Dat 4Runner Life Doe - Adventures in a T4R

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Part 2

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Awesome camping trip part 1

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A hike with my oldest

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October 2011, my best friend was getting married in Wisconsin and I was standing in the wedding. I decided I was going to make a road trip out of it and it was pretty awesome.

The plan was pretty casual and open ended with only a couple hard dates set. This was the basic run down:
Saturday: Start driving from Colorado out to Chicago and camp somewhere over night.
Sunday: Continue driving to Chicago and stay with my sister for the night.
Monday - Wednesday: I wanted to ride my old local mountain bike trail systems. Palos and Kettle were my go to places and when I left 10 years ago we (CAMBr - Chicago Area Mountain Bikers, a 503 non profit of volunteers that would build and maintain single track) had just finished the Raceway Woods clean up and cut the first 1 mile loop of dirt trail as a proof of concept for the county and land owners. It’s continued to slowly grow and expand grown a lot since I left, about 6 miles of dirt looping all around the site of a historic 1/4 mile oval racetrack in the woods. I wanted to check it out. By Wednesday night I wanted to end up at my Mom’s in Wisconsin.
Thursday: I had virtual meetings all day and my mom was going to pick up my girlfriend who was flying in.
Friday: Do whatever most of the day and end up out by my buddies for the rehearsal dinner and to get the hotel.
Saturday: The wedding.
Sunday: Leave in the morning and meet my girlfriends mom for lunch in Minnesota on our way to a camping reservation at a state park in South Dakota.
Monday - Saturday: Anything we wanted, no set plans or schedules, just a general plan to head west and check out some combination of the Badlands National Park, Black Hills National Forest, Yellow Stone, Grand Tetons and the Bridger-Teton National Forest regions. We’d play it by ear, go as fast or as slow as we wanted through things and see where we’d end up. No plans, no pressure.
Sunday: Drive home to Colorado.


In the end things don’t always go according planned. The drive out went smooth, I camped in a state park in Iowa. When I got to my sisters her youngest was sick so I did not stick around for a few nights as intended. Rain threatened my ability to ride but I was able to hit Palos on Monday and meet an old friend for dinner. Tuesday I was up at my moms in Wisconsin, Raceway Woods got rained out. Wednesday my best friend and I hit up Kettle for a ride, his fiancé would have murdered me if I got him hurt before the wedding son it was a pretty casual day. Thursday I did my stuff and my mom got my girlfriend. Friday morning my girlfriend and I put on my fuel tank skid plate that my buddy brought to me Wednesday during our ride, it ended up in Wisconsin after a shipping snafu. Then we went out on the boat for a bit and headed out to rehearsal dinner. Saturday was the wedding. Sunday we went to the Wisconsin Dells for the morning, then met her mom in MN for a late lunch and continued along to a state park in South Dakota to camp. Monday we hiked and explored the state park and then continued our way west, stopped at a couple cheesy road side attractions and found a pretty epic spot to setup camp on the water. Tuesday we went for a hike on an island, checked out the state capital and historic buildings, then continued or way west but decided no more highways, only back roads until we hit the Badlands. We got there and did the Badlands Loop but the weather was pretty bad so no hiking. The weather kept getting worse as we went, there was a weather alert warning that it was going to be in the high 30’s, with heavy rain, 30-40 mph sustained winds and gusts of 60+ mph. We ended up getting a cheap motel in Wall South Dakota for the night and got a bed and warm showers. There’s a place called Wall Drug she had heard about as a kid in MN and we had seen advertisements for it since we crossed the state line days prior, seeing as it was in Wall and so were we, we spent the morning there before going back into the Badlands and back roading our way through ghost towns and into the Black Hills to Wind Cave National Park, the needles highway, and Custer State Park. This is where things really started to go sideways. We basically caught up to the tail end of a winter storm. Unseasonably cold nights around 20 degrees and up to 16” of fresh snow in places. We found an established campground with a electrical hookup for the night so we could run the tiny little emergency space heater in the tent overnight. From there we got up and finished the needles highway, drove past Mount Rushmore, out to Rapid City for phenomenal brunch and a DIY car wash to remove some of the hundreds of pounds of mud packed in everywhere. It was obvious the weather was not going to cooperate from there on out so we weighed our options. Western Wyoming wasn’t an option, up into Montana wasn’t a good option, we decided to just head the general direction of home. We went into Wyoming and figured we’d get to the first real(ish) town, not the one with a population of 4 that we passed, and look for camp. The plains were covered in blown snow, it was cold, it was windy, we decided to continue along. Eventually we ended up Glendo State park looking for a spot to camp with electrical hook ups again for the unseasonably cold weather but they had shut down for a season. The one option was $45 for the night to be able to plug in an extension cord in the gravel parking lot of a shitty trailer park. We opted not to do that and just continued along. We stopped for dinner and realized we were only about 2 hours from home so we chose to just call it at that point. The 4Runner rolled over 150,000 miles about 10 minutes from home. We went for a bike ride the next day then had the weekend to unpack, clean up, clean out, change the oil, wash the truck, etc.

All in all here’s some stats:

2787 miles, 217.21 gallons, 12.8 mpg, $703.16 in fuel

Colorado -> Nebraska -> Iowa -> Illinois -> Wisconsin -> Minnesota -> South Dakota -> Wyoming -> Colorado

Prairie Rose State Park, Palos Trails in the Maple Lake East, Pulaski Woods, Wolf Road Woods and, Red Gate Woods Cook County Forest Preserves, John Muir Trails in the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest, Palisades State Park, LaFramboise Island Nature Area, Fort Pierre National Grassland, Badlands National Park, Pine Ridge Reservation, Buffalo Gap National Grassland, Black Hills National Forest, Wind Cave National Park, Custer State Park, Black Elk Wilderness, Mount Rushmore National Monument, Thunder Basin National Grassland, and Glendo State Park.

LOTS of pictures to come, it’ll probably be spread across the next 15ish posts, stay tuned.
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Fueled up and ready to go
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Rolling out of camp after the first night
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Place I found for breakfast
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It was delicious
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Iowa 80, the worlds largest truck stop
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When you find a smoker like this you stop for lunch
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Unfortunately the food was dogshit
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Time to ride
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Dbest
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Riding the John Muir trails at the Southern Unit of the Kettle Moraine State Forest with my buddy.

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He was about done for the day so I wanted to ride one more of the small loop basically at full sprint to burn off some more energy. When I came back this was what I found, him laying in the lot under the 4Runner using it as shade lol.

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October Trip Part 4

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My mom’s husband’s old house was the white one on the left.
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1 of the 4 historic Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes on the lake.
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The wedding

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The next morning my buddy gave me his mountain bike so I could transport it to Colorado for him in preparation for his spring/summer trip out, and for my girlfriend to use in the mean time. We picked up the bike and then headed out to Wisconsin Dells. We stopped at a bar for the shot of the day and walked around a bit. We were going to meet her mom for a late lunch so she decided to get a super cheesy airbrush tattoo to freak her mom out.

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We found a transformer as well.
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Camp in South Dakota
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Part 6

Making some coffee
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Exploring the park
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:datass:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Ooo what’s that last rock formation ? Super cool
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Looks like a kick ass trip, man!
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That looks :impressive:
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max225 wrote: Thu Nov 04, 2021 12:03 pm Ooo what’s that last rock formation ? Super cool
The hiking trail was Balancing Rock Trail, I’m assuming it’s named after that formation.
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Part 7

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We made a detour heading west to see the Corn Palace that they kept having billboards for. Not what we expect. Also closed on a Monday…
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Part 8

iPhone bubble level on the bottom of the tent through the sunroof works great for finding level ground.
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I know I know, maturity isn’t my strong suit
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Champagne and some homemade cookies my mom had made us to celebrate my GF accepting a job offer Image

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Nothing thing starting your day with some
French press
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I was at the Corn Palace 3 days ago.
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Desertbreh wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:22 am I was at the Corn Palace 3 days ago.
Did you go in? It was Columbus Day so it was closed. I was expecting it to be a thing out in a field or something, not a legit giant ass building next to city hall lol
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Dbest wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:25 am
Desertbreh wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:22 am I was at the Corn Palace 3 days ago.
Did you go in? It was Columbus Day so it was closed. I was expecting it to be a thing out in a field or something, not a legit giant ass building next to city hall lol
I was there in mid-June. There was a band playing outside right behind the sign where you took pics, and NO ONE was there watching them. Not much to see inside, frankly. Sort of a small convention center-type place. Some displays, snack shop, clean bathrooms. Probably nothing happening due to the pandemic. The previous time we were there several years ago there was a flea market happening.
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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Dbest wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:25 am
Desertbreh wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 10:22 am I was at the Corn Palace 3 days ago.
Did you go in? It was Columbus Day so it was closed. I was expecting it to be a thing out in a field or something, not a legit giant ass building next to city hall lol
On the way to pheasant hunting in the evening. We ate at the Back 40 Taphouse Grill across the street, which had legit burgers.
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Johnny_P wrote: Thu Feb 09, 2023 3:21 pm Earn it and burn it, Val.
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Sounds like we didn’t miss much. I expected like the corn version of worlds largest ball of yarn or something. Like a giant treehouse looking thing made from corn or something.
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Dbest wrote: Fri Nov 05, 2021 2:52 pm Sounds like we didn’t miss much. I expected like the corn version of worlds largest ball of yarn or something. Like a giant treehouse looking thing made from corn or something.
Nah. You didn't miss much at all. The corn cob decorations on the outside of the building is the main draw, really. And they change that every year so you can have a reason to keep coming back. :lol:
:wap: Where are these mangos?
Detroit wrote: Fri Apr 16, 2021 1:19 pm I don't understand anything anymore.
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