Pennies and predators

I got a much better sleep last night...no train horns blaring.  I had to battle a little Denver rush hour traffic this morning to make my tour at the United States Mint.  The guided tour was only 45 minutes long, but was well worth my time.  There was some history on the mint, and we could see coins being made below us on the production floor.

Afterward, I drove a short distance away to visit Voodoo Doughnut...the first shop to open away from Oregon.  The Portland creme doughnut was delicious!  I spent the rest of my very leisurely day at the Denver Zoo. The city should be very proud...they have a great zoo!  They have almost every animal you can think of at the Denver Zoo...and then some!  And, I got a lot of awesome photos.

Banded Mongoose

 Serval

 Amur Leopard

 Clouded Leopard (cub)

 Black and White Colobus Monkey, Gibbon

 Cheetah

 African Wild Dog

 South African Lion

I would have taken more photos, but my camera ran out of battery power.  And, I didn't bring my spare!  Oh, well.  It forced me to spend the rest of the afternoon actually LOOKING at the animals rather than concentrating on taking photos of them.  And, that was a good thing.  

When I got back to the car, my happy day took a negative turn.  I had bought a brand new window shade shortly after I got my new car.  It has a VERY reflective surface, which I guess is supposed to deflect the heat away from the windshield.  I should have known it would not be good for my windshield crack.  I removed the shade to find the crack had grown about 10 inches more!  Well, so much for my great window shade.  At least the crack is moving in a fairly straight line now, not that it makes any difference.  Well, tomorrow I leave Denver and start slowly heading back west.  More parks and it looks like rain again on the horizon. 

Trains, Planes and Automobiles...did I say trains?

How was I to know?  I guess if I had consulted Trip Advisor, I would have known.  So, I was settled into my hotel in Cheyenne, WY last night when I heard train horns.  Loud train horns.  Not once, but several times during the evening.  At that point, I DID check out Trip Advisor, and sure enough, there were complaints about train horns.  Concerned that my sleep would be affected by the cacophony, I decided to use the rock and roll earplugs that I always carry with me.  Now, these earplugs don't cancel out ALL noise, but it was better than nothing.  Turns out I only recall hearing train horns only once during the night, and I immediately went back to sleep.  Needless to say, I won't be staying at that hotel...or any hotels in that general vicinity...in the future.

Before leaving Cheyenne this morning, there was one little thing that needed to be addressed.  A few days ago, I noticed only the driver's window switch was working.  None of the other automatic window switches seemed to work.  That could be inconvenient if I want to take a photo on the passenger side of the car and can't roll down the window.  I happened to notice a Subaru dealership just a block away from my hotel yesterday, so decided to drop in to see if my problem could be fixed.  I spoke to a nice young lady working in the service department, and explained my window switch issue.  To my relief, she knew exactly what the problem was.  I had inadvertently hit the window disable switch adjacent to the door lock switch.  Now, why didn't I notice that?  I felt pretty silly, but my old Blazer never had that particular switch.

I drove down to Denver and spent a relaxing day at a couple of museums.  The first one was the Forney Museum of Transportation.  This facility had a lot of nice old and rare cars, in addition to other modes of transportation.  Trains, bicycles, motorcycles...even horse drawn vehicles.

 

One thing that added a little flavor to your standard museum of this type was the inclusion of wax figures.  They came from a former local wax museum, and they conveniently fit in to the historical theme. This bright yellow beauty was once owned by Amelia Earhart...who is sitting behind the wheel.

One display that was not so effective was the Wright Brothers.  I don't know if they really looked like this, but it got a chuckle out of me!

In the afternoon, I went to Wings Over The Rockies Air & Space Museum.  This museum didn't have the biggest collection of planes, but they more than made up for it with their other exhibits.  There was a big emphasis on aviation history in Colorado, and I really enjoyed the video with Harrison Ford promoting flying in the Rocky Mountain area.

The one fighter...actually starfighter...that most impressed me was the official Star Wars X-Wing replica.  It had been constructed for several Star Wars promotional events, and now resides permanently at this museum.

I really enjoy seeing miniature items in museums, and I loved the cross section of a jet plane model that included little people inside.  Such attention to detail! 

So, I'll be spending one more fun day in Denver, and it looks like the weather will be perfect for a zoo visit.  As usual, I'll be looking to take a lot of animal pics! 

Fossils, insects...and a spider

Today was Hump Day of my road trip...the halfway point.  When I left Hot Springs, SD this morning, it was sunny and 45 degrees.  By the time I reached Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, it had warmed up another 10 degrees with gusty winds.  Not again!  Wind kind of put a damper on my visit to the Badlands, but I wasn't about to let it ruin my day.  As I parked my car, a dove landed on a sign as if to welcome me.  I'm pretty sure it was a collared dove, which is a non-native (invasive) species.

 

After looking at the park's museum exhibits, I headed out on the 2.7 mile Fossil Hills trail.  The path was paved the entire way, which made it easy walking.  I couldn't help but notice the many small, black hairy caterpillars walking on the concrete.  It was quite humorous, since the strong winds kept blowing them off their multiple feet!  Those caterpillars weren't the only critters on the walkway.  Ants, grasshoppers, crickets, other caterpillars...even a spider, which was eating a grasshopper!  It was a veritable insect highway!  Okay....spiders aren't insects, they're arachnids.  But, you get the idea.  Yes, those dark specks on the path are those black caterpillars.  I tried to avoid stepping on them! 

 

 

 

The trail took me to the University and Carnegie Hill dig sites, where in the early 1900s, most of the parks fossils were uncovered. 

After consuming my picnic lunch, I hiked the shorter one-mile Daemonelix trail, named after the unique corkscrew fossils.  These unusual fossils formed from the spiral burrows of the large rodent-like Paleocastor.  As I walked to the Daemonelix, still embedded in the bluff, I passed rock outcroppings formed from ancient sand dunes.

After a week of visiting parks and staying in smaller cities and towns, I'll hitting Denver tomorrow for some urban sights...and Thai food! 

South Dakota's Jewels: Part Two

Before leaving Wall, SD this morning, I had to try Wall Drug's famous donuts.  I bought two, one with vanilla icing and the other chocolate.  I ate the large vanilla cake donut and I would have to say it was darn good!  I saved the chocolate one for later.  I was so relieved the wind had died down from yesterday's huge gusts.  By the time I reached Mount Rushmore National Memorial, the sun was shining, and I was in good spirits.  As I approached the attraction, I stopped to get a distant photo of the famous sculpture of four Presidents...George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

As I walked the Presidential Trail, I took photos of the sculpture from many vantage points.  It's really hard to take a BAD photo, and it's interesting how each figure can look different from alternate angles.

When I left Mount Rushmore, there were a couple of cars stopped in the road looking at...mountain goats!  I have NEVER seen wild mountain goats, and here were a female and her calf!  Awesome!

The second touristy destination of the day was Jewel Cave National Monument.  After buying my ticket for the Scenic Cave Tour, I waited around outside for a bit.  There were chipmunks running around the area adjacent to visitor center building.  I think they were least chipmunks, and I got a photo of one eating what looks like a wasp!

The hour and a half cave tour was interesting.  As with my previous attempts to take cave photos, needless to say, it's hard to get good shots with a point and shoot camera.  Here are a couple to get an idea what I saw.

I had been hoping to see Wind Cave National Park, too, but realizing I wouldn't make it there in time for a scheduled tour, I changed my plans.  The Black Hills area around Jewel Cave consists of rolling prairies, and as I left the area, I spotted a sign that warned to watch for bison.  Next thing I know, I spot cars stopped along the side of the road...again!  This time...pronghorn antelope!  Now, I've seen pronghorn once, but I didn't get very good photos.  It was a different story on this occasion.  Such beautiful animals!

As I continued driving, I barely made it one mile when I came across a single young bison...then a larger adult...and another!  They were all peaceful grazing by themselves.  Here's a pic of the third one I saw.

My final destination of the day was the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs. This site is the largest Columbian mammoth exhibit in the world, and also houses woolly mammoths, too.  One thing that makes this place unique is that the mammoth bones are in dirt...they are NOT fossils! 

Tomorrow, I head over to another state and more outdoor activities.  I see there's more wind in the forecast...maybe a little rain, too!  Ugh! 

Badlands: Jewel of South Dakota

Last night when I arrived at my pit stop in Rapid City, SD, it was windy and rainy.  This morning when I woke up, the skies were clear, but it was still VERY windy! And, cold!  It would warm up to about 50 degrees today, but the gusty winds made it seem so much colder!  My main destination of the day was Badlands National Park, but on the way, I stopped for a little history lesson.  I checked out an old Delta-09 missile launch facility, part of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.  Back in 1991 when the U.S. and Soviet Union signed the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START), both sides agreed to destroy part of their nuclear arsenal.  It was decided to keep a couple of launch facilities...after removing the missiles, of course...for educational purposes.  I was only able to see some of the surface structures, but it was still impressive.

Despite the strong winds putting a damper on any hiking I planned to do at Badlands, I still had a great day there.  Taking photos was somewhat of a challenge, given the gusts, but it was hard to take a bad picture.  The landscapes and rock formations were gorgeous, and I was able to make good use of my camera's panorama setting.

The park also had a prairie dog town, but after two days of seeing those critters, I had my fill of them.  At one point while driving along, I came across another vehicle stopped on the road.  I looked around to see why, and spotted three female bighorn sheep casually grazing nearby.  This was the first time I've ever seen bighorns in the wild, and it was really cool.

It was only later after I checked into my hotel and looked over my photos that I discovered I had snapped a lot more bighorns.  While taking in the scenery, I spotted a group of specks that I zoomed in on, but couldn't quite identify.  I took a few photos anyway, and forgot about it.  This is what my camera captured.

Later in the afternoon, I visited the town of Wall, with its famous drug store.  Anyone who has driven I-90 and other highways in the area would be hard pressed not to notice the Wall Drug billboards advertising 5 cent coffee and free ice water!  I got sucked into checking out the tourist trap, and it was what I expected.  It's basically a huge gift store, but it was a good excuse to buy a few early Christmas presents.  I must admit I found their mechanical singing people a bit creepy, though. 

Tomorrow, it supposed to be SUNNY! And, WARM!  At least I consider 60s temps warm.  To me, that's perfect!  One more day in South Dakota.  I might go back to Wall Drug tomorrow morning and grab one of their famous donuts...