Showing posts with label Peter Toth. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Peter Toth. Show all posts

Sunday, June 11, 2017

Day 12; The Great Sibling Trip 2017 Final Post

Final Post: About Us
            We are a brother (Detroit, MI) and sister (Houston, TX) who love to travel together to parts unknown. This year my sister flew into Detroit and we began our journey West. Stops include Davenport, IA, the Amana Colonies in Amana, IA, Marengo, IA, Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE, Grand Island, NE, Rapid City, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, several cities in MN including Mankato, MN, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Marinette, WI, Mackinaw City, MI and back to Detroit.
            We are also stopping for selfies and pictures along the way at some very interesting and unusual out of the way places that you will see in the blog. Enjoy!
Fun Facts:
  • Total Miles Driven on the complete trip: 3,319 
  • Average Miles Per Gallon for the entire trip: 56.8 MPG
  • Average Miles Per Gallon today: 53.2 MPG
  • Car being driven: 2016 Prius 4
  • Miles Driven Today: 266 Miles
  • Weather: Perfect with temps around 90
     Well, it was a LONG trip; much longer than we anticipated for two siblings. We estimated 2,800 miles before all the side trips so we drove almost 500 miles extra after reaching our destinations.
     Today was a straight drive home after breakfast. We only stopped for quick rest stop breaks. Both of us were more than ready to get home but my sister won't actually fly home to Texas until Thursday. She's ready. 
     We learned that we could travel together for a long time in the car without killing each other and yes there were arguments about trivial things but in the end, we are siblings; family; and in the end we always forgive and forget the things that annoy each other.
     We learned how useful a selfie stick can be when trying to get pictures of each other with something funny in the background and we learned that the selfie stick must be recharged!
     And now Ladies and Gentlemen, enjoy the highlights from our 3,319 mile trip...


Vulcan Hand


Literary Rest Stop
Worlds Largest Wooden Rocking Chair

Freedom Rock

Peter Toth Indian Head

Mt. Rushmore

Courthouse Rock in Nebraska


Dinosaur Park in Rapid City, SD


Near Mt. Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore

Wall Drug


Wall Drug

Wall Drug


Wall Drug

Wall Drug

Worlds Largest Prairie Dog

Worlds Largest Prairie Dog

Wall Drug

Minuteman Missile Silo

Wall Drug


Mitchell, SD Corn Palace

Mitchell, SD Corn Palace


Wall Drug

Wall Drug

A Town Dear to our Hearts

A Geocache Location


Amphibious Duck Tour in Wisconsin Dells

Mickey-Lu BAR-B-Q (Best hamburgers in the world!)

Mackinaw City, MI

Mackinaw City, MI

Michigan's Mackinaw Bridge 

Friday, June 2, 2017

Day 3: The Great Sibling Trip 2017

About Us
            We are a brother (Detroit, MI) and sister (Houston, TX) who love to travel together to parts unknown. This year my sister flew into Detroit and we began our journey West. Stops include Davenport, IA, the Amana Colonies in Amana, IA, Marengo, IA, Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE, Grand Island, NE, Rapid City, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, several cities in MN including Mankato, MN, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Marinette, WI, Mackinaw City, MI and back to Detroit.
            We are also stopping for selfies and pictures along the way at some very interesting and unusual out of the way places that you will see in the blog. Enjoy!

     Over 1,000 miles into our trip and we are getting tired. Today's post will be a bit short with more detail added later. Today we traveled over 400 miles and tomorrow we have almost 500 miles to go!
     Today...
     We saw Freedom Rock in Menlo, Iowa. It is a really nice thing to see. A local artist repaints a huge rock every year by May 31 with a new theme dedicated to those who serve and have served in the Armed Forces.




     In Omaha, Nebraska,  we visited some of my sister's relatives and had lunch with them.
     We also found another Peter Toth wooden carving of an Indian Head in Lincoln, Nebraska, home of the Cornhuskers.



     That's it for today!

Wednesday, May 31, 2017

Day 1: The Great Sibling Trip 2017


About Us
            We are a brother (Detroit, MI) and sister (Houston, TX) who love to travel together to parts unknown. This year my sister flew into Detroit and we began our journey West. Stops include Davenport, IA, the Amana Colonies in Amana, IA, Marengo, IA, Des Moines, IA, Omaha, NE, Grand Island, NE, Rapid City, SD, Sioux Falls, SD, several cities in MN including Mankato, MN, Wisconsin Dells, WI, Marinette, WI, Mackinaw City, MI and back to Detroit.
            We are also stopping for selfies and pictures along the way at some very interesting and unusual out of the way places that you will see in the blog. Enjoy!
     Our trip started at 6 AM sharp. We drove over 470 miles on ONE TANK of GAS and got over 57 MPG!!! Actually, we went through a whopping 8.8 gallons and had enough to go another 100+ miles. Gotta love a Prius...
     We stopped along the way and I got a 32 oz cup of coffee. There was construction along the way near Chicago and we ended up in the express lane. It was both a blessing and a curse.

     Blessing: We cruised past stopped vehicles in the other lanes.
     Curse: After drinking 32 oz of coffee, I had to GO!!! No way to get out of the express lane. I managed to hold it.  
     Somewhere in Illinois, there was a bad 18 wheeler accident on the Eastbound side. The truck was on its side and looked like it burned. Traffic was backed up for miles. Just down the road from that we saw yet another bad accident. The whole front end of a van was gone. Again, on the opposite side.
     We stopped for a bathroom break and lunch (forgetting about the time change and had lunch when others were stopping for breakfast. Oh well.
     Next up, we began looking for a carved wood statue created by Peter Toth. It was located next to a river...we found it.
     And little wonder, that coffee still needed to find a way out so off I went to find a bathroom. Aha! I found me an Outhouse and if I see an Outhouse, I use the Outhouse.
     Have you seen The Outhouses of America Tour web site yet? It's a hoot!
Peter Toth statue carved out of wood

The entire Peter Toth statue
      Next we proceeded to find a giant Vulcan carving out of a tree.  It was in Peru, Iowa in someones front yard. We got out; snapped the following pictures and got out of there!


Vulcan Carving

Live Long and Prosper
     Next up on the agenda? Do some Geocaching. Click on the link to go to the web site we use and find out more about it.
     We also loaded in the coordinates for the geocache we would be looking for in Iowa. We found the one we were looking for. Actually, both my sister and I looked for it and she ended up spying it deep inside a tree. We are actually having a lot of fun geocaching.



Here it is!

Hidden micro cache

My sister is proud that she found it
     If you've followed my blog for a while, you know that I, er, we love to eat and try new places. We usually go up on Yelp and look at restaurant reviews and then go to the highest rated ones. Tonight we found a nice little Mexican restaurant with $5 Jumbo Margaritas as the special. We didn't waste any time ordering one for each of us.
     The waiter brought us a basket of salsa chips and some excellent salsa in a glass carafe. Boy were they good! Nice and warm chips and not too hot salsa. There was also a good selection of hot sauce if you wanted it.
     The food was very good and we are now stuffed. Since we are on the road again tomorrow, we took home the leftover chips in a paper bag that our waiter gave us.


Jumbo Margarita

Be Thirsty My Friends...

     Tomorrow we head out to the Amana colonies to see what they have to offer and we will do some more geocaching.
     Update in the morning at the hotel. Apparently, there are some massive curtain eaters of some kind in this hotel. Even though it's brand new, the curtains are either eaten by something or it is the new style for curtains!!!