Back to Michigan

From Denver Colorado we took a 2.5 hr flight east to Grand Rapids Michigan.  As many of you know we were based here for a year in 2006 travelling the speedway circuit crewing for Jeep Van Wormer and his late model saloon car.  It had been 6 years since we last saw everyone so we were pretty excited to be returning.
Michigan's tree lined freeways and farms with large barns and silos was a welcoming sight and we headed north to meet up with everyone at a speedway meeting. 

Jeep's car is similar to a super saloon raced at the dirt tracks in NZ but the tracks here are mostly privately owned and can be found sitting in the middle of farmer's corn fields throughout the country.  They are normally around a 3/8th mile oval dirt track and can be quite steeply banked.  The Baypark stadium type are few and far between.  Many of the drivers compete professionally and follow certain series where huge sums of money can be won at each nights racing.  The large semis (sem-eye in American) are really huge Motorhomes that come complete with 2 TVs in the lounge ( so you can watch from wherever you are sitting while travelling), as well as TVs set in the ceiling above every bunk bed, full kitchens and bathrooms.  These tow the haulers which house complete workshops, 2 race cars, spare engines, tyres, panels and parts.  All up the rig is 75ft long.  The rear door of the hauler folds down then lifts up in order to retrieve the race car which is stored up in the top compartment. The World of Outlaw series of race meetings was in town and even though Jeep wasn't following this circuit this summer he decided to show up and have a run.  A great qualifying run meant that he automatically made it through to the main feature race a the end of the night, its always a good thing to have no damage and just wait for the main race.  Jeep started in 3rd spot as the flag dropped to signal the start of the 50 lap race.  By lap 6, he was in 1st place and remained there to take the $10000 win. They reckoned it was kiwi good luck and so the boys all went down to the winners circle for the presentation and photos after the race.  A great reunion evening!

Through Nebraska

The lower South Dakota area is also famous for its fossils and many dinosaur bones have been found here including the largest, most complete skeleton of a T Rex.  At historic Hot Springs we visited the Mammoth Site.  Columbian and Woolly Mammoths looking to escape the bitter cold of the Ice Age were attracted to the warm pond at Hot Springs and every now and then they would slip into the steep sided sink hole and become trapped.  Their bodies became entombed in the silt.  The site has a climate controlled building over the top of it and the bones are displayed as found (in situ).  It shows some of the best ice-age fossils on the planet and we enjoyed the tour as we learnt about it.
Travelling south we entered Nebraska, another state with large rolling prairies and many ranches making hay.  They seem to sow grass in large round circles, water it continuously with huge walking sprinklers and then harvest it.  The feed suppliers had the hay stacked neatly out in the open in their yards while the smaller farmers left it in the meadow where it was made.  On the back road that we took we only saw 1 car in the whole 40 miles of highway.  And yes, the driver had a cowboy hat on.
We cut back through into Wyoming on I80 (the pony express trail) to visit the Ruts Historic landmark and Register Cliff as the history behind the names captured our attention.  The ruts which are some of the best preserved on the Oregon trail and cut several feet deep into the sandstone, were made by thousands of wagons on their way to South Pass, a valley that enabled emigrants to cross the Rockies.  As emigrants travelled along the trail, they marked their names and the date of their journey in certain places to signal to friends and family travelling later that they had made it thus far, hence the name Register Cliff.  It was a special place to ponder about the pioneers and we could imagine them camping there beside the river, the campfires and the stories shared.

Mt Rushmore South Dakota

Today we crossed into the lower western corner of South Dakota, the Black Hills National Park and home to the famous Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monument.  The scenery along the way continued to be vast prairies with empty roads which of course are in very good condition thanks to the ample supply of rocks around this side of the country.  Long trains chugged beside us and the beautifully marked wild pronghorn deer grazed under the hot summer sun.  At the Crazy Horse Monument we enjoyed the Indian Museum of Nth America with its artwork, beading and weaving displays and saw spear tips created before the bow and arrow was invented.  Not far down the road we climbed up towards Mt Rushmore and rounded the corner to see the President’s faces on the rock…..it was a stunning sight!
From here we cruised on out through the Badlands National Forest seeing the busy little prairie dogs digging in the dirt, whitetail deer, wild horses AND 3 herds of wild Buffalo!  The park is home to around 1300 head of American Bison and they can wander freely anywhere, which is lucky because they eat around 4% of their body weight in forage and drink 20 gallons of water daily. 
At Custer the Trading Post had interesting items for sale including gold panning equipment, snow shoes, horns, skulls and furs.
So many special sights in one day and loads of memories to take home.

On into Wyoming

From Bonneville Utah we crossed the great salt plains staying on I80 which in this state runs exactly east-west and is dead straight for almost 50 miles.  Out the window the white landscape with rocky mountains behind continued until we neared the Great Salt Lake.  In places along the road edge the salt was built up around the fence posts, it looked like snow.  Salt Lake City with all her temples (Mormon) sat against the mountains and being short on time we rounded it and carried on into Wyoming.  The rocks changed colour and became an orangey-red for some time while the small ranches in the valleys looked lush and green with hay making in full swing.  Halfway into the state, the landscape changed again and we viewed miles of unusual sculptured mounds, all with flat tops.   After a good night’s sleep we continued on across the Rocky Mountain range and crossed the Continental Divide in the middle of the state.  This Great Divide runs along the top of the Rockies from the Bering Sea up north down through the Andes in South America.  It basically divides the water run-off and decides whether it goes out west to the Pacific Ocean or east down to the Gulf of Mexico.  As we travelled further north, the roadsides were full of small sunflowers and the valleys opened up to reveal immense prairies with huge ranches.  Angus cattle & wild mule deer grazed in the sun but we didn’t see any houses or people for miles.  We passed a Roping School and a later on a Grizzly processing shop.  As we were on the trails taken by early pioneers, we stopped at Independence Rock, a landmark point that they all wanted to reach by Independence Day to ensure they could make it to their destination before first snow.  We spent the night at Douglas where the Wyoming State Fair was on; full of the best animals, produce, baking, quilts and cowboys.

Bonneville Salt Flats

Up early and on the road at 6.30am we were excited to be heading to Bonneville Speedway, our aim being to get there early for the start of Speed week before the day got too hot.  But 7 miles out of town while doing 75mph, we had a blow-out on the right front.  The delay saw us reach the salt flats at 11am so we plastered ourselves with 50+ sunblock and crunched our way through the pits.  The salt looked like ice but was very grippy and stuck to everything.  There were cars of all shapes and sizes, standard street types, big rocket looking dragsters and motorbikes.  We viewed the start line and tech inspection areas and then decided to see how long the pits actually were.  The air con in the truck was very welcoming as we cruised the 6 mile length of pits!  People had their RV’s and trailers set up all along the edge of the race track, with shelters covering their homemade garage dreams.  The men huddled over engines while the women prepared American hot dogs for lunch.  The rat rods were there along with the rednecks and their pickups, one lot had a stuffed fox sitting on the roof.  As far as the eye could see there were cars and tow wagons and when they left the start line it wasn’t long before they disappeared into the white distance.  The heat made the bottom edges of the mountains dance up off the land.  We admired the Americans and their love of automobiles; street cars, classic cars, vintage cars, rat rods, muscle cars……they were all there getting covered in salt but being used and enjoyed.
It was also awesome to think that after spending months or even years in a shed tinkering away, many people were there realising their dreams, just like Burt Munro and his Indian.

Reno

Today we arrived in Reno, the biggest little city in the world, full of casinos and thousands of cars as the largest classic car event in the USA, Hot August Nights kicked off.  It was the Beach Hop on steroids with 6000 registered cars and thousands more just there for the fun.  Spread throughout the enormous car parks of the casino/hotel complexes and all the streets downtown, everywhere we went there was show after show full of expensive gleaming beauties.  From vintage through to the latest muscle cars, we ogled and drooled and saw cars we had never even heard of.  The rat rods (a car that's made out of scrap parts from multiple old cars; no paint, rusty parts; looks like a junky hot rod) were popular and we saw some very cool looking contraptions.  Connected to the Atlantis Casino where we stayed was the Reno Events Centre where the Barrett Jackson Collector Car Auction was on.  We have watched this on TV before and this was the first time they were at Hot August Nights so it was pretty awesome to be at the opening ceremony and Craig managed to keep his hands in his pockets when the bidding started.  To escape the 32C heat we headed to the National Automobile Museum where hundreds of shiny and beautifully restored cars sat each with their own story.  The highlight was seeing the 1907 Thomas Flyer, the winner of the New York to Paris race, the first and only around-the-world automobile race ever held.
Late in the afternoon we burned gas as we took the I80 freeway east across to the other side of Nevada, talking all the way about another couple of great days and taking in the barren, isolated landscape where whirlwinds kicked up the sand.

Into Nevada

From Lake Tahoe we crossed into Nevada, the gambling state with casinos everywhere you look.  At Carson City we visited the Nevada State Museum and learnt about the underground mining and gold rush in the area.  The collection of Wild West guns captured the bloke’s attention for quite a while and the American Indian displays were very interesting with beautiful handmade baskets hundreds of year’s old and little sculptures of animals made out of rock.  On we drove through Virginia City, another gold rush town with gorgeous old original buildings, horses and donkeys in the street and a quaint village atmosphere.  This was and still is a very productive gold area with over $650 million of gold mined back in the day.  We were really in cowboy country, nearly everyone in the street had western boots and a Stetson on and the red necks drove through in their pickups with chilly bins tied on the back and dogs yelping.