice and a drink. When we finished, we got up to to leave and Marlene said something to bandit like let’s go and he tried to jump out of his carriage for the first time ever, almost knocking it over and throwing an almost full glass of pop on the floor. The two women working in the Dairy Queen were very nice and came to clean it up. I gave them a little tip before we left.

We finally got into Minneapolis late in the afternoon during rush-hour. It was a little hairy driving into the center of the center of the city to find our hotel but we made it OK. We registered in the hotel and while Marlene took bandit out to see if he wanted to pee out on the street I went up to the room and found out it wasn’t the room that I booked which was supposed to have a couch in it. While traveling with bandit, we have to have a room with a couch. It’s a requirement of his. I was able to get the room switched and now we have a very nice two room suite with a nice couch and two TV sets and lots of room. This is going to be nice for the two days that we are going to be here. Later we went down to the restaurant that’s in this hotel. It seemed like a nice place but nobody was in it. We were served by a waiter who told us that this was his first day there They seemed to be out of a lot of items on their menu. I ordered a Sam Adams beer and they didn’t have that.The manager went back to find one from another cooler and they came back and asked me if I didn’t mind if it was warm, which I said yes I did mind and would rather have a cold one so after fumbling around and searching, they finally found a cold beer and brought it to me. I asked for the ribeye dinner, but they brought me a big T-bone, which was a good T-bone, but there were no sides accompanying it. Just one big steak on a plate. There was supposed to be side dishes with it, but I didn’t get them. Marlene asked for something that I can’t remember what it was but they didn’t have it. She then asked them for a Caesar salad and she got basically a big side salad, not the type of Caesar salad that you normally get for dinner. Because they had so many errors in their menu and in their service, the man gave us a free coupon for breakfast and a free hors d’oeuvre. After we left that there we found a British pub and continued our dinner there. Later this evening, I spent my time on a zoom call with the HOA meeting back home. Tomorrow we explore Minneapolis and revisit some of my childhood memories and locations.

Day 8

Today was our full day in Minneapolis without a significant amount of driving. And this is the first day of this trip so far that we’ve had a significant amount of rain. It was pouring for a majority of the day so that made our sightseeing, a little uncomfortable and wet. We had a leisurely morning, but got off before noon for our first stop which was the famous Stonebridge across the Mississippi river. This bridge was an old railroad bridge. That was totally made out of stone, and is listed as a National civil engineering landmark.

We walked across the bridge in the pouring rain with bandit in his stroller. At about the middle of the bridge, you can look down the river and see a fantastic waterfall that stretches across the entire width of the river.

Our next stop was a visit to the neighborhood that I lived in while in the fourth and fifth grade To see my old house and street. Amazingly enough, the house and street looked pretty much the same as they did back in 1955 however, everything else around them is completely different with large buildings and huge complexes everywhere.The street and house I recognized, but everything else was completely foreign. We then went on to see another houseI lived in when I was younger and in the second and third grade. This house still looked about the same as well and was well kept up.

Well, that was our day today tomorrow we move on to Rockford

DAY 9

So today was our long drive from Minneapolis to Rockford. Marlene and I were both rather tired because Bandit had kept us late night needing to go out for various reasons. We were up at 1 o’clock and again around two or 2:30 on the wet streets of Minneapolis to try to get his needs satisfied. Neither one of us got a lot of sleep so it was a more difficult drive to get to Rockford and to keep all three of us awake. But we did get there and have a wonderful suite at a Staybridge suites with a separate Small kitchen and a living room area with a couch, which is a mandatory requirement for Bandit. We had a couple of rest stops on this 300 mile drive but the one that was the most entertaining was at the Mouse House in Wisconsin in order to buy real Wisconsin cheese.

The mouse was kind enough to hold Bandits leash for a minute

We finally made it to Rockford and had a good dinner and are ready for a good night sleep .

DAY 10

Today started early in the morning around three or 4 o’clock with a loud and bright thunderstorm. This of course woke bandit who woke us in turn. He was petrified and scared to death. We tried to comfort him by holding him together in bed as he shook and panted. Eventually, the thunderstorm ended and bandit did finally calm down. This was our first full day in Rockford and Marlene started the day with a load of laundry, Which took her quite a long time because of the machines in this hotel, which were free to use were not very fast, especially for the drying portion. This is a Staybridge hotel, which is a very nice hotel designed for longer stays, than the usual one night. It has a nice little kitchen and a separate living room and bedroom with two queen beds and of course, a nice couch in the living area that bandit enjoys. Later in the day we met Marlene‘s cousin Tom and his wife Vicki at the new Hard Rock Casino. It’s a very nice casino and we played some slot machines while we were there and also had an early dinner with Tom and Vicki. Later we went to their house where Bandit thoroughly enjoyed himself running in their beautiful fenced backyard. And then we went in and were served brownies and coffee by Vicki. It was a very pleasant evening and we are now back in the hotel hoping to get a better nights rest for our second day in Rockford tomorrow.

Day 11

Today was a day in Rockford filled with Marlene‘s memories. Our first stop was Calvary Cemetery, Marlene‘s parents, brother, grandparents, uncle and cousin are all buried in a family plot. Marlene bought some beautiful fall colored silk hydrangeas to place in vases that she had installed on the major family stone. When we arrived, we were unable to find all the graves. We did discover them a bit later. Marlene discovered that both vases were not installed on the stone. We went to the office to talk to staff who were ensconced behind plexiglass and demanded to know whether we had an appointment or not. There were three women sitting around talking at the time we arrived. Marlene explained that she was here from Washington state to view her parents gravesite. She stated that she had paid for two vases on the main stone and they were not there. Finally, one of the young women looked it up and found that indeed Marlene had paid for two vases. Then she tried to insinuate that one of them had been broken off and that they wouldn’t replace it. Marlene and I said we noticed no problem with the stone where the other vase would’ve been placed. She said she was so busy that she would forward the information and Marlene requested that she be informed when the vase was replaced. The woman stated that I have a long list of many people to talk to. She was fairly rude to us which we thought was rather unique for a Catholic cemetery. Only time will tell if the second vase will show up and we’ll hear from those busy busy young women at the Calvary cemetery in Rockford.

We then took a tour of all Marlene‘s memories. Her grandparents home, the house where she grew up on Island Avenue and the grade school she attended. I was amazed at how far Marlene had to walk to school it was well over a mile.

We then came back to the hotel and decided we were very hungry so we went back to the Hard Rock Casino where we had eaten lunch at the café with Vicki and Tom and enjoyed the food. They still didn’t have the grilled chicken that Marlene wanted, but she was able to have a nice pork tenderloin sandwich. Anyway we stayed for a bit and gambled and came home with a little more money than we showed up with and called it a good day. Then we came back to the Hotel which on Monday, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays furnishes a dinner meal and had a salad bar and something that Marlene refers to as chicken balls for dinner along with a glass of wine that came with the meal.

Day 12

Today was our third full day in Rockford. The morning was fairly easy and relaxed at least for me. Marlene spent a good portion of the morning washing clothes to get us through the return trip, which will start in a couple days. We met Marlene‘s friend Linda Flemming for lunch at an Italian restaurant. It was a nice opportunity to catch up on our lives and eat some wonderful food. We came back to the room and the three of us all took a nap. We woke up in time to meet our friend Bobbi Marks Cooper at another local restaurant. The food was delicious and Bobbi fell in love with our dog Bandit. Marlene and Bobbi went all through grade school, junior high and high school together. Share many memories growing up on Island Ave. This truly was a day filled with wonderful friendship.

Day 13

Today was our final full day in Rockford. We had a relaxing morning at the hotel along with a longer walk for bandit And of course, our free breakfast and then we left the hotel and went to a pub not too far from here to meet Tom and Tom’s father Dale Senior. We had a nice lunch there with good conversation. I had a taco salad and Marlene had her elusive pork tenderloin sandwich. She’s ordered a couple of these sandwiches since we’ve been here trying to find the one from her memories from Rockford. I’m not sure if this one hit the spot or not. We then went on to Tom and Vicki‘s house with Dale Senior and we had some very good apple cider donuts along with Ice cream, and coffee. Lots of good conversation and bandit enjoyed himself in their wonderfully lush backyard and made himself at home on their couch.

Tomorrow we begin our journey back home. Our first stop will be Des Moines Iowa

Day 14

Today we said goodbye to Rockford and began our trip home. Our goal today was Des Moines Iowa which was somewhat over 300 miles. Martin started the driving out and got over the Iowa border to our first rest stop, which was billed as the largest truck stop in the world. It had a great little fenced off dog park for bandit with artificial turf and a fire hydrant and he was happy to walk around and pee a little bit and then we went into this giant truck-stop and we found that they had a great buffet restaurant, somewhat of a throwback to older buffet restaurants and we had fried chicken, mashed potatoes and corn. Marlene also had a small cup of baked potato soup and we both had a great salad from their old-fashioned salad bar. And they even had lemon meringue pie which Marlene forced Martin to have. So after that stop, we got in the car and traveled on to Des Moines, which was still over about 150 miles away. About 100 or so miles from Des Moines Martin saw a road sign for place called Amana colonies. He quickly looked up some information about them on the Internet and suggested to Marlene that we take that exit and she was able to make it before we missed it and we drove off to Amana Iowa. Turns out this was a very interesting stop. It was a whole village of over100 year-old houses that were converted into shops and stores and antique places and restaurants. Many of the houses were from the 1880s or older and had been built by early German settlers. We walked down the entire length of the little town, going into interesting little stores here and there picking up some souvenirs, including a Christmas ornament and some great placemats. After that stop, we drove on for the last leg of the journey all the way to Des Moines and to our hotel. Our hotel was close to a university called Drake university with a beautiful campus. And we walked down the street a bit and found a great pizza place which we enjoyed a great deal. Bandit was in his stroller and was exhausted from all of his travels. Tomorrow, our next goal is Lincoln Nebraska.

Martin and Bandit at Amana Colony

Pizza for dinner

Day 15

Today started out as a very rainy from Des Moines, Iowa to Lincoln, Nebraska. We didn’t get out of the hotel as early as we hoped, because neither of us had had a great night sleep all because of our wonderful little Bandit. He Got us up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and Marlene got up too, to help get him dressed and I got up and took him out in the rain and got my feet all muddy. And he finally went back to sleep, but Marlene had a hard time doing that and I didn’t get that much rest either so we got out a little later than we’d hoped and it was very rainy, but we drove on and took our first rest stop at Elkhorn, Iowa at a Danish windmill tourist attraction. It was a very interesting place with lots of good souvenirs to buy and everything was related to Denmark and Danish culture. It was a very small little town, but we walked up the street to a nice tavern to have lunch called the Norse Horse. Marlene had a great chicken Parmesan sandwich and I had a very good and different chicken salad sandwich And I also bought a T-shirt From the Norse Horse. After that stop, we went on for another hundred or so miles too Lincoln, Nebraska and we found our hotel. The hotel is very nice. We think it was probably a condo originally because it has, its own washer and dryer in the room.

Day 16 and day, 17

Day 16 is the first day on this trip that we didn’t do a blog in the evening after the drive. I think we were just so tired that night that we just didn’t get to it plus there wasn’t anything that unusual or interesting that happened on day 16, which was the trip from Lincoln, Nebraska To Ogallala, Nebraska. We stopped at a rest stop or two but we didn’t take any pictures to speak of except for one picture of a strange bridge across the highway. It was a long drive and we were glad to get to our hotel in Ogallala, which was a Holiday Inn Express which was nice but right off the freeway. This was one of the hotter drives that we had and we think bandit got a little carsick because he puked when we arrived at our final destination. We didn’t go into Ogallala to look at anything, we just went out to a rather dingy Mexican restaurant close to the hotel and had rather subpar Mexican food.

Day 17 however was today and we drove on from Ogallala to Rawlings, Wyoming. This was the day that we made a decision to combine two days that were planned to drive into one. The two days that have been planned were rather short and we combined the two to come up with around 300 miles again and ended up in Rawlins.We had planned to stop in Cheyenne, but passed it by and went on to Rawlins.A great deal of today’s drive was in Wyoming and we were in what was called the high Plains. It’s an interesting drive because you don’t really see any mountains but you sense that you’re rising an elevation. We learned how to use the altimeter in the iPhone and Marlene monitored our altitude as we went. When we first looked, we were at around 5000 feet but the terrain was very flat and hard to tell that we were that high up. When we got to the highest point we were at feet 8650 feet. That point was at the visitor center on the highest point of what was called the Lincoln Highway which was the first coast to cost Highway across the United States started in the 1930s. Interstate 80 now runs along a lot of that route. It was a very interesting visitor center, and there is a huge statue of Abraham Lincoln there that was built in the 30s at the time the highway first came through. We can’t believe How many trucks are on Interstate 80. It’s just truck after truck after truck and a few cars sprinkled in between constantly maneuvering between them at speeds up to 80 miles an hour, which is the speed limit in Wyoming. Also on parts of the High Plains there’s very high winds that cause cause the trucks to sway back-and-forth. But we finally made it to Rollins and are in a decent hotel which meets the requirement of a couch for bandit. Tomorrow, our goal is Salt Lake City.