We woke up around 10 today to have enough time to cook steel-cut oatmeal for Harlan’s Dad, who was expected to be up by 10:30 and ready for breakfast around 11:30. He slept in, however. When we did wake up we started the oatmeal, and while we were told it should only need to cook on the stove for about 30 minutes’ time, after an hour we just gave up and went with it. It certainly has more interesting texture than quick oats, and while Harlan and Brenda definitely preferred it, and Harlan’s Mom said it was good, it was clear that Harlan’s Dad prefers the stuff he’s used to.

We otherwise ran some errands and took care of stuff (scheduled the plumber to come out and check some faucets and stuff, oil change for the car, post office stuff for Brenda, and the rebate for Harlan’s new cell phone). We picked up a snack at the Woodfire Chicken place and headed home.

Oh, the new airbed+pad thing worked out pretty well (certainly much better than the mattress on the sofabed).

We both woke up around 3am – a combination of being a bit cold and the mattress of many contours. The good news is that we fell asleep again until after 10. There was unanimous consent to spend a part of the day finding a better sleep surface.

Other mundane tasks were also explored – the features and costs of Harlan’s parents’ phone service, what Comcast offers for internet access, where we might get some slide film developed, and where we could get some phone books from the current century (OK, that was a slight exaggeration, but it sounds better than the even more boring truth).

Brenda had a hankerin’ for a good grilled polish sausage from Stash’s Restaurant so we went there first. Next we picked up a newer phone book for a nearby city, then we went to Bed Bath and Beyond for a thick quilted bed pad. Of course, the day would not have been complete without a trip to the grocery store for some snacks and steel-cut oatmeal for breakfast tomorrow.

Harlan’s sister Nancy was due to arrive tonight from her vacation in Austin, but United said the plane would be delayed for at least 3-4 hours. Being no fool, she took this as a sign to extend her vacation until Wednesday. This, of course, means that the pork loin cooked for tonight will be eaten tomorrow instead of being served to Nancy.

Tonight was freezer pizza, some Birdseye green beans with spaetzle, two of the Moose Drool brown ales from the stock we are bringing to Tom (with his permisison, of course, as Harlan’s Dad wanted some beer with dinner and this saved us another trip to the store).

We spent the evening with Mom and Dad, looking at some of the pictures we’ve taken.

We slept until about 10 this morning, then checked out of the hotel about noon.

We headed over to the northern side of the river across from Starved Rock, at the lock and dam, where many folks go to watch the bald eagles. It was cloudy today, but visibility was still good. Somebody had set up a decent sized reflector telescope, and thru it one could see an eagle across the water very clearly.

We left there and headed to Roselle IL to meet with somebody Harlan has been working with online for a couple of years’ time for their first face-to-face meeting. Very nice guy; we went to the Big Bowl restaurant and had good food and conversation from 3pm until nearly 6pm.

From the restaurant we drove to Harlan’s parents’ place (I hope I punctuated that properly) and chatted for a while, picked up some food, and enjoyed the evening. Nancy (Harlan’s sister) is probably coming here from Austin tomorrow, unless she stays in Austin for another day or two. We’re planning to be here until Thursday, when we head to St. Louis for a visit with a friend of Harlan’s from grad school and do some restaurant hopping.

We decided to spend the night at the ancestral home on the matress of remarkable configurations. There’s an excellent chance that we’ll shop for a new matress for the sofabed in the morning, or perphaps check into a hotel so we can get a good night’s sleep.

The alarm went off at 8am, as usual. Harlan heard it and turned it off, and then (H: waited for Brenda to wake up, B: fell back asleep) until around 11. Brenda heard it and then (H: snored, B: waited for Harlan to wake up) until around 11.

We headed over to Mr. Salsas for breakfast, which was pretty tasty. Brenda remembered some of the exciting things Jarrett and Amanda did in Colorado on their recent trip there, so followed suit. After that, we toured the town of Peru IL, doing some shopping and basically vegging out.

Returning to the hotel around 5:30 or so, we did some more vegging until Harlan went to a local place to pick up dinner.

Basically, more vegging.

We hope to see the eagles in the morning, and will decide if we’re gonna stay here another day or head to Chicago.

The alarm went off on time, but we were both Movin’ Slow, and didn’t get the car packed up and hit the road until close to noon. The phone book said the AT&T Wireless store was next to the KrispyKreme we passed on the way to dinner last night, and that seemed to be a Sign. The good news was the “Hot Donuts Now” sign was off, so we were able to resist. Harlan was able to replace the broken belt clip holster for his new phone, and we stopped off at the CD Warehouse place next door and sold them a CD we picked up in Chico and replaced it with a 3-CD set of the best of the Jazz Crusaders.

Our next stop was IHOP for breakfast, and we now know 2 things: don’t order their oatmeal, and their Harvest Grain pancakes are better than the regular buttermilk pancakes.

We called the ranger at the Badlands visitors center and told him about the bobcat picture. He was interested in it, so we got his email address so we could send him the url to the picture. He said they might want to use it for their collection. We’ll see…

Once on the highway we made it to the hotel in Ogelsby IL by about 3pm, and after checking in we headed straight to Starved Rock State Park for some hiking.

We climbed to the top of Starved Rock (it seemed smaller to Harlan, who last saw the place probably 35 years ago), which now has a view of a wintering area for some bald eagles (we saw 4 or 5 of them). We hiked to a few more places (including French Canyon, with some frozen waterfalls) and it was pretty nice. If you ask Brenda about these places she’ll say they were pretty and it was nice, and if you ask her if the trails were muddy she’ll talk about how there was “mud everywhere” and it wasn’t much fun.

We’re planning to head back again tomorrow (the eagle viewing is best before 11am) and then hike more trails.

After we hiked, we visited the lodge. They have expanded everything there (the parking lot, the lodge, …) and lots of the trails have been closed, and much of the remaining ones are now “boardwalk” trails to avoid erosion.

Brenda was getting hungry, so we headed back to the hotel for a recommendation. We picked Mr. Salsas, a mexican place in town. Great chips (they didn’t salt them), good food, and Brenda will probably suggest we have another meal there because she really liked the way the fried chicken looked.

The alarm went off at 8 again this morning, and we were tired and it took longer than usual to get up. We also discovered we were indeed in Central Time, so it was really after 9. We were on the road by a quarter to 11 (central time).

Basically, we spent the day driving. We did see some billboards for the Corn Palace so we drove to it and thought it was so lame we didn’t even park the car and try and visit. OK, perhaps we were a little embarrassed at the thought of being the only ones walking in to the place…

We stopped for the night in Davenport IA, and the hotel clerk directed us to a Texas Road House for dinner. Brenda loved their chili and their bread with cinnamon butter. The manager gave us a coupon for a free appetizer on our next visit. As we probably won’t be back here anytime soon we’re thinking about finding a local geocache and leaving it there.

Harlan got the digital pictures loaded into the Badlands album of the galler (this link may not work after the albums are renamed to something better than “album57”, but for now they should be OK).

Harlan inadvertantly woke Brenda late last night as he filled the tub for a soak before bedtime. Sigh.

We woke up just after 8am again, and were on the road before 10am. We headed east, then north toward Rapid City, then east on 44 to the badlands. It was supposed to be a scenic route, but it was pretty dull until we got to the little road that heads north to Wall SD. Then it got Scenic! We got the car gassed up in Interior SD, then headed to the visitors center (near Cedar Pass). We watched a video on the area and talked to the ranger about what we should see, where we should hike, and where we should drive. We asked about the wildlife that lived in the area.

Our first hike was a little loop just north of the visitors center. We then drove north a bit more and hiked the short “window” trail, and then the “notch” trail. The notch trail was a lot more interesting – it was just marked with occasional stakes in the ground, and at one point there was a ladder that took us up maybe 80′ or so; it was made out of 1/4″ cables strung thru about 4″ diameter, 2′ long tree trunks. Brenda was not thrilled. She became less thrilled as some of the trail got close to the edge of the small canyon. Brenda did not finish the hike, but Harlan did and took more pictures. The good news is the return trip (at least the scary bits) were easier. Going down that ladder was harder than going up.

We then drove back south a bit, and then headed west on 240, staying in the Park headed back around toward Scenic SD (what a lie…) as sunset approached. Good thing, too, as about 4 miles past where 240 turned north (and we stayed heading west) we saw a critter trotting acroos a field. It stopped and hid in the grass when we stopped, and it sure looked like a bobcat! (The ranger we spoke with said he’d been at the park for about 5 years’ time and had never seen one.) The digital picture should be up tomorrow, and we will have to wait and see if the 35mm shots came out or not. We drove another 15 miles or so down the road, seeing bison, elk, and deer before we turned around and headed back east. Rather than take 240 north to Wall we followed the road back a bit more than halfway to Cedar Pass where a useful gravel road headed north to I90, at mile marker 121.

Once at I90 we headed back west to visit Wall Drug, which was about to close as we got there. Very interesting place – more than a little retro. We bought some stuff (magnets, tee shirts, etc.) and decided to see how far east we could go.

We settled on Chamberlain SD, where the clerk at the Holiday Inn Express suggested we eat at “Al’s Oasis”. Nice place, tasty food. Brenda ordered a scoop of cinnamon ice cream which tasted as good as the stuff from Maggie Moo’s. It was from Blue Bunny. Harlan ordered a bison burger to go for his dessert, and we also stopped by a TCBY for some white chocolate frozen yogurt with hot fudge sauce.

Back at the hotel, we pretty much took it easy (no West Wing tonight because the “real” president was on instead).

Tomorrow we plan to see if Al’s Oasis can do a good breakfast, and then see how far we can get toward Starved Rock State Park.

We woke up around 8 again, and were out of the hotel before 9:30. We headed north on the route recommended by several of the rangers, up 16 to Spring City, then turned SW on 16/385 to Hill City, then N on 17 to 231 to Mystic, Rochford, and then took 17 thru Dumont, and then went thru Cheynne Crossing, Savoy (where we almost saw Roughlock Falls except the last mile of the road was closed to auto traffic and it was windy and uphill, and covered with ice and snow), passed by Bridal Veil Falls (which was completely frozen), and headed into Spearfish. Brenda was not all that impressed with the route, but Harlan liked it.

We ate lunch at the 7 Grill and Soup Shack in Spearfish, upon the recommendation of the salesguy at the nearby RadioShack (where Harlan was again unable to find a belt clip for his cellphone). Great place! We shared big onion rings, and Brenda had a tomato bisque with corn, and Harlan had very good french onion soup and a very tasty grilled chicken with some green sauce on it. We then went east on 90 to Piedmont to try and find Bethlehem Cave, on the recommendation of a ranger at Wind Cave. We searched for a good half hour, passing several places that reminded Brenda of the movie “Deliverance”, but no luck.

We then headed a bit farther (further?) east on 90 to the Petrified Forest of the Black Hills, and discovered that while the gates were open the place was closed. The manager said we should feel free to walk the trail anyway, so we did and it was real impressive. We came across a woodpile that seemed to easily have a chord or two of logs on it and were amazed to discover the logs were all petrified. There were petrified tree stumps 12 to 18″ in diameter, some fallen trees that were petrified, and “things like that”.

We then stopped off at a Best Buy in Rapid City in yet another unsuccessful attempt to locate the cellphone belt clip, and headed toward Mt. Rushmore. We got there about 4pm, and saw a movie that described how the place was built. The trail that gets closer to the base of the monument has been closed for the past few days’ time because of ice and snow, and is not expected to reopen for at least a couple more days’ time. We stopped in to the gift shop and Brenda bought a magnet. Harlan noticed the “magic gloves” and “magic hat/cap” at the register, and the clerk said there was really nothing magical about either. Sigh.

We headed to The Gas Light for our last meal there, and finally had the bacon-wrapped shrimp (not as good as the ones at the mexican restaurant, Vallarta, outside of Crater Lake), and learned that they had sold out of the creme brulee the night before and had not yet made more.

Going back to the hotel we noticed that more progress had been made on the jigsaw puzzle (now maybe 20% done) and we got some quarters and laundry detergent.

Tomorrow we’re planning to drive around (and to the extent we can, thru) the Badlands, make a quick stop at Wall Drug, and start heading toward Starved Rock State Park in IL.