Sweets and Farewell

This is my final post.  I want to thank everyone for following me.  I hope you have had half as much fun as I have.  I will be home with hundreds of stories after I read my own bog.  Everything seems to run together right now.  It has been an extraordinary experience and I feel privileged to have been able to do this.  Thanks for making the trip with me.

 I spent this morning at Hershey's Chocolate World.  It is very slick and well coordinated leaving you in the retail store after your free tour of the process of making candy.  You can pay for a tasting session, which was very well done.  They give you a selection of Hershey and other chocolates.  Everyone then snapped the bar and listened to the difference between milk and dark chocolate.  We smelled the pieces for hints of other flavors, then we tasted the chocolate to see if we could get more flavors.  The older you get the less sensitive your tastebuds.  Well mine are pretty shot.
Anyway you can take a trolley ride or see a 3D movie.  They even have different amusement parks.  They don't miss a trick.

I went to Hershey with my parents when I was young.  As you approached the town all you could smell was chocolate, that is all gone.  The tour you took was of the actual factory and there weren't too many people taking the tour.  You got to see the huge vats of chocolate and the real machines making the chocolate and then the candy.  It really meant something, now it's all fake.  But now that's all anyone knows.  We have to keep things sterile and away from people.

I then went in to Philadelphia to see the new Barnes Foundation Museum.  Well they are just as strange as ever.  You need to have known in advance to have ordered tickets.  They set none aside for walk ups, those people not in on the secret.  Of course I have no idea how many tickets they sell but today was all sold out.  It looked like the museum was empty but you can't tell as all the art is upstairs.

Since I couldn't see that collection I thought I'd go next door to see the Rodin Museum but that was under renovation.  I took all this as a sign to get out of Philadelphia.  I thought I would go to Chadds Ford to see the Wyeths.  Then I thought about my luck so far and decided it was time to call it quits.

I am on the first leg of my trip home.  Tomorrow I wind up with Ginger and Gene and Gillian and Genevieve.  Then it is home.

Buggys

I drove across Pennsylvania today and all I saw was part of a Buggy Museum.  By the time I got there it was too late to take a full tour of the buggy barn.  I did see a DVD of the story of Mifflinburg and the buggy industry.  They supplied so many buggies to so many parts of America that they were known as Buggy Town.  They had to build houses for all the workers that were brought in to work on the buggies.  They flourished until the horseless carriage took over.  The automobile condemned the town.

The town has gone through a major restoration project.  They built the Buggy Museum and have restored a lot of the old buildings.  Many of the buildings are now residences and have been restored by the occupants.  The buildings have historic markers.  It is a charming town and I was glad I made the trip even if it was so short.

I realize that I am very depressed.  My trip is almost over and I am going home.  I'm sorry I didn't spend more time in the West.  I particularly miss the openness of the dessert.  My planning is becoming sloppy and I am missing things they I planned to see and I don't really care.  If I have to come home I  might as well come home.  I am currently in Hershey, Pennsylvania and there are millions of children running around.  I knew there would be but to see the reality is something else.  I'll be home before the 30th.

Toys,Toys and more Toys

Today I was a child playing among the toys.  My first stop was the Toy Museum in Wheeling, West Virginia.  They had all sorts of toys but I realized that most toys are designed for boys.  There are more soldier types, cowboys and Indians and knights of all sizes.  They have all the extras like forts, castles or ranches.  Then there are the trains, every size, every type of car or engine that you can imagine.  They had two different setups, one seemed to be a night scene of a city, the other was a simpler scene which was well lit.  I'm not sure whether they had just not turned the lights on in the "night" room.

They were doing a special on Monopoly.  They were showing some of the many variations that Milton Bradley has created for Monopoly.  I didn't see any other games but I may have missed a whole floor.  The book said there were three floors but I only found two.

There was a whole room for Barbie in her various iterations.  They also had Barbie imitators.  Then there were several walls worth of Doll Houses.  The houses changed through time but the ones they had were the more modern types.  One was a ranch style house with Swedish modern furniture.  Another room had stuffed animals and plastic animals.  There was a lovely older woman volunteer and we got to talking.  For some reason I told her the story of my mother giving my brother my favorite lamb toy when I was very small.  My brother threw the lamb out the car window and that was the end of the lamb.  Why they had to give him mine never made sense to me and my mother would never discuss it.  They didn't have a single stuffed lamb in the entire museum.

I followed up the visit to the museum with a visit to a museum of the largest toy manufacturers from the 1950's to the 80's, the Marx Co.  The company was started by Lewis Marx from Brooklyn.  They made a lot of plastic toys that were recognizable, like a huge series of Roy Rogers sets, a few Lone Ranger and a Zorro.  They even had a stuffed Flintstones series.  They also had a series of Doll Houses.  I wound up talking to the docent at the Marx Museum in Mountville too.  I was counseling her on decluttering.

I realized how few toys I had as a child and how it never bothered me.  I looked at all those toys and didn't want any of them nor did I feel like I had missed anything.  I did have games and as a family we would occasionally play them together.  Books were always more my thing.

Busy, Busy,Busy

Today I seemed to be everywhere at once.  I started my day trying to see the Stan Hywet Hall and Garden in Akron but the house didn't open until 11:00 and it was 9:00.  The house is considered one of the finest examples of Tudor Revival architecture in the US.  It would have been nice but not necessary so I moved on.

I went to Cambridge to look at glass objects being formed.  The first place, Boyd Glass, was not working the glass today.  They showed me a DVD about the family and the company.  Unfortunately what they made was tsotchkes (dust collectors), many were very cute however.  The other company was Mosser Glass and they were working the glass and giving tours.  They were making milky white 9" cake stands.  It was really fascinating, knowing how much molten glass goes into the mold for the top.  They flip the mold over and a guy has to catch it just  so on a two tine implement.  They do the same for the pedestal and then they put the two together. There is trimming, checking for level and cool ing.  I have always been interested in glass work, ever since I went to Corning, New York and saw them make Steuben Glass.  At least at Mosser they made a lot of very practical items, like plates, salt and pepper sets, bowls and of course the cake plates.

I stopped in at the James Thurber House in Columbus.  There wasn't a lot there, it was an old house but they had a lot of Thurber's cartoon posted around.  They had awards and magazine covers.  His old desk was sitting there with all the rips and stains and you could almost see him sitting there.  They leave the front door open and just let you wander in and out.  It all fits together.

My afternoon was set aside for the Columbus Zoo.  I have looked forward to seeing this zoo for years.  I remember as a little girl watching Marlin Perkins on the Today Show and Jack Paar with exotic animals.  He was followed by Jack Hanna.  I expected this zoo to be a combination of the Bronx Zoo and the San Diego Zoo.  Well I was incredibly disappointed.  There were very few animals in the zoo.  What animals were there were almost impossible to see because there was so much foliage, most of it served no purpose.  Most of the zoo was made up of playgrounds, rides, food stands and gift shops.  On top of everything else I stumbled on to the Great Apes, which always depresses me.  People are so stupid and make such fools of themselves with the Great Apes.  The apes just sit and stare and then walk away.  You can't blame the children who kiss the glass and talk to the apes.  But the adults!

Anyway my day ended on a down note but then I remember the wonderful times I have had in other zoos and it washes away the bad taste that this left in my mouth.  There was one highlight.  A dog and a cheetah share a cage.  They were raised together and they just enjoy each others company.  They think they are the same whatever that means to them.  It's cute because they are always checking where the other one is.

A Musical Day

Today was all about music and it turned out to be in chronological order.  My first visit was to Hitsville, USA, which was the first Motown studio.  They do a very comprehensive tour of the of both the genesis and the growth of the industry.  Berry Gordy Jr's family history is discussed, how he started with $800 and made $2,000,000 the first year.  How everyone did multiple jobs, the contributions of people like Smokey Robinson.  Many of the early great performers were friends from the neighborhood and school where Berry Gordy grew up.  The tour guide discussed the growth of the business until it out grew the buildings that they kept buying in the neighborhood.  They moved the production part of the business to California but left much of the business end in Detroit.

My next stop was the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio.  The last time I was in Cleveland I was busy selling UU Communion wafers, aka Biscotti.  I wandered around the Hall of Fame for about 90 minutes and some of it made me very nostalgic.  They had a huge display for Elvis which didn't interest me at all.  I have never been an Elvis fan and so of course the largest exhibit was for Elvis.  They had a short film about the roots of the Rock & Roll going back to early, early Black music and then what was Country Western music, to the Blues.  They had costumes from all sorts of people, which are called uniforms by the Motown group.  I took pictures before I found out I wasn't allowed to take them.  They had a great exhibit from the 60's, including Janis Joplin's porsche.  The Jimi Hendrix exhibit was very impressive and I wish I hadn't already been caught taking pictures.  I got there late so I couldn't do the whole museum as they were about to close.  But the Kaplan ears had had about all they could stand anyway.  The music was way too loud.  But it turned out to be a great day.

Today I was Dutch.  I went to the Delft and Wooden Shoe factory.  The factory does all the processes by hand just as they are done in the Netherlands.  They get their paints from there as well.  They have one older woman who does all the painting.  She has very steady hands.  It is water based paints so that it is absorbed into the clay.  Delft started in the 1600's by copying Chinese designs, over time the designs changed to more Dutch themes.  It used to be only blue and white now they have expanded to other colors.  I must say I prefer the blue and white.

The wooden shoe part was really interesting.  They use a very green poplar wood because it has less of a tendency to crack as it dries and is lighter.  They explained that the Dutch turned to wood because leather was hard to get and very expensive.  Also leather tended to rot because of the dampness.  There was a machine that bored out the inside of the shoes but needed the hands on direction of a person.  The machine work, polishing and finishing are fast, the longest process is letting the shoes dry naturally.

Next door is a garden center where they, of course, specialize in tulips.  I missed the Tulip Festival so there was nothing blooming in the garden.  I did run into a couple from North Carolina and we discussed what grew and what didn't do well in our gardens.  Very chummy.  I again bought nothing.  I am getting really good at this.

I then went to find the Dutch Village with canals and everything.  Well when I found it it was tiny and cost $10 to get in.  I figured since I had been to the Netherlands I could save my money and skip this particular treat.  I took a few pictures from across the river and left.

My next stop was to the Motown Museum which was the original studio.  Once again I misread the book and read July for June and then discovered that the museum was closed on Monday when I showed up.  But this time I'm stubborn and I'm going back tomorrow morning.  It shouldn't take much time.  The place is tiny.  It's hard to believe that so much talent produced so many hits from there.  But more about that tomorrow.

Nature Reserve

Well I had a disappointment today.  I thought there would be lots of things happening at a Nature Reserve.  Maybe they would be rehabilitating birds or animals or have herds of some sort of native animal but no.  It was like, no not like, it was taking a walk in the woods.  I saw three dragonflies, three butterflies and a chipmunk.  I see more wildlife in my own backyard.  It's not as though I didn't need a walk after sitting for 8 hours yesterday.  I can't say that I'm having a great time in the North Central states but I'm not giving up.

It is interesting to start seeing Black people again.  It is as if they aren't allowed across the Mississippi.  Except for a few exceptions there were so many states where there were no people of color at all, except for Asian tourists.  It was eerie.  The awareness creeps up on you slowly when you don't even hear spanish being spoken by the maids in the hotels.

Spam, that little blue can

I made it to the SPAM museum.  It really was a lot of fun, much more than I expected.  They have a very slick operation.  They have nothing that would turn you off SPAM.  They lull you by talking about how pure everything is and how the company developed as a family operation.  They overcame embezzlement by a trusted employee early in their history.  I had no idea that Hormel made SPAM because I know Hormel makes so many other products, even Jenni-O.  It was interesting to see the displays of the changes  of cans and products through the years.  The commercials go through some interesting changes over the years,as well.  I was particularly struck by the WWII exhibit.  It was a loop of a soldier explaining all the ways the cook served them SPAM, it was very funny.  Yet through the rest of the exhibits they were showing you how many ways you can use SPAM.  They offer you free recipes.  Charlotte, NC is the fifth largest consumer of SPAM in the US.

The rest of my day was spent driving to Kalamazoo, Michigan.  Eight hours of driving because I needed something to do on a Sunday and only Kalamazoo had something open.

I decided not to go to Fellowship today as it was their last service of the year.  I figured it wouldn't be a very public type service, they were asking for memories of the year from people.

Old Towns and Matchsticks

My first stop was the village of Amana, which is one of the seven colonies of a German sect that set up homes in Iowa.  They believed in communal living.  They lived in large houses without kitchens, all meals were taken in a communal dining room.  Unlike the Shakers they did marry and had children.  They followed revelations from Prophets.  I don't know if the prophets were home grown or what.  There is an Amana, East Amana, West Amana, South Amana, North Amana, High Amana and Homestead.  The only one that has retained its character is Amana.  The houses and buildings are still used for their original purposes as much as possible.  They still have the Woolen Mill, which still makes blankets and other items.  They also have a furniture factory which is still turning out grandfather clocks and several other items.  In the store they had some beautiful furniture based on traditional designs including a roll top desk.  Of course it was also very directed at tourists and they did have a kitchen store which lured me in.  But everyone should be very proud of me - I didn't spend a penny.  They had so many cookie cutters I could have spent a fortune but I was very disciplined.

After Amana I headed to Gladbrook and the Matchstick Museum.  I really didn't know what to expect so I was really stunned.  Everything in the museum is made from those wooden matchsticks you use to light barbecues.  The artist now gets them without the heads but he used to have to cut off the red striking heads.  The detail is extraordinary, the U.S. Capitol is at least 8 feet long.  He's also done Notre Dame Cathedral, a space shuttle launch and the Wright Brother's plane.  Many of Patrick Acton's works have been purchased by Ripley's Believe It Or Not.  The woman at the museum didn't know if private people purchased pieces or not.

Iowa really is a corn state.  Everywhere you look there are corn fields.  I spoke with a woman today who said that everyone is very worried because the corn isn't growing.  They haven't had enough rain.  I'm amazed at the numbers of acres that are planted.  They have convoluted hills planted with corn.

Another thing I wanted to mention was something that happened yesterday.  I've been buying Sinclair gas out here.  I remember Sinclair from my childhood but haven't seen it in years.  Anyway,  I went into a station in Iowa and got out to fill the tank a man ran out to fill the tank for me.  It is not illegal like Oregon and New Jersey, it is just a policy.  They even wash your windshield.  I felt like I was back in the '50's.

I just finished reading Anna Quindlen's latest book "Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake".  I highly recommend it to any one who is aging.  She writes about aging in a wise way and in reference to getting wiser through the lessons we've learned through life.  It is a book I will read more than once because there are lessons to be learned and reflected on.

Lincoln, Nebraska

I went to Lincoln, Nebraska today for no other reason then I felt like seeing a Quilt museum or at least I thought it was a museum.  I have always been very fond of quilts and have seen several shows and fairs in the past.  There was no address in the AAA guide so I had to find the building on my own, which is always a problem.  I used deductive reasoning and actually found the place.  The building was very impressed with itself but really had very little gallery space which was a shame.

On the third floor they had quilts on the theme of stars.  Each quilt used stars differently, a few I couldn't even find the stars.  To be honest though some were beautiful and as far as I could tell they were hand stitched, some were even hand quilted.  In one room were antique doll quilts, which were lovely.  They were much simpler that adult quilts but some mothers made for their daughters, others were the first practice quilts made by little girls learning to quilt.

The second floor had the main gallery.  The special show was by a woman named Jean Ray Laury.  She was a very strong feminist and many of her quilts are very political.  Some lost their quiltiness to her politics.  When she went towards modern art she really hit the mark, but that is my taste plus she used colors that I like.  The rest of the gallery had a show of name quilts which I didn't like.  The quilts without the names were fine.  The names were distracting or just plain ugly.  As you can tell I am rather opinionated.  After having driven for hours to get there I figure I am entitled.

The first floor has a collection of antique sewing kits and tools and toy sewing machines.  They also have interactive programs about how quilts are maintained, archived and restored.  This is a graduate school program that is being presented.

This was my one and only stop in Nebraska.  I am now in Ames, Iowa.

Mount Rushmore & the Corn Palace

Mount Rushmore is quite impressive but expensive.  It costs $11 to park.  It's good for a year but how often are you going to return to the park in a year.  Most people take a few pictures and leave just like I did.  The sculptures were very interesting even as close as I got.  The likenesses were really good.  I dare the older members of my audience not to think of North by Northwest by Hitchcock when you see Mount Rushmore.  I could see Cary Grant scurrying around the faces as I looked up at them.  The physical layout was very well done and complimented the mountain.  They had a lovely alley of columns with a state and its date of statehood etched on it and the flag flying, four per column.  All of it was done in a reddish granite.  Someone once told me that they had been disappointed by Mount Rushmore, they thought it was small.  I thought it was the right size, I really did.  How do you judge that kind of thing.

While I was in the area I went to see the Crazy Horse Memorial which is in the process of being carved.  It is still in a very rudimentary stage except for Crazy Horse's face.  It seems to be stalled for lack of money.  You can tour the artist's studio and see a model of the planned finished project.  It is incredibly impressive.  Mount Rushmore is very static but the Crazy Horse monument is very active.

I drove across South Dakota to see a Corn Palace.  It was amazing.  It is entirely covered in plant material, primarily corn.  They use 13 colors of corn, husks and some other materials that I can't remember.  Every year they completely redo the theme.  It was first done in 1892 to try to win the State Capitol title and to bring people to town.  Birds eat the corn kernels over the year and so it needs to be replaced.   I don't think the birds really eat that much but they have a huge harvest festival when  the decorating is complete.  It takes months because different parts mature at different times.  It is Moorish in design and just adorable. They show a movie that explains the history of the town, Mitchell, and the Corn Palace.  The inside is a sports arena which is used mostly for basketball games.

I've decided not to go to North Dakota as I can't find a thing that I want to see.  It really is sad., a whole state with nothing to interest me.  I really looked hard.

Little Big Horn and Devils Tower

My morning was a sad one.  I did not think I would be so moved by the Little Big Horn Battlefield in Wyoming but I was.  It is only a hill with rolling fields surrounding it but off to one side are all these headstones of the soldiers who died on this spot.  There was a Ranger who gave a talk in great detail about all the battles and the strategies of both the soldiers and the Indians.  He did a marvelous job of making it come alive.  He explained how the Indians won the battle but so angered the US government that they sent additional troops.  These drove the Indians back to the Reservations and killed Crazy Horse and Sitting Bull.  There is now a beautiful sculpture in a monument commemorating the Indians.  At the end the Ranger claimed he wasn't being political but he made statements that were basically anti-war.  He even recommended an anti-war movie.

My afternoon was much lighter.  I drove across Wyoming to South Dakota to see the Devils Tower.  It is very strange.  There are no other hills at all like it anywhere around.  It just sticks up in its magnificence.  It looks exactly it did in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.  Even the area around it is the same.  There are cows in the rolling fields like the ones the knocked out to frighten people.

On the way up to the Tower they have the remnants of a Prairie Dog town.  The dogs once covered the whole area but have been hunted out of the larger area.  The dogs are just so adorable.  They are so used to people that they ignore you no matter what you do.  You can take their pictures forever but you worry that they aren't aware of real predators.  They are getting too populated and the Rangers are worried about how to control the numbers.  Their natural enemy is the coyote but they are hunted by the ranchers who also hate the prairie dogs.

I couldn't blog last night because the hotel was having trouble with their WIFI.

A good day at the Park

Well luck was with me and the day dawned sunny and warm.  I gambled and won, yeah!  The Park is gorgeous but there aren't any glaciers.  The valley and the huge lake were formed by glaciers.  Many parts  of the Park are still closed including most of the Road to the Sun.  Only 14 miles were open but there was so much to see.  The mountains surrounding the lake were snow tipped, touched by the sun so they sparkled.  The lake itself was crystal clear and absolutely still and reflected all that was around it.  The river that fed the lake was wildly turbulent.  The water rushed over the cataracts in great roiling waves appearing white, blues and greens.  Photos just can't capture the beauty of the Park nor can words make it become real.

After spending time in the Park I decided to drive to Billings because I was interested in taking a tour about Lewis and Clark.  However, there was so much major road work that I missed my chance to go on the tour.  I think everyone in Montana works on the roads.  Anyway the drive was fantastic.  When Montana is flat it is very flat and you can see forever and you understand the concept of the Big Sky, whether it is Montana or Wyoming.

The cliches are real.  The wind really does whistle down the plain and you can see forever.  You  can see a storm coming from miles and miles away.  There were these black clouds and occasionally there would be a lightening strike.  I watched it for hours as I made my way along, particularly as I sat and waited to be released from the roadwork but the storm never got to where I was.

There really isn't much to do in Billings, it seems to be just a big city.  I think I'm going to Little Big Horn tomorrow.

Another wasted day

I set off early for Glacier National Park.  It took more than 6 hours to get into the area so I went to the hotel first.  I needed to make sure my room was on the first floor because they don't have an elevator.  It rained on and off all day.  When I got to the hotel I learned that the Road to the Sun, the main attraction, is still closed.  They are afraid to clear the snow because it may cause avalanches.  Other roads are partially open.  Because of the rain I decided not to spend the time getting to the park today and trying to get there tomorrow.  It is a crap shoot, the weather could be better or worse.  Up here it seems to be very changeable hour by hour.

The drive was very interesting and quite beautiful.  You can see the Tetons from everywhere and even in the rain they seem to sparkle.  The other mountains are green and undulate against the Tetons.  It was fun.

Wish me luck for tomorrow.

Yellowstone National Park

I toured from one side of Yellowstone to the other to the other.  I must admit that I am exhausted but had a fantastic time.  Yellowstone is very beautiful and eerie in spots.  There are so many hot springs that you turn a corner and are greeted by steam when you least expect it.  There are these twisted and/or massive white mounds formed by the steam cooling.  Some of them look like marshmallows after they've been in the fire before they become S'mores.

I actually did better yesterday at seeing animals up close.  I also learned I have no patience.  There are people who come to Yellowstone for two or three days.  People will stay at an overlook waiting for an animal to come by.  The thought of doing that would drive me crazy.  If an animal isn't visible I move on. I saw a lot yesterday because I went through late in the afternoon when the animals were fed and relaxed.  Maybe.  I may have just been lucky.  Today every animal I saw was at a great distance.

I saw a large herd of Bison.  I realize that Bison are not all that much larger than cattle.  They are taller in the front because of their shoulders but their hind ends are lower and narrower.  I also saw a bear with her two year old cub eating in a field.  They were very far away so it was safe to get out of the car.  Later in the day there were two bear sitings but the Rangers were moving people along because the bears, who had new cubs, were too close to the roads.  As I was leaving I saw a group of 5 Bison near the road so I approached to take a picture.  They were down a hill so  I figured I was safe and I took my picture and walked back to my car.  As soon as I got back to my car I saw one of the Bison climb the hill and stand in the middle of the road.  He could easily have charged me.

I went to see Old Faithful being very skeptical having seen it on film a million times.  I got lucky because I didn't have a schedule and so had no idea when it was due to blow.  It only goes off every 90 minutes.  My luck held up and I had time to get a hot chocolate and two postcards, get into position and there it went.  It was wonderful.  It lets off steam all the time but when it really blows there is this whooshing sound and great amounts of steam.  There were no crowds so everyone got to see with plenty of room.

The weather has been really crazy today.  It started out sunny and cold, then it rained then the rain stopped long enough for Old Faithful and some more sightseeing.  Then it rained with a terrible wind and the sun came out again.  Then there was a thunderstorm and as of now the sun is shining as though nothing had happened.

A busy day and potatoes too

A belated fact about Boise, they process ALL the french fries for McDonald's in America.  Somehow I find that very repulsive.  I'm not sure why.

The day started with me off to visit the Craters of the Moon National Monument.  I haven't figured out the difference between a National Park and a National Monument.  As I was driving there a coyote pranced across the road in front of me just as casual as can be, luckily he was far enough ahead that I didn't need to brake.  I think I'm a volcano type girl.  As soon as I starting getting into the area and the soil turned black and all the rocks were black and sharp a smile appeared on my face.  There are basically two types of lava: one is aiai which is sharp and very broken and the other pahoehoe which is smoother.  Craters of the Moon had its last eruption about 2000 years ago.  It is really exciting to see comparatively recent lava flows begin to be colonized first by lichens and then plants.  Some of the lava has turned red from rust because of its high iron content.  I wandered around the monument for an hour or so checking out the different formations created by the different eruptions.

Next I went to Blackfoot to visit the Idaho Potato Museum.  It is an adorable little museum.  They have the whole history of how potatoes made their way from South America to the rest of the world.  Also how  the Idaho Russet potato was hybridized.  Then they had a promo on how potatoes are grown, graded, double-checked, packed and shipped.  Then what happens to the rejects like hash browns or other frozen products.  They, of course, had all the old equipment used for planting and harvesting potatoes.  They had this photo of Marilyn Monroe in a potato sack.

I decided that the next thing I would do was to spend two days in Yellowstone so I got a hotel at the north   entrance of the Park.  For some reason because it is me I had to go through west entrance and meander to get to the north entrance.  For a while I got depressed because I didn't see so much as a squirrel.  Then I turned a corner and there was a crowd of parked cars with people taking pictures of Bison hanging out not ten feet away.  It was amazing.  They must have all been mothers and juveniles because they were pretty small.  Though a man got too close and a Bison got up and snorted angrily and stomped his foot.  I took some photos and moved on.  Next there was a large male Bison posing for photos.  He was standing on a mound and would check to see if you had your camera ready and would hold a pose.  Once he heard the click he would move, shake himself, look around.  As I kept driving I came across people photographing a herd of Elk.  Of course I stopped to take my own photos.  They were at a great distance but I saw a doe Elk up close as I was leaving the park.  She was just standing at the entrance washing herself.

The hotel is a total rip-off but it isn't anything I didn't expect.  It was a great day.  I'm really looking forward to tomorrow.