Museum – Page 4 – ON THE ROAD with Maria + Stephen

Sheridan, Wyoming

28/09/201806/09/2022 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Camping, Cities, Coffee, Dining, Museum, Scenic Drive

Enjoying great weather as we journey west towards Yellowstone National Park. We spent a couple of days in Sheridan. This is truely cowboy country. Saloons abound along Main Street along with sellers and manufacturers of everything related to horses – saddles, bridles, bits, blankets, etc. This is ranch, horse and rodeo country.

We were fortunate to be able to stay at the Sheridan Inn while in Sheridan. The Inn first opened in 1893 and was home to Buffalo Bill Cody for a number of years. Cody would audition potential new acts for his wild west show on the large expanse of front lawn at the inn.

Western towns typically have alleys and narrow lanes running behind store fronts. We have learned to wander around in these spaces as they often are art spaces and living spaces. Sheridan proved productive in that regard. 0050,0051

980BDF34-C545-4737-812A-224FFB41FCA4 — **Kings Saddlery**

FE392CAD-1DE3-470F-9E58-F563ED118B23 — **Sheridan Inn**

The Brinton Museum

26/09/201812/06/2020 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Art Museum, Museum, Scenic Drive

The Brinton Museum in Big Horn, Wyoming is located on the Quarter Circle A Ranch. Bradford Brinton purchased the ranch in 1923. He came from a prosperous family, graduated from Yale and was general manager of the family business, Peru Plow and Wheel Co. Brinton renovated and expanded the ranch house, which became the museum in 1960 upon his sister Helen’s death. He and Helen agreed that the ranch property would be open to the public upon the death of the last surviving sibling.

The newer museum building, pictured below, built in 2013 with money donated by Forrest Mars, Jr. (think Mars Candy Bars) is beautifully embedded into the ranch landscape, providing spectacular views of the Big Horn Mountains.

The museum collection is dedicated completely to Western and American Indian art and is quite impressive. There is an entire gallery filled with Plains Nations clothing, some of which dates back to the 1850s. 0050

Remington Pembina Half-Breeds with Red River Carts ca 1901

0BB75318-CC7E-4B4E-8EF1-673CC9BD553F — **Brinton Museum (museum photo)**

A6A36A35-445A-4283-A4F9-F4B63B4D7542 — **Remington *Trappers Going to the Pierre’s Fight* ca 1904**

Rapid City, South Dakota

22/09/201806/09/2022 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Art Museum, Cities, Coffee, Dining, Museum, Scenic Drive, Shopping

Dahl Art Center

Dahl Art Center is a small art museum located in downtown Rapid Center. We were fortunate that one of the current exhibits at the center is the photography of Chuck Kimmerle. This exhibit consists entirely of black and white photographs which are all depictions of the prairies and and grasslands of the west. His work creates stark images of landscapes which lack notable features. The second exhibit was a water color exhibit featuring notable regional artists.

1A2D2FC5-766C-4FC9-A637-DE1C61440B69 233711E8-7C0D-4D4C-A283-6E25E04769A0

South Dakota Air & Space Museum

Yes one of us is an airplane geek! Nice collection of Air Force aircraft predominately consisting of bombers. The museum is adjacent to Ellsworth AFB which is the home of the B1 Lancer long range bomber.

45DC4962-8EED-41F9-B67F-0444E368ABB7 — **B1 B Lancer**

DB5677B9-DE63-42AC-AE62-5677C21AE980 — **Boeing B29**

Fika & Wine

Rapid City played well with three local roasters producing quality beans delivered well in their own cafe, I highly reecommend you visit The Essence of Coffee, Harriet & Oaks and Pure Bean on your next trip to Rapid City. In the event you wil not be in the vicinity any time soon you can order their beans online.

We also had a fun time at the Firehouse Winery. There reserve cabernet is made using 100% Napa cab sav grapes and proved to be worthy of the purchase of several bottles to support the next segment of our journey as we prepare to push west into Wyoming cowboy country.

Bismarck, ND

09/09/201806/09/2022 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Cities, Coffee, Dining, Museum, Shopping, Yoga

After four days of camping, hiking and dusty back road driving we rolled into Bismarck for a couple of days of hotel living. In addition to attending the International United Tribes Pow Wow, we were hoping for the opportunity to practice yoga, and enjoy a couple of excellent dinners, great coffee and tea. We are happy to report that Bismarck excelled on all fronts. Butterhorn provided a great dinner while Terra Nomad won the cappuccino and chocolate chip cookie portion of the program.

Additionally, we spent several hours at the North Dakota Heritage Center and Museum which had a remarkable special exibit, “The Horse in North Dakota”. The museum traces the history of the area now known as North Dakota from pre-historic time through to North Dakota today through a series of chronologically ordered galleries. As such, the also museum provides a rich history of the native american nations that once claimed North Dakota as their own prior to the arrival of Euro-Americans.

The pow wow was a new and fascinating experience for us. The pow wow runs for three days. Much of the pow wow is in the form of contests relating to various dance forms such as traditional, fancy and grass dancing. The music is provided by 16 drum bands. The costumes are a beautiful and incredibly colorful.

We continue to meet many friendly and interesting people along the way. More on that in future editions. 0030,0031

Plains Art Museum

02/09/201812/06/2020 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Art Museum, Museum

We spent a couple of hours at the above captioned art museum. The museum is small but has an interesting collection. Maria and I particularly enjoyed the current exhibition on the emergence of the Lakota Nation. The Lakota are now more commonly known as Sioux. The irony here is devasting. All of the works in this exhibition are painted by members of the Sioux tribe and very beautiful. The Lakota have been one of the most victimized indian nations in America’s history. The land agreements made with the federal government were violated multiple times with the government confiscating additional large tracts of their land.

Below is a sample of some of the works we viewed. Many of the works depict specific moments in the history of the Lakota. 0024

Funky, Friendly Fargo

02/09/201806/09/2022 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Art Museum, Cities, Coffee, Museum, Shopping, Yoga

We enjoyed a relaxing stay in Fargo after leaving the deep forests of central Minnesota. An old fashioned downtown with plenty of vitality especially on “Broadway” the main street through downtown. Plenty of excellent coffee and tea to keep us fueled while poking around the shops and museums. We were also able to align our stay with several classes at Downtown Yoga and get in some much needed studio practice.

P.S. While very tempting we successfully resisted the the urge to have our picture taken beside the infamous “woodchipper” used in the movie “Fargo”.

652C2824-2576-4375-80AB-6DC93A1E31DE — Young Blood Coffee Roasters

D23CA5C9-D208-4C7B-91E3-223100F5221C — **“HoDo”**

U.P. Michigan

26/08/2018 by Maria+Stephen, posted in 4WD Drive, Camping, Coffee, Hiking, Museum, Scenic Drive

From Traverse City we traveled north on M31 and over the Mackinac Bridge onto the Upper Peninsula. Several coffe recommendations from Erik at Planetary Coffee paid off handsomely. Dripworks in Petoskey and Veladrome in Marquette featured below were outstanding! We also stopped in at Superior Coffee Roasters in Sault Ste. Marie while in town to watch lake freighters move through the locks.

We have been able to take full advantage of the Hiawatha NF camping along small lakes each night.

Additional highlights on the UP included visiting the Whitefish Point Light on Lake Suprior, a 4WD drive out to the beach at Vermillion Point and hiking to the falls at Tahqueamenon Falls.

Detroit: Museums + Coffee Part 2 + Baseball

15/08/201812/06/2020 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Art Museum, Baseball, Coffee, Museum

We enjoyed our stay in Detroit. There is a lot to do and see in the Motor City. The local government and corporations are clearly working hard to revive the city but without a doubt the big “D” remains a gritty place with a long way to go.

Final day in Detroit; more museums + coffee; Maria and I spent the morning at the former Ford plant known as the Piquette Avenue Plant. This location was the very first plant Henry Ford operated as Ford. His previous two attempts to manufacture automobiles failed in quick succession.

Great Lake Coffee Roasting was our final coffee stop.

We are spending several days in Detroit before traveling north to the U.P. On Monday night we watched the home town Tigers make a nice comeback to defeat the White Sox 9-5. On Tuesday we ventured back into Midtown Detroit to spend the afternoon at the Detroit Institute of Art after sampling some very good coffees at New Order Coffee Roasters. The DIA has six Van Goghs of which five are currently on display as you can see below. Van Gogh produced 900 paintings so we have apx. 680 paintings remaining yet to be seen in person. The featured photo above is from a massive set of murals painted by Diego Rivera focusing on the massive industrialization manifested by the auto industry. The murals were produced after Rivera made hundreds of sketches inside one of Ford’s largest manufacturing plants. They are considered both highly accurate in regard to the assembly line, yet they also symbolize the impact industry has on humanity and our environment.

043A3D5F-1F20-4D3D-B13B-2C806C83B919 — The Diggers by Vincent Van Gogh

Toledo Ohio: Museums + Coffee

13/08/201812/06/2020 by Maria+Stephen, posted in Art Museum, Coffee, Museum

Started the day with a coffee with Maddie & Bella Coffee Roasters followed by a visit to the National Museum of the Great Lakes and a tour of the Great Lakes freighter Col. James Schoonmaker. This freighter was commissioned in 1911 and was the largest Great Lakes freighter at that time. The freighter worked the Great Lakes until 1980 carrying grain, coal and ore. 0006

Museums and Coffee today in Toledo. Maria and I spent a relaxing afternoon at the renowned Toledo Museum of Art. Several excellents exhibits and two paintings on display by my favorite – Vincent Van Gogh. We finished the afternoon at Black Kite Coffee & Pies. Black Kite serves the excellent roasts of local roaster Flying Rhino. 0005