megatripdelabrad

La Crosse, WI

I stopped here to get one last good look at the Mississippi and the land west of it. It delivered. Minnesota was all flat and farms, but when you get close to the Mississippi, all of a sudden, it feels like you're in the mountains.

I hiked up Grandad Bluff from Clara's Climb. Weird being back in such familiar surroundings again.

I wanted to check out the downtown, but hotels in La Crosse were absurdly expensive that night for some reason so I headed on. I saved like a hundred bucks, but I'm a little bummed I missed it.

House on the Rock

Having now been to House on the Rock, I still don't really know how to describe it. It starts out pretty normal but then gets more and more bizarre and it just keeps going and you can never really tell what's real and what's not.

Like, okay, eccentric architect, that's cool.

Oh, a VERY eccentric architect, okay.

Yeah, I mean it's a pretty area though, I see why--Ope, and we're in Victorian England.

And now there's a giant squid fighting a whale.

I choose: legs, at dawn.

I don't even know what I'm looking at anymore or why, but I'm into it.

And it just keeps going. I enjoyed exploring the dark and disorienting cacophony, but after three and a half hours, I really just wanted things to make sense again. It was a relief leaving this place and getting back to normality.

Chicago

The last stop on the route. I visited a couple friends while I was here. We drank good drinks and ate good food, and I just had a great time seeing them again. They were both flying out on separate trips within mere hours so I was extremely lucky and grateful I got to see both of them.

On the last day, I was in a state of wanting to get home but not wanting the trip to end. I spent the last few hours taking a trip down memory lane. I rode my bike to some of my favorite spots in Lincoln Park and along the lakeshore. North Pond, North Ave Beach, and this GOATed park bench.

Spent the trip exploring geological and human history. Spent the last few hours going over my own history.

Coda

Here comes a wall of text so if you're just here for pictures, here's where the ride ends. I'd be remiss if I didn't catalog some of the main takeaways from this trip if not just for my future self.

1. All the things I worried about turned out to be easier than I expected. I was worried I'd hate the long drive, but the audiobooks and the beautiful, ever-changing scenery made the miles fly by. I was sure I'd get lost on the way to the spire in Utah and meet a terrible fate, but I found it with minimal issues and had a terrific time. I was nervous about seeing friends again I hadn't seen in years, but it was a blast. I'm still contemplating if these things were easy because I worried about them, and it might just be a post-vacation glow, but for now at least, I feel like I want to challenge myself more.
2. I need a bigger sunhat. My schnoz is too big for the one I got, and the tip of my nose kept getting sunburned.
3. The US seems both bigger and smaller now. I only roamed around the interior and even that felt incomprehensibly vast. But having driven to all these places and in only a few days at a leisurely pace, it feels finite in a way it hadn't before.
4. There's so much cool stuff in the world. I only did a few states (17 if you count all of em, 12 if you don't) and in just one country, and I still found way more to do than I had the time or budget for. I could do the exact route again and find all new stuff to do.
5. By that same token, being constantly on the move, the inexorability of time became much more apparent. I have a feeling now that life is like a conveyor belt of sushi but it never loops around again. If you don't nab that tray of mouth-watering sushi, you might never get another chance.
6. It's very dry out west. I went through so much moisturizer and chap stick. I never thought I'd have a skincare routine, but there we are.
7. I have a much greater appreciation now for "trailblazers". I went to so many amazing places and could only do so because of the hard work and derring-do of others. From the natives to the pioneers to the engineers that built the highways to the park employees and more-intrepid-than-I hikers who maintain the hiking trails, I'm immensely grateful for all of it, and I hope I can return the favor in some small way.

Post-credits scene

Being back in Ann Arbor feels a bit like being back in the garden of Eden. Fragrant flowers, birds singing, it's obnoxiously lush and green, and I don't have to worry about getting gored by a bison or bitten by a rattlesnake (as much).

But it's bittersweet. It's boring, at least compared to the whirlwind trip I've been on. Even in the garden of Eden, I have itchy feet. This trip was supposed to slake my wanderlust but it's only whet my appetite for more. But I suppose ultimately that's a good thing.

Okey dokey. Goodbye for now 🙂