This past February on our LA Pen Show and Route 66 travels we posted a daily travelogue to the website. Check out our LA-Route 66 adventures, click here! We received so many favorable comments on the LA - Route 66 travelogue that we have decided to do it again for our trip to Portland, Oregon and points inbetween. We hope you'll join us as we make our way to the Portland Pen Show and back to Iowa again.

Plus - this time around, we've decided to embed a few Pendemonium On The Road Specials in with the travelogue, so check back often, you might find a great deal when you least expect it!

Thanks to all of you for your patience while we attend the Portland Pen Show and sneak in a few extra days of exploring the western parts of the United States with our granddaughter. We appreciate your business!

Day 1 - Monday, July 12, 2004

Frank, Kayla and Sam headed off to Portland on Monday morning.

Here we are on day one of our Portland Pen Show Adventure! Off to a little bit of a later start than anticipated, but still plenty of time for some pen hunting and visiting roadside America!

A common misconception is that Iowa is flat with lots of cornfields. Actually, Iowa is rolling hills, and still lots of cornfields! Frank took this photo from the car window, so a bit of fuzz, but you can still make out the rolling hills of Madison County, Iowa, home to many historic covered bridges.

Danish Widmill

Next stop for us was Elk Horn, Iowa, home of a Danish Windmill that is quite spectacular. Back in the 1970s the folks in Elk Horn, the largest Danish populated rural community in the US decided they should have a Danish Windmill. They raised the money to purchase an old windmill in Denmark, have it disassembled, shipped to Elk Horn and reassembled and renovated. It is very impressive and was well worth the short drive to Elk Horn, about 50 miles east of Omaha to check it out. The windmill is part of an Iowa Welcome Center and the film they prepared on the history of the windmill was excellent.

We're in Nebraska for the night. Those of you in the midwest know that this spring and early summer has not been a good tornado year. Really, we should be DONE with tornado season now. But, not quite yet as Kayla and Frank were told to abandon the pool and take cover, just a little prematurely as we're just under a tornado watch. Enough to make us stop though and consult the map to figure out exactly where we were and where the suspected tornadoes were coming from, locate the flashlight and find the local weather station!! Just get me to Wyoming tomorrow where tornadoes are a rarity, I'm tired of tornado season!! However, Frank did get a couple photos of the sun just going below the horizon and some beautiful (OK, yes, also potentially storm laden) clouds.

If you've made it this far ..... past the windmills and weather reports .... these items are fresh finds and up for sale, first firm emails take 'em!

Day 2 - Tuesday, July 13, 2004

We've rode a good part of Route 66 and have been on a few sections of the Lincoln Highway as well, mostly in Iowa and Pennsylvania. What can I say, we like old highways! I grew up just a hop, skip and a jump from the Lincoln Highway, so maybe it's just in my blood. The photo below is of an original Lincoln Highway marker.

We have passed under the Great Platte River Road Archway Monument near Kearney, Nebraska several times in the past and finally took time to stop and visit on this trip. Well worth the visit with a well done history of the Great Platte River Road from it's beginnings as the Oregon and Mormon Trails to the Pony Express route to the Lincoln Highway to present day Interstate 80.

Day 3 - Wednesday, July 14, 2004

Onward through the southern portion of Wyoming today! These windmills are west of Laramie and we're told the power they generate goes to the Seattle area. The photo shows just a few of them, there must be hundreds on them along this ridge.

We found Fort Steele by accident when making a pit stop at a rest area east of Rawlins. Hidden from view, about a mile off the beaten path was Fort Steele, built to protect the Union Pacific workers when the railroad first came through here. The original Lincoln Highway also runs through the Fort and in the photo below is just in front of the fence. A Union Pacific train just happened through while we were exploring the ruins.

Then we were off to Rock Springs to the antique shops ..... except .....

Day 4 - Thursday, July 15, 2004

The drive into Portland along the Columbia River is breathtaking!

Day 6 - Saturday, July 17, 2004

Today was the first formal day of the Inaugural Portland Pen Show and it did not disappoint a single person I spoke to! Good, steady crowds of people all day long. Over 50 tables of pens, a good portion of which were vintage offered a good selection for everyone who came to the show. Carla Mortensen along with the staff of Portland Pen Show members were well organized and everything ran smoothly, who could ask for more, especially at a first year show.

It was busy enough that Frank didn't get much chance for photos, but he did squeeze in a few. Hopefully more photos on Sunday! Click on an image to enlarge photo.

Day 7 - Sunday, July 18, 2004

Frank finally got a chance on Sunday at the Portland Show to take some photos.

Day 8 - Monday, July 19, 2004

Betcha' thought we'd forgotten all about surprise special offers, not so! Take advantage of these good deals Through Midnight, Wednesday, July 21, 2004. Place your order directly via our secure online order form on the website and mention Portland Specials in the comments section

Day 9 - Tuesday, July 20, 2004

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Our first great find of the day was Wallace, Idaho and we stopped here by pure chance, just wanting to get out and stretch a bit. Neat exhibition of old mining equipment on display next to the Visitors Center. Those things we're looking at in the photo are hand drills (BIG hand drills!) used to bore holes into the mine walls. This is silver mining country. The lovely woman at the visitors center gave Kayla several chunks of concentrate (a rock to those of unknowing about mining) to take home as souvenirs: concentrate is silver, copper, lead, zinc and gold.

Our other stop in Wallace while driving through town was at the old RR Depot. Just about every building in town was restored as nicely as this one and we're already trying to figure out a way to come back here to spend some more time. So if you're ever driving past Wallace, take a few minutes and drive though town, you'll like it! We're off to Rapid City and lots of sightseeing for the next leg of our trip, hopefully some pen hunting, too.

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Day 10 - Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Snow covered peaks as we traveled through Montana today. Just beyond these peaks is Yellowstone National Park - that's for another trip!

Near Hardin, Montana in Little Big Horn county we found another surprise treasure at the Little Big Horn County Historical Society's Visitors Center - an entire town recreated, plus museum exhibits and all done very well. Photos above are of an original stage coach - be careful what you say about the good old days, this did not look like comfortable traveling to me! The teepees are Crow made, but somewhat recently. I'm always surprised how cool it is inside a teepee, it was near 90 outside, but had to be a good 20 degrees cooler inside. This Visitors Center is off I-90 about an hour northwest of the Montana-Wyoming line if you're ever traveling through this parts.

I have fond memories of Wyoming having spent many summers here growing up and it almost feels like home when we cross into Wyoming. We traveled the northern edge of the state stopping for a quick lunch in Sheridan then on through Buffalo, Gillette and Sundance into South Dakota. Gillette is oil country (ok, a lot of Wyoming is oil country!), lots working wells to see as well as major refineries. The best thing to see though in this area is all of the antelope. Unfortunately, antelope don't stand still for photos and I'll save you from viewing cute little tan blurbs with with behinds ;-) After having Kayla with me in Wyoming last summer, she remembered how to spot and where to look for the antelope and I'll be we say close to 100 during our drive across Wyoming. Also saw our first Wall Drug sign! These signs are famous throughout the world, check it out: www.walldrug.com

Made a quick pass through downtown Rapid City, South Dakota this evening. As is typical with downtowns, a number of buildings have been modernized over the years, but a few beauties still stand like the one on the right. When I say quick, I really did mean quick, Kayla was squirming in the backseat ready to get back to the hotel with a waterslide in the pool, she says this is the best hotel we've found yet!

Tomorrow we're off to see Mt Rushmore, take an 1840 train ride and who knows what else!

Day 11 - Thursday, July 22, 2004

Thursday was Black Hills and Mt Rushmore day, could have easily turned into 2 or 3 days and if we ever do this again, I would definitely plan in more time, lots to see and do. We started off in Keystone and took an 1880s train ride to Hill City on the Black Hills Central RR. Six miles, one hour on the steam powered train. Great scenery off the beaten path.

We had about an hour in Hill City before our return trip, cute little Western town and if you look closely at the photo, you'll see a sign for the Scribe's Hut. Frank caught this right off and we dashed across the street thinking it might be a pen shop, which is was .... sort of .... lots of markers, some stationery, a few quills, but no fountain pens, one side of the shop was espresso and coffee, the other the pens. It didn't take us long once we got west of Idaho on the trip out that espresso shops were everywhere (not so in the midwest), and each espresso shop had something to go along with it. One of our favorite signs was Expresso and BBQ which seemed an odd combo!

This was our return car on the train, quite a fancy one compared to some of the others.

	Keystone is also a neat little Western town, loaded with souvenir shops backed up right against the mountains. We had an excellent lunch on a veranda that overlooked the street - good people watching!
	Then it was up the mountain to Mt Rushmore and the stone presidents. The weather was not the most cooperative with intermittent sprinkles and lots of clouds, but the locals said they needed rain, so we didn't complain! The presidents are always breathtaking and it's just amazing that this could even be done. The average height of the pupil on one of the eyes is 11 feet!

Day 12 - Friday, July 23, 2004

We pulled into Wall, South Dakota just in time Thursday evening to have dinner at the Wall Drug Cafe. Nine o'clock and the street outside this piece of Roadside America was still bustling.

Next morning, it was back to Wall Drug for the full experience and after 3 hours, we still hadn't seen everything. You name it, they've got it, especially if it has anything to do with the West. Wall Drug was bought by the Hustead's in 1931 and they nearly didn't make it during these depression years, except for their brainstorm to offer free ice water to dusty, thirsty travellers, enticing them to the drug store. They still do this today, but have added, just a few other things to the lineup!

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Kayla managed to pose on photo op giant animals galore including this buckin' bronco. She also mined for gems (did I mention the budding rock collection - lol!), saw tyranasaurus rex and shopped til Grandma almost dropped! This is quite the place for 10 year olds and us Grandmas, too! Just east of Wall is Badlands Park. Never can decide if the scenery here is beautiful or frightening, but it is vastly different than almost any other scenery in the US. I've seen small spots like this before in Wyoming (Hells Half Acre), but nothing so far reaching as this! We drove a 30 mile loop through the park of endless rugged moonscape like peaks and valleys. There is also a buffalo herd here, but they managed to evade us. The closest we came was Buffalo Soap in the Lodge where we stopped for lunch.

Badlands Park, South Dakota

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Our hope for the stopping place of Mitchell wasn't going to happen after 3 hours at Wall Drug, so we pulled in for the night at Oacoma, South Dakota, population 830 according to the sign. Put Al's Oasis on your list of places to eat at if you get to this neck of the woods - superb prime rib! This is deep in Lewis and Clark territory, overlooking the Missouri River and complete with a replica from a diary noting the area's wildlife which included buffalo like the one Kayla is standing next to, well, maybe not quite that big!

Day 13 - Saturday, July 24, 2004

Our first stop of the day was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota - a sight to behold. The entire outside is redone every year in corn and costs run about $130,000 each year. This year's theme was appropriately Lewis and Clark. They've been decorating the outside fo the Corn Palace since the early 1900s, each year has been different and always done with corn, with the exception of a few years during the WWII era where corn was in short supply and some of the scenes were painted.

Day 14 - Sunday, July 25, 2004

Our last day on the road was a scenic one through the rolling hills of southern Minnesota and then a drop down into Iowa. Nice drive on a beautiful day. Also the only time on the trip where we managed to get turned around, figures it would be our home state and we can only blame ourselves for working off a map that was a few years old .... couple of side roads we planned on taking to cut over to the Avenue of the Saints to Cedar Rapids were turned into county roads from state roads and re-numbered, made Mason City most interesting!!

Our one sightseeing stop today was at the Little Brown Church of the Vale in Nashua, Iowa. Very pretty and a lot of lore and history behind it: www.littlebrownchurch.org

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A good part of drive took us along the Cedar River to Kayla's house. While she didn't admit it, we knew she was anxious to get home to Mom and Dad after 13 days on the road, she was watching the road signs pretty carefully and we received pretty regular mileage updates on how far it was to CR.

We had a great time on this trip and hope you enjoyed seeing a little bit of Roadside America along with us as we ventured from Iowa to the Pacific and back again. Thanks to all for your patience while we were away. Now it's back to full time work along the banks of the Mississippi.