So I am settled into my home for the summer. So far I’m the only one in a twenty person dorm, which is somewhat lonely, but others should show up soon (including an amphibian crew!). And I live less than a mile from Yellowstone Lake. And so, here are some highlights from the 2,700 mile cross country drive.
OHIO – Here, you can find drive thru convenience stores. At these fabulous establishments you can buy snacks and drinks without ever leaving your car. However, it is not so fun when you forget there is a bicycle on top of you car and get stuck in the drive-thru. Luckily my bike was unharmed, we bent my roof rack back into shape, and still managed to buy our sodas.
WISCONSIN – Dad and I stopped to see the Mississippi River…since we were up north it really wasn’t a whole lot bigger than the Connecticut. I did do a headstand on the banks though.
SOUTH DAKOTA – is a very large state. Here, we found an odd mix of tacky tourist attractions (such as a corn palace and a giant roaring strobe-lighted T-rex) and miles and miles of empty prarie and rangeland. And the sky really does look bigger over the praries. We could watch thunderstorms coming towards us for miles. We hiked through a prarie in Badlands National Park and could see the grasses blowing in the wind and all of the flowers blooming.
There were also hundreds of prarie dogs, standing atop their holes and giving alarm calls. Apparently they are a keystone species.
And my dad wanted to visit an old missile silo and an air force base, so we did. And there was quite a stark contrast between the state of the facilities/funding that the air force has compared to the National Park Service.
And we went in a cave. Caves are fun.
WYOMING – another very large state. I met the person I’m working with and signed my work papers at the University of Wyoming. Their campus has a bronze T-rex statue, which is a lot cooler than a wildcat, I think. We went on a massive grocery shopping trip to get food for the whole summer and filled 3 carts with food.
And now I have made it up to Yellowstone. The otter poop collecting starts Tuesday.
3 comments:
Those prairie dogs are so cute! Can't believe you drove all the way to Wyoming. Hope you're having a good time!
jan! i'm glad you arrived safely, and for some reason south dakota sounds awesome... i'd love to see those big prarie skies haha. anyway, hope you're doing well:)
oh ps, this is meg, not "margaret"... not sure why i'm logged in as a margaret cause i don't remember even making a blogspot account.
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