Rance Rizzutto

A twelve-day adventure has come and gone. The trip meter on our car resets after 2000 miles, so it looks like we’ve only gone about 100 miles.

I’m tall. Sitting in cars isn’t comfortable for me and I wasn’t sure how I’d like being on the road. It was a blast! I’m sure I’ll be on the road in the future, hopefully to new parts of the country/planet.

For now, it is good to finally be back home and getting ready to get out there and perform. So, keep an eye out here for upcoming shows. I know for sure Deanna and I will be in the Dual Duel two-person improv competition with our first appearance on June 20th. The hip-hop improv of The Beatbox will be starting up soon with midnight shows at iO Chicago. You will probably be able to catch me at ComedySportz every now and then. But mostly you should be seeing me at open mics around the city. I had five months of writing with nowhere to get it in front of people. See you soon!

The FINAL day of traveling!

Deanna and I set a goal for today: don’t get up too early or leave too late. I set my alarm for 10:00am and said “If we wake up to this we have to bust butt!” Luckily we woke up at 9:00am and headed off to some quick coffee.

Today wasn’t about seeing anything at all. It was about getting home to Chicago, but not during Friday rush hour traffic.

Our stops were all about food and gas and bathrooms.

I bought a little book of logic puzzles for our flight to Hawaii back in November. I only had done one puzzle and never took it out again. As I reached into my backpack for it I remembered it being a Sudoku book, but it isn’t.

Our tactic this whole time has been to switch drivers every 100 miles. Sometimes one of us would go longer and sometimes one of us would get tired and need an early switch. Today we had 540 miles to cover and we discovered that doing logic puzzles while you weren’t driving made time fly!

We were thinking we would go through St. Louis and see the arch while we stayed on the freeway, but our route ended up taking us around the city. Guess we’ll have to go back.

Driving and driving and driving.

I don’t know if I mentioned it, but our car doesn’t have AC. We have been REALLY lucky in that the temperature has been cold to moderate. Today was the opposite, and also one of our longer drives.

Luckily Deanna and I are able to do some quick over-the-phone gigs from time to time. Today we had to be up at 6:00am for one. It was over in about 30 minutes and we hit the road around 7:00am. This meant about 3 hours of okay temp.

We had from Amarillo, TX to Chicago left in our journey. Springfield, MO was pretty much the half way point. “We HAVE to at least make Springfield” I told Deanna.

I was hoping we would get there and maybe be able to get in an extra hundred miles or so. However, similar to our Grand Canyon experience, we were contacted by our friend Sarah Reule. Apparently she had been living in Missouri and would be in Springfield that night. So, we got a hotel, washed off the sweat of the road, and headed out to meet Sarah and Grant.

An extra part of the fun of this trip has been getting to see people along the way, whether expected or no.

For those of you who really know Deanna, and she’ll probably hate that I write this, she had a “moment.” She isn’t known for her knowledge of song lyrics. We were talking about that in comparison with my sister’s “pandora” as her husband calls it. When my sister gets a song in her head, everyone will probably get to hear the whole song. As Deanna and I were discussing on the drive she stated, “but when I get a song in my head it is just [humming] and then ‘oh what a feelin’! When I’m walking on the ceiling!”

That was supposed to be her singing the one line of the song she knew. If you’re familiar with the Lionel Richie song you’ll understand.

One more day to go! I think no matter when we leave we’ll hit some form of Chicago traffic.

In these last few days of our trip we’re not really stopping anywhere.

Santa Fe was the last of our “to see” list. Deanna loves it. We walked around a bit and took in the city…and a little too much sun.

I bought a flute. A wooden, native type flute. That was my major purchase of the trip.

From there we just headed straight to Amarillo, TX. Really, our high points have been sleeping and I’ve been catching up on Survivor.

As the days in our trip dwindle and the miles stay high we have to focus more on going the distance. Not to mention we’ll lose two hours on our trek home because Arizona doesn’t observe day light savings.

We didn’t really get on the road early, but not late either. Today was all about making it to the end destination.

Stop 1: Meteor Crater, AZ
Have you seen Starman, the John Carpenter movie? Well, that crater was just 6 miles out of our way so I stopped there. Turns out it was $15 per person, which makes it our most expensive stop yet. The crater was cool, but not $15 cool. Deanna was gung ho about going in, but labeled it a tourist trap as we left.

If you REALLY like Starman, and REALLY like NASA it will probably be worth your money.

We headed out from there along Route 66. We weren’t planning on following 66 exactly because many parts of the route go off the freeway through historic parts of towns. We DID do that in Gallup, NM. Kind of fun, but we didn’t really stop. We also made a quick stop at the Continental Divide.

Stop 2: Santa Fe, NM
Deanna really wanted to see stuff in New Mexico so we stopped in Santa Fe. As far as our drive is concerned, I really love their 75MPH freeway speed limit.

We ate at a restaurant called La Choza. Yelp said they had really good new mexican food. The enchiladas I had were great…spicier than I’m used to, but great.

We’ll be seeing more of the city tomorrow.

Hardly any ground coverage today. That’s because it was the main reason for our journey…The Grand Canyon!

The night before I had posted something on facebook about going there and I got a reply from our friend and former musical director Matt Cohen saying “umm, I’m going to be at the Grand Canyon tomorrow.” He is currently doing music for Second City’s show that is playing in Arizona. Currently in Phoenix, he and some other cast members were planning an overnight trip to pretty much the same area we were going. Sounded like a plan!

Stop 1: Grand Canyon Village
Deanna and I headed out to a semi-late breakfast then made the 80 mile drive to the canyon. We left late to try and time a meeting with the other folks. From the park entrance it was about 25 miles to the village with a handful of view points along the way.

Although I took pictures at the view points I don’t think any of them will do justice to the sheer beauty of the canyon. We did see some huge ravens milling about. I tried to get to close to one for a picture and I thought it was going to attack me. It reminded me of Resident Evil.

Once we made it to the village we met up with Matt Cohen, Ryan Archibald, Cody Dove, and Martin Garcia. Deanna and I had also worked with Ryan briefly on the Gem. They were about to go on the Bright Angel trail hike so we joined along.

The thing about the Grand Canyon is that all the hikes are downhill first. That means once you’re tired it is all uphill to get back. Apparently a lot of people are unprepared for hiking there. They have posters up saying that even a marathon run died there. It doesn’t matter how in-shape you are, it matters how prepared you are. We were more prepared than we were in shape so we didn’t even make it to the rest stop 1.5 miles in. It was for the best.

Unfortunately, we had to go our separate ways. Deanna and I took a shuttle briefly to one of the overlooks to watch the sunset. It started getting cold quickly and we went on our way.

Stop 2: Flagstaff, AZ
The drive through the San Francisco Peaks was probably beautiful during the day. But we drove at night. We stopped quickly at one point due to some deer in the road.

We were pretty tired from the hike so we crashed hard.

Why the delay? We stopped to spend a few days in Denver with my sister and brother-in-law.

Not only did it give us a little break from driving, we got to see each other! Also, my brother-in-law is a great chef and he made us dinner on Saturday night. Pork belly and shrimp with pasta. The sauce for the pasta was a delicious white sauce with some sort of mushroom I’ve never had. The sauce involved a lot of pressure cooked garlic. The nice thing was that it didn’t have the bite of garlic…just the better flavor part. Here is what he said when we finished “I figured it out and we had 1.25 heads of garlic per person.” Not cloves…heads.

Today we had to get back on the road and started off early.

Stop 1: Mesa Verde, CO
My sister suggested this place because of the cliff dwellings that were there. We wanted to leave early to get there in time for the walking tour. After heading through mountain passes and some snow…and some rain…and some more snow, we got to Mesa Verde around 4:15. We asked if they were still doing walking tours. Not only did he say we wouldn’t make it in time, but that they were recommending snow tires or chains to get there. Oh well. We turned around and got back on the road.

Stop 2: Four Corners Monument
Along our trek was a monument that was right on the four corners where Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona touch. Do you know how amazing it was? Well, then maybe you can let us know. It was under construction and somewhere behind a fence so we never even saw it. Back to the road!

Stop 3: Tuba City, AZ
We stopped in a town Kayenta after 10 hours of travel to find a hotel. There were two, and the were both three times what we had been paying. We decided to drive to the next town, Tonalea, 40 miles further along. THAT city was mostly reservation. 30 miles past that was Tuba City, and a hotel half the price of the others.

So far we’ve driven just over 2200 miles and that puts us JUST over half way there.

Back to Rushmore!

We woke up and headed out to Mt. Rushmore. Piero told us that he had gone on a similar route before and recommended Bear Country USA. We thought we’d stop there too. Before I get into that…

We’re traveling off-season. This is awesome on so many levels because there isn’t anywhere near the amount of people or traffic. We got to travel off-season in Europe and it made all the difference.

…now, the downfall of traveling around here off-season is that a lot of stuff is closed, including Bear Country USA. So, back to the original plan. RUSHMORE!

Stop 1: Mt. Rushmore
This place has really changed since I saw it when I was 7. Very nice. A great clean look to the viewing area. We also got to see them doing some maintenance up on the mountain. Unfortunately this mean the trail that leads even closer to Rushmore was closed.

Stop 2: Crazy Horse Memorial
I had been here when I was 7 as well, but I don’t remember it much. After going in I realized that not much was completed by that point. Well, it is still a work in progress today and many tons of rock had been moved, but nothing carved. Crazy Horses face wasn’t completed until 1998.

The story is interesting. An artist/sculptor won an award for a statue, Native American tribes thought it was important that people remember there were red heroes as well as white. Artist begins work.

Government funded? No, never. He built himself a cabin in the Black Hills and lived there…until he passed away not too long ago. AND he managed to have 10 kids, 7 of which are continuing his work.

Stop 3: Denver, CO
We’ll be staying a few days in Denver so today was all about getting there.

We’re here.

Today was a little slower as far as stops and auto-drama go.

We started off early in Windom, MN. Half because we wanted to get on the road, and half because our hotel was a place Piero would never stay in…ever.

Stop 1: Mitchell, SD. The Corn Palace.
We went here mostly because there aren’t a lot of exciting stops (that we knew of) along the stretch of I-90 that crosses South Dakota. I had been before back when I was 7 or so. I just remember that we saw a building made or corn.

Deanna and I went inside. It was all set up for Shrine Circus. They were doing shows there at night I guess. We did find out they change the corn murals every year and they had photos of all the prior years, so I got to see what it looked like when I was there last.

Stop 2: Badlands, SD
The Badlands National Park was a nice change of pace from the flatness of what we had seen, and a nice warm up to the Grand Canyon. Huge vast area with a lot of erosion.

We took the most scenic way through…not turning off to get back on I-90. And it was good we did. After we passed the turn off to head to the freeway we saw buffalo, turkeys, prairie dogs, goats, and more buffalo. Right off the road.

Stop 3: Rapid City, SD. Mt. Rushmore
Rapid City is about 25 miles away from Mt. Rushmore. We stopped there to find a hotel and get some dinner. I wanted to see Mt. Rushmore lit up at night and Deanna had read that they left it lit for 2 hours. So, we ate and took off.

As it was getting closer to 9:00pm we rounded a corner and saw it briefly lit up. With only a mile to go we had raised spirits. We pulled up to the parking/viewing area at 9:02. Lights off. But, I did see it at night, even if only for about 20 seconds.

We’ll be going back tomorrow during the day to see it in the sun.

Today was fantastic! As you may remember from yesterday, our car was destined for repair. The shop Deanna found opened at 7:30am. I set my alarm for 7:30am and called immediately. Luckily, not only could they fit us in, we mentioned we were just passing through and they checked it right away.

It didn’t take long for them to come back and confirm that it was indeed the oil pressure sensor. They said they were just waiting on the part to arrive and that someone was already on the way with it. We asked if there was a place to get breakfast and one of the mechanics just gave us a lift…to a place called Nutbush. Now, my teen-age humor thought the place was hilarious for the name alone. What I didn’t realize, after posting on facebook and getting responses, was that Tina Turner is from Nutbush, TN. This was just a restaurant in Wisconsin. Settle down everyone!

We stayed there and I used their wifi to plan out the day. At first I planned the straight route. We still had 500 miles at least to get to Mt. Rushmore. Then I remembered something from my life around 1989. A little 7-minute song by Weird Al Yankovic I had once memorized called The Biggest Ball of Twine In Minnesota. I looked it up, it was out of the way. About 200 miles out of the way. Luckily Deanna wanted to go to the Mall of America, and TBBOTIM was only about 70 miles away from that. It was ON THE LIST! Since I found that, I looked up other cheesy stuff. Here is our day.

Oh! First…photos will be available on Flickr and Facebook after we get back. NOW here is our day…and prepare yourself, it was eventful.

Stop 1: Ed’s Museum Wykoff, MN
I read that Ed owned a store and never threw anything away and the pics I saw (all the info on all the stops I mostly got from roadsideamerica.com) it was all 1940s and 50s stuff.

We drove all the way there…tiny little town off the main way. AND…it was CLOSED!

There was enough of a space in the covered window to at least get a little picture. Deanna and I decided to at least go get some water from the store and check out a little gift shop that was selling fudge. Two ladies were eating lunch in the grocery store and said hi. Deanna started chatting and it turned out one of the ladies was taking a lunch break from cleaning the museum. It was closed for cleaning, but she said if we didn’t mind a little dirt she would give us the tour after he lunch. SCORE!

While we waited we headed right next door to the gift shop. It had an antique bank counter. Two ladies in this place too. We got to talking with them and the building had an interesting story. The first building built in Wykoff was the bank. It burnt down long ago and they rebuilt it out of brick. Not much later on a fire destroyed every building on the street EXCEPT the brick bank. They had an exposed section of wall that showed the brick and the charring at the top. You could also see a section that was repaired after bank robbers blew up the wall to steal the vault.

Finally we got into Ed’s. This guy didn’t just save all the stuff in his store. He saved everything. Period. He lived in that building above his store and his wife had a stroke fairly early. So, he was alone except for his cats. He saved stuff with the thought of preserving history at least. He wasn’t just a packrat. I think he had every Life magazine from 1932 to 1974 or something like that. All sorts of other stuff including a sealed cardboard box with a dead cat in it. See pics for more details.

Stop 2: (Accidental) Somewhere before Mall of America
While I was looking at stuff online I noticed that somewhere there was a water tower and the top part was shaped like a giant corn cob. Well, when we stopped at Chipotle the corn water tower was RIGHT ACROSS THE STREET!

Stop 3: Mall of America, Bloomington, MN
You know…that big mall. It has a Nickelodian Theme Park on the inside so Deanna and I thought we’d at least go on a ride or two. The Spongebob coaster looked the best so we did that. It was fun, but made Deanna feel a little sick. I went on some other coaster by myself where the car spins while it travels along the track. Tea-cup meets coaster in Disney terms. I felt gross after that. We only had three ride points after that and gave them to some lady so her little girl could go on a little kid ride and it made her day.

We walked around the ground level on full lap, got coffee, and headed out on our way.

Stop 4: World’s Largest Ball of Twine, Darwin, MN
a.k.a. TBBOTIM!

I can’t believe we actually went to the Ball of Twine. But we did. Right as we pulled up there were about 5 teen-aged girls screaming and giggling and getting their pictures taken. Another similar bus pulled up while we were looking at it. I think the most exciting thing about the ball is just being able to say I’ve been there.

Stop 5: Huge Corn #2, Olivia, MN
It was weird that we saw that corn water tower earlier because it was on the same web page as the big corn on a pagoda that I had PLANNED on seeing. They were both on the same web page when I read about them.

The sun was setting during the drive to the corn. Man, it was a beautiful one. Right about the time the sun disappeared the road started to head south instead of west and that was when I noticed that the full moon was rising in the east. Big and orange. Perfect.

The corn was a big corn thing…and it was close to a Subway and I was hungry.

Stop 6: Windom, MN
Nothing but an end of the day attempt to cut 80 miles of our travel tomorrow. We found we had the choice between a $75 dollar hotel or a shitty $40 one. We chose the later…but at least it has wifi.