Spring Road Trip Part II: Westward Ho!

The second leg of my road trip began when my dad and I left my sister Emily's house in Minnesota and headed west (along on I-90 for most of the way), arriving in Utah three days later. The highlights:

• In the first few hours of driving we stopped at a rest area in Blue Earth, Minnesota and got a tip from a local that we should go check out the Jolly Green Giant statue. Definitely worth fifteen minutes.

• Poor South Dakota doesn't seem to have a lot going on, so they have to conjure up tourist traps every fifty miles or so to get people to stop. We decided to fall into a few of the traps, including the world's only Corn Palace, a Taj Mahal-style building with ambitious corncob murals installed every year (we saw big posters saying that former American Idol David Cook was going to play the Corn Palace - that's a sign that he's really made it!) and Wall Drug, the world's largest gift shop.

• We stopped to take a few short hikes in the South Dakota Badlands, probably my favorite activity on the trip. The Badlands look a lot like the canyons and rock formations in southern Utah, except instead of red rock the Badlands are a desolate grey, but in an awe-inspiring way.

• We stopped at Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, which are both impressive and grand. We also took a short tour of nearby Jewel Cave, the second longest cave in the world.

• In Wyoming we saw Devil's Tower from a distance, took a spectacular drive through the Big Horn mountains at sunset, and took a dip in the natural hot springs in Thermopolis.

Overall I thought it was a great trip because we mixed in some big mainstream sites with other stuff that was a little off the beaten path. And it was fun to get to spend some alone time with my dad since it had been a while since we'd done anything like that together.

But my time in Utah has come to an end and I'm hitting the road to go back to Ann Arbor tomorrow morning. Stay tuned for more road adventures...

P.S. - Happy Mother's Day!