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

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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.

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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 :)

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Day 27 Fun with Jim and Becky in Viola, MN

The day started out very nicely. JAgdish and Jim went to Rochester to get the car oil and filter changed and the friendly mechanic not only checked and added the oil but also added wiper fluid and checked everything. He did not take any money and just said thank you for coming and have a nice trip. Is this Karma Kitchen stuff happening over in mid west?
Any ways, Jim drove us around in the Van and our first stop was Lark Toys. Amazing place. Lots of hand made toys for little kids as well as big kids, as you can see from the next picture. We also shopped for the marbles, they had so much variety that it was hard to choose from.The carousal ride for one dollar was fun. All the animals are hand carved and painted. I rode the dragon.

Our next atop was National Eagle Center in Wabasha. This is a cute city on the Mississippi banks and the Eagle center has educational talks about Eagle and had few big Eagles that they had rescued. This is the biggest Eagle habitat ( besides Alaska) but they almost went extinct in 1960s due to the use of DDT . The population is coming back now.

My picture is with real live Eagle and not a photo shop thing.

This is us at the banks of Mississippi. It was windy but pretty. We did have lunch at a local country place where the owner ( woman) had shot a black bear and it was there ( stuffed). It was fun to watch locals come and talk about farms and stuff.

We went for a drive along the river and I saw the signs for fireworks for sale. Jim and Becky were kind enough to drive us extra miles to get to the shop and we are well stocked for the fireworks for Diwali for this year. I am excited about this.

Back home, Jim cooked excellent Mexican dinner and then we went for a walk. This is their home from outside. The weather got really clear and wind died down so we had a pleasant walk and saw the house all lighted up at night....very cool.

So, Becky and I are saying good night for now. I will miss being with them from tomorrow but we will see them soon. Good night.

Day 26..Home away from home...Eyota...MN

We went to the museum in pouring rain in the morning. The little breakfast place had the sign, " no smoking on Sat. and Sun." They are trying to have people quit smoking slowly :)







The museum has lots of interesting stuff from all over the world and from old as well as morden times. Here is a sample of the paiting from Haity.

Here is the art from Europe. The big thing about the collection was the ORIGINAL painting and the frame of , Rafael's " Woman in Veil" . It was in a dark room with movie explaing the painting and the background and had a sign for no photograph and also, " very soft sounds only" I guess the sound waves can ruin the painting too.


After travelling on the country roads, making lefts and rights, we got to an unpaved road , my blackberry stopped reception and Gizmo announced , " arrived at the destination". With no house in sight and pouring rain, we panicked. Luckily, i was able to call Jim and he came looking for us...we were right there, in front of the house.

The house is an understatment. It is a palace, a transformation from the mud jungle I saw two years ago. Jim and Becky and the boys have new additions. 16 chicks less than a week old.
This is their great room. It is night time, I will have better pictures tomorrow. It is huge and has very nice feeling to it. The ecolors are warm and cozy. Jim did all the painting and planning and all of construction himself. We had a great dinner and the boys are sleeping now.


Becky and I are blogging together tonight. She is having fun and I am glad to have a companion.

Good night...


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