"Stir" takes to the road again!

[Stir Young]

Hey, its me, Gary Young! You know, the smart alecky guy who was gonna go out west??? I thought I might try doing one of these blog thingies about my trip to Yellowstone Park and back.

So who is Stir? Well, that's been my nickname since I was in high school. I was originally called "Youngster" by one of my friends, I guess because I only looked about 12 years old when I was a Junior. As time went on, "Youngster" got shortened to "Ster", or "Stir", as I prefer to spell it, and people just ASSUMED that the shortened variety came about because I "stirred" up trouble. Why, nothing could be further from the truth....c'mon, you know me....I'm a peacemaker!

Well, anyway, about 2 years ago, I embarked on a quest to find people whom I'd worked with in Yellowstone Park in the summer of 1969. It became a cooperative project as I found others, and they started looking too. Along the way, we've been able to account for about 12 people, and the idea for an employee reunion came about. That reunion took place on August 14th and 15th 2009, in Gardiner, Montana, and the story that follows will hopefully tell a little about the summer of 1969 in Yellowstone Park, and my journey back there 40 years later.

And just who is that mischieveous looking guy up above? Why that's me, in the summer of 1969, of course.

[Stir Young]

This picture doesn't do any justice at all to the beautiful panoramic view of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but it was the best I could do with my camera.

[Stir Young]

As I mentioned before, I didn't know much about NoDak.....for some reason, I thought it was a flat sagebrush desert. I quickly found myself rolling along on I-94 through gently rolling hills, and big farms. It was quite green.

I got off the highway to fill up with gas in Valley City, and then I was right back at it. One nice thing, the speed limit was mostly 75MPH, not 70 like in Michigan. I was driving into a head wind, and at 75 to 80, I wasn't going to get the best gas mileage, but I was on a mission.

(I passed right t'roo Bismarck, and was t'inking dat I might have to explain dat to JoJo, but dere was always da chance she wouldn't read dis blog. Dat was faulty t'inking on my part, eh?)

The land gradually changed to a more western look, less lush, with big rock formations popping up occasionally. It was quite interesting to look at actually, and the further west I got, the more rough and inhospitable the land began to look.

Eventally I came upon signs advertising the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, and I stopped at a rest area that had a park Interpretive Center. By this time the land was very reminiscent of the Badlands in SoDak.

I got out to stretch my legs, and a Park Ranger was shooing people back into the Park building....there was a buffalo wandering around not more than 50 feet from the door. I quickly went inside, but there were people dawdling to try to get pictures.

There were the usual items for sale in this Interpretive Center....books, postcards, caps and the like. I got in line at the counter because I thought this might be the place to buy a "Senior Pass".

Yep, I was now old enough, my 62nd birthday was in July. For $10.00, a senior can buy a lifetime pass to all National Parks. This senior pass had at some point replaced the old "Golden Eagle" Pass. I understand people holding the Golden Eagles can still use them, though.

As I stepped up to the desk, a lady barged right in front of me, with a huge armload of Beanie Baby type dolls, but of eagles, bears, wolves and the like. She dumped them on the counter and got out her credit card, explaining to the Ranger/Clerk that they were gifts for her grandchildren. Needless to say the Ranger/Clerk seemed quite elated with the upcoming sale. I honestly don't think either her or the customer realized I'd been cut off at the pass. I really didn't want to make a big stink about it, but I really didn't want to wait it out either, so I interupted them and asked if this was the place to buy the Senior Pass. The Ranger/Clerk gave me a look, like a person would give to a boorish interupter, and politely told me "No, you get them in Medora". I didn't know what that meant, but I went back outside and looked at the big map (the buffolo was long gone), and determined that Medora was the entrance to the Teddy Roosevelt National Park. As I really wanted to keep pushing west, I decided to forego any further exploration of this national park at this time. I went out and took a couple of pictures, and hit the road again.

[Stir Young]

Here's a picture of that Sleep Inn, in case you're ever in the area.

[Stir Young]

(Yah, I'd better get back to dis blog about dat trip to Yellowstone Park, or JoJo is gonna get madder and madder, eh? And to make t'ings worse, I passed right t'roo her town and didn't stop for a cup of coffee!)

Day two of my trip ended with me getting a room at the Fargo Sleep Inn, right after a real cloudburst. This was the first time I'd ever been in North Dakota.....of course I was just barely into the state.

Nake and I always found North Dakota (NoDak) and South Dakota (SoDak) to be extremely hilarious, mainly because we liked to say NoDak and SoDak, kinda like when Seinfeld liked to say "Salsa"! We really didn't know much about either place. In the summer of 1969, though, Nake ended up dating a girl from SoDak, and I met a very nice girl from NoDak. I got sidetracked in my pursuit of her, however (I didn't prioritize), and she left, never to be seen or heard from again, by me anyway.

So, at the Sleep Inn, I had to ding the bell at the check front desk to get some service to check in. The young lady seemed very distant and disinterested in the whole process.....I thought maybe she was ticked off because she found out she wasn't ever gonna get to star in a Sleep Inn TV commercial.

I got checked in and went a couple of blocks away to Burger King for something to eat, and the same kind of thing happened....I had to wait a long time for someone to come from the back to take my order. This lady seemed quite removed from the whole process too. I was trying to remember back to the movie "Fargo".....did those folks have that distant aura about them too?

Oh well, I ate and went back to my room, and crashed for the night, and in the morning I got up and hit the road again. In the back of my mind, I wanted to get through NoDak, which was gonna be about 350 miles, and get well into Montana.

[Jolene]

You were in North Dakota and didn't stop for coffee in Bismarck, or even to say eh!

I ought...lol I did that reverse trip end of June this year to the U.P. Duluthis beautiful country too!

[Stir Young]

So I just drove along on highway M-28 on Day 2, and eventually made my way through the western Upper Peninsula on to US-2, and into Wisconsin, for the relatively short distance to Duluth, Minnesota. All of this part of the journey has a real "Up North" kind of feel...lots of sandy soil and pine trees, streams and lakes, and sometimes odd looking, but practical homes and outbuildings. People up here are used to long, cold winters. Its often a hardscrabble type of living. The folks always seem quite polite up here, although not always warm and fuzzy. Sometimes political correctness is sacrificed for practicality.

Coming into Superior, Wisconsin, which sits across the St. Louis Bay of Lake Superior, and is the sister city to Duluth, I ran into patchy fog. That fog kept getting worse and worse the closer I got to Duluth. By the time I crossed into Duluth, and got on I-35 for the very short jaunt to Cloquet, visibility was very bad. I just tried to stay out of the way in the right hand lane, and keep moving. By the time I got to the Cloquet exit, visibility was near normal again.
Next was going to be a the long run across the State of Minnesota, over State Road 210, and then onto US 10, to Moorhead. This was all new territory to me.

Several years ago I had spent a couple of days in Duluth, mostly checking out the Great Lakes nautical heritage of the area, and when Nake and I went west in 1969, we took I-90 across the very southern part of the state. I can't say I remember much of the 1969 visit to Minnesota, although I still have a picture I took at a rest area surrounded by a cornfield....the land was quite flat.

This run across Minnesota took me over lands very similar to Northern Lower Michigan and the Upper Peninsula. It was a very a agreeable drive, traffic wasn't bad at all....there are lots of passing lanes, or even 4 lanes through towns and cities. West of Baxter, when State Road 210 runs into US 10, the rest of the way on 10 to Moorhead is a multi-lane divided highway.

When I reached Moorhead, I felt I had driven about far enough for the day. The all day drizzle was turning into a downpour. I got on I-94 heading west, but decided to pull off and get lodging. I pulled into a nationally known inn (OK, I forgot to write it down, so I don't remember the name) ran through the rain into the lobby, only to find it in complete darkness, and not a soul around. I beat a hasty retreat out of there, and got back onto I-94, and crossed into Fargo, North Dakota, where I soon pulled off and got a room at a Sleep Inn for the night.

I had driven 551 miles that day, but I had made it to North Dakota!

[Stir Young]

Just west of Ishpeming I came across "Da Yoopers Tourist Trap", so I pulled in to see what that was all about. Sorry to say, it wasn't open yet.

For dose of you unfamiliar wit' "Da Yoopers", dey are a band dat plays a tongue in da cheek kind of music about "Da U.P." Dey once was even on "Saturday Night Live", eh?

[Stir Young]

I left Munising on Day 2 of my adventure in a drizzly kind of rain, although the temperature wasn't too bad. It was the perfect kind of day to drive. I didn't have a specific destination for this day, as I had a lot of two lane highway ahead of me, much of which I had never driven. I did hope to make it to Moorhead, Minnesota, at least, where I would pick up I-94 for the next several hundred miles.

[Stir Young]

As I mentioned before, I just love these Mom and Pop places....this one was very clean, but of course, the walls were a little thin. My room had an avocado green tub and stool......that's still a good color for decor, right? Notice the white seat and lid......nice touch, I think.

I didn't know at this time, but this would be my last stay in a "Mom & Pop" for the whole trip. So there went one of my biggest senses of adventure on the road, that of the unknown lodging. I understand a lot of people actually make reservations in advance when they travel. I, however, have never felt comfortable doing that.

[Stir Young]

This is where I stayed my first night out on the road. Here's my section of the Hillcrest Motel & Cabins. I might add, the cabins refered to in the name looked to be uninhabitable....possibly they were being renovated....after all it was under new management! My room was the second from the right, and my ride is the Saturn Vue.