Day 7 - Wall to Badlands to Mount Rushmore to Deadwood

This trip has been everything I'd hoped for so far but let me say right now that days like today are the real reason that I left D.C. in the first place. For all of the modern metropolises that I've been to and will visit, the natural wonders of the U.S. are what I really hoped to see.

I started off the day in Wall of course. Waking up at about 9am, I looked out to see that heavy fog was everywhere. I couldn't even see the other side of the parking lot. Not exactly great nature viewing weather. Hoping that the fog would burn off, I headed the few blocks to the world famous Wall Drug. It was about as tacky as I'd guessed, a fun stop but certainly not a destination. I stalled a little more by having an early lunch at the soda fountain. By the time I was done it was about noon, the fog was still around but this was the time I had so i figured that I'd see what I could see.

Luckily for me, the fog disappeared by the time I got to Badlands National park. It completely surprised me though. I was just driving through endless prairie when i saw the sign for the park. I had seen some pictures of the Badlands, but I really had no idea what to expect. Off in the distance I could see what looked like som rock formations, but they were still far off when U saw a sign for a 'scenic overlook.' Overlooking what? When i reached to the overlook I realized that Badlands were eroded out from under me. I was already at the rim of the canyon. Let me say now to anyone reading this, if you ever get the chance to go...it's amazing. It seems like a Mars landscape. These canyons go hundreds of feet deep and the rocks are so many different colors. The landscape almost seemed unreal. As I was going through the park, I saw a turnoff for 'prairie dog town.' These little guys take over whole fields at a time making countless burrows. The 'town' that I went to had to have a few thousand of them. As I walked up, I could hear many of them 'chirping' at me and whenever I got too close, they'd disappear into the tunnels. Finally on the way out, I stopped again as I passed a wild herd of Bison. These guys are humongous and seemingly nothing but muscle. They saw me and seemed to not really care, I wasn't going to push my luck though. Thirty feet away was close enough.

After the Badlands, I set the GPS to take me to Mount Rushmore and the Black Hills. It's funny to see, because the Black Hills are only thirty miles from the Badlands and the prairie but they are actually an offshoot of the Rockies. Flat...flat...flat...boom! mountains. Mount Rushmore was in the Southern part of the park so it took me about an hour to get to it. Pictures can't really show how majestic the moutain is. I ended up taking a trail around the heads and my camera got a real workout, thank god for digital photography.

I ended the day by driving to Deadwood, SD, which is on the northern edge of the black hills. For those of you who don't know, this town is one of the most sucessful historic restorations in the country. This town has quite a history: after gold was found, it became a roaring lawless place. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane both met their ends on the streets of Deadwood, and there are markers to show where. Gaming has given the town the money to restore all most of the buildings and, luckily for me, gaming makes staying and eating here pretty cheap. I'm staying at the "Iron Horse Inn" which is an actual 1870's hotel that has been restored. It's really beautiful and a neat experience in and of itself. I ended up walking around the town after watching American Idol and having a Prime Rib dinner for $6 (yay, gambling towns). I actually ended up puting a dollar into the penny video slot machines. I had no clue how to 'win' since it seemed to have no rhyme or reason to it. My dollar was almost gone when I got four of the same symbol and won fifteen bucks! Not only that, they saw me playing and gave me a free drink to boot. I'm not a huge gambling person, at least not slots. So I took my fifteen bucks, finished my drink and headed back. Free dinner, free beer and a couple of bucks left. A great end to an awesome day.

Tomorrow I'll be heading through Sturgis and on to West Yellowstone, MT so that I can take a 'snowcoach' tour of Yellowstone. Westward, ho!

Day 6 - Minneapolis to Wall, SD

Well today I finally left civilization for the wild wild west. I'm not exactly sure where the 'midwest' ends and the 'west' begins but I'm pretty sure that I'm there. The morning started off a little later than I had intended. Ahh the challenges of staying at a youth hostel. When they say 'shared bathroom,' I assumed they meant something like the suite showers in college. Oh no, no no no. In this hostel, it means one regular sized bathroom that for about fifteen people. To top that off, getting hot water takes about five kajillion years. I had to argue with the proprietor when i checked out because it was 11:15 when I left. 15 minutes and this d-bag wants to charge me for another night, of course the only reason that I was running that late was because he's too cheap to improve the bathroom situation. In the end, I won. Go me! I certainly don't regret staying there though, I'd rather stay in a slightly ghetto place that's near everything than have to drive into the city every time I want to do anything.

The drive today was the longest haul so far, but it was still an amazing day that I won't ever forget. I drove 551 miles today from Minneapolis, MN to Wall, SD. As you could probably see from the earlier pics, Minneapolis is under about a foot of snow and so is the rest of the upper midwest. The first lef of the drive today was pretty much straight south, to Eau Claire, MN, still under a white blanket. Then I hit I-90 west and the border with South Dakota. For the first time since I'd left D.C. it really felt like I was leaving civilization in general. All of the sudden, the towns became MUCH fewer and the landscape was just fields after fields. I'm learning that I have to be a lot less picky around here too. I know full well that if I get a low fuel light, I have to go to the closest station. When it comes to lunch though, I kept waiting to find a normal fast food place, something quick. I seriously went 130 miles without seeing a single McDonalds, Wendy's or any other joint i recognized. I didn't think it was possible in this country. The signs for each exit had the little dinner plate/fork symbol but no specifics. Eventually I got too hungry and decided to get off at an exit and let my GPS do the work. What the signs don't tell you is that the dinner plate symbol is referencing a diner six miles off the interstate. Furthermore, its not a straight shot, you really have to know somehow where these places are. Thank god for the GPS or I would have starved. In the end, I had lunch in Canetonka, South Dakota at Baxa's restaurant. Even with the GPS, I got lost in a town that is maybe eight blocks square. I don't even think its on a map.

About halfway across SD, the climate changed drastically. All of the sudden, the snow was gone and the farmland became rolling ranchland. Everywhere there were free-range cattle and these crazy wild pheasant looking birds. I'll try to get a picture of one, they look like a cross between a peacock and a turkey..if that makes sense. The best part was watching the sun set over the prairie. Honestly it was one of the most beautiful things I'd ever seen.

I didn't reach Wall until about 8pm, so the famous "Wall Drug" was already closed. The plan for tomorrow is to visit Badlands National Park and then continue to the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore. I'm excited about my lodging tomorrow night too (I'm at a Motel 6 now.) There is a newly restored 1890's boarding house (that's apparently haunted) in Deadwood, SD that is offering rooms for $39 a night. So that's where I'll be...I think.

Day 5 - Minneapolis

I'm beginning to realize as I travel across the U.S. how different our various cultures are. I don't mean black v. white v. Asian, I'm talking about Minnesota v. Pennsylvania v. D.C. It seems that we have a tendency to know of a few slight differences, maybe pronunciation or occupations, but I'm seeing that it goes a lot deeper than that. It's really interesting to see how a place affects people and how they learn to cope and even embrace the challenges of their surroundings. Minneapolis is cold (insert duh here), and it snows...a lot, but the people here are so used to it and ready for it that they don't even seem to notice. I've had a great time here over the last two days, and I've certainly learned a lot.

This morning after getting cleaned up, I decided to head back to the downtown area. I wanted to see some of the architecture, the Mary Tyler Moore statue and eventually get on the 1 line over-ground metro system to the Mall of America. The minneapolis downtown is fairly good sized, maybe 15 blocks square. When you reach the outskirts, you start to notice these enclosed footbridges everywhere. It's called the 'skywalk' system and it's one way that Minneapolis has learned to live with its climate. There are literally footbridges for miles, connecting almost every building to each of its neighbors. I was there around 11am, or the beginning of the lunch rush, and these were as busy as any streets in D.C. The actual streets though were almost entirely empty. The skywalk had everything you'd ever need, grocery stores, malls, apartments, movie theatres, all connected. Theorhetically, if you were to live and work in downtown you'd never even have to go outside for months on end. I'm here in March so even though it's cold, its not TOO bad. I can certainly understand that in January, when it can get to 40 below zero just hiding from the elements.

Eventually I made my way to another Minneapolis landmark, Mary Tyler Moore. If you don't know what this statue is for then shame on you for not knowing pop culture well enough. It's funny though, thinking back to Indianapolis which had monuments everywhere to fallen Civil War and World War soldiers. Minneapolis lost men too I'm sure, but they'd rather remember Mary Tyler Moore. Not making any judgements, just different.

In the middle of the downtown area is the 'Hiawatha Line,' a light rail train that runs along the street all the way to the Mall of America. Since I didn't feel like dealing with a parking nightmare, that's what I took. The Mall of America is, indeed huge. There are more than 500 stores inside, not including the amusement park in the center. I bought some new shoes since the old brown ones were right well decimated and a few other little odds and ends. Now realize that with so many stores, there will be a few bizarre ideas. For instance, there was a store that sold nothing but cordaroy bean bag chairs....thats it. No corduroy anything else. No denim or leather bean bag chairs. Just corduroy bean bag chairs. Another store only sold miniature car models. That's it. There certainly is such a thing as too specialized, but if they can make it work, more power to them.

After I made my way back, I was pretty beat and so I took a nap and got freshened up. There was a jazz band playing not too far from me so I went to see them for a bit and came home before very late, I knew that the next day would be a long haul. Of course blogger had to be funky, hence the post now, even though i wrote most of it last night. Anyway, on to South Dakota and the Badlands.

Day 4 - Chicago to Minneapolis

This morning started out great. I woke up, being the only one in the apartment for various reasons and finished watching Little Miss Sunshine, which I had fallen asleep to last night. Really great movie, but be warned for those of you who have an aversion to seeing little girls cry, she's brutal. Anyway, being Sunday, I wasn't but so worried about getting to Minneapolis but so early. I knew that the museums and even the mall would be closed by 6 at the latest, so no need to rush. After some leftover pizza for breakfast, I started to get my stuff together. Of course, I couldn't find my camera's battery charger anywhere. Twenty minutes of looking and it was in the suitcase the whole time...ugh.

Anyway, Once I got on the road I really realized how large 'Chicagoland' is really. An hour on the road and I was still in it (so said billboards.) Finally I made it to Wisconsin. A little before lunch time, I started noticing signs for 'Taco John's.' It struck a chord, and I remembered Aaron saying that he had worked there for quite some time. In honor of his service to the chain, I had to try it. Apparently the things you see in the picture are 'potato ole's,' otherwise known as peppery tater tots. Taco Johns certainly fit the bill, and was on par with Taco Bell. One thing I noticed however was the huge plaque that they had on the wall. "Taco John's voted best Mexican food in Monomie, WI." Seriously, someone who opened up a real Mexican place could make a killing here.

As I got closer to Minneapolis, the terrain really started to change. All of the sudden I wasn't in the flat prairie anymore, there were hills and these crazy stone outcroppings everywhere. There were even stone buttes and natural fences a hundred feet high or more. Really beautiful, contrasting with the snow all around. It really wasn't that cold even in the city, actually it was a lot easier than Chicago, since it isn't as windy.

I found the hostel pretty easily. Great location, it's about a ten minute walk from the center of downtown. As far as accomodations, it's a little shabby honestly. My 'room' is about five feet by ten feet with a lamp and no TV. I can't complain though, for 25 a night and off-street parking to boot.

When I got all settled, I walked downtown to see what was what. Apparently all of the downtown is linked by these 'sky bridges' one floor up. They go from building to building and literally span the entire downtown area. It's crazy, you can go twelve or more blocks without going outside. Apparently, they're pretty used to snow a lot worse than right now. I picked up a flyer and saw that there was a bar/theatre that had a free music show so I stepped right up. Free is always the right price. It was actually really great, lots of old favorites and a really great atmosphere. I actually became friends with the two girls sitting near me, Becky (who's parents live in Georgetown apparently) and Allison. We sang along and had a grand old time.

Tomorrow I'll be heading to the Mall of America and some of the museums around downtown Minneapolis. Should be a blast, hopefully I'll remember to buy the wool socks I've been needing for these cold nights. (BTW, blogger is being bitchy and not uploading my pics. I'll put them up as soon as i can.)

Day 3 - Chicago

Here I am, about 1 am full of pizza, getting warm, and getting over a few bruises after a long great day of new 'cultural experiences.' I knew that on this trip I wanted to see places and experience things that I'd never seen or experienced before, some of which I'd never get to again. So far, yep, the trip is fitting the bill.

I started off my day with some much needed sleeping in on Sarah's cushy couch. Her roomates weren't up yet and so I flipped around the TV for a little bit. Sarah, if you're reading this, go ahead and pay for the better cable package. Very necessary indeed, apparently Chicago only gets about three English speaking channels. Anyhow, I checked online and apparently the Second City was sold out, but since it would have been just me, it wasn't the end of the world. I'm a pretty 'roll with the punches' kinda guy, so when Kelly (Sarah's roomate) said that they had an extra ticket to a punk rock show that night, I stepped up. We'll get to that in a minute.

First stop of the day was Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House. Remember that my first year of college was spent in Architecture school and I definitely still have a love of well planned buildings. Last summer, I went to see Fallingwater, FLW's other famous American house and I loved it. Since then, I knew that I wanted to visit this place. Quick Architectural History 101 lesson: many architectural historians think that the Robie House is the most pivotal home of the 20th century. Why? This started what's known as the 'prairie' style in 1910. Look at the picture and think about what you generally consider a Victorian era house to look like. Off the bat you can see that they look different as night and day but why? Thing is, until this house no one ever dreamed of designing a house that didn't get its styling from Europe. Ever. This house is all about horizontal lines, like the great prairies of the midwest. The little brick ranchers that all of our grandparents lived in...yeah, this is the grandaddy of all those. It was an amazing place to see inside, unfortunately no photos allowed. ::sigh:: Interesting little sidenote, this house was greatly admired by the European design schools and in the 1930's after the Bauhaus was disbanded by the Nazis, the former head of the school (Walter Gropius) was the man that kept this building from being demolished. This house is actually a lot of the reason that most of the Bauhaus teachers decided to work at Illinois Tech. Anyway, I'll stop with the history lesson, I'm sure its not as interesting as it seemed to me. So after a little GPS hiccup, I headed off to the Art Institute of Chicago.

Apparently there are two 'Art Institutes of Chicago,' who knew? My GPS, that's who. I put in 'Art Institute' and it brings it right up, I hit okay, and off I go. Only thing is, I knew that the Institute (which is a huge Art Museum by the way) was somewhere in downtown Chicago. When my GPS finally said "You have reached your destination," I was in some southern suburb with a taco stand across the way. Not exactly the bastion of modern art I had in mind. Even now, I have no idea what it thought that place was. When I tried again, all of the suddent "THE art institute of Chicago" was an option. Three little letters, big difference. I finally got to the right place, found cheap parking and headed to the museum. Quick shot of the "El" from the parking lot.

I had to make a quick pit stop though, to refuel at Mickey D's. As I walked to the door of McDonalds with my headphones in, there was an angry looking guy shaking his change cup at me. Great thing about headphones, you can pretend you don't hear anything. So when he asked for money, I just played oblivious. Unfortunately for me, the idiot side of me reacts much quicker than the reserved smart side. After he asked for money, but while i was still close, he said "Do you have the time?" Well, I always answer that for people, because if I needed it, I hope that someone would help me out. So I pulled out my cell phone and told him. Of course, a dollar fell out when I pulled out the cell phone. Figures. Well, he looks at me knowing that I'd heard him ask for money...awkwardness abounds. I tell him that I only have enough to buy my lunch, sorry. I walk inside and again, the idiot part of me hands the girl my CREDIT CARD! The guy was still obviously watching and was pissed. Luckily for me, there were two exits from the McDonalds, sweet.

The museum itself was great. I only had about two hours, and this place is massive. I loved walking around all the great art at my own pace with my own music playing in the background. Not only that, they let you take photos! Woot! The best part though was when I was in the Impressionist room. The museum is more or less chronological. So you start with ancient art and move your way up to modern. Well the impressionist room obviously looked different than the room of stately portraits before it. Well these two girls near me were looking at this Van Gogh and the one says "I wonder why no one could paint correctly anymore?? I mean, did the schools close or something?" I love having headphones that you can hear through, you get to eavesdrop without seeming too creepy. Anyway, at about 5 I headed back to the apartment to meet Kelly for the concert.

Now let me state that I'm not a huge fan of punk rock, but I'll listen to most anything. I certainly hadn't been to a punk rock concert before. As I said though, cultural exeperiences and whatnot. About half of the audience was all punk'd out with the shaggy hair and tight girlpants. The other half was like me, normal folks I'd say. At first, we were up in this balcony area but we couldn't see a lot. There weren't any seats, so the closest people were the ones who could see and that was about it. Holly, another girl we were with looked at me and Kelly and said "Let's go down to the stage level." Okay, I thought. She was a seasoned punk rocker so she knew what she was doing. There was this mass of people downstairs, probably 500 deep in a fairly small area. We pushed closer to the front and she says to me "Are you okay to mosh?" I assumed I was, not completely knowing what that meant. Apparently that means have people push you into other people who then push you into other people. I don't mean a light push either, we're talking about a full on shove. Basically, it's like playing marbles with people. I was thrust into the fray, and held my own. It was kind of fun in a 'this is new and kinda bizarre' way. After the second band, Holly told me that we had to try to get up near the front of the stage. This is the other weird custom of punk rock fans. It's this massive battle to get near the front. Everyone is trying to shove each other out of the way and politeness is out the door. Even though the music wasn't exactly my cup of tea, I really enjoyed being in the mix and trying something completely new. I actually held my own pretty damned well and was about five feet from the players. After all that, we headed home and had a deep dish pizza. Great end to a great day.

Tomorrow, I'll be answering the age old question, "Cold enough for ya?" With "Nope." I'll be heading to Minneapolis and in a few days, on to South Dakota. Bring it on.

Day 2 - Pittsburgh to Indianapolis to Chicago

So it's about 1am and i think I have just enough energy to make an entry, thank god that I'm using my laptop on the sofa, so i can just fall asleep after I hit 'publish.' I'm beat. Today was pretty great, though. It was one of those days where, looking back on the morning it feels like that was about a week ago.

Anyhow, I'll get right down to it. I started the day in Pittsburgh by going to the Duquesne Incline. For those of you who've never heard of it, don't worry, I hadn't either. Apparently though, it regularly rates as one of the top ten views in the country. I'd have to agree, and the ride itself was pretty unique. You walk into the 'station' at the bottom of a mountain that has what looks like train tracks up its side. The grade of these tracks has to be at least 45 degrees, probably somewhat more. You then get in the 'car,' which has to be at least 80 years old, and it takes you up at least 600 feet in a period of about two minutes. The top is astonishing, you couldn't ask for a better post card. After a few pictures and perousing around the 'incline museum, I got back in the car, fired up the GPS and headed west for Indianapolis and Chicago.


I actually ended up going through a piece of West Virginia along the way which kind of surprised me. For a moment, I was convinced that i was going the wrong way. Nope, the northern spike of West Virginia is right next to Pennsylvania on the interstate. It was only about 12 miles worth, but (being West Virginia classy) it was enough to have three casinos and a gift shop. Another hour or two and I was pretty much out of the mountains and into central Ohio. Pretty blah, I'd been through Columbus before and it wasn't too impressive the first time (no offense to a certain Ohio quasi-native). Eventually, I reached Indianapolis. For those of you who've never been, its a really bizarre place for us east-coasters. First off, its probably about twice the size of Richmond, not small at all. Weird thing though is that it comes out of nowhere. Literally six miles out of the city center, I was looking at grain silos and harvested fields. Then all of the sudden, bam, city. Only being a glorified rest stop for me, I didn't want to spend too much time. I got my HRC pin, and walked around downtown for about an hour or so. Apparently Indianans (? Indianaites? Indians???), are big fans of monuments. The city is built around this monument that you can go inside of, to lost soldiers of the Civil War. It was pretty cool actually, very dramatic. The ascent to the top of the monument, maybe 250 feet, was only a buck. Good thing too, I wasn't but so pissed when all the windows were too dirty to really take good photos. After a while, I headed out of Indianapolis to my final destination of the day, Chicago.

The drive was actually really beautiful. A lot of people give the plains a hard time for being 'boring' and I guess I can see that, but it really is pretty in its own way. You can literally see forever it seems, with just little farmhouses dotting the landscape. Especially as someone who'd only seen this part of the country from a plane before, it was really interesting to see what it all looked like from a normal perspective. Not a place I'd choose to live mind you, but still beautiful in its own way. After about two hours, Chicagoland started. The burbs here really do go forever, more than D.C. even it would seem. Neat thing though, you can see the skyline from about 20 miles away. So even though I was pretty far from stopping, I knew I was in the right general area. After parking and chilling out for a bit with Sarah's roomates, I ended up going on an extended walk. Not FOR anything in particular, I just love to roam around a city and see what I find. Turns out that Sarah's apartment isn't that far from the center of Chicago. I walked for about two hours without stopping, along the Chicago River, the Magnificent mile and the Sears Tower. While it was certainly colder than the night before, there was a little bit of snow falling, it still wasn't too cold. Not enough to make walking uncomfortable anyway. This really is a pretty amazing place, like New York...only less New Yorky.

After a while roaming, I found Greek Town. Apparently this is something pretty unique to Chicago, its just like it sounds. The Greeks have taken over eight blocks fairly close to the apartment and set up dozens of restaurants and shops selling all things Greek. As a fan of the Greek food, I knew what I'd be eating for dinner. Four bucks bought the biggest gyro I'd ever seen and a diet coke to boot! For those of you wondering, they actually had it written out phonetically on the board "Ye-eros." The food was awesome, best Tzatziki I'd ever had no doubt, but the best part was the local wildlife. As I was eating, I was piddling with my camera and had the headphones in as well...suffice it to say, I wasn't really looking for conversation. The small TV near the ceiling was playing the movie 'Misery.' Again, I was pretty oblivious to everyone...including the 70 year old man eating a sandwich at the table next to me. After a while he starts waving at me trying to get my attention. I took the headphones off and he says to me, "CNN runs all day right?"
"I think so," I said, quickly putting the headphones back on.
"Tell the bartender to change it to CNN. I wanna see my heating bill."
"Well, I'm not really watching it, and I don't know where he is."
Mind you, we weren't in a bar, so bartenders were few and far between. It was just so weird and he seemed pissed that I wouldn't go along with his order. I pretended not to notice him and he went back to his food. Well, a couple of minutes later, I notice that he's falling asleep at the table! WTF?!? I was just about done eating, so i snapped this beauty and left. Man, I can't wait to be old and just talk weird for no reason.

Anyway, tomorrow will probably be spent in Chicago. Hopefully I'll be able to see Frank Lloyd Wright's Robie House and Second City's improv production. I'll update it again after all that, yee haa!

Day 1 - D.C. to Pittsburgh, PA

So I guess you could entitle today "I hate bureaucracy OR how it took me four hours to leave Alexandria." For those of you who take roadtrips, you will undoubtedly be able to empathize with me when I say that leaving always takes longer than it should.

To begin with, let me just say that those of you who live in Alexandria should never order from Golden China on King Street. Yes, they have the best noodles around, but they royally screwed me last night when I was just trying to pack. I ordered roast pork lo mein, like always. It comes sometime later and I sign for it, same as always for the last six months. Well whaddaya know, its fried rice. So I call them up and the girl says 'just eat it, we'll get you some lo mein shortly.' Makes sense I think, this I can handle. Well an hour of starvation goes by and finally I get that wonderful doorbell ring, my noodles had arrived. The guy, however, asks for the rice back...what?!? I tell him that one of my roomates ate it, that i was told to do so, and furthermore what would they do with it anyway? Well apparently, that was me being beligerent and so he called his boss who proceded to yell at me half in Chinese about how I'M the ridiculous one. Off my noodles went, with the guy and I was hungry for quite a while longer.

Anyway, i was ready to go by 11am this morning. I knew that I had two small things to do before I could leave the area. Small thing 1) Go to City Hall and get my 2007 decals. Small thing 2) go to the DMV to get the 2007 plate stickers. I thought it was a little odd that both of these things had expired without any correspondence, but whatever. I knew that I needed to get both of these things done however, since either could cause tickets all the way to California. So I headed to City Hall and talked to the treasurer....turns out their correspondence had been returned...apparently they had me as deceased?!? Since they talk to the DMV, I was apparently a corpse as far as vehicles were concerned. (So I WAS a ghost rider, hurf durf.) I paid the city, then headed over to the DMV. After waiting an hour, I talked to a girl who told me that I couldn't renew my registration until I got an emissions test. I'd never heard of one of these things, but basically it's a ten minute test at a gas station that costs twice what an inspection costs. Woo-hoo. So I got that, and went BACK to the DMV waited ANOTHER hour and finally got my tags. 1pm and I was on the road and needing some Nina Simone to calm me down, but finally VACATION!

After some necessary gas and food, I made my way to Pittsburgh and Jeff's apartment. My wonderful GPS didn't miss a beat. I was able to get my HRC pin and get over to Jeff's, no sweat. This really is a beautiful city, dramatic with mountains and skyscrapers against each other. I spent a wonderful evening watching AI and playing Wii with mister Knox. (Yes Gene, it is ten times more fun that we'd imagined.) Hopefully tomorrow I'll be able to go to the Duquesne Incline, one of the most amazing views in the US, so newsweek says. After that, and maybe one of the Carnegie Museums, it'll be on to Chicago via Indianapolis. Windy City here I come!