Day 7 - Custer State Park & Mt. Rushmore

We headed west toward the Black Hills area. Karen was busy on her cell phone and made reservations at Custer Mountain Campground which is on the west side of Custer State Park.  Bob and Karen were planning to stay at this location two or three days so they rolled out the awning and set up their flag pole.

After setting up camp, we all jumped into Bob's truck and headed to Custer State Park to see the sites and search for wildlife on our way to the night lighting ceremony at Mt. Rushmore. 

We saw some critters that I believe was a group of young Big Horn Rams.  Their horns will continue to grow and curl as they mature.  We also found a herd of a couple dozen buffalo a hundred yards or so from the road and as we watched they decided to move toward us.  They passed just a short distance from us as you can see by Bob's pose.   



We moved on and found some interesting roads with tunnels, switchbacks, circles and our first views of Mt. Rushmore.

Mt. Rushmore is one of those unique places that reminds us what a great country we have.  We viewed the video of the 14 year project to carve the four presidents in the granite mountain then had time to have dinner in the cafe.  I had the Bison stew which was great.  We then moved to the amphitheater for the lighting ceremony. A park ranger started the ceremony with some background over each of the four presidents - Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Roosevelt.

After the park ranger gave his short presentation, another video played with more detail than the one we had seen earlier.  At the conclusion, the ranger invited all veterans in the crowd to join him on stage to lower and fold the flag. That's a nice touch and I think the oldest vet was given the flag.





Day 6 - The Badlands

The landscape begins to change dramatically after leaving Mitchell, SD.  Corn and soybean fields are replaced by crops that require less rainfall such as wheat or to open range land for grazing cattle.  This is where farmers are called ranchers and land is measured in sections instead of acres.  A section is a square mile or 640 acres and a typical rancher might have several sections - maybe 5, 10 or 15 sections. They might own some and rent land from other land owners or the federal government which owns a lot of western land.

Some of the favorite landscape across I-90 are the billboards for Wall Drug. We'll visit Wall later but we must have passed 100 billboards similar to these.

As we proceeded west, the outside temperature rose. When we stopped for lunch, the wind felt like a blow dryer. High temperatures for the day reached 114 degrees. Whew, thank goodness for A/C.

Finding the Badlands is easy.  Simply head west along I-90 and get off at exit 131 at Hwy 240.  Hwy 240 is about a 20 mile loop that takes you through the Badlands National Park. This is where choosing pictures will start to get tough.  The Badlands area was formed by a shallow sea 75 million years ago. As the water receded, fossils, and the current landscape, were left behind for us to admire and enjoy. The scenery is unlike anything we can find in the Midwest.





Well, you get the idea.  The Badlands offer some great Scenery.  It's easy to imagine why the bad guys would head to these hills to hide from the law men.

Here is our campground for the night.  This campground was about half way through the Badlands loop.  They advertised trees for shade on every campsite but, as you can see in the picture, their definition of a shade tree is a bit different than mine...oh well.  We parked behind Bob and Karen and had a great dinner topped off by home-made ice cream.  The temperature dropped to around 100 degrees.  Thank goodness for plug-in electric so we could run the A/C.

The next morning we finished the Badlands loop...the western end of the loop tends to be a bit more rugged.  The end of the loop ends in Wall, SD, the home of Wall Drug.  Wall Drug is one of those tourist traps that you have to visit at least once. It came to be in the mid-1930's when the owners of the store were virtually broke.  They decided to try to lure travelers off the highway and into their drug store by offering free ice water.  Remember, this was the 1930's and cars did not have A/C, so a free sip of ice cold water was welcomed.  The plan worked and today Wall Drug stretches a full block long and actually offers real drug store items, but mostly, they are a large souvenir shop.

Carolyn and Karen scoured the aisles and found a few souvenir post cards while Bob and I relaxed and made new friends.

 So, after a sip of free Wall Drug water, we are off to Custer State Park and Mt. Rushmore.





Day 5 - Joining friends in Minnesota

Our Roadtrek parked next to Bob and Karen's travel trailor

We left Ames and headed toward Sioux City, Iowa.  The plan was to join up with friends from Toledo who were also headed to Yellowstone. We thought we would meet somewhere in South Dakota but we got ahold of Karen on her cell phone and learned they were planning to stop in Welcome, Minnesota for the night.  We did a quick search on the GPS and found they were straight north of us so we made a quick change of plans headed toward Welcome.

Carolyn checked the campground guide and found the campground.  She called and confirmed that Bob and Karen were there so we made a reservation and asked to be as close to them as possible. We arrived after dark, quietly set up right next to them, and sat down at their picnic table.  They looked out their window and were so surprised to see us. We had some good laughs and planned the next several days of travel together.

We had talked about this trip for the past several months and the time had finally come. By golly, we are going to really pull this off!

After a good night's sleep, our little wagon train headed west on I-90.  We had no real schedule but decided we should stop in Mitchell, SD and visit the Corn Palace.  If you've never been to the Corn Palace, it's worth the stop. All the art on the outside of the building is made with corn parts - ears of corn, corn stalks, leaves, etc.. The theme is always changing. The art changes from time to time. I'm not sure how often, but I suspect the changes are an annual event. The current theme is youth sports and there were separate pictures of runners, gymnastics, baseball, hockey and more.  It really is kind of neat.  The bonus is, it's free, so give it a shot when you are in the area.

Next stop...the Badlands in western South Dakota.

Day 2-4 - Old Friends in Ames, IA

We left Illinois on Sunday morning in a nice rain shower. Since the midwest experienced one of the worse droughts in years, driving in rain was a nice change of pace.  Paul gave us a tip to head to the truck stop in Wolcott, IA to fill with gas since Illinois taxes drive prices higher, so we crossed the Mississippi River and headed west a few miles.

Since we lived in Iowa in the 1970's, the road was somewhat familiar.  Driving across I-80 toward Des Moines and turning north on I-35 to head toward Ames felt like we were getting close to our old home.  Much has changed in the area, but then it's been 35 years since we lived in Iowa so I suppose it shouldn't be a surprise. 

It was a short 200 miles from Illinois to Ledges State Park near Boone, Iowa. We arrived early afternoon, checked in at the gate and set up camp. Actually, it doesn't take much to set up camp in our Roadtrek. Just back in, check to make sure we are level (add a leveling block if needed) and plug into the electical service.

After getting settled, we headed to Ames to see Carol and Gary. Carolyn worked with Carol at Iowa State University when we lived in Ames and they have kept in contact through the years. It was a stoke of good luck they were having a block party so we enjoyed a wonderful feast compliments of the folks on Oakland Street.

Over the next couple days, we re-explored Ledges State Park, checked the changes in Ames, and Carolyn was able to have some long visits with friends.

We stopped by our first home on Wisconsin Circle and found it virtually the same as we'd left it in 1977...35 years ago. We met the homeowner who lives in the house next door; she was excited that we'd come back to check on the house. She gave us a great update on the neighborhood...it's nice to see Wisconsin Circle is in good hands.

It was nice to have a few days in Ames.  Some of our friends were not home so I guess we will just have to make it back sometime.  

Day 1 - The big trip west begins

Well, here it goes.  Our first big trip west.  Our previous trips in the Roadtrek have all been east of the Mississippi.  Well, that's not quite true.  Last summer, visited the St. Louis Arch so we did make it across the river but not far. Our previous trips have taken us through Kentucky, Tennessee and of course a few trips to Camp Lejeune Marine Corps Base in North Carolina to visit our son and the heroes in 2nd Battalion, 8th Marines.  I'll have to add those trips to this blog but that's a good winter project.

But let's look at this trip.  It seems like we've been planning and waiting for this trip a long time.  It's not that we have been sitting at home for the past 40 years, but we've never been able to leave for an extended period of time.  I guess that's the life of someone who has had a career in agriculture...summers are just a tough time to be gone.  That is about to change as this trip will last two to three weeks and take us as far as Yellowstone National Park. Let's just call this our "getting ready to retire tour".  Ha ha.  Let's get treking.

The Roadtrek was all serviced and shined with a fresh wax job. The fridge was stocked with food and the water tanks were full.  The new XM radio converter was working and the GPS was programmed, so off we go around 9am and head for I-80.  Our first day will be a nice 400 mile drive and will stop in Milan, IL where we'll spend the night with Paul and Wendy. Their son, Michael, was a U.S. Marine who was with 2/8 with our youngest son, Daron.  Wendy and Paul devoted countless time and effort into "Operation Homecoming", a project to assemble baskets of necessary items and make homecoming from Afghanistan a bit easier for the Marines and sailors of 2nd Ballation, 8th Marines.


Paul, Jim, Wendy and favorite pooch (sorry for forgetting her name)

We enjoyed a relaxing dinner at Belgian Village Inn in Moline, Ill.  Their Reuben sandwich is amazingly good. It is served on their specialty raisin rye bread and it is HUGE. You can't call it just a Reuben sandwich. It's the VandeRueben. We could only eat half so we packed the left-overs in the fridge to enjoy somewhere down the road.  If you like Reuen's, I would suggest programming the Belgian Village Inn into your GPS the next time you head across I-80 near the Quad Cities.  The raisen rye bread gets my vote.

Following dinner we had a great evening remembering old stories of our Marines and the friends we'd made along the way.  We were so happy that Michael was able to join us when he got off work.

Thank you Paul and Wendy for a great beginning to our trip west.