On our recent trip, we loved the route we took. We drove along 80 E, then ventured North to Mount Rushmore. John had been here before, but it was a first for me. It was amazing. Since John had been there as a young kid, the dirt road has been replaced with a parking tower and a beautiful observation platform has been built. It now is a lovely monument.
As a child we lived in CA but my grandparents lived in NY. We drove along Route 66 back in those days. My dad did all the driving and each trip he tried to beat his time from the previous trip. We stopped to see nothing. Now I am married to an explorer.
John was reminded of his family trips and tells a story from a summer that he and I were a "couple" in Jr High School. John's family went on a six week camping trip across country. At one of the stops, Rockerville, South Dakota, John saw a sign that announced an area called "Mistletoe Glen". He was determined to bring me some mistletoe. So the next morning he left the campground and took off into the woods.
He walked for hours looking up into the thick branches never finding any mistletoe. Then he realized that it was getting late so he started back. One problem. He didn't know where back was. So, as he tells the story, he was scared, but not panicked to be lost. He flipped a coin and went that way until he got to a dirt road where he flipped a coin again and eventually found the two lane highway and trudged back into camp just as it was getting dark. His family hadn't even been concerned that he was gone!
About a half hour after John told me this story we saw a sign to Rockerville and took the the small road. No longer on a main road, the campground, now abandoned was barely there.
The woods and the path in the previous photo was still there and so was the strip of souvenir shops and cafes, now abandoned.
I loved hearing this story about the young John and actually seeing the location of his story, but I didn't remember him ever telling me the story before. John looked at me for a moment and then said that when he got back home that I had a new boyfriend so I never knew about his adventure.
That's a great story ... but I must say, my heart did a little flipflop and I let out with an "aaawwww" as I read the last sentence!
I love road trips and am itching for one. (This always happens in the fall.) One of my favorites was my "leaf-peeper" trip to the New England states. One of the reasons I loved it so much was because we took the car ferry over Lake Champlain, and I LOVE car ferries.
Anyway, thanks for sharing. Your road trip is my vicarious thrill!
Posted by: KateinCleveland | Tuesday, 08 September 2009 at 08:05 PM
Wow -- I'm drooling over those abandoned buildings!
Posted by: Michele | Tuesday, 08 September 2009 at 10:59 PM
Oh you know Ginny...love em and leave em. ;-) Glad you two were able to get back to what was meant to be I'd say!
Posted by: Maureen | Thursday, 10 September 2009 at 04:49 PM
Aw gee, that story would be heart breaking if it didn't have a happy ending :D I love the romantic gesture of mistletoe, that's so sweet!
I can't believe how many abandoned, or at least closed up old buildings you all have run across. That's kind of sad too, but they have a certain beauty too. A bit like monuments themselves, stonehenge of the old timey toursity age ;)
Posted by: TACE | Friday, 11 September 2009 at 06:59 AM