May 22, 2013 - Crazy Horse Mountain/ Custer State Park

We left Estes Park May17 and drove to Glendo, Wy where we spent the night in the Lakeside RV Park. The park was nice with great wide open views of the surrounding hills and the big blue sky. Around 8PM we noticed very dark clouds in the western sky, about an hour later we were treated to a spectacular lighting and thunder display. The lightning bolts were covered by the black clouds and every few seconds we could see a bolt of lightning appear behind the clouds. I tried to take pictures, but I couldn't time the lens exposure to coincide...

May 12, 2013 - Custer, SD

/// Broken Arrow Campground Custer, SD May 12, 2013 Low Temperature: 46 degrees High Temperature: 71 degrees HAPPY MOTHERS DAY......! I offered to take Nancy out to breakfast this morning but she declined and baked one of her delicious breakfast casseroles instead. By 10:00 AM we were packed up, hitched up and ready to hit the road. We departed Lusk, WY and headed north on US 18 through some wide open cattle country. We actually saw more pronghorn than cattle. Crossing the state line into South Dakota the scenery began to improve, not that...

Oct 1, 2012 - The Black Hills again

"The covered bridges of Madison County" is the title of a movie which was filmed in Iowa not far from Pella. It is the story of a bored house wife (Meryl Streep) and a photographer (Clint Eastwood) who takes advantage of a situation when her husband takes the kids and his prized bull for 3 days to the fair in Omaha. If you like that kind of story and can sit through 2 hours of dialogue by Meryl and Clint than this is the movie for you. We tried and could not! However the next day we did go and see 3 of the 6 covered bridges and it was more...

Sep 29, 2012 - Procrastinating - always the first step in travel for me...

When I woke up this morning next to Susan I told her I had to drive to Seattle. Her response; "Not today, not tomorrow." She could practically read my mind. If I'm to start a long trip sometime in the next few weeks I see no reason or need to put off procrastinating. Journal Entry September 29 - Procrastinating for drive to Seattle to meet up with my group for our cruise from California October 11 (or is it 13?) officially starts today.

Sep 24, 2012 - Buffalo Roundup!

We now know that the Buffalo Roundup is the biggest event that happens every year in all of South Dakota, because literally everyone attends! We just don't understand why! The gate to Custer Sate Park opens at 6am for an event that starts at about 10am and lasts for about 1/2 hr. The Governor was there, the press was there, and about 10-15 tour buses from other states were there. Not that we didn't enjoy the spectacle, we did. We had our lawn chairs and coffee and joined the masses to watch this yearly tradition. We were expecting the...

Sep 24, 2012 - Custer, SD

Up bright and early, ate breakfast and out of the door at 6:55am. Custer State Park is less than 10 miles from the town, but was concerned that there would be a long line of traffic AND they close the parking at 9:00!!! Wonderful drive into the park (today, ALL of Custer Park is free!!). Really enjoyed seeing the wild animals as we drove the Wildlife Loop Road. We noticed that there was plenty of evidence that bison had been along the road (buffalo patties), but didn't see any bison...guess they've been rounded up already. The biggest...

Sep 23, 2012 - Spearfish to Custer, South Dakota

Had the worst night's sleep since leaving home...room right beside the laundry room at the Quality Inn AND they did laundry all night long!!!! Dryers running, buzzers going off, cabinet doors being slammed... We took the longer, less stressful route from Spearfish to Custer by way of the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Drive. The road follows the Spearfish River through this beautiful canyon. There were three waterfalls and several pull offs, which makes this photographer very happy to not be doing "drive-by shootings". The road goes up-hill at...

Sep 22, 2012 - Busy Day

After a long drive through Wyyyyyyoming, the Black Hills of South Dakota are a pleasant surprise! This weekend is the Buffalo Roundup here, and this is really a big deal to the people in the area. We have been following the South Dakota Governor and his entourage all day. He has a group of about 15-20 people in numbered suburbans follow him around everywhere he goes. This morning we went to the art festival/dutch oven cook off in the state park, after breakfast in a small hometown cafe. We all came out with purchases! This afternoon we all...

Sep 21, 2012 - South Dakota

Yesterday after a bit of shopping (us girls could of shopped all day in Estes)and lunch, we said goodby to Donna and Terry for the night. I think they just wanted some together time at the Denver Walmart parking lot! No actually they visited family in Denver for the night. Al and Helen and Ken and I did a little more Elk Watching and can't quite comprehend how many elk we are seeing! This morning Terry and Donna left Walmart early after a noisy night! They were 2 hrs ahead of us and we met up in Hill City South Dakota, just in time for...

Sep 19, 2012 - Gillette, Wyoming...

Tuesday we crossed the Wyoming border to beautiful weather & clear skies. It was an uneventful drive which is what we were actually hoping for. This was our first tow since the truck repairs & all went well. We arrived at Rocky Mtn Cummin's & got settled in for the night. At 7:10am there was a knock at the door & they let us know they were ready to check out our generator. Four hours later they informed us that we needed a new ignition coil. Estimate $800+. So, we passed for now. We've not used this generator more than 50 hours in the last...

Sep 17, 2012 - Time to move on...

Well, the time has finally come to move on. We plan to pull out around 11am tomorrow, Tuesday. We've been having trouble keeping our generator running & since we might be doing a bit of boondocking over the next 6 weeks we've decided to stop at a Cummin's shop in Gillette. We'll pull in late tomorrow afternoon & they said there is a hookup on site & they'll check us out at 7:30am Wednesday morning. Sure hope it's something minor. It is a 6500 Onan propane unit & seems to be propane starved. Maybe a regulator?? If we're able to move on early...

Sep 15, 2012 - Mike & Pat McFall's....

Well, we made our last trip to Hot Springs Wednesday evening. The Ramblin' Rangers were helping Books & Treasures celebrate their 12th year of being in business with music & refreshments. Of course we had to purchase a book for their celebration so we are now the proud owners of a beginner guitar lessons publication. We also purchased some local honey, yummy! Afterward we went to the Vault for a late dinner, although we all ordered sandwiches. We haven't been to the Vault since we celebrated my birthday there last year so we enjoyed...