The end of the trip is coming, but tonight we’re crashing at the Pittsburgh Renaissance.  By some magic of Marriott, we’ve been put on the top floor of the incredibly opulent hotel here on the Allegheny River.  Our room is astoundingly amazing, but this view is what makes it special.  Pittsburgh is a city of bridges, their spans across the rivers here make it truly a unique town.

 

This is our

There are few rests on the long roadtrip.  It’s always hurry up and wait.  Drive til you’re tired and can’t see straight, then rest long enough to recharge halfway and drive some more.  Fortunately, we’ve abandoned this strategy over the last few days to cruise gently homeward.  

 

On Thursday, we drove the short trip to Indianapolis, where we dined with our friend Jeff, then had dessert with

We had a peaceful drive through Missouri today, seeing a good portion of the state as we drove south on US-71 and then up I-44 toward Saint Louis.  Judging by the roadside signs and what else we could observe, we concluded that Missouri’s economy is based up on fireworks and pornography, with a bit of soybeans and corn mixed in.  

 

Arriving downtown, we parked the car and headed into the

Today’s drive took us east from Denver across Colorado and all of Kansas.  To say that this section of this great union is barren is to say that politicians enjoy an audience.  From our stop in Burlington, Colorado until 200+ miles into Kansas, there wasn’t a single hill.  Seriously.  No change in the grade of the land.  Flat.  Barren.  Lots of crops.  Occasional grain elevators.

 

South Dakota

We arrived in Denver around 4pm today after a twisting trip through Wyoming and northern Colorado.  We took I-90 west of Spearfish to Wyoming 585 which runs southeast from Sundance, WY to Four Corners, WY and then joins with US-85 that heads south to I-25.  The road from Sundance was absolutely breathtaking, mountains and high prairie, all manner of livestock on farms and ranches, but the real

We stopped in Deadwood, SD on our way back from Rushmore.  Before the HBO series about the town, Deadwood’s claim to fame is that it’s the place where Jack McCall shot Wild Bill Hickok in the back while he played poker, holding the Aces and Eights, in what would become known as the “Dead Man’s Hand.”  

 

I think Wild Bill would be pissed if he could see Deadwood  today.  Don’t get me wrong, I

Tonight we had dinner at the Seven Grill and Soupshack, and boy what a dinner it was!  My folks hadn’t scoped out all the options, but we’d driven by this place the night before and figured it might make for an awesome dinner, and we were not let down.

 

Dad had the Shrimp Cocktail, which despite being over 1500 miles from the nearest shrimp-bearing body of water was excellent.  Mom had a custom

Tiff remarked, as we drove away, “It’s a very American monument.”  We turned away from the mountain, the car working up to speed through the hairpin turns.  “Think about it,” she said, “Only Americans would say, ‘Our leaders are so great we’re going to carve their faces into a fucking mountain!’”  

 

She’s right, though.  How very American that we would etch into the very firmament a portrait of

We booked down from Spearfish toward Custer, SD and the Crazy Horse Monument that’s being carved out of a mountainside by a family that’s been working on the same project since 1948.  The sculptor was chosen by the Lakota Indian Tribe almost 60 years ago, and he spent much of his life on the mountain carving Chief Crazy Horse out of the mountain.  So far, his face is finished and stares East

We made it to Spearfish, driving hard across the plains like our ancestors, albeit at easily 5 times the pace of the wagon train.  The long haul across South Dakota is full of rolling hills and empty grassland, and but for being dotted with the occasional herd of cattle, or a grain silo or dilapidated farm house or barn, you’d think it was entirely devoid of civilization.  Instead, you see the