All posts by paula

143-Hermosa, SD

Toadstool Geologic Area – weird formations!

 

While in South Dakota, we travelled for a couple of hours back down into Nebraska to see the Toadstool Geologic Area.

This is a small area accessible by about 20 miles of dirt road, but at least the dirt road was fairly smooth and not potholed or washboard.

Once at the area, we found a small primitive campground and pit toilets. No visitor center, but they did have a few maps of the area and information boards.

The attraction is to take a mile-long loop trail up into the nearby hills to see the very strange and interesting formations that look like toadstools. We took the hike and were fascinated by the geology of the area!

We were able to take Laddy with us, and he enjoyed the hike as well, although for different reason! We saw a few rabbits and he smelled lots of them!

Here are some pictures:

143-Hermosa, SD

The Badlands of South Dakota

While in the western South Dakota area, we drove through an area called the Badlands. Much of South Dakota is rolling hills and flat plains, and the area around the Badlands is that type. But, all of a sudden while driving along you start to see very spiky sharp hills, the kind that are called sawtooth ridges.

Right at the visitors center you can see beautiful spiky hills and can also observe the different colored layers that make up the geology of this area. Several million years ago this was the seabed of a large inland sea. The fossils found in this area are marine animals. Interspersed with the seabed layers are thick layers of ash from volcanos to the west, and also sandstone layers.

These layers were compressed into fairly hard layers and the wind and water from rivers and streams has been eroding the ground through the layers. Wind does a lot of the erosion and that causes the spiky sharp hill features.

The scenic road cuts through some of these hills, and then climbs to the ridgeline where you can look down into the ravines and hills. There’s one section of the area that has a very yellow large layer that’s not found in the rest of the area. I must admit I don’t know what caused the yellow color.

While driving along the ridge we came upon some longhorn sheep. They were right on the edge of the road, and weren’t bothered at all by people driving by. We got some good pictures of a male with huge horns and some smaller males, females and babies. Several were wearing radio collars so the herd could be tracked.

Here are some pictures:

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142-Scottsbluff, NE, Full-Time RVing

What?! One of the leveling jacks is stuck!

We’ve been travelling with a trailer and now a fifth wheel RV for a little over 5 years now, and we’ve seen lots of little things go wrong with our RV, and a few major things.  We’ve learned that things will go wrong and the best way to deal with it is just to stay calm, analyze the situation and check the internet for ideas and solutions.

The worst situation we’ve had was when a tire delaminated and ripped through the floor causing massive damage to the bathroom and wall and a little bit in the living room.  We were a month on the road for that problem (click here to read my post and see pictures).  We also had two wheels come off and roll down the freeway (wheel, not just tire) and had to replace the axle both times (click here and here for those stories).

The little things include screws that come loose, a window where the little plastic latch broke, light fixtures that stop working, etc.  A nuisance, but not a major problem and we’ll get it all fixed when we are someplace for more than a week or two.

Jeff and I have a system for what we each do to hook up the rig, and what we each do to get unhitched and set up at each destination.  One of my tasks is to use the leveler bars to raise the RV off of the truck’s hitch and then lower all four bars so the rig is level and stable.  We have a nice automatic system with a remote, so I can stand next to the rig and push a button and it will adjust all four leveling bars so we’re level and stable.

But, when we arrived in Scottsbluff and I pressed the button to autolevel it just beeped at me.  I then checked the control panel on the side of the trailer and saw an error that one of the bars, the right rear (RR) bar wasn’t moving.

We tried a few things and finally had to adjust it manually, using a drill to get it down and in the approximately position to level the rig.  The others could be lowered down one by one using the control panel until we were somewhat level.

Once we got the slides out and could access the storage where we keep the manuals on all the trailer systems we read up on the leveling system.  We also did some searches on the internet.  This gave us some ideas of things to try.

The next morning we didn’t have any pressing sight-seeing to do, so we pulled in the slides and tried the instructions we found in the manual and online that seemed to match the situation we had.

The error message that one of the jacks was ‘stuck’ it didn’t explain.  Since we weren’t on a really level site we assumed that that right rear jack extended all the way out and in that position got stuck as that’s how we found it when we had to adjust it manually with the drill.

But, the manual and the internet searches indicated that to correct the error where the leveling system wasn’t working was to retract all four bars, then lower each one 6 inches, then do a retract of all four at the same time using the control panel.  Voila!  It worked!

The next time we hitched up everything worked as it should.

No pictures as there really isn’t much to look at for this problem, LOL

142-Scottsbluff, NE

Scottsbluff and Chimney Rock in western NE

Western Nebraska has some interesting geological formations in an area called Scottsbluff. This area was on several of the pioneer trails leading to Oregon, California and the Salt Lake. The geological formations were used as a waypoint on the trail and let the pioneers know that they were 1/3 of the way to their destination. It also told them that the trail, flat and somewhat easy up to this point, would get much harder from here on heading west.

It was named after an early mountain man who became ill and his companions left him behind to recuperate. Instead he died and they found his bones on their return trip.

In the late 1840s thousands of pioneers headed through this area, some drawings and paintings from that era showed covered wagons 8-10 abreast and as far as the eye can see going past the bluffs.

Chimney Rock is a few miles east of the Scottsbluff area itself, and there are some other formations along a ridgeline. There is photographic evidence that Chimney Rock is a few feet shorter than it was back in the pioneer days, so you have to wonder how much longer it will look like it does now before it flattens out like some of the other formations.

The chimney is not volcanic lava as some other chimney rocks are. It’s comprised of volcanic ash and sandstone layers that were compressed over a long period of time, and then started eroding slowly by the wind.

After seeing so much of Nebraska be so flat, it was interesting to see these bluffs rising in the distance.

Here are some pictures we took:

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141-Springfield, MN

Ancient petroglyphs in southwest Minnesota

In southwest Minnesota the prairies that cover much of the central U.S. start. Among the prairie grasses of this area there are outcroppings of a pinkish rock. Only the very tops of the rocks show, so the outcroppings are mostly flat rocks. There are outcroppings along a ridge for several miles, but in one area about 14 miles southwest of Springfield there is a large flat outcropping with native American petroglyphs that are carved or chipped into the rock.

About 100 years ago the land was owned by the Jeffers family. They were aware that there were some petroglyphs on the rock in their cattle field, and at some point they donated the land to the Minnesota Historical Society.

The MHS has protected the rockface and also the prairielands on the 120 acres surrounding the rock that they now own. They have re-naturalized the prairie and have identified over 130 types of plants on the land.

About 10 years ago they had a project to remove lichen from the rockface, and as they did this project they discovered that there are many, many more petroglyphs than previously thought. There are approximately 5,000 carvings on the area that they have removed lichen from. They also dug under the thin layer of soil in a small part of the rockface and found that it also contains more carvings, so it’s unknown how many there may actually be.

The carvings are not easy to see. They are simply very shallow chiselled areas of the rockface to depict animals, people, and other symbols that were important to the peope living here through the past 10,000-13,000 years. This is much, much older than any of the dwellings or petroglyphs we saw last summer in the southwest!

Native American people still cover to the rockface and consider it sacred. There are small sections where visitors can walk on the rockface; they are roped off so people don’t walk all over it and mess up the carvings or show disrespect for this sacred place. Tour guides do walk off the roped area, but they remove their shoes and walk in socks or barefoot.

While you can walk the area without a tour guide, I’m glad we did have a tour guide because the carvings are not easy to see. He knew where several were and had a spray bottle of distilled water to wet the carvings which made them easier to see.

Here are some pictures we took:

139-Chippewa Falls, WI

Throughout Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota we saw two crops everywhere

Driving through Michigan and Wisconsin we noticed that there are two major cash crops – corn and soybeans.  Now in Minnesota we’re continuing to see these two crops.

Mile after mile we’ll see fields of these crops.  The corn is getting tall now (end of July) and the soybeans are still low to the ground but are filling out.

This is definitely an agricultural area!  Here’s a picture:

138-Madison, WI

Taliesan East – Frank Lloyd Wright’s principal home for much of his life

While in Wiscons in we stayed near Spring Green and visited Taliesan East – the primary home of Frank Lloyd Wright. This is the area where FLW grew up and he had lots of family around this area.

The land that Taliesan is on was a working farm for FLW. He built his house on the “brow of a hill” which is what Taliesan means in Welch. That means it wasn’t built right at the top of the hill, but just down from the top, so that it fit in with the surroundings as many of his houses did.

This is a beautiful house, with gardens, great views and rooms that are in the style that FLW used in lots of his homes, transition areas such as the foyer and hallways are narrow and with low ceilings, and then when you enter into one of the rooms it feels more expansive with high ceilings, windows etc.

The house burned down twice and was rebuilt. The first time it burned it was a real tragedy. FLW was in Chicago on business, but one of the farmhands went berserk and set the house on fire and then sat near the one door he left unlocked and killed people as they fled the fire. FLW’s partner (they weren’t married) and his two children were killed as were some guests and farmhands.

The house was rebuilt and then a guest accidently set it on fire with a cigar. Much of it burned, but it was rebuilt again. This time when it was rebuilt he redesigned the private rooms to fit the needs of his wife and small daughter. The daughter had the whole third story (just a couple of rooms) and each of the rooms had a balcony looking into the parents area. One balcony looked into the master bedroom which I consider a bit strange. Another looked into the informal living room.

The house did not have any of the leaded windows that are so famous in FLW homes. The reason for this is that he felt decorative windows were for city homes, to provide some privacy while still letting in lots of light and views. Country homes didn’t need that feature.

FLW lived here for much of his later years, spending summers in Taliesan East and winters in Taliesan West. He ran his School of Architecture out of both places, with the students travelling with his family to each home as the season dictated.

An interesting feature of this house is that one wing was for livestock and workrooms. But, the roofline and building material matched that in the rest of the house. So, he had the fanciest pigpen around!

The house was also “reversed” when more people started using autos instead of carriages. For carriages he had a fairly steep drive up to a porte cochere on the west side of the house. It wasn’t suitable for autos though, so he had a driveway built on the north side of the house and built an entrance and foyer there.

He also added a dam to a stream that flowed near the house and put in a small hydro-electric plant to generate electricity for the house. The house was powered by that plant until power lines came to the area, and when they did he fought with the officials and was successful in getting the power lines buried so they wouldn’t diminish his view. He was successful here, but wasn’t in his Taliesan West house where the huge power lines are close to his property. At Taliesan West he remodeled the house so that most of the private rooms were on the opposite side of the house so the views would be unobstructed.

He lived here (during summers) until he died and his wife continued living here until her death many years later. A conservative has been restoring the house and furnishings and doing the tours for several years.

Here are pictures we took:

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137-Milwaukee, WI

The Milwaukee Art Museum – unique architecture!

While in the Milwaukee area we visited the Milwaukee Art Museum. While art museums aren’t usually on our list of things to do in any area, this one was because of a unique
is an interesting shape to the exterior of the building. The outside roof is movable! It has two sections that can be closed or opened, and when they are open they look like a bird spreading it’s wings! Overnight the roof is closed, but at opening time the two sides start to part and move upward, and in about 3 minutes the two sides are spread wide and look like a pair of wings.

The section of the museum that includes the roof was designed and built in 2001 and is called the “Quadracci Pavilion”. The building part of this section reseumbles the prow of a large ship with the roof as sails. It houses some exhibits and a large open space that can be rented for events and weddings.

At noon the roof closes and then reopens, and at closing time they close. It’s mostly for the design, although it does let a lot of light in since the “under-roof” is glass with steel ribs. If the wind hits 24 mpg the wings will automatically close.

The museum itself houses many art exhibits on 4 floors. We enjoyed walking around the museum and found a few pieces that we thought were interesting.

Here are some pictures:

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