6/29 - 6/30 The Badlands, South Dakota

This was a very peaceful place. While it was hot, the wind kept the temperature at a bearable level.

On the way:

The night before going to Badlands, I slept in Mitchell, SD. Before leaving town early in the morning, I just had to drive by the famous "Corn Palace."

Badlands National Park:

My first National Park on this trip.

Some of these rock/mountain/doodad things were a lot of fun to walk and climb upon.

That's a big bird up there.

That's an official Badland bighorn sheep sitting there. He was tagged, with a colorful collar.

Wild buffalo grazing.

When the land flattened out, there were lots and lots of prairie dogs.

I walked very close to this little guy. All his friends scurried away back into their holes, but this one stayed, staring me down.

He was fearless and actually walked away from his hole towards me. Someone else walked nearby, which startled him.

After driving through Badlands, before heading to my campground, I drove out to Wall, to see the famous Wall Drug Store; it's a tourist trap, but I gotta admit, it's worth cruising through.

Campground - Interior, SD:

I picked a bad night to set up my tent. No rain, no storm... just super high winds, beating upon my tent. I kept thinking a tornado was going to take me and my tent for a ride. Needless to say, I was only able to sleep a couple hours.

Badlands (The next morning at dawn):

I drove in around 4:30 in the morning.. was a ghost town. A couple hours later, I passed a few cars in the park.

Apparently, Mr. Cottontail cannot read.

Buffalo Gap Grasslands:

I took the scenic route on my way to the Black Hills.

I have no idea what these little eroded mini plateau things are called, but the prefix should be "chia"

6/25 - 6/27 Milwaukee, WI

Milwaukee was not what I thought it would be. I was expecting bars and brat stores every block, not to mention permanent overcast skies. Sure, there were very run-down parts of the city, but some areas were beautiful. The city and weather surprised me.


MILWAUKEE BREWERS GAME AT MILLER PARK:

Billy and I were 5 rows from the top... and it still was a great view.

The design of the stadium was very unique.

MILLER BREWING TOUR:

That's actually a bridge for the beer. Every case of beer they produce travels on conveyer belts moving from one building to the other.

Being that it was Saturday, not too much was occurring on the factory floor.

They estimate there to be nearly 1/2 million cases of beer in this one big warehouse that's as big as 5 football fields. Each day, the entire inventory is replenished on a constant rotational basis. That's a lot of beer.

Some cases in action.

The "Historic Caves" are where Fredrick Miller stored all of his beer in the mid-1800's before the invention of refrigeration.

The caves.

The brew house: at the beginning of the brewing process.

It was super HOT and humid in these rooms.

"WISCONSIN'S SUMMER SOLSTICE BEER LOVER'S FESTIVAL":

You might not be able to tell from this angle, but it's a little glass. After 3 hours of "sampling", it seemed like a full pint... I then started asking for a 1/2 glass the last hour.

This made my day. Former WVU b-ball star and current NBA player, Joe Alexander, spotted me wearing my WVU jersey as he walked right by me. He pointed to me and said, "Let's Go Mountaineers!" If he didn't call to me, I wouldn't have even noticed him. He's wearing a walking cast -- Get well soon Joe!

SPRECHER BREWERY TOUR:

Sprecher is the oldest (not very old - 1985) and largest microbrewery in the state. Very good beer.

I expected to hear a faint Rick Moranis voice, "Hey, hosehead.... let me out!" (If you saw the movie Strange Brew, you might understand)

We went to Solly's afterwards. It's known for it's great burgers. Apparently, Milwaukee likes to fry their burgers in lots of BUTTER! Disgusting, but quite good.

MILWAUKEE ALONG LAKE MICHIGAN:

We drove around near the lake and found really nice spots. There were amazing homes in the area.

Nice city parks along the water.... and lots of docked sailboats in the marina. It looks like Milwaukee is revitalizing many areas of the city.

6/24 - Cleveland, OH

The first leg of my trip, my friend Billy is accompanying me to Cleveland and Milwaukee... and flying home from there.

Why did we go to Cleveland??? Pretty much, just to see the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. But as a bonus, we also got to see little Ralphie's house from "A Christmas Story." I'm a nerd... I love that movie!

I must say that Cleveland had a much nicer downtown than I expected. And it was smaller than I thought it would be - as we walked the length of it fairly quickly.

"A CHRISTMAS STORY" HOUSE:

This was the house where they filmed the exterior shots from that classic movie. Some guy bought it and turned it into a museum and tour. We didn't want to pay the $7.50 to enter, so we just took some pics of the exterior.

The beautiful leg lamp.

Out back, where Ralphie almost shot his eye out with the Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot model air rifle.

Ralphie lived on "Cleveland Street."

ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAME:

Unfortunately, they didn't allow cameras inside the main display rooms, so I didn't get pictures of all the cool memorabilia from Elvis, the Beatles, and other cool icons of rock. Overall, it was a great museum -- very well done.

Gotta love the architecture!

They had a special exhibit of Bruce's stuff.

The ZZ Top - Eliminator car.

The cars U2 used in their "Zoo" tour.

Johnny Cash's tour bus that he used for many years. He supposedly spent over $500,000 renovating the thing. I looked inside... big waste of money!

View of the Brown's stadium with the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Science Center in the background.

The basketball arena for the Cavs (Quicken Loans) and the baseball stadium of the Indians (Progressive Field).