Back to South Dakota for catch up

It's a little past time for an update so here goes. While in South Dakota we decided it was time to to look a little harder for a Class A motorhome. We found to our liking four units, one in Tennessee, one in Ohio and two in Texas. After one of the ones we liked in Texas was sold we decided not to try for the other one. So we called the owners, Jim and Sue in Tennessee and told them we should be there within the week.

We headed toward Tennessee, it was only 1400 miles away. We traveled about 300 miles per day and arrived on Thursday. We contacted the owners and to make a long story short we had to travel to Alabama to see the rig. It was a great trip getting to know a wonderful couple and did get to see the rig. It is a very nice motorhome and we are considering making an offer but first we have to take a look at the unit in Ohio. Tomorrow we go to Ohio and will get a chance to take a look at that one. So at this time we have not made any decisions. Whatever we do, our big concern is how to dispose of our 5th wheel and truck. So time will tell.

We are now in Indiana and still heading for Goshen and the Montana Rally.

So let's backtrack and here are some pictures we took in South Dakota prior to our marathon trip.

We guess we don't need to tell you where our first day trip was to. How exciting to finally be here to see what we have been looking at in pictures for years. What was most interesting was that 95% of the carving was done with dynamite. Holes drilled to a specific depth in a close pattern and then the surface blasted away.

I guess no one was around to pick up all the loose rocks.


A close up view on a bright sunny day, sharing this view with hundreds of people there.

At the base of the mountain a mock-up of the statues was made and then measurements taken taken from the model, multiplied by 12 and relayed to the mountain.

A close up to give a better idea of what one face looks like. This was taken after leaving the park and is the only face that can be seen from this location.

How can you go to South Dakota without seeing the Badlands, and let us tell you they are B-A-D. No way could you get out if you ever got into them.

Sorry about the shadow but you get what you can.

Jackie finally got to see mountain goats before leaving the park (We have looked for them in several places over the last 28 months.).

On the way home we had to stop at Wall Drug. It takes up about 2 city blocks of maybe a 5 city block town of Wall. Had lunch, purchased post cards and headed home.

Ran across this big guy so had him pose, took the shot and off we went before he decided Dick should not be there.

Back at the park the wild turkeys took over the place. Are they just waiting for dinner?

To be continued...

A little of this and a little of that...

The last we spoke we had left the area of Dick's great grandfather's homestead in northern Colorado and made our way north into Wyoming where we found our way to Glendo State Park. The park surrounds an 800,000 acre reservoir. There are around 12 campgrounds around the reservoir with spaces for over 300 camp sites. They had a bad flood this past spring and much of the park close to the water is currently being renovated. As we checked out the area, we were only able to find two other campsites being used. However, as we left the park the ranger told us that the reservation part of the park would be full for the holiday weekend.

We picked a site on a point overlooking the reservoir and set up camp, including the generator as this is all dry camping here. We had planned on staying 3 nights but because of continued problems with the generator we hooked up a day early and headed out.

Before we left we did check out some of the area and took this picture from across the reservoir.

If you look closely at the above picture you can see our rig sitting on the bluff, or you can scroll down and see us a little easier with a zoom lens. Looks like we had the place to ourselves, right? And we did. It was so nice and quiet, we hated to leave.

We did get to Fort Laramie, and spent part of the day there with plans to go back the next day but because of the generator problems we will have to do that on another trip.

We headed this time to NE Wyoming to the little town of Sundance. The town that the Sundance Kid took his name from(and spent some time in the local jail). That's about all the history for this town.

One day we found a back country dirt road and just went for a drive to see what the area was like.

We found this sign out in the middle of nothing and as you can see it is nothing. Not sure what Meadowdale is as we could not see a thing except cattle and grazing land.

On another day we made the trip to Devils Tower National Monument. This is the first National Monument.

Most of the ranches have completed the haying for this year and a view looking across a ranch toward Devils Tower.

There is a trail about 1 1/2 mile long that we took around the base of the tower. Nice trail in the woods with lots of views of the tower with lots of people trying to scale the sides.

On the way into the park there is a very large field full of holes with little heads looking up all around.

The prairie dogs posed for some pictures.

Just down the road we ran across a fawn that had just about lost it's spots but still had a few (mom wasn't far away).


A few miles down the road from Sundance was a place called Vore's Buffalo Jump. We had to see what this was all about. There is quite a large sinkhole that has been here for thousands of years and the Indians would stampede the Buffalo, run them off the edge of the hole. The story goes that they would run over 700 buffalo, slaughter them and take all the butchered pieces to a camp about 2 miles away, process it for future meals, etc.

The building in the hole is to protect the diggings that have been uncovered. They dug a hole about 25' deep and determined that the "jump" would have been done about every 15 years. This whole thing was discovered in 1970 when the feds were getting ready to put I-90 in, and this site was right in the path.

Looking at a very small piece of the excavation inside the building showing hundreds of bones.

Dick figured it was time to do some rock hounding so out into the wilderness again to a spot he had found on the Internet. The only problem is once we got there and started up the dry river bed was he was not sure what he was looking for!

We walked about a 1/2 mile up the bed and picked up a bag of rocks; still not sure if it was what we should have found. It was a nice trip and we did find...

this old truck out in a pasture. Looks like it is need of a little restoration.

Not sure of the age of this old log home but would guess that it and the one in the distance on the right could date back to the late 1800s. We have seen a lot in these few short days so just wanted to share a little of it with you.

And finally, Dick started wire wrapping some of the petrified wood we found in Arizona. A different twist with the added glass beads. It measures 3 1/8" tall and 1 5/8" wide and it could be yours for only $85.00. It took 6 weeks to polish the stone and 2 evenings to wrap with all sterling silver wire.

We're off to the Rapid City, SD area for six days before starting our trek to Indiana for the Montana Owners Rally.

To be continued...