Election Coverage from Florida

I got to experience a presidential election from the battleground state of Florida. I made my father drive around with me looking for voting locations to see if there was anything to see.

There was one street corner where McCain's supporters stood on one corner and Obama's supporters stood across the street. The McCain people just stood there holding signs. The Obama people waved and got people to honk. They were a little more fun.

This sign has nothing to do with McCain or Obama, but it helped me to realize how Florida officials like to try to confuse their citizens. Who ever heard of a Red School Day?

The Obama-mobile

More political commentary from Florida citizens.

Sorry for the blurriness -- I took this at night from a moving vehicle. If you had to spend the rest of your life on a deserted island with either Joe the Plumber or Joe Six-pack, who would you choose?


On a sad note, I'm going to miss watching Tina Fey impersonate Sarah Palin. That made for some good TV. However, after voting for the losing candidates in the past two elections, it feels good to have finally picked a winner!

Trip Statistics

Rob likes math and statistics, you see. Here are some he calculated up for me.

Departure: 8/8/08, 8:08pm
Arrival: 8/16/08, 8:16pm

Total travel time: 8 days, 8 minutes
Total travel time: 192 hours, 8 minutes
Total travel time: 11,528 minutes
Total travel time: 691,680 seconds

Total miles driven: 4,069

Average velocity: 0 mph
(ha ha, physics joke, see? I had a net displacement of 0 miles, start to finish)

Average speed: 21.18 mph
Average speed: 9.47 meters/sec

Gas bill: $434.05

Keep checking Travels with Bill to keep up with my mom!

Rob Tallies His Travels

Over the past couple of years, Rob has visited 41 states. The only places he hasn't seen in America are Vermont, Kentucky, Kansas, North Dakota, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, Alaska, and Hawaii (those states are in white on the map).

I'm not sure where to go next summer, but I'm sure I'll want to cross off a few more of those states. I can pretty much guarantee that I won't be driving to Hawaii...

If you want to make your own visited states map, go here. It's kinda fun.

Devil's Tower and Random Stuff

Every day that I've been in South Dakota, the Weather Channel warns me that there will be rain and thunderstorms the next day. And every day I wake up, the weather is beautiful. It stays nice until 3 or 4 in the afternoon and then there's a thunderstorm. This system works fine for me. Rob and I woke up, saw the clear skies, and set out for the Devil's Tower in Wyoming.

I took this picture about 6 miles from Devil's Tower.

I did the 1.3-mile hike around Devil's Tower. Do you see any people in this picture? Look closely...

Maybe a little zooming in will help to see the rock climber. If you click on the picture it will zoom even more.

Here's a shot from the other side.

Prairie Dog!

I looked at a map when I was at the Devil's Tower -- no offense to Mrs. Weasleby, but sometimes I like to see the big picture. I realized we were about 30 miles from Montana, a state I never visited. So of course, I had to head north just to add it to my list!

After driving through the southeast nugget of Montana I returned to South Dakota. I wanted to visit Sturgis to see where the bikers hang out. I ate lunch at The Knuckle Saloon, one of the biker bars. It reminded me of... a biker bar.

After Sturgis I drove over to Deadwood. I was intrigued by the many casino billboards I had seen. I visited one of the casinos. I was the only player at a $2 blackjack table. It was weird. I guess I'm used to the more crowded casinos in Vegas or even Atlantic City. I played a few hands and took off.

Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park

Rob and I went to Mt. Rushmore first. Look at those faces!

On my way to the viewing area there was a family of mountain goats. I like goats. Here's the baby goat.

And here they are... Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln. Got really lucky with the weather -- not a cloud in the sky!

This one goes out to all the people who have a soft spot in their hearts for Abe.

After visiting Rushmore I drove along the Norbeck scenic route through the Black Hills. I took this picture because I kept seeing these piles throughout the mountain and I don't know what they're for. Any ideas?

On Heather's friend Tony's advice I drove through Custer State Park. He said there was a lot of wildlife there, but I wasn't really expecting to see any up close. I was wrong. Here is the first of three traffic jams I experienced. The first was due to a group of wild burros.

Three burros came up to my car and scratched their necks on my side view mirrors. Here's one of them. We didn't talk, but I think he was very taken with Rob, who was in the back seat.

Here we are in the second nature-inspired traffic jam of the day. This one was caused by buffalo. They waltzed right up to the cars. Check out the side view mirror -- there's something you don't see back in Jersey!

Buffalo vs. Benz. I'm rooting for the Buffalo!

More wildlife at Custer.

After driving on the Custer Wildlife Loop I took a ride on the Needles Highway. Here's a one-lane tunnel I got to drive through...

... and the view on the other side!

Rob visits the Badlands

Rob, Mrs. Weasleby, and I headed out to explore Badlands National Park. It's a sight to see. As with most things that are vast and impressive, pictures won't do it justice. That didn't stop me from trying, though. The thing that most impressed us was how utterly desolate it was.

With my trusty iPod aboard, I listened to Bruce Springsteen's Badlands as I drove from viewpoint to viewpoint.

I was a dork and read the little informational postings the Badlands people put up. Apparently that yellow and reddish stuff is indicative of the area previously being covered by a shallow ocean.

Wild sunflowers grew here and there throughout the park.

Yes, at some of the more empty viewpoints on the 20-mile loop road, I set up the tripod, got Rob out of the car, and took some shots. At one point when I was setting up my tripod (Rob was still in the car) a couple pulled up to see the sights. I guess the tripod gave me an air of authority because as the woman got out of the car, she called out "Yoo hoo, Mr. Photographer, will you take our picture?" Grrrr. I got "sir"ed at another national park. I know, I know... I have short hair and I was wearing a baseball hat. But I HAD to have my hat on because my hair was messy from the wind! Whatever. I took her pictures, waited for them to drive away, and got Rob out of the car.

Anyone want to walk along the trail with many stairs?

The town of Wall is right outside of the Badlands. I started seeing signs for Wall Drug as far east as Minnesota. I later learned that there are signs for Wall Drug as far away as Amsterdam and Africa. I visited Wall Drug, home of the 5-cent cup of coffee. It's a giant place filled with rooms and rooms of stuff to buy. This is the cowboy boots room. Hooray, boots!

The Yankees are playing the Minnesota Twins tonight. Minnesota borders South Dakota. This is extremely lucky for me, because I can watch the game on tv! 'Course, I'm not watching the Yankees game; I'm watching the Twins game.

Driving through Minnesota and most of South Dakota

I asked Mrs. Weasleby to take me to the Badlands, and she responded by telling me just to drive straight for 500+ miles. If you haven't yet met Mrs. Weasleby, that's not quite her style. She's always putting her two cents in. Even if there is no actual action I need to take, sometimes she'll just tell me "keep left in 2 miles." Nope. Not today. Today she just said drive. For 500 miles.

South Dakota at last! Only 300 miles 'til the Badlands!

I stopped in Mitchell at the Corn Palace. All of the murals are made out of corn.

Ears of corn! Many ears of corn!

This is one of the outside murals. Someone made a math teacher out of CORN! It HAS to be a math teacher -- look at the detail! She's teaching them about the area of a circle. Pie Are Squared (but pies are round!)

Driving to Wisconsin in a Day

I didn't plan the eight-ness of this all, but the official start time for this trip was 8/8/08 at 8:08pm. I really really didn't plan that!

Though I'm the only human on this trip, Mrs. Weasleby (shown here) and Rob Lowe (shown everywhere else) are pretty good, albeit inanimate, travel companions. I love that I can just tell Mrs. Weasleby to take us to South Dakota!

I napped for an hour or so somewhere in Ohio in the pre-dawn hours, which allowed me to experience Wisconsin in the daylight hours. It was the first new state of the trip. Rob was itching to get out of the car by this time, so we posed with some of the welcoming Wisconsin signs... and mice...

We're all safe and sound in La Crosse, Wisconsin. It must have something to do with the sport because there is a large statue of lacrosse players across the street from the hotel. Tomorrow -- Minnesota and South Dakota!