{"id":8549,"date":"2023-05-29T21:38:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-30T01:38:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/?p=8549"},"modified":"2023-06-14T20:26:13","modified_gmt":"2023-06-15T00:26:13","slug":"view-from-the-drivers-seat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/view-from-the-drivers-seat\/","title":{"rendered":"View from the Driver’s Seat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Six Days On The Road<\/h2>\n

 
\nEarlier this month I decided to visit a couple of my favorite parks. Since most of the roads out west had been cleared of snow my objective was to beat the crowds at the start of the busy vacation season. The plan was to see Spring arrive in both Grand Tetons and Yellowstone for a couple of days.<\/p>\n

I loaded up the car with a small backpack of clothes, a heavy coat in case of cold weather, some of my camera gear and a bunch of snacks to eat along the way. I hit the road very early Sunday morning for a long day drive westward since my first stopover was Laramie about 1100 miles away.<\/p>\n

This was my day-by-day itinerary:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Grand Rapids to Laramie, Wyoming<\/li>\n
  2. Laramie to Jackson, WY<\/li>\n
  3. Jackson to Island Park, ID<\/li>\n
  4. Island Park to Gillette, WY<\/li>\n
  5. Gillette to Council Bluff, IA<\/li>\n
  6. Council Bluffs to Grand Rapids<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    On this short six day schedule I was able to spend two days each in the Tetons and Yellowstone. As a bonus, on the way back home I spent a few hours at Devil’s Tower National Monument and Badlands National Park.<\/p>\n

    Along our amazing interstate highway system and rural roads is great scenery, famous landmarks and amazing structures. The views from the journey across the midsection of our country is just as exciting for me as the national parks themselves.<\/p>\n

    On this long drive I decided to document the 3800 mile trip. These photos are presented in roughly the same order as my travels. I haven’t included any photos of the Tetons and Yellowstone – I’ll save them for another article.<\/p>\n

    \n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
    <\/a>
    \nan electrical generating station near Annawan, IL
    \n<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nRock Island, IL bridge crossing the Mississippi River to Iowa<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nthe huge
    \nWorld’s Biggest Truckstop in Walcott, IA<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nnewly plowed field in central Iowa<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nwind generator farm near Lincoln, NE<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nan irrigator at Grand Island, NE<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nnovel advertisement for Paulsen Cement near North Platte, NE<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nlarge feed lot in Ogallala, NE<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nsemi hauling PVC piping near Sidney, NE<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \na Lincoln monument at Laramie, WY rest area<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \na small herd of antelope near Arlington, WY<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nbridge crossing North Platte River in Ft Steele, WY<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nspeed limit sign near Walcott, WY<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nlarge refinery in Sinclair, WY<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nrock formations near Table Rock, WY<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nsmall rural town – Eden, Wyoming<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nanimal safety overpass near Daniel, WY<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nresort cabins in Bondurant, WY<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \na selfie at elk arches in Jackson, WY<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \na view of the Tetons from the west in Victor, ID<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nthe Yellowstone River near Emigrant, MT<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \na small refinery in Billings, MT<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \na semi hauling logs near Garyowen, MT<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nelectrical power station in Gillette, WY<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nfreight train traveling near Sundance, WY<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nlow clouds over the Devil’s Tower National Monument<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nwalkway to viewing area in the Badlands<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \none of the bighorn sheep in the Badlands<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nbridge crossing the Missouri River at Chamberlin, SD<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nbeautiful Native American statue at rest area in Chamberlin, SD<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
    <\/a>
    \nutensils for dinner in Sioux City, IA<\/center><\/td>\n
    <\/a>
    \nfinal mileage for this six day cross-country drive<\/center><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

     <\/p>\n

    \n

     
    \nAfter having driven 3800 miles, I made it back home late Friday night.<\/p>\n

    While I enjoyed my time in the Tetons and Yellowstone, I also enjoyed the road trip as well.
    \n 
    \n 
    \nWritten by Arnie Lee
    \n 
    \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Six Days On The Road   Earlier this month I decided to visit a couple of my favorite parks. Since most of the roads out west had been cleared of snow my objective was to beat the crowds at the start of the busy vacation season. The plan was to see Spring arrive in both … Continue reading View from the Driver’s Seat<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[171,93,2,116,92],"tags":[84,669,546,672,673,545,671,670,72,66,73,82],"class_list":["post-8549","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-informational","category-nature","category-personal","category-photograph","category-travel","tag-cross-country","tag-drive","tag-idaho","tag-illinois","tag-iowa","tag-montana","tag-nebraska","tag-south-dakota","tag-tetons","tag-travel","tag-wyoming","tag-yellowstone"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8549"}],"version-history":[{"count":102,"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8746,"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8549\/revisions\/8746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arnielee.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}