EAST OUT OF YELLOWSTONE - WHAT GOES UP MUST GO DOWN

July 15, 2013

Time to move on to see what is east of Montana.  This is the first day that we are traveling to new territory for both of us.  We have visited Yellowstone before but never farther east than Fishing Bridge.  Today we are explorers.

EAST YELLOWSTONE - Our route from West Yellowstone will take us back through Madison, Norris, Canyon, and Fishing Bridge (Upper part of the Grand Loop).  Challenge for the day is Sylvan Pass, 8537 ft.   As Ray says:  "Its easy to pull the trailer up the pass but its coming down is the challenge."  Evidently brakes and transmissions get hot and we have a heavy trailer (14,000 lbs).

We left early in the morning and had a pleasant ride on the upper part of the Grand Tour road.  Look what we found along the Yellowstone River.

 Couldn't help ourselves, had to take a couple of more pics even though we know there will be plenty of bison in our future.

The little kids eyes in the tour car were huge.  They were surrounded by bison.  Does it get any better?

Passed Yellowstone Lake.  Didn't realize how large the lake was.  The wind was not blowing this morning and it was beautiful.

There are remains of the burn from 25 years ago throughout the park.  The fire went to the lake in this area.  Its interesting to see what a forest looks like without reforestation efforts that we typically see after a fire.

SYLVAN PASS -  The ride up was great.  Beautiful views and easy conversation.  Then the first sign that we might be going downhill...and it was quiet in the cab.   Ray's plan was to take it nice and easy and pull out often.  Plan worked beautifully.  Traffic was light so he went down the pass about 33 mph.  

We would have other 5th wheels and trailers pass us and then we would go a little farther and there they would be cooling down their brakes/transmissions.  I wondered if they thought Ray knew something they didn't...









Made it to East Entrance and there was a 5th wheel just like ours entering the park.

CROSSING THE MISSOURI RIVER - CHAMBERLAIN SD

August 1, 2013

Typically travel days are uneventful and not something I think my friends will be interested in...but I do have a story today.  We arrived at Chamberlain on the Missouri River about three pm yesterday (Central Time).  Both Ray and I mentioned this is the first time either of us have seen the Missouri.  I think back to Lewis and Clark and the Oregon Trail.  Ray thinks Midwest and bugs.

The Missouri River in Chamberlain looks like the Columbia in width.  We have a campsite on the river front and really excited to enjoy the views of river traffic, i.e. ski boats.

We are low on food so we jump into the truck and head to town in hopes they have a grocery store that is mid-size or bigger.











The one grocery store in town was great.  Picked up what we needed and I discovered this new type of cart to take our bags to the car.  I was so excited I told the bag person that I wanted to take a picture.  He said people do not find these unusual because they use them at Walmart.  I didn't tell him I don't go to Walmart often.

The campground we are staying is called Cedar Point Resort.  There is a lodge, marina and the campground.  We can use the pool and facilities in the lodge.  The best part of this campsite is the powerful wifi!!!!  I am beginning to learn that free wifi means nothing when selecting a campground.  Its like saying you have cable TV and there is only one channel...

The man who registered us said this part of the Missouri flooded and they were still recovering from the damage.  I think the flood was three years ago.

The evening was great.  We BBQ and acquired new friends - don't know what they are called but we will have to check our slides throughly to make sure they do not travel with us.

6:30 AM (really 5:30 Central) and Louie is up.  I hear rain but I know that doesn't stop Louie from needing to go outside.  On goes the rain coat and out the door we go.  It starts to thunder.  I'm thinking, hmm this is the midwest... I probably should head back to the RV.  As I am helping Sydney up the steps the largest lightening strike occurs and I shriek as Ray is pulling me and the dog inside.

We sit at our table inside the RV and watch the storm pass over us and the sun rise at the same time.  Welcome to the Missouri River.

It's now 8 a.m.  - sky is clear and we're getting out of here.

I guess were not in the Pacific Northwest any more...today we are going to the Corn Palace and De Smet SD - home of Laura Ingells Wilder

WALL DRUGS SOUTH DAKOTA

July 29, 2013

I called my daughter and said "Guess where I'm going today?"  She had no idea why I would be excited about going to a drug store in Wall SD.  I realized the thrill of Wall Drug was lost to her generation.  I can remember seeing cars with bumper stickers wired to their bumper announcing they had been to Wall Drugs.  As far as I was concerned, it is a must if you were anywhere in South Dakota.

Wall Drugs takes up a city block.  It is a maze of shops, cafe, and museum.  You can purchase bandaids to cowboy boots .  There was a fudge shop, bookstore, toy store to name a few.  The cafe had roast beef dinner, bison burgers, home made pie and fresh made donuts.  Veterans can have a free cup of coffee and donut.  Each customer can have 2 bumper stickers.

Mrs Hustead wanted to attract more customers that were coming to the Badlands so she put signs up and down the highway offering free ice water.  This was the beginning of their successful marketing campaign.

The museum had pictures of local characters and artifacts.  There was also an arcade with a shooting gallery.  You could have pictures taken on a large Jackalope and a stagecoach.  We were able to kill a couple of hours walking around and checking everything out.

For a one horse town, this is a busy place...and it doesn't take much to entertain us.











SLEEPY HALLOW RV PARK

We camped at Sleeply Hallow RV Park while visiting Wall Drug and the Badlands.  The park is very typical except for a couple of interesting facts:  1) Full hook up does not mean cable TV only specific sites have cable TV and if you want it, it is $2 extra.  2) RV reviews complain about train noise in the early morning.  We talked about it and decided this wasn't an issue for us.  When we got there, we realized the tent camping is closest to the train tracks and of course it would be loud for them.  3) They had an interesting policy regarding late check out - and hourly fee for every hour you are late checking out.

The good news - bathrooms are clean, a short walk to Wall Drugs and the best dog area ever.  I'd return just so Sydney and Louie could have a break from being on leash in the dog area.

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DEADWOOD, STURGIS, AND A WEDDING

July 27, 2013 - We took a little road trip through the Black Hills Area to check out a few of the towns.  I wanted to see Deadwood because I watched the TV show and Ray wanted to see Sturgis.  We headed north on 385 through more beautiful scenery of  trees, rock formations and beautiful lakes...and I thought all of South Dakota was going to be Badlands.

DEADWOOD - In the TV show it is a gold town with miners, gun slingers and shady characters.  In reality, it is a town that honors its past - good and bad.   We arrive during 76 Days.  Our timing was pretty good because the parade had just ended.  We skirted around the main street and ended up at the cemetery.  Its the first cemetery that I have ever seen that charges to walk through it.  Since we didn't know who was there, we passed.

We walked down the main street and I thought I was in a town in Nevada.  Meaning the street was full of casinos -- shady looking casinos.

Many of the older buildings have been restored and there is a walking tour explaining their heritage.  Several of them were owned by Jewish business owners serving the men working in the gold mines.

There are several tourist buses in town and they were packed full of people.  Also there is a city trolley that only charges a $1 per ride.









We found this cute coffee/ice cream shop for our lunch.  We sat outside with dogs and were lucky enough to enjoy country western music next door in the bar.









While having lunch we saw this group heading to the rodeo...wait the rodeo is in the opposite direction.

A cornerstone of the main street is this hotel.   Our final treat was this community band playing in front of a casino across the street from the hotel.  Deadwood is an unusual town.  It has around 1500 residents but on this day it felt like 15,000.

STURGIS

Well, here we are in Sturgis.  I was prepared to see thousands of bikes, naked women, and all sorts of stuff.  We were a week too early!  We knew that.  But we had seen plenty of motorcycles on the roads around Sturgis and expected to see more activity.  In reality, this town is pretty quiet compared to Deadwood.

Evidently - Ray thought this might be in his future.

So many choices - Loud American Roadhouse or McDonalds.

WEDDING

Of course we couldn't just turn around and return to our campground on the same road we came in on so we took the road less traveled to Nemo SD in hopes of seeing more wildlife.  We did see more bikes and a bride walking to the church.  I loved it!

CROOKED CREEK CAMPGROUND

The Black Hill area is busy this time of year and we were lucky to find a spot.  This campground is near the turn off to Mt Rushmore which makes it very convenient.  The spaces are close together but most folks are out and about in their cars/bikes/etc.  The wifi didn't work and put this blogger behind schedule.  One the other side it did have a breakfast barn and I had all you could eat pancakes for $3.11.

The Harley Davidson cargo trailer was from Kentucky.  It had a kitchen and bed in the trailer.

If you didn't bring your trailer, you could rent a cabin or a motel room.














Most campsites had some sort of a bike.