Badlands National Park

While it is interesting to see the wildlife of Badlands National Park, the real star here is the geology. The soils that can be seen in the exposed cliffs were laid down for tens of millions of years or more. Both the colors and shapes of the badlands are evidence of the geological history of this part of South Dakota.

At the bottom of the deep ravines, a dark grey material is the oldest of the visible strata. This rock, says signs in the park, is known as Pierre Shale (described by the U.S. Geological Survey as "dark-gray clay shale with calcareous and ferruginous concretions and sandy members") and is the result of sedimentary mud that once lay at the bottom of a sea that covered what is now Badlands National Park. Because of its origin, this layer contains fossils of sea life such as ammonites, early clams, and baculites.

The Pierre Shale was deposited over the Upper Cretaceous period, also known as the Late Cretaceous period which lasted from about 98 million years ago to about 65 million years ago. At the end of that time, the vast sea that covered this part of North America receded mainly due to the rising elevation of the area caused by tectonic activity (the shifting of the Earth's plates). The sea floor mud formed fertile ground and not long after the waters retreated, geologically speaking, it was covered by a thick jungle.

Yellow Mounds Paleosol and Interior Paleosol

Decaying plant material mixed with the top layers of the Pierre Shale over the next 28 million years or so, resulting in a layer of yellowish soil. This layer is called the Yellow Mounds Paleosol. At some point around 37 million years ago, the jungle was covered by new sediments carried from the west. The minerals contained in this layer of soil were different than those of the Pierre Shale, so when the jungle grew up again in this new layer, the action of the plants and the organic material they mixed with it resulted in a soil with a strong reddish tint. This layer is called the Interior Paleosol.

The Colors of the Yellow Mounds Paleosol and the
reddish purple Interior Paleosol are visible on the steep sides
of deep ravines in Badlands National Park.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2011, all rights reserved.

Both the Yellow Mounds and Interior Paleosols were later covered again, becoming packed and fossilized by the weight of later sediments. Their distinctive coloration, however, can be seen in the cliff-sides exposed by erosion over the millenia.

Popcorn Rock or Bentonite Clay

More hints about the geologic history of Badlands National Park can be found in the make-up of much of the top layers of soil within the park. Although the area gets little rainfall for most of the year, the soil through much of the roughest areas of the park looks like dried mud. Indeed, it is, but mud of a very interesting nature.

It is a clay called Bentonite by geologists, but known as ball clay or popcorn rock in the local vernacular because of its unique properties. When it does rain in this arid part of South Dakota, The South Dakota Badlands Bentonite, because it contains sodium instead of calcium as it does in some other regions, says John P. Bluemle, absorbs the water and expands to many times its original size. The repeated expansion and contraction as it dries again causes it to break up so instead of a smooth surface, you end up with rough balls of hard packed clay that are an inch or two in diameter.

Bentonite or Popcorn Rock covers many of the steep hillsides
in Badlands National Park.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2011. Do not copy.

These clay balls will often break away from the hillside and roll down the into the ravine when they get wet. When this happens, their soft outer surface will often pick up pebbles as it rolls. If you look carefully at the bottoms of the gullies, you might find some of these clay balls that look like someone took hours to stud them with a variety of small rocks.

Bentonite is formed from the breakdown of volcanic rock and ash. With the super-sized volcanic caldera of Yellowstone National Park lying not too far to the northwest of Badlands National Park, it's pretty easy to determine the origin of the badlands bentonite.

Clastic Dikes

Clastic dikes run down the center of many of the clay hills
of Badlands National Park.
Photo by Brad Sylvester. Copyright 2011. Do not copy.

Another interesting geologic feature helps to give the badlands its rugged appearance. Clastic dikes are vertical wall-like structures of harder rock that erodes more slowly than the surrounding bentonite and paleosols. The result is that it often looks like the spine of the mountains, sticking up with vertical sides from the surrounding rock and soil. Clastic dikes are interesting formations that also tell us something about the history of this land.

According to Harman D. Maher Jr. of the University of Nebraska at Omaha's Department of Geology and Geography, it is believed that clastic dikes are formed when tectonic activity causes the ground to move in such as way as to open up deep crevices. These open crevices are quickly filled in either from above or possibly from liquefied material being forced up from below. This filling material solidifies almost like cement leaving a vertical wall of harder rock encased in softer surrounding soils.

Because of the way it is formed, the material of the clastic dikes may be of a different geological age than much of the material surrounding it. Furthermore, sometimes these crevices open and fill more than once. So if a clastic dike already existed and the same crevice opens again, but wider, the original clastic dike may be encased in a another layer of material, showing several vertical layers of different types of rock when the clastic dike is eventually exposed by erosion.

Source note: Much of the geologic history of the Badlands is told by signage within the park itself or was related to me by park rangers, and it is these that serve as the primary resource for the geological history that I relate here. Where other sources are used, they are referenced within the text.

Road Trip Day 4: Badlands National Park

View from an overlook along the Sage Creek Rim Road in
Badlands National Park, South Dakota

The fourth day of our road trip across the country was really the first day where we didn't need to worry about putting lots of miles behind us. This was a planned day of "rest" sightseeing at Badlands National Park in South Dakota. Badlands is a big place and I'm going to break it up into several parts. One of the things we hoped to do when we came out west was to see wildlife that simply isn't present back east.

One of the smaller of these is the prairie dog. Although small, prairie dogs serve a vital role in the prairie eco-system as a food source for a variety of mid-sized predators, like foxes, badgers, raptors, bobcats, and the endangered black-footed ferret. They also help churn and aerate the soil with their prolific burrowing. But, this is a blog about sightseeing and not about wildlife management, so I'll skip the details about prairie dogs (which, in Badlands National Park, by the way, are of the black-tailed variety,  specifically of the species Cynomys ludovicianus).

• See my prairie dog pictures here 

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Prairie dogs are visible in several spots around the Badlands Loop Road, but the best place to view them is near the Pinnacles Entrance along the Sage Creek Rim Road. Shortly after entering the park, there will be a right hand turn-off marked Sage Creek Rim Road. It's a dirt road, but it is well-groomed and easily passable by any car during the dry season at least. There are several scenic overlooks in the first few miles along this road, and you should definitely take the time to stop and look out over the landscape here. At the five mile mark, however, is Roberts Prairie Dog Town.

Here, on flat level ground, far enough away from any ledges to let the kids walk around without worrying, there is a parking area and a little walkway into the prairie dog town. The town consists of many, many prairie dog burrows. You'll see prairie dogs sitting as sentinels near one of the two entrances to each burrow around the field and others grazing on the grasses seemingly without a care in the world.

At this location within Badlands National Park, the prairie dogs seem accustomed to people and didn't startle as easily as those in other locations I visited. Even so, never feed wild animals even when they seem tame. Prairie dogs don't drink water at all, so they need to get the right mixture of water and food through the grasses they eat. Adding dry crackers or other artificial foods to their diets can throw off their balance, especially if they contain salt. Additionally, once they start to expect food from humans they seek out people and may spend more time in and around the road near the parking area exposing them to additional risk.

A Prairie Dog crouching in the entrance to its burrow at
Roberts Prairie Dog Town in Badlands National Park, SD

Feel free to wander into the prairie dog town, watch them go about their activities, and take all the pictures you want, just watch out for the holes in the ground and the occasional wandering bison. While we were there, one lone bull bison was grazing a couple hundred yards away from the parking area. We kept a wary eye on his position lest it approached closer than the 100 yard minimum distance recommended by the park rangers. It never did.

Money-saving Tip

If anyone in your group is 62 years of age or older, they can buy a lifetime senior pass for just $10. This pass let's them and anyone else in the car into any National Park for FREE-- just another reason to travel with the in-laws.  At some national monuments and other sites, it offers a discount on admission as well. (Mount Rushmore is the exception - no discount for senior passes there.) Otherwise, Badlands National Park admission is $15 per car load, but that admission is good for seven days.

Road Trip Day 3 - Wall, South Dakota

My wife and I by Dam #7 on the Mississippi River
Photo by Barbara Gammon, Copyright 2011. Do not copy.

We drove through hundreds of miles of corn fields on day three of our cross country road trip. We crossed the Mississippi River which was bigger than I expected it to be this far north. We stopped and took a few pictures at the crossing in Minnesota near Lock and Dam #7. I hadn't realized that the Mississippi had locks installed to make it navigable as far north as St. Paul. It makes sense though, as the information sign at the rest stop points out that the from source to mouth, the Mississippi has a vertical drop of 1488 feet, of that, 857 feet of drop occurs between the Mississippi's source at Lake Itasca and the northern border of Iowa.

After the Mississippi, I-90 climbs up onto the plains. More corn fields. Interestingly, though, the corn fields here are doing double duty as wind farms. Rows of modern windmills stretch as far as the eye can see. I couldn't tell which manufacturer produced these windmills, but the website Wind Energy, The Facts says that the most popular models produce 1500-3000 kW of power.The U.S. Energy Information website says that the average U.S. home consumes just under 11,000 kW hours per year. For comparison, the average coal-fired power plant in the U.S. produces roughly 220,000 kW of power though this type of plants vary widely in size and output.

Windmills ended abruptly once we reached South Dakota, despite the fact that there were just as many corn fields along the highway. They seemed to be replaced with billboards which lined the highway. As a native Vermonter, where billboards are prohibited by law, I ordinarily prefer landscapes uncluttered by advertising. In South Dakota, however, they only serve to break up the endless corn fields.

I'm beginning to suspect, however, that the quality of the attraction is inversely proportional to the number of billboards on the route to it. Wall, South Dakota and, specifically, Wall Drug have the highest billboard count along I-90. We did not expect much from Wall and our expectations were met. We arrived in the early evening and checked into the first place we saw, the Sunshine Inn. We asked for a non-smoking room and got one that smelled of smoke. Continental breakfast consisted of prepackaged cinnamon rolls, coffee and orange juice. It was cheap in every possible meaning of the word.

Wall Drug itself is essentially a small mall full of tourist shops. Several gift stores, a cowboy boot shop, leather goods, camping equipment, knives, books, jewelry, and similar offerings are peddled from individual stores inside the Wall Drug complex. There is  T-Rex robot that comes to life every 12 minutes or so and a small outdoor area with some static displays. For me the most interesting thing was the photo wall in the very back building. While it mostly chronicles frontier life, there is one photo that more accurately reveals "how the west was won." It shows a number of U.S. Cavalry Soldiers posing proudly on horseback in and around a mass pit grave filled with native American bodies at Wounded Knee. Read Lorie Liggett's introduction to Wounded Knee here.

Don't feel compelled to make a stop at Wall Drug, its reputation and billboards notwithstanding, there's not much to see here. The best thing about Wall, South Dakota, is that it is located at the entrance to the Badlands National Park. We ate dinner across the street from Wall Drug at the Cactus Cafe & Lounge. Not recommended. They offered an all-you-can-eat dinner buffet for $10.95 which featured a soup and salad bar, spaghetti, fried chicken, baked beans, and pizza. It was not particularly good, but it was close and easy after a long day of driving.

Me posing with the Green Giant.
Photo by Linda Sylvester, copyright 2011.
Do not copy.

I should also mention that we had a celebrity encounter in Blue Earth, Minnesota. We actually had the opportunity to get our pictures taken with the famous Green Giant. There's a sign next to him which gives some statistics such as the fact that it cost $43,000 to build him out of fiberglass and that he stands 55 feet six inches tall. You'll have to go to Blue Earth and read the sign for yourself to see which of the Green Giant's body parts measures 48 inches...

Road Trip Day 2: Chicago Traffic and Wisconsin Dells

The second day of our journey from New Hampshire to Montana was spent entirely on traveling. We ended up in Mauston, Wisconsin. We had originally intended to stop in a place called Wisconsin Dells, but when we got off the exit, we discovered that Wisconsin Dells is apparently the Las Vegas of Wisconsin. There were waterparks, an amusement park, themed resort hotels, and more people than we had seen since we left Chicago behind earlier in the day.

We stopped in to a couple of hotels, but the only one that had a double room left for the night was about twice the price we had planned to pay-- although it was a suite with a jacuzzi in the room and offered a free shuttle to the nearby casino. We decided to get back on the highway and look for a room in the next town. Mauston had a hotel right off the exit for the price we wanted.

In all we covered 617 miles on Saturday. We would have gotten further, but traffic in Chicago slowed us down considerably. It was stop and go for about an hour. We also got a late start, getting on the road about 9:00 am and stopping at a grocery store for supplies. By the way, sandwich meats and cheese cost about twice the price we are used to at the Giant Eagle grocery store in Ashtabula... On the other hand, in much of Pennsylvania and Ohio, gasoline was only about $3.43 per gallon, about 25 cents less than we are used to. In Illinois, it was back up in the $3.65 range and it dropped to $3.45 in Wisconsin. Be warned though, the very first gas station off I-90 in Wisconsin, Love's, was priced 10 cents/ gallon higher than the next one just a few miles down the highway.

Chicago as seen from I-90
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy.

We stopped for dinner at "The World's Largest Culver's," home of the famous Butter Burger. Well, the butter burger consists of an ordinary hamburger on a bun that has been lightly buttered before it was dropped on the grill for a light toasting. The hamburger patties themselves were even thinner than those found on a regular McDonald's hamburger. My son, despite our warnings, ordered the cod. Being from New England, he was disappointed. Culver's does not get a recommendation despite its prolific signage along I-90.

I'll also mention that as we waited out the traffic in Chicago, there was an air-show going on. We were able to watch the jets flying in formation and performing high-speed acrobatic maneuvers over the city, which helped to pass the time.

Our goal for day three of the trip is to reach Wall, South Dakota which will be about 645 miles and leave us only 8-9 hours away from Bozeman, Montana. With an earlier start and no major cities in the way, that should be no problem.

Road Trip-1st Day

We planned to be on the road by 7:00 am, but, of course, it was 7:20 when we pulled out of the drive-way. Still, that's pretty close, so we were off to a good start. We headed down Route 7 in Vermont which runs past the Bennington Monument. The Bennington Monument is a Revolutionary War monument that looks just like the Washington Monument, a hollow obelisk with open window holes at the top level so those inside can look out. I haven't visited the historic place despite being so close. As of today, it is on my list of places to visit.

Then we drove on through New York uneventfully. Interstate 90 runs nearly in a straight line the entire distance that we need to travel and we'll drive just about 2000 miles each way on this road alone. In New York, this important commercial route parallels an earlier commercial route, the Erie Canal. There are markers alongside the highway announcing that you are entering the Erie Canal Heritage Corridor.

For many miles in New York, I-90 runs alongside rivers and canals that made up part of the Erie canal and even today there are working locks visible from the highway. The water is held level above and below the lock and boats are routed through narrow waterways where the water level is raised and lowered to lift or lower the boat. This keeps the canal flowing smoothly and makes it passable for barges that would otherwise be unable to travel here.

In western New York, the area along both sides of I-90 is vineyards. There are miles and miles of grapes in well-manicured rows. Given the relatively short harvesting period for grapes, it is hard to imagine that these vineyards could be harvested without migrant workers. It seems as though it will take hundreds of people to pick all these grapes when they ripen,but that those jobs would last only a week or two.

We arrived in Niagara Falls at about 2:30 in the afternoon, parked our car for $5 and walked across the bridge to Goat Island. As we looked down at the river below us, it is broad and relatively shallow, which means it runs very fast. A person in that torrent would have no chance to swim to safety before being carried over the falls.

We walked along the paths of Niagara Falls State Park which has no admission fee. There is a trolley that will take you around the park to view the sights for $2 for adults and $1 for children. We preferred to walk after spending all morning in the car. We took pictures from the pathways that run alongside the river and the falls.

Niagara Falls from the American side
Photo by Brad Sylvester, copyright 2011. Do not copy

We also went out on the observation tower which provides a view of the face of the falls. The base is completely obscured by mist at all times and walking anywhere near the bottom of the falls (on the roped walkways, of course) will get you thoroughly soaked unless you are wearing a poncho or other rain gear. The same is true for those who ride the boats that run tourists to the base of the falls: The Maids of the Mists.

Niagara Falls is an impressive display of the power of nature and of water. I have to say though, I expected it to be a bit bigger. The gift shop, in addition to the usual assortment of shot glasses, T-Shirts, and other touristy logo-gear, has historic facts about the falls, including a photo of a young boy who was rescued after being swept over the falls in 1960. It's hard to imagine that this boy could have survived the plunge. He was spotted swimming for dear life in a whirlpool at the base of the falls and was rescued by one of the Maids of the Mist boats, according to the signage.

Niagara Falls is a must-see attraction for anyone passing through this part of the country. You can spend $13 or $14 for the boat ride and $11 for the Cave of the Winds Tour, or you can spend absolutely nothing. The park admission is free and the trails provide a good view. For $1 per person, you can get access to the observation tower and the elevator to the bottom of the gorge to view the falls from downstream.

We spent between 90 minutes and two hours at Niagara Falls. It's not something I would travel four or five hours to see, but it's definitely worth a detour of a couple hours if you're passing by. It's one of the great natural attractions in the United States that you hear so much about, so just to get the chance to experience it for yourself is worth it, especially for those on a budget.

I should also mention that there are a number of luxury hotels surrounding the falls and at least two casinos (one on the American side). If you're combining those activities with a visit to the falls then it might be worth driving further.

When I have more time, I'll put up a more extensive slide show of the photos I took of Niagara Falls, perhaps when we get to Montana or, at worst, when we get back home to New Hampshire in September.

The Ice Beds at White Rocks National Recreation Area

We are off on our cross country trip. We packed the van, handed the house-keys to the sitters and headed west yesterday afternoon. Our first stop is my mother's house in Vermont where we will spend the night, pick up one more travelling companion and head out first thing in the morning. My mother happens to live almost in the shadow of a place called White Rocks National Recreation Area, which is a must see attraction in its own right.

I've written a complete review and description of the place here.

Essentially, the granite mountainside was torn off by a glacier leaving a fall of boulders that stretches from valley floor to mountain peak. All winter long, snow and ice packs into the crevices between these boulders so that by spring there is a deep ice pack insulated by tons of chilled rock. As a result, air flowing over the rocks is cooled and follows the ice beds down into the valley. As you enter the valley, through July at least. You feel the air temperature drop by ten degrees or more as this chilled air settles there.

There is a steam that issues from the base of the ice beds as well which is ice cold all year round. It's probably a good idea to use a micro-filter or other purification system before drinking from it, but we never did as kids. This is theonly place in Vermont where it is possible to have a snowball fight in early July (depending upon snowpack and summer temps.)

So we'll hit the road at 7:00 am, headed for Niagara Falls. 

• Vacationing with the In-laws

Niagara Falls Searchers Find the Wrong Body

Yesterday, I wrote about the young woman who had fallen over the safety railing and was swept over Niagara Falls to her presumed death. Searchers are still looking for her remains, but during the search, says a report by CBS News, a male body was found in the water below Horseshoe Falls. At present, authorities did not know the identity of this body.

Authorities told CBS that it was rare to have anywone swept over the falls themselves, but that more people are injured in the Niagara Gorge along the river below the falls. Parks Police Sgt. James Riddle says that people commonly ignore safety precautions in order to get a good photo or a better view. Unfortunately, too many of them end up with a much closer view of the bottom of the gorge than they intended.

I'm not going to spend a lot of time discussing tragedies like this, but I will say that where ever you travel, make sure you research the potential hazards and are prepared for them. Follow posted safety instructions and use common sense. I read about far too many hikers being lost, injured or killed in mountains and forests of New Hampshire. Most of those stories contain the words "...tried to take a shortcut..." and "...wasn't prepared for the weather."

• Hike Safe New Hampshire has everything you need to know to stay safe while visiting the White Mountains.

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Meanwhile, we are just a few days away from leaving for Montana. We've got most of the packing done and are finalizing our lists of things to bring. This afternoon, one of the house-sitters is coming by to get the full instructions package and to go over the responsibilities they'll have while we're gone. I'll also be outfitting the van with new tires and an oil change today. Not only should that help prevent trouble on the way, but it should help maximize gas mileage as well. As it's planned, we expect to spend about 9-10 hours of driving each day. We'll be using the Garmin GPS unit to help find hotels at the end of each day's travel.

We'll be hopping over to Vermont on Thursday night where we'll stay at my mother's house for the night. Bright and early Friday morning we'll all set out for our first destination: Niagara Falls. We expect to reach it in the early afternoon of Friday and we'll spend a few hours there having lunch, enjoying the view, and no doubt learning all about hydro-electric power and the history of Niagara Falls.

I'll post at least one detailed review of our visit to Niagara Falls with tons of photos, probably Friday evening from whatever hotel we reach for the night.  We hope to drive well into the evening on the first day to build up a little mileage buffer so we have the option to spend more time somewhere else later on.

Woman Swept Over Niagara Falls after Climbing Railing

As our family is planning a cross-country road trip, one of the stops we had planned was a visit to Niagara Falls. It's something that is on our way and that we haven't seen before. As one of the grat natural wonders of North America, it certainly merits a visit.

Today, however, I learned that a young woman was visiting the Falls on Sunday evening and fell into the river at around 8:30 pm, just about 60 feet upstream of the falls itself. The river current swept her away instantly over the falls. She is presumed dead, although as of Monday morning her body had not been found.

According to the report in the Montreal Gazzette, the woman climbed the railing to sit on one of the pillars with one leg on either side of the metal railing. She lost her balance as she stood to climb down again, says the report and fell to her presumed death. Surveillance video shows no signs of anything other than a tragic accident.

Accidents like these, however, remind us that when we are sightseeing, we need to be very careful and use common sense. Climbing the safety railing is never a good idea. It is after all the awesome power of Niagara Falls that makes it a tourist destination, a power that should be resepected.

Similarly, we are planning on a visit to Yosemite where as many as 19 people have died this year already, mostly from falls. Loose shifting rock along a cliff edge is extraordinarily dangerous. I spend considerable time in the mountains of Vermont and New Hampshire and there are places here with similar conditions. We don't always think of a visit to a National Park as a dangerous activity, and with proper attention to safety it isn't. For those who ignore warnings and safety barriers, however, yesterday's tragedy at Niagara Falls is a reminder that they can be very dangerous indeed.

Odiorne Point State Park and the Seacoast Science Center in New Hampshire

Not everyplace worth visiting is a multi-million dollar theme park or a world famous landmark. Some of them are small and quiet and only known to local residents and those who look really hard for interesting places to visit. Odiorne Point State Park in Rye, New Hampshire fits into the latter category. While it's not the sort of place you pack your family into an airplane to go visit from halfway across the country, it is the kind of place that will fill a day with enjoyable family activities if you happen to find yourself within driving distance of seacoast New Hampshire.

Odiorne Point State Park is home to the Seacoast Science Center which offers a variety of experiences and exhibits ranging from detailed histories of shipwrecks that have occurred right off the coast, to artifacts and accounts of the original settlers who founded one of the nations earliest homestead communities at the site. There is also ample opportunity to learn about the sea creatures who live in the Gulf of Maine.

Outside, of course, there are beaches, hiking and biking trails, a small playground, picnic areas, and some incredible World War II bunkers and gun placements that were built to look like part of the natural landscape so they could not be readily spotted by enemy ships should any approach from across the Atlantic. You can see inside the bunkers whose size is almost beyond comprehension and you can stand on the gun emplacements and see how they could command the waterways for miles.

A full recounting of the activities available and my own family's trip to to Odiorne Point State Park and the Seacoast Science is available here.

Walt Disney World's Behind the Seeds Tour at Epcot

I’ve been to Walt Disney World in Orlando, Florida, three times. That is to say, I’ve vacationed there in three different years for 7-10 days on each trip. The fact that I went back several times should be a hint as to whether I enjoyed it. Rather than review the entire thing, I’m going to break it down into several parts.  Today, I’m going to discuss the Behind the Seeds Tour at Disney’s Epcot theme park.

The Behind the seeds tour takes you backstage of the Living with the Land ride. On the ride, you see brief glimpses of some of the amazing greenhouse plants that are growing in the pavilion, but you’re riding by at the pace set by the boat in which you ride, and you don’t get the opportunity to linger, ask questions, and see all the stuff that’s hiding behind the curtain.

The Behind the Seeds tour is for those with a little more curiosity. Each tour group walks through the greenhouses and past the aquaculture tanks and gets to see how Disney grows mouse ears on pumpkins among other marvels.  In the greenhouse, for example, they have a giant tomato plant that, our tour guide told us, can produce more than 1150 pounds of tomatoes all by itself over the course of its 18 month lifespan.

Guests of the Behind the Seeds tour will learn how to make basic hydroponics systems in their own home and will learn about the various kinds of hydroponics systems. Much of what Disney grows there is done hydroponically and the vegetables and fruits produced on site are used in the meals prepared by resort’s restaurants.

The tour guides, as you would expect, are very knowledgeable and are willing to take as much time as it takes to make sure everyone’s questions are answered. Guests also get to feed the tilapia in the aquaculture tanks. There is also an alligator pond in the aquaculture area as well.  When you get a little tired of whizzing around on all the rides and want to stimulate your brain and actually learn a little something, The Behind the Seeds Tour is certainly one of my favorite attractions at Disney World.

The tour lasts about an hour and costs $18 per person (on top of your Walt Disney World entrance fee). Children aged 3-9 pay just $14 each, but honestly, those at the younger end of that range should probably skip this tour. Sure, they’ll enjoy throwing a handful of feed to the fish and seeing the Mickey Mouse shaped pumpkins, but learning about nutrient film hydroponics systems is not nearly as exciting as Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride and their patience will certainly be tested. Teens and naturally inquisitive kids will love it though and it makes a great change of pace for those who are spending several days on their Disney Vacation.

Cross Country Road Trip Planning

At present, I am planning a cross country road trip to bring my son to college in Montana (from New Hampshire). We're planning to spend some time and sightsee along the way. Planned stops include Yellowstone, Mount Rushmore, Niagara Falls, the Wall Drugstore, and the Cleveland Zoo, but depending upon our daily mileage, we may have to change plans on the way.

For us this means getting house-sitters since we have two dogs, a cat, and a variable number of chickens. We've arranged for two responsible friends of the family to stay at our house, take care of the animals, and keep everything in order, and of course, the dogs will help make sure everything follows the normal routine. So, that's already taken care of and it's one big worry out of the way.

For the trip itself, my wife, myself, my son, and my mother will take turns driving as needed. We are planning to spend an average of 8-9 hours driving each day and have planned progress points mapped for each day. We had considered bringing tents and camping out along the way, but the thought of just one night of rain and then having to pack up everything wet for the next day's travel made hotels seem like a better option.

Because we are not sure exactly where we'll end up each day, we have not booked hotels in advance for the trip out or the trip back. We did, however, book several nights in a Bozeman hotel because it is a college town that will be filled with new arrivals and parents and we thought rooms might be hard to find during the orientation period for which we'll be visiting. That's done, and it's another worry out of the way.

If my wife had her choice, everything would be planned in advance, each hotel booked, tourist stop planned out, and so forth. I'm more of a travel by the seat of the pants type person. As long as I can plug in the destination on my Garmin and find my way there and home again, everything else will work itself out as we go. It's good, of course, that my wife ensures that we do some pre-planning when we travel, but we always also try to allow plenty of flexibility to react to changing conditions and new opportunities that present themselves along the way.

In this blog, I'll be providing detailed updates of the hotels and restaurants that we find along the way, as well as the tourist destinations that we visit. I'll talk about the drive itself, with road trip tips, and even talk about specific roads, scenery, traffic, and other highlights of the cross country excursion. I'll also try to use the down-time to catch up with some of the other places we've visited over the years, all uploaded via presumably complimentary wireless access at the hotels we choose along the way, or worst case, from the nearest Starbucks.

By the way, we're fond of bird watching and wildlife viewing so expect to learn about some of the best locations for that as well. It's a couple of weeks before our trip begins, so I'll get a number of posts up before then, including one about what I consider to be the best restaurant in New England, bar none.