Year: 2025

What happens when you don’t take a drive on the interstate and instead stay far away from that type road, add a detour to avoid dirt road sections of a state highway, toss in a couple small detours for Roadside America photos and then spend an hour at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument? Four and a half hours becomes nine. The park was very interesting, and the Montana backroads are smooth and uncrowded. Oh, and it was a gloriously sunny day, the first in about 5 days.

 
A white marker has been placed on the battlefield wherever a 7th Cavalry soldier died and was initially buried. This is Last Stand Hill, and the officers have their names on the stones. The black hightlighted marker is for General Custer. No one is buried under the markers; 5 years later they were all dug up and buried in a mass grave, which is under a Large Memorial Marker.

Now for what everyone is waiting for: roadside oddities. Yesterday we had a large cowboy statue and a cowboy riding a dinosaur; today we have a Cowboy Riding A Rocket, but someone has stolen his hat. Then a couple hours later it was a Creepy Crawler Giant Baby which I think would be creepier without the animals and the dinosaur. Oh, this morning before leaving Hettinger, I took a picture of Last Marker of the Yellowstone Trail.

 
Yesterday I said the worst thing that had happened on the trip was being directed onto a dirt road and getting the car all dirty (it still is, by the way), but I totally forgot about what really should be considered the worst. Later in the day, as I was following a farm truck in the rain, another truck came past in the opposite direction, so I don’t know who to blame, but a rock was launched at the windshield and hit it with a crack. There is now a small star shape that is centered low on the windshield. More on the passenger side, so it is not really in my sightline, but I’ll see about getting it fixed upon my return.

Today’s route was scheduled to be a 325-mile day but ended up just shy of 500. Because I was going to arrive at my nighttime destination three hours early for check-in. I thought maybe I could add a couple of hours by going to the Crazy Horse Monument; I haven’t been there since 2009 and wonder what progress has been made. After about 30 minutes I looked again and realized this was a misguided detour. It would have put me in Hettinger, ND, at about six o’clock.

Then later, the Google lady said, “We found a shorter route,” and just put me on it, so I had to backtrack. About 30 miles later there was a sign saying that US-12 was undergoing major construction and travelers should consider an alternate route. They didn’t actually offer one up, so I conferred with Google Maps and decided to go north into North Dakota 30 miles and then drop back down into South Dakota. Finally, when I did get to Hettinger, I remembered I wanted to take a Roadside America photo back in Lemmon, SD, that was bypassed with the last detour. So back 25 miles to Lemmon and then finally another 25 miles to get to Carl’s Cabins for the night.

The top photo is the Miata parked outside of my room at Carl’s Cabins. The outside doesn’t do the inside justice. I’m in ‘The Station’ room, which is very nicely decked out in a very automotive theme. Go back up and click on the link for the place, and you’ll get the idea.

Anyway, the first roadside America photo of a Big Cowboy Statue was taken in Watertown, SD, way east in the state, and the second was the art statue of Cowboy Rides a Dinosaur in Lemmon, SD, way west in the same state. The next two photos are bonus ones. While taking the ‘Cowboy Riding A Dinosaur’ photo, I noticed it was in front of a museum, so I went inside. The place is a hidden gem; they have actual petrified bones, not molds, of several dinosaurs from nearby, including an almost intact triceratops skull. The lady running the show gave me a tip about a petrified wood park. Now I have been to the Petrified Forest National Park, but the amount of petrified wood in this one city block seemed to rival all of it in that national park. Bonus: it too is a Roadside America spot. Last, but not least, is this Jurassic World-themed installation on an abandoned lot I discover on my walk to dinner tonight in Hettinger. It too should be a Roadside America spot.

When I first planned this trip out, I routed my return from Michigan to include the 3 northern states of Minnesota, North Dakota, and Montana. I wanted to check them off the dwindling list of these 50 states that I haven’t visited. That route took me across the northern portion of Wisconsin into those three states. Sitting around the House of Hugget, I pondered that list, and after adding those three, I would only lack 2 states, Iowa and Alaska.

Wait a minute, Iowa is right below Minnesota, so instead of leaving Wisconsin to go to St. Paul, MN, I aimed more south for Rochester, MN. This set up today’s trip so that I could duck into Iowa a short way before heading back north into South Dakota. It is just adding one more day to the trip, big deal, 60 or 61 days, what’s the difference?

Probably the worst thing that has happened on the trip so far was I was diddy-bopping along, zig-zagging my way through the farmland of southern Minnesota, when the road that Google Maps had me on suddenly became dirt. Wet, pothole-y, and mostly cinders. It slowed me to 35 MPH for the next 2-1/2 miles. At my next driving break at a gas station for a snack, the car was ugly and dirty. I hadn’t been washed since Aiken, but this, made it filthy. I should have taken a photo of it, because some of it was washed off during the afternoon drive in the rain.

Probably the coolest thing I’ve seen on the trip so far was during the 2nd half of today’s drive, which was all rain and very low clouds, real low. About 50 miles from Watertown, I was driving along when I noticed a big white pole near the road. As I watched it, all of a sudden a giant blade came rotating by. A second or two later came the next blade. I wish I’d stopped and filmed it. Eerie.

Because I did get into Iowa, I went ahead and found a Roadside America photo to take while there. This one is a statue of a Norwegian immigrant family looking off onto the vast prairie in front of them, called Promise of America Monument. Back into southern Minnesota, and who should I find but a Jolly Green Giant. Ho, ho, ho.

I started my Wisconsin day by dining on the usual low-rent hotel spread from Best Western. But afterwards I went back over the bridge into Michigan to get a coffee at a Dunkin I noticed yesterday afternoon. First stop of the day was in Titletown, AKA Green Bay, to take the first Roadside America photo of the day, the World’s Largest Hex Nut. RA says it’s 10 feet tall, but the plaque in front of it says it’s 12-feet tall, should have brought a tape measure. While watching football on Sundays, I’d always heard that Green Bay was the smallest city to have an NFL team. And having now driven through it and seen the population figure on the town’s size, I definitely understand now.

After leaving Green Bay and turning west, for the first time it felt like the adventure was actually winding down. No more people to visit, and it is just 1 week until I’m home. But the weird will keep on coming. RA photo #2 was of the Lickety Licious Fiberglass Cone outside a place that has everything a summer day needs, donuts, ice cream, a soda fountain, and a miniature golf course. I got my scoop of ice cream in a cup and sat in a chair outside while watching traffic go by on Wisconsin 22 just outside Wild Rose, WI.

This last Roadside America photo was kind of sad looking item called Giant Mouse with Cheese, if he had cheese, he’s eaten it or it’s been stolen, but I planned my route this way, so why not? One good thing came about this way here, the 10-year-old me got a kick out of my spoken directions. In Wisconsin, the county roads are letters, so being told in an Australian accent to continue on County Road PP just made me smile.

 
Today’s drive from Traverse City, MI, to Marinette, WI, was a little over 300 miles, and about 90% of it was within sighting distance of Lake Michigan. It was quite a pleasant drive with little traffic amid a few small sections of road construction. I took maybe 5-1/2 hours from end to end and it included 4 nature breaks, snack stops, and leg stretches with a little longer break to a enjoy a quiet, contemplative few minutes watching the random 3″ surf roll in and take the photos above.

The warm-up Roadside America photo is of the Paul Bunyan Statue in Manistique, MI, which claims to be the “Home of Paul Bunyan,” but they are only one of several cities to claim that distinction. I know I have a picture of a similar statue at home in an album of the one in Bangor, ME.

The main Roadside America photo is of a Naughty Cow Statue in Daggett, MI, that emulates a pose that can be found on Bourbon St. and many other streets during Mardi Gras in New Orleans or at any large gatherings of Harley Davidison mototrcycles in response to the cry of, “Show us your teats!”

The title of this Calvin and Hobbes collection almost perfectly represents Keith’s and my morning and early afternoon. We started at the kitchen table and then later moved to the front porch, where we just chilled and discussed politics, philosophy, Navy life, and friends long since lost in the depths of our slowly ossifying synapses.

Today’s Roadside America photo is just down the street a bit from the House of Huggetts. When Keith gave me a motor tour of the city, our first stop was at The Dairy Lodge for a couple of shakes. While I was there, I snapped a photo of the Dairy Lodge Cone Girl. They also have free small stickers just for the asking, so I asked, and it has been added to the trunk lid of fun. The Cone Girl has blonde hair in the RA photo and in mine as well, but on the sticker the girl had dark hair, hmmm?

When we went out later in the evening to drive a bit north of Traverse City to Suttons Bay for dinner, we passed by The Dairy Lodge from the opposite direction, and what do you know, the cone girl on the other side had dark hair. We got Cheri to drive to dinner because we couldn’t fit three in the Miata or for that matter Keith in any way shape or form. After a mighty fine meal at Boone’s Prime Time Pub, we walked around the very quiet downtown. We made a little detour to the harbor and, weirdly enough, ended up at Dalzell Dairy for ice cream cone.

 
Our first stop on today’s journey was a Bavarian-themed town called Frankenmuth, where out front of Jellystone RV Campgrounds stands a statue of that lovable picnic basket-stealing bear, Yogi.

This was to be my only Roadside America stop for today, but as I rolled through the small town of Coleman I spotted an interesting Veterans Memorial. So I stopped. Turns out I had seen it on RA the other day, but didn’t realize it was right on my way to Traverse City. It is called Ghost Soldiers. There are sculptures of soldiers from every American war since World War I and the white ones represent the dead.

This afternoon and evening, Keith, his wife Cheri and I spent the time trying to remember what we remember of days of yore. On a personal note I am now in line to get my Radio Paradise Merit Badge because they are the 3rd group I’ve converted to listeners of RP’s Mellow Mix (and accompaniment slideshow).