Day 38...HOME

The weather did not look good but the forecast for Tahoe was good in the morning with storm in the evening and night. We decided to just drive home. We took highway 50 and stopped at Carson city , Nevada. It is the state capital and has the necessary state building, the museum and the old town and of course the casinos.

State building and the Casino next to each other


We walked around the old town a little. Museums were closed and we were in a hurry to drive on. But, we did see the interesting tit bit about Pony Express. The mail riders ( pony express) delivered mail for a year without missing a schedule and losing only one letter and one rider killed by Indians.

Once we got to the Sierras, we started feeling at home already. Tahoe was beautiful as always. In the bay area we were greeted with the familiar commute traffic on the freeways. I have to admit this was the worst traffic we had seen in last six weeks. But, the weather is perfect and it is HOME.

Just arrived.

It has been a wonderful journey. I learned a lot about the country, the people and most of all about myself. I want to thank the friends and family : Ektare, Leona, Jim , Becky who hosted us so graciously and Smita, Anupam ,Shalini and rest of you who supported us every day by coming along on the virtual journey. Without you , it would not have been such fun.

Good night and keep i ntouch. We are home ,so come for a visit and let's plan more journeys together.

View Road trip across America in a larger map

Day 37 ..Truck stop...Elko , Nevada

Morning started in Idaho Falls. On Chris's recommendation we had coffee and Muffin at Villa Cafe on Park Street in down town. It was excellent and we found out the cafe is voted the best cafe in Idaho. Since we were there, we looked around and found this interesting waterfall right i n the down town. Idaho falls is a Small town but seem to have an nice family friendly down town.

Water Fall and the temple in the down town Idaho Falls.


Then we drove to Crater of the Moons National Park. It is 11,000 square miles of volcanic lava eruptions complete with lave tubes, caves, cinder cones, rope lavas and big blobs of lave and lava in all sizes and shapes. It turns out there have been eight eruptions in last 12,000 years , last one being 2000 years ago. Few facts: 1) Apollo Astronauts trained here for the moon mission. 2) It is the biggest lava flow sight on the continents in the world. ( I think , they are excluding Hawaii) . It is the most accessible lave field. 3) There has been eruptions every 2000 years and , the hot spot in Yellow Stone is ready to erupt any time.


Lava cinder cone.
Life is beginning to take hold after 2000 years.

In the afternoon, we drove to Twin falls, Idaho on the way to our tonight's stop , Elko. Twin Falls turned out to be an hidden gem. The Shashone water fall is very pretty and they make sure you know that it is 50 feet higher than Niagara Falls. The bridge on the Snake River is very impressive too. The canyon has volcanic origin from 12,000 years ago.


Bridge on Snake River

Shashone Falls

We are at the truck stop now. Nothing special except that a Tostada Pizza, so filling that we could not even finish a small one. ( This was at Pizza Barn). Question for tonight is : Do we drive straight home or stop at Tahoe????

Good night...



View Road trip across America in a larger map

day 36 ...Idaho Falls via Grand Tetons

We drove out of the south entrance of YS park without even eating breakfast. Plan was to eat somewhere in Grand Teton area. First we saw beautiful frozen lakes and then this water fall by the road side. It is on lake Lewis , still inside the YS boundaries.



Right after Yellowstone, we entered the Grand Tetons. I have just one word to describe them , " GRAND". The mountains have lots of snow and rivers are half frozen and everything is beautiful . We took so many pictures that it is hard to decide what to put here, so i am putting just one.
Most of the places were still closed. We ate at a place called , " Story mountain lodge" , it was the way lodge should be. Beautiful views and great wholesome food.
We were going to the town of Jackson Hole and encountered this building on the road side. Upon further investigation, this turned out to be the , National Museum of Wild Life art " a true hidden gem. They have the best collection of the wildlife art ( sculptures, paintings etc) in the world ( they claim)

One example of their collection.

Jackson hole is an interesting town. Sort of quite now but they will process over a million people this summer ( someone said these words to us). The arch in the picture is real antler arch. The Elks shed them every spring and the boy scouts collect them and rotary club makes the art.

We drove to Idaho Falls this evening . It is quite late because I am doing all four blogs tonight. Jagdish is sleeping but not very happy about the night being on. So, I will update the map tomorrow.

Thanks for being with me in this journey. It has been fun. Good night and sleep well.

Day 34 more pictures , no talk ( little talk)

Upper Terraces

Petrified redwood. There used to be a lush Redwood Jungle here ( millions of years ago). A volcanic eruption buried the redwoods before they got the chance to fall down.

Wall of Lava slow that solidified.

A half frozen Twin Lake. This was on the way to Mammoth Terraces.

Yellow Stone has so much to offer that I still have many more pictures to share. But, do not worry, no more yellow stone pictures. We are moving on tomorrow.

Day 34...Still lot more to see in Yellow Stone part A

Today was wonderful. we drove to the north part, to Mammoth Mineral Terraces and then to Tower falls. We saw many Bison herds, sometimes crossing the road, looking at people and sometimes just in the meadows. We also saw many Elk herds as well as other deers and smaller animals and most exciting of all, we saw two black bears just mining their own business . One of them crossed the road just behind our car. Very exciting.


The Terraces were beautiful and very colorful. The minerals in the water as well as the Thermobecterias give them all these colors.

Interesting thing is that the Elk was walking right through the boiling hot water and was drinking it too. I read that it is so cold in the mountain that they come in the thermal areas to warm up.

I am going to post some more pictures in the next blog just because I think they are worth sharing... Good night

day 33 A day in Yellow Stone

We are staying at the Old faithful Snow Lodge. The newer lodge here but still is a log lodge. Everything squeaks and makes noises. Last night people above us were stomping on the floor, I am not sure what was going on. We could not sleep much and first thing in the morning we got our room changed to the second floor. We are hoping that tonight we can have a good night sleep. Moral of the story is: Get the room on the top floor so you are the one stomping on other’s head. Anyway, the day was beautiful. The sky was blue and air was warm. It was a big change from the snow and rain of the last few days.
We stated off seeing the much obligatory Old Faithful, which goes off every hour and a half (more or less). After the old faithful eruption we took a 3 to 4 mile hike around and above the Old Faithful and saw some beautiful views and many more geysers, each one with a different personality, attitude and age.



Old faithful from a view point above the hill.

After the fire, wild life in Yellow Stone was almost vanished but it has come back in abundance. Bisons are everywhere and so are the smaller animals like chipmunks, Prairie dogs, marmots, rabbits. Lots of Canadian Geese and other water fouls were roaming around the river. We saw very few Elks and no moose. It seems that the population of moose and elks has gone down a lot.

After lunch we drove towards the Madison Junction which is near west entrance. We saw more amazing geothermal activities with vivid colors due to different micro organisms. These bacterial colonies thrive in boiling hot water and sulphuric acids. Life thrives everywhere.

Reflections in the thermal pool near Madison Junction

Firehole Geyser area. There are many more unique and beautiful places.

You see vivid colors, boiling water and steam everywhere you look. All of this mixed with snow, mountains , rivers and lakes makes this place a unique place in the world.

We did end the day with a grand view of the old faithful with Sun setting in the background.

Good night

Day 32...Yellow Stone..a break from Internet , TV and even news papers

I am back. Three days of total isolation , no TV , no Internet and no news paper ( ok, i confess, Black berry was still working some of the time) . I did not miss the TV or the news paper but I did moss Internet . I wrote the blogs but am posting them now. So ,today there will be four blogs coming.
We drove through lot of fresh snow and slick roads but made it Yellow Stone through East entrance. The road US14/US16 is supposed to be one of the most beautiful road in USA and it is very pretty when you can look and admire the beauty.
The town of Cody, looked very interesting also, I wish the weather was better and we could spend a day there. The town was founded by " Buffalo Bill" and has lot of old history about it.
The drive from Cody to Yellow Stone was beautiful.

First thing we encountered was the frozen Yellow Stone Lake and also found out the the road from East to Old faithful was closed and we will have to go through a longer route to get to the lodge we were staying at.
The weather was nice and we had plenty of time so we were not panicking. We took our time and saw all the Canyon land area things. There is the Yellow Stone river

Which made this canyon called the Grand Canyon of Yellow stone. It is very colorful as you can see
The river also made several waterfalls. Unfortunately, the trails were closed due to snow but we were able to get to the viewing areas.

Yellow Stone is huge , so it is divided into four different sections. the East part was Canyon area and it has the canyon , river ,lake and water falls but it also has the Geothermal features that makes Yellow Stone unique. We saw several , " boiling mud" areas. Almost everywhere you look, you see mud boiling or steam coming out or boiling hot water and of course the smell of Sulfur is everywhere.

We travelled south ,west to get to the lodge which was in Old Faithful area. A the security Bison checked us out carefully before we were allowed to get into that area:



We stayed at OF snow Lodge , it is nice but pricey. It is about the most comfortable option for this time of the year. Most of the campgrounds and lodges are not open yet. I was little disappointed but the OF area in that it is very built up and we saw more concrete than the trees in that part but remember YS is huge , so there is lots of good stuff here too.
More to come in tomorrow's blog. Good night

It's Smita!!! :)

Hello Everyone who is following my Mom's blog.

I have been granted temporary access to the account to let you all know that Mom and Dad have arrived safely at Yellowstone National Park and are staying in a historic inn with no TV or internet. They will be there for 3 nights.

Mom does have cell phone reception for any emergencies :)

Their drive to Yellowstone was very snowy and a little stressful for about 3 hours (the roads into the park were not cleared of snow!) but inside the park, all is clear and they are looking forward to exploring in the morning.

I feel like I should post a picture or something. Here you go- a picture of the kids trip to South Lake Tahoe- Jan 2010- Chris, Anupam, Kim, Shalini and Matt.

Day 31 ..Winter Wonderland ..Wild West , Buffalo, WY

We woke up to this. The storm had dumped several inches of snow. After some thought and checking the road conditions, we decided to go ahead with the trip and not take the snow day off. Our destination....Buffalo , WY

Jagdish got the car cleaned and we were off to the wild west.



The Black Hills had turned white and were beautiful. It snowed and rained all the way and visibility was very poor. Thanks to two gizmos : a) Coverall Sun Glasses...to cut down the snow glare. b) Rainx..(recommended by Anupam and Chris) , the drive was uneventful and we got here around 2pm

Buffalo is the first frontier town and is still feels and looks like one. Main street has the old historic bank, shops and hotel Occidental. This hotel has guest list including, President Roosevelt , Butch Casadi, Sundance kid and Buffalo Bill, just to name few.

We saw the only museum in the town. It is small but interesting. We learned about the fights with native Americans and later gun fights between small and big farmers. The museum is private collection of a pharmacist who befriended native Americans and was considered a medicine man.

It is cold and raining , but tomorrow is promised to be better. We are using extra time watching Marathon Star Treks.

Good night

View Road trip across America in a larger map

Day 30: Home of "Crazy Horse", Custer, South Dakota

We woke up to five minutes of blue sky and then all day it was rain, snow, clouds and fog. But , being properly attired with the help of kids and friends , we still had a great time.
Custer is a small town , five minutes away from Crazy Horse monument. The monument is for the Native Americans, specifically for the chief , " Crazy Horse" of Lakota tribe. He did not give in to the white men and reportedly when all his land was taken he was asked, " where is your land now". He stretched his arm and said, " My land is where my people lie buried". (he was stabbed in back later).
Interesting story about the sculptor. He was a polish orphan from Boston who was convinced by the Indian Chiefs to take the undertaking. He devoted all his life to the monument, working alone for many years, and now his children and wife are continuing the work he started. The project is funded through donations only (no government money). He believed in private public donations than the Government.
The monument is going to be the biggest monument in the world. Bigger than the Pyramids, bigger than any building in the world. The whole complex is very impressive with lots of displays explaining the life of Lakota Chief as well as the sculptor.
The face is done and rest is in progress (the outline is visible)

Our next stop was Mount Rushmore. It was very foggy but we were able to see good view of the faces of four presidents. There were audio visual displays, flags of all the states and dates when they joined the union. We saw the movies of construction in both the monuments and saw the difference in technology used here and the technology used at crazy horse. This monument was the biggest of it's time and is great but the Crazy horse monument is the commitment of one person and his determination and hard work. One monument glorifies the history of white people while the other monument is for the Native Americans who are mostly forgotten .

Mount Rushmore (Glory of our people)

We drove to Custer State Park (15 miles) through scenic byways, Iron Mountain Road, many tunnels and windy road. Custer State Park has so much wild life that it almost feels like , "San Diego Wild Animal Park", except here they are actually wild and free. We saw herds of Buffaloes, wild horses, many different kinds of Deers, Antelopes, fox, marmots and many many birds. This is when the weather started turning snowy and foggy. On a clear day and with some hiking in the wilderness, this could have been a very very exciting venture but even in this weather it was worth spending time.



We came back through the scenic byway of Needles state park. This 12 mile road, goes though most amazing rocks that look like needles. The road and the tunnels were blasted through these rocks. By this time the weather was getting worse and we were getting all scared , so we came back and soaked in the hot tub.


It is white outside and is snowing a lot. Not sure what we will do tomorrow but I am sure it will be fun. Good night sleep well and ask the weather God for some better weather for us.

Day 29...Home of the Wall Drug store...South Dakota

First order of the day was to see the Corn Palace. There is more to Corn Palace than just a tourist trap. They redecorate it every year and have been doing it since 1900. Every year it has a different theme. The picture is from corn palace of 1907. It has all natural grasses, grains and corns. The Swastika , shown here, is actually an old Hindu/Native American/Asian symbol . It was used by many civilisations to represent good will, wellness and life.


Corn Palace from 1907
We drove west to Badlands National Park.
Badlands National Park is just that. Most of it looks like huge termite hills and the rain made some of the clay flow down , making rivers of clay and water. It was rainy and cold and muddy so we just drove though the park, no hiking. Even the harsh surroundings, support deers, rabbits and we even saw big horn sheep.



Onward to another tourist attraction with a twist. This is supposed to be the biggest drug store in America and it is BIG. It was started by a young pharmacist trying to make a living. After five years and not much business, his wife came up with an idea. " Let's put advertisements on the highway saying we have free ice water". Very soon few thirsty people came and few more and now the grand daughter in law runs the place and they pretty much own the whole town. It is fun , has lots of old American memorabilia and local folk lores.


This poster is one of many funny things there.

We are in Custer now. It is a small frontier town with old world feeling. People came here looking for gold and land and had usual fights with American Indians and almost wiped out Native Americans as well as the Bisons. Bisons are back to healthy population ( thanks to endangered species act) and Native Americans are big into Casinos.

Good night and keep in touch.

View Road trip across America in a larger map

Day 28......Home of CORN PALACE..Mitchell, SD

Sorry, I forgot to press the publish button last night :( So, here it is from yesterday and I will send today,s later tonight.
Happy mother's day to all the mothers who are reading this. This is first mother's day in 30 years that I am not with any of the kids. It feels strange but also says that they are all independent and grown up and I should be happy that I have done my job well. I am proud of all of them. But, I miss them.


This is Tent Caterpillar. Jim showed it to us last night. It is very destructive. He is going to burn it tomorrow.
We had a wonderful farm fresh breakfast early in the morning and then we said, adios to our good friends, hosts and their palace and drove west through the 10,000 lakes, Ethanol plants, farms with silos and wind mills. Our first stop was Cabela's store where Jagdish treated me and himself with coverall sun glasses. The store is amazing. Huge and has all sorts of stuffed animals ( I was told they are all real).

Outside Cabela's : JAgdish with his Coverall glasses

Minnesota is dotted with Ethanol plants and windmills.

We stopped at Pipe Stone National Monument. It turned out to be a real Gem. Took us many small roads to get there but once there we were quite amazed. It is very small but worth the stop. It is a scared sight for native Americans. Many tribes have been coming here to quarry the pipe stone that is used for making the scared pipes used for religious ceremonies. Even today , they only Native Americans are allowed to dig here and they use only old fashioned tools which takes them many years to get the rock with is buried under the over 70 feet of Quartz.
All the red stone is the Pipe Stone and the creek is very scenic.

We are in South Dakota at Mitchell, the home of Corn Palace. We just got here so have not seen the Corn Palace yet. Will report on it tomorrow.

Good night and happy mother's day and if you are not a mother: be nice to the mother you know, it is not easy to be a mom ( but is very rewarding :)

View Road trip across America in a larger map