Alex, Michelle, Ryan, and I decided to go float the Clark Fork river on inner tubes. We wanted to take Dixie, but didn't want her to have to swim for two straight hours just to keep herself afloat. Voila! Put her in a life jacket that will help her float. We actually did it just as a joke at first, thinking she would not like it, but she didn't complain about it at all, so we went ahead with it.
In the background, you can see me being dragged out of the water by Dixie. She's quite the powerful swimmer - especially when I am trying to tow her but am sitting in a tube. Let's just say that she was towing me... and we went pretty much wherever she wanted to go.
Later that week, I went kayaking again with Ryan and his friend Juice. To put in a little bit of perspective just how out of my league I was, Juice is a close kayaking friend of the guy who currently owns the world record for highest waterfall drop in a kayak (186 feet - see the article here). Further adding to the craziness is that I was in an open-top inflatable kayak, not strapped into a smaller play boat like the other two guys. That meant I got dumped in the river. A lot. But that's ok, because I had a great time, my kayaking skills improved, and I even managed to stay in the boat for a few rapids that by right I should have been tossed out of! We went to a beautiful area about 45 minutes west of Missoula called "The Gorge," and we were basically the only people on the river. That meant that we could stay on rapids for as long as we wanted, paddling back up to the top of them and going through them again, or trying to surf waves (using the backwash off of rocks to stay in the same place on the river instead of being carried off by the current). All in all, we had a wonderful time.
Wednesday, as you know, I said goodbye to Montana and started my trip back east. I passed through the last two "new" states of my trip: Wyoming and South Dakota. All the other states I'll be traveling through I already passed through on my way West, so these are the last of the state welcome signs.
I drove to Mount Rushmore that day, and got to the monument just in time to see the evening lighting ceremony. As night falls, they leave the monument dark at first as they show a video about the history of the monument and of the four faces featured there. Then, once it is completely dark out, they slowly turn up the lights shining on the monument, and the faces start to glow!
Thursday I went from Rushmore to Rochester, MN, where Blake is studying at the Mayo Clinic. I'm glad I got to spend the evening with him, as we don't get to see each other enough any more. Plus, it gave us a chance to belatedly celebrate our birthdays together. Blake is 15 days older than me, but since we both have summer birthdays, we rarely got to actually spend those birthdays together--even in high school. So we make up for it when we can.
Friday I headed from Rochester to Chicago to stay with the McGuires for the weekend. We spent Saturday in the city, going to Wishbone for breakfast before spending the day in Millenium Park. Among other things, we explored The Bean (aka Cloud Gate aka the big mirrored thing) as well as the fountain that makes faces and spits at you. I doubt that is it's real name, but that's what I'm calling it.
Another day or two and I'll head back to DC. It has been a wonderful summer, I've loved the travels and had a great time, but it will be nice to get back home.
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