Are you Wearin' Black?

Day 36: August 1, 2009 - Sturgis, SD

The Official Color of Sturgis Motorcycle Rally

Trivia Question #2: How long does it take 8 adults and 1 child to get ready in the morning?

Answer: Over 4 hours.

At our earliest, as a group, we were up around 5:30 am; at our latest 9:00 am. Melissa is no longer the only morning person. Together with her dad, she helped prepare Papa's famous breakfast of bacon, eggs and potatos in one skillet while the rest of the family members took showers, woke up and talked about the days objectives.

Eventually, everyone had eaten breakfast, showered, dressed and agreed to head downtown. We circled a few blocks and parking lots before finding a good spot for all of us to park our cars and make our way into the excitement of it all! Entering Downtown Sturgis during the Rally is nothing short of a challenge. One must be aware of moving bikes, parked bikes, men with large beer bellies, women who forgot to dress, dropped polish dogs, aggressive t-shirt salesmen, tourists who accidently stumbled into this chaos and of course your own two feet. Macradee, Melissa's three year old cousin loves motorcycles, thank goodness that was her focus and she was, in turn the focus of all the Cushing women. We walked her through the downtown vendors and scored her a couple of Biker Babe shirts and an invitation to Kidz Zone while the men of the family enjoyed some refreshment at a couple different establishments.

Having seen all we had come to see (and more), we said good-bye to Grandma and Papa and began making our way to the town park where some church groups around the country had created a kid safe zone. The park was sanctioned off specifically for this group and the purpose of children. They had brought in large inflatable obstacle courses, bouncy houses, and games. Macradee had a blast, all 6 remaining adults stood watching in near jealousy.

Finally able to get our sweet girl out of the fun and games we made our way back to the house where we met up with Grandma and Papa. From here: Harland, Brenda, Rob and Kim headed back downtown to continue their Sturgis experience; Mike prepared to climb a nearby hill and discover what the orange thing was that we could see from the front porch; and the rest stayed behind to enjoy a peaceful evening taking care of Macradee.

Macradee kept Melissa busy at the house, making sure she was coloring and looking through the "bi-knockles" (binoculars) to see if we could find Mike, or any other man for that matter. Grandma and Papa made some paper airplanes for Macradee and she had a fabulous time flying them, even if they merely took a nose dive.

Meanwhile, Mike was booking it up the hill so as to not lose daylight. Little did he know that the rock would be fairly close and easy to get to and within an hour he had reached his ultimate destination. Now was the moment we had all been waiting for, the discovery of a lifetime, Mike was to discover, that at the top of the hill, colored orange was...a rock. Just a rock. A rock covered in orange paint as if by high school prank. Realizing he had a great view of the city, Mike took a few shots and also made a few artistic shots of the hills and vegetation before returning to the house.

Eventually, the day and night activities were finished for the day and all parties made it to bed with many images competing for dream space, but few of us know which of those images won out and what are dreams held this night. For us, the memories are blank, leaving us to conclude the day was simply too full of fun to have memorable dreams - they had been made during the day.

Changing Homes

Day 35: July 31, 2009 - Ten Sleep, WY to Sturgis, SD

Let's Get Ready to Rally!!!

Trivia Question: Out of Mike, Josiah, Abram, Melissa and Mallory; which ones are morning people?

Drum roll please...If you guessed, Melissa, you are absolutely correct!!!

Melissa spent two and a half hours of complete silence and solitude this morning because she is the only freak-of-nature-morning person out of this crew. After 2 hours of meandering and re-organizing, she busted out some pancake mix to curb her own appetite and await the appetites of others. Finally, around 10:30 am, a few of the night-owls and late-birds began to rise and were convinced to eat a few pancakes for breakfast.

The five of us enjoyed some ending conversation and the long process of saying good-bye to cherished friends, new and old. With our good-byes said and the cabin in leaving-condition we loaded ourselves in Nav-E and made our way out of the Big Horn Mountains over to the Black Hills.

As always, the Big Horns were beautiful and we even anticipated a little snow, but did not receive such a blessing. Arriving in Buffalo, we stopped for gas and a sandwich at the Breadboard and made our way onto I-90 with the end goal being Sturgis, SD.

Compared to some of our Road Trip days, the trip was reletively short and upon arrival in Sturgis we were not only greeted by hundreds of thousands of motorcycles and Melissa's wonderful parents, but we were also surprised to see Grandma and Papa Cushing sitting on the front porch awaiting our arrival! What joy it was to see so many of the family members we love in such a short period of time. We joined the four on the porch and began chatting about our travels and awaiting the arrival of three more special guests: Melissa's Uncle Rob, Aunt Kim and sweet cousin Macradee. They eventually arrived and we all enjoyed a meal together and some classic family chatting and being entertained by the youngest. Soon enough, we were all convinced it was time to hit the hay and prepare our bodies for the days to come.

Being Home

Day 33 and 34: July 29 - 30, 2009 -Worland, WY to Ten Sleep, WY

Sabbath

These are our first days of rest.

A few days back, while driving in the chaos of Washington Interstate traffic, we decided to cut a few stops out of the trip so that we could get to a home and get some rest. So we awoke the first morning with zero plans. Relief.

We began our morning with a visit to Grandpa Jack before he took off to Cody, WY for a doctor's appointment. As he left, we returned to the Harrington household for a day of internet usage, television watching, and general relaxation.

Melissa put together some Sloppy Joe's at the end of the day, having missed an entire 30 days of working in the kitchen - which she loves. She enjoyed preparing the meal and five Harrington's enjoyed sitting down to eat together and talk about recent happenings.

Before making it to bed this night, we watched P.S. I Love You so Melissa could cry herself to sleep, then we both made our way into slumber.

Thursday brought more of the same peaceful, easy feeling with a bit of excitement waiting for us in the afternoon. By afternoon, we were on the road again, but this time only for a few minutes as we made our way to the Harrington's Ten Sleep Cabin for an evening of merriment and reminiscing.

Mike's friends from high school, Josiah Kiracofe and Abram Heller (plus Mallory) met us at the cabin where we enjoyed a large fire complete with hobo packet dinners and s'more desserts. Most of the evening was spent gathered around the fire listening to the stories of the three boys and their youthful adventures: using firecrackers from Mexico, making dry ice bombs, learning to drive, exploring the mountains and a myriad of other interesting tails. As is necessary for the end of a night around a fire pit - the boys played with hot coals and Mike took a few neat pictures. The gentlemen continued talking late into the night while the girls retired to bed and entertained dreams of sugar plums and candy canes.

Antelope Canyons - click link to see photos.

The Facebook album which showcases the Antelope Canyons from the beginning of our trip when we were in Arizona/Grand Canyon region.

Black and Whites from the Road - click link to see photos.

These are some of our favorite black and white photos from the majority of our Road Trip. (Also on Facebook).

A Day of Firsts

Day 32: July 28, 2009 – Gardiner, MT to Worland, WY
A True Wyomingite Now

Considering the lack of comfort which Mike dealt with through the night and the chill of the morning air, he was loading the car at a quarter to 6:00 and we were soon on our way into the Nation’s first National Park and our home state. First #1: Yellowstone National Park, WY, first #2: Melissa visiting Yellowstone National Park after having lived in the state of Wyoming for 20 years.

As luck would have it, one of our first sights was a lone buffalo grazing in a golden meadow. By this time, about 30 minutes into the drive, we had seen some of the steaming hot springs and the rolling hills of the Absorka Range. Knowing that we wanted to be in Worland, WY in time to go to a special event for the parents of our Best Man, Abram, we rushed a little through the park making sure to see Yellowstone Falls and of course, Old Faithful.

We hit up Yellowstone Falls first and were amazed by the amount of water spilling over the edge of this fall. Being on the west coast, we saw many falls, but none were as beautiful and powerful as this one. We admired the crashing waters and the yellow walls of the canyon in which they fell before continuing on our way through the park and the main geyser basin area of Yellowstone. Having passed by many small geysers and seen a few spurts of water, we finally arrived at the site of Old Faithful.

The geyser has semi-recently blown so we had first pick of seats in the “Old Faithful Amphitheater.” Mike decided a spot with blue sky and mountains in the background would provide for the best pictures, so we sat and waited, took a couple goofy pictures and were entertained by some English speaking foreigners…

- Pronunciation of Geyser: Gay-ser
- While watching a small geyser in front of Old Faithful: “What if someone thought that was it?They’d be like, ‘That was it?’”
- For some odd reason, discussing the possibility of being a Calvin Klein underwear model.
- Preparing for the geyser to go: “Ok, when it goes, I will video tape it for a few seconds then you two get in front of the camera and I’ll take your picture.”

By the time Old Faithful was expected to blow within the next 15 minutes the “Amphitheater” was full! Huge crowds had gathered to see this natural phenomenon take place. And soon enough, Old Faithful provided his crowd-pleasing act, spurting water high into the air and letting out huge amounts of steam. A few of the audience members clapped, most took photos and a couple accepted cell phone calls - all-in-all, a good show.

Having seen the most important aspects of the Nation’s first National Park and seeing that we would be wise to make our way to Worland, we wound our way out of the park toward Cody where we planned to stop at Dairy Queen with hopes of seeing one of our HSI students. Low and behold, we did see an HSI student! Not the one we were expecting, but beggars can’t be choosers. So we made a purchase, said a warm hello to Reese and made our way to Worland where we would partake in a surprise Anniversary party for the Heller’s and also surprise Patty Harrington by being in town many days prior to our expected arrival.

After quick showers we headed to the Catholic Church where we were re-united with Abram and Mallory where they promptly put us to work decorating for the surprise anniversary party of Mr. and Mrs. Heller. Abram and his two sisters had spent a little time planning this event for their parents as a way to celebrate their marriage and their family. His parents were greatly honored and definitely surprised by the many guests, including Mrs. Heller’s sister from Maine, who were in attendance. We enjoyed some good food and eventually made our way over to the Harrington household where we enjoyed some time chatting with Patty and Molly, sharing some pictures and stories. Before making our way to bed, we watched Twilight (since we’d been in Forks, WA and surrounding areas), gained a great understanding of vampires and finally closed our eyes for peaceful rest.

Avalanches and Glaciers...

Day 31: July 27, 2009 – Lakeside, MT to Gardiner, MT
Oh My!

We were awake and out on the road by 7:30 this morning. As per recommendation the night before, we made our way to Buns by the Lake in Somers, MT to split and enjoy a breakfast burrito and of course a sticky bun.

From Buns to tourists we drove toward the west entrance of Glacier National Park. On the way, Melissa saw many things that reminded her of her childhood trip to the same region: Montana Vortex, a mystery house which showcases a two-story outhouse and large rocking chair in the front lawn (the very rocking chair that captures one of Melissa’s favorite memories of her father!); huckleberry stands, a large wooden rat-trap-like maze and of course the approaching National Park. Melissa shared some of these childhood memories with Mike as he drove, she even mentioned that Glacier National Park was the first place that her and her sister Luella ever touched a cloud. As the story goes, in the morning, a cloud hung over Glacier. As the Allen Family drove the big tan van up toward the top of this particular peak, Luella and Melissa stuck their hands out the window to touch the cloud. It was not soft and fluffy, but extremely exciting for these two young girls…however, as the girls have aged, they realize that touching a cloud is like touching fog. Hmm. Mike enjoyed the story; he responded by saying, “That is sickeningly cute.”

Upon entering the park we quickly realized that Glacier National Park was quite possibly the most tourist populated park we’d yet been too. Or perhaps the park just has inadequate parking. Either way, we got our park map, sticker and post card then headed up the Going-to-the-Sun Road for some hiking. Avalanche Lake had been highly recommended to us the night before and since we had enjoyed our Buns by the Lake we figured this recommendation would be equally delightful.

After a little confusion in finding the trailhead, we were finally on our way toward Avalanche Lake. The terrain was a little more familiar to our Wyoming minds and bodies but we were nonetheless astounded by the beauty of the creek that flowed to our left and the massive peaks that were covered in Glaciers. We saw a good number of people on the trail but were content to be off the road and out of the hustle and bustle of all the tourists down below. Upon arriving at the lake we were blown away by the beautiful peaks, series of waterfalls and blue-green glacial waters. Knowing that we had a long drive ahead of us, we made our way back toward the road and took Nav-E and ourselves a little farther up the Park Road where we saw Heaven’s peak, many waterfalls, the Weeping Wall and a great many wildflowers.

Having explored Glacier National Park as well as we could we headed out making sure to stop at a Huckleberry store and purchase a huckleberry shake, simply for memories sake.

With our bellies full of huckleberries we set in for a long drive through Western Montana until we would finally reach Gardiner, MT, just north of the Yellowstone entrance. Being so late at night and failing to find a true campground, we pulled into a small gravel pit with some motor homes – Melissa crashed in the backseat of the car and Mike set up his sleeping pad and bag on the gravel next to the car. Sweet Dreams.