On the way to someplace else

   When Shirley and I travel, our ultimate destination is often two or three days driving time from home. Sometimes even more than that. Think of any place in the West. Or Alaska. So, because we have time in retirement, we break up every long drive by stopping at other places along the way. We would not consider driving to western South Dakota just to see Mt. Rushmore, for example, even though it is iconic. Literally. But, if we are in the general neighborhood anyway, it certainly deserves some of our time.
   Here is a sampling of places that we have visited on our way to someplace else. Beginning, of course, with Mt. Rushmore.

Just to show that Mt. Rushmore would be quite impressive if it only featured one president.

Early studies by Gutzon Borglum are preserved in his on-site studio.

The inscription on the monument at Valley Forge is a quotation from Washington: "Naked and starving as they are we cannot enough admire the incomparable patience and fidelity of the soldiery." 

Washington relied heavily on Gen. Anthony Wayne at Valley Forge. As president, he appointed Wayne Commander-in-Chief of the US Army and sent him to subdue Indian uprisings in Ohio. 

Washington's headquarters was a borrowed farm house.

Recreation of the Muhlenberg Brigade huts during the winter encampment at Valley Forge.

The Lincoln birthplace monument near Elizabethtown, KY is just a few miles off I-65 south of Louisville.

Inside the monument is a representation of the cabin in which Lincoln was born. For years, some insisted it was the actual cabin. A tree-ring analysis conducted in 2004 showed that the trees had been felled 30 years after Lincoln was born. The symbolic cabin inside a marble monument is to show the promise of democratic government--even the most humble can rise to greatness.

This cabin represents Lincoln's boyhood home on Knob Creek before the family relocated to Indiana and then to Illinois.

Lincoln's father Thomas is often depicted as a shiftless ne'er-do-well. Tax rolls, however, suggest that he was among the top 20% in the county. Even so, those cabins still look rather humble. 

Devil's Tower is the focus of Indian legends as well as where the alien spaceship landed in the 1977 Steven Spielberg classic film Close Encounters of the Third Kind. 

There is a trail around the base of the Tower so you can look at the same thing from 360 degrees.

Some people choose to see the Tower from way up close. And way up high. On at least two occasions, summer hail storms suddenly popped up while we were there. Lightning crackling all around. Hail the size of  golf balls. No place to hide if you are hanging from the side of that big rock.

Fort Laramie looks nothing at all the way western forts are depicted in the movies. Note, for example, that there is no palisade fence around the fort.

Officers' quarters included space for wives.

 The sutler's store had everything you might need. Providing you didn't need much.

But the bar offered consolation.

Enlisted men's quarters 

This marker shows where Gen. Custer died on Last Stand Hill at Little Big Horn. His body was hastily buried two days after the battle and later moved to a tomb at West Point. 

Likewise, the markers around him represent where his soldiers died, not where they are buried.

7th Cavalry markers are white, Indian markers are red. As the victors, the Cheyenne and Lakota Sioux took their fallen warriors with them.

The battle was fought on the run once the cavalry discovered their predicament. A 4.5 mile road takes you to the sites of skirmishes and desperate fights that made up Custer's Last Stand.

It is hard to tell how many Indians might be among those trees. Custer seriously underestimated the several thousand Cheyenne and Sioux camped along the banks of the Little Big Horn River. 

Indians who scouted for the cavalry have white markers. No matter which side they were fighting on, all died "defending their way of life."  I regret failing to get photos of the markers for horses and mules that died defending the equine way of life. Seriously, though, there are markers for them too.

No offense to the Meador family but the Sioux and Cheyenne had much more interesting names.

The monument at the top of Last Stand Hill lists all 263 men of the 7th Cavalry who died.

The battlefield is in the Crow Indian Reservation just off I-90 in southeastern Montana. The Indians still herd beautiful ponies.

London Bridge is falling down, falling down...

so Robert McColloch bought it for $2.4 million, numbered all the bricks and stones and...

reassembled the whole bloomin' thing in Lake Havasu City, AZ.

The power for all those lights in Las Vegas, and many other cities as well, is provided by Hoover Dam 25 miles away. Lake Mead, created by the dam, also provides water for parts of Arizona, Nevada, California, and Mexico.

Lake Mead is a major recreation area for the region.

Judge Roy Bean was the self-proclaimed Law West of the Pecos. This is his opera house, town hall, and seat of justice. Also his residence.

As you know from My Darling Clementine, Judge Bean had a thing for actress and singer Lillie Langtry, the Jersey Lilly. She finally accepted his invitation to visit his original Jersey Lilly "opera house" but the Judge was dead by then. Probably a good thing. After performing in major cities, she was not likely to have been impressed by what he had to offer.

At least she had a place of honor over the bar.

The King Ranch, just south of Corpus Christi, TX, is 825,000 acres--larger than Rhode Island. 

They breed and raise cattle and horses as they have since 1852. In recent years they have expanded into all sorts of agribusinesses from turf grass and  sod production to palm trees and citrus groves in Florida. 

Still, when you think of ranching, this is more like what comes to mind.

This is the most recent family residence and ranch headquarters.

Then there is the old headquarters named for its location on the Santa Gertrudis Creek.

The longhorns are raised for historic preservation--and to entertain visitors.

On our way to Big Bend National Park, we encountered heavy fog at the base of the mountains. Pulled into Marathon, TX to wait for it to burn off. In the lobby of the Gage Hotel, Shirley spotted a coffee table book about the architect who designed the Gage and several others in the southwest--Henry C. Trost from Toledo, OH.

We were so impressed by the Gage that we decided to stop at the Paisano in Marfa, TX.

This is where the cast of Giant stayed during filming: Elizabeth Taylor, Rock Hudson, James Dean, and Carroll Baker. 

The lobby repeats themes you will recognize from the Gage.

Then in Van Horn, we just had to visit the El Capitan. Met a woman wearing an Ohio U sweatshirt. Said she has family in Sylvania.

See the patio fountain at the Paisano, three pictures up. Yep, there is a pattern here.

Trost's Rule One--you gotta have taxidermy in the lobby.

I prefer my coffee saucered & blowed when I can get it for only 5 cents more than regular.

 

Register Cliff on the Oregon Trail was a stopover point for pioneers.

Some late comers, including this shameless fellow, can not resist the temptation to add their pathetic names to the cliff. Glad we're not related. He doesn't even know how to spell it.

Scott's Bluff is another landmark along the Oregon Trail. 

Getting to Scott's Bluff, in far western Nebraska, is a lot easier today. Once you adjust to the thought of driving 17,000 miles across Nebraska.

Colorado National Monument is just off I-70 near Grand Junction. Saddlehorn Campground is reached by a really steep climb along the face of a cliff  where there are great views across Fruita Valley to the Book Cliffs on the horizon.

The Monument is only two hours from Arches National Park in NE Utah. We stopped because we knew there was zero chance of getting a camp site in Arches late in the day. As it turned out, there was also zero chance the next morning.

Still, the road in the Monument takes you to places that are worth seeing.

 The vertical stripes on the cliff face, called desert varnish, are mineral deposits left by flowing water. In the lower center you can see what is a water fall during spring snow melt and after summer flash floods in the monsoon season. 

Our first visit to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument was on our way back to Tucson  from Death Valley. The plan was just to spend the night but it turned out to be way better than expected. When we got to Tucson, we turned around and went back to Organ Pipe. Since then, it has been our ultimate winter destination. You might want to see the blog post filed in December, 2017 that has more photos of Organ Pipe. Good luck finding special places of your own when you are on the way to someplace else.