Nina's big Road Trip

[MC Hammered]

So I dropped my camera and the SD card got jammed inside hence the delay in posting any updates.

But here we go...

My friend Tina from LA flew to Chicago to meet me there to do this roadtrip. I land in Chicago, grab my bag and somehow ended up with the only cab driver in the city that did not have a GPS or a sense of direction. After spending 20 minutes driving around trying to figure out where this Starbucks is supposed to be I told the driver to pull over, pulled out my GPS unit and got back on track.

We met with Brewcity11 (Turk) and saw Nina for the first time in person. I'll admit it was a mixed moment as I saw the blemishes on the body Levent told me about and then then the rest of the car. However, once I got behind the wheel, started her up, listened to the beautiful exhaust note I was sold. How Nina drove compared to the automatic e30 vert I have with the same mileage was night and day.

I was told I had to try Chicago deep dish pizza so we went to a recommended joint and ordered away. Our verdict.. it was over rated unless you really, really like cheese. To me the deep dish pizza was like eating lasagna without the noodles.

So we part way with Turk and started the roadtrip by trying to find the I-90. We drive through Wisconsin, pass by Milwalkee and headed to LaCrosse to spend the night.

Tina looks on the map and it tells me we cross the Mississippi river along the route so we stop and take some pics.

Here is Nina by the river



We drive into the Southern part Minnesota and begin the long, long view of endless fields of corn



Here is Nina and Sprout... somehow I missed the 60' Green Giant



There were some really freaking huge bugs out there! The body on this one was a good 2 inches long!



Sometimes there were some beautiful breaks through the clouds



and as I said... lots of corn

[MC Hammered]

We blast through Minnesota and enter South Dakota and start seeing the signs for the Corn Palace and Wall Drug as we were forewarned.

So we stopped by to check out this Corn Palace but by the time we got there it was closed. It was cool to see the murals they made using corn cobs




As we continued to head West Tina wanted to make a detour to go through the Badlands before we go to Mt. Rushmore.

Since I had no idea what the Badlands were I was game and we head down to check it out in the dark. By the time we get there it was 2am and probably the creepiest place I could have imagined at night. The pictures I took didn't turn out at all even with a flash.



We head into the little town there looking for a place to spend the night. We drive by the first motel and I notice that there is only ONE CAR parked there. No way am I staying in a place without anyone else in the building.

So we drive into town a bit more and find another motel and this one had a few cars there and a bunch of RV's parked. The sign says "To get a room go to the back of the complex and look for the trailer with the bright light"

Umm... yeah... so we do and trade the guy in the trailer with the bright light outside a $100 bill for a key and expect change in the morning.

So I look down at the key. It has a big 4 on it.



Now me being Chinese and a bit superstitious this is just really bad. I'm in the creepiest place on Earth and I get to stay in room #4. In case you don't know the number 4 literally means death when spoken so you understand where I am going with this.

So the room has multicolor shag carpet from 20 years ago and no TV. So just how do we make ourselves feel more comefortable? Tina and I start trading the craziest motel/axe murderer/ghost stories we can remember since we can't sleep.

I guess I finally passed out and I didn't get killed as morning came. In the daylight the Badlands is a very cool place to see.



The view from the car





Now this is a view. This is the same place I took the night shot above.



Now this is a snake

[MC Hammered]

They had some really nice cloud formations that day too



So we head into this area to take some pics. Do you see the little mound in the middle of this picture?



Well I decided it would be cool to have a picture taken of me standing on top of it. So I climb to the top of this mound and was ready to have Tina take the picture when I look down and see 2 diamondback rattlesnakes sliding over my shoes!

So I just freak out and jump off the mound lucky to be alive since I didn't get bitten. As I look back up I see a molted snakeskin trapped in the brush so I carefully take it down for a souvenir.



The Badlands provide some really cool backdrops





So we start towards Mt. Rushmore and along the way we finally see a herd of buffalo



We get to Mt. Rushmore in the afternoon and I get to see something I never thought I would get a chance to.





So the plan now is to head to Deadwood, play some poker and then see Devil's Tower in the morning



Well the plan didn't really end up as we expected.

We did get to Deadwood, we did play some poker but then the two of us ended up losing about $700. Most of the casinos close at 2am so we head to the Silverado as it was the only place open 24 hours.

So we sit down in a 7 handed $3-$6 hold'em game and we end up taking over $900 off that table. Now if you play poker you would understand that that is an massive amount to take out of such a small game. I swear those players hated us.

Now we haven't slept in almost 24 hours and there is no point in sleeping now so we head off to Devil's Tower



Now THIS is a big piece of rock!



My camera battery was getting really low and I was not smart enough to bring my charger so the rest of the pictures are on Tina's cell phone.

We did make it through Montana, saw Little Big Horn and proceeded to Yellowstone to see old faithful



It was one fun roadtrip and there were many more stories to tell that I didn't post up here.

I have to thank Levent for luring me out to Chicago otherwise I would have never seen the amazing sights I got to experience on the drive home. And I have to thank Nina for not breaking down in the middle of nowhere!

[Stevie30]

Man, what a great road trip. Great photos.

[vlad]

awesome fun and great photos, thanks for posting !

[BrewCity11]

I had no idea you were coming up north through milwaukee, we could have hung out a little more.

I was worried you didn't take any pics along the way. Looked like a great time.

Oh, and who the hell loses that much on a 3-6 table???? They should be pissed at themselves.

[MC Hammered]

It did cross my mind to give you a call but the Milwaukee part was about 2 hours after we parted ways so it was a bit late.

Well the 3-6 game did turn really crazy and eventually turned into a 3-6 with a full kill after I cracked someones pocket Kings with 8-2 of Hearts. He got really upset about that one.. "How can you call that hand!?!?? Well... it only cost me $3 more in the big blind" and then flopped trip deuces.

After that the whole table was gunning after me which was real bad timing as I went on a 7 hand rush. One really sick hand was how I made a straight with JQ with a 8-5-2 rainbow flop.

So when are you and Levent coming this way??