Today is David's and my 21st anniversary.  We spent it on the road--from South Dakota to Billings, Montana.   Before we left South Dakota we HAD to visit Sturgis,  As we entered Sturgis, I noticed a storefront that said "burgers and pasties."  I thought that they were selling burgers and "pastries" and "pastie"s was a local word for pastries.  After I saw the second sign for "pasties for sale", I remembered where I was--Sturgis!   You can wear pasties instead of a shirt.  NO, I didn't buy any!!

We left Sturgis and made our way thru a bit of Wyoming and then Montana.  Montana was great expanses of open fields.  There were cattle, sheep and horses grazing.  Hay bales lay over the landscape.  There were also lots of beehives.   I got to see my first pronghorn antelopes!  By the time I could get a camera out, they were gone.  We traveled on a secondary road for most of this part of the trip.  One word of caution "make sure you fill up your gas tank before heading out!"  The distances between towns and gas stations are BIG!  No, we didn't run out of gas but it was a close.

About an hour out of Billings, we stopped at Custer's Land Stand Memorial.  You were able to drive through the battlefield. AND I got to see horses that were freely grazing along the trail.  Again, I wasn't keen on going to a battlefield but it was somewhat spiritual.  We got to listen to an awesome park ranger reenact Custer's Last Stand.

 Custer's Last Stand--they buried about 200 soldiers under the monument

 Indian gravestone

 Herd of horses along the road

 People left tokens for the fallen warriors

 The white gravestones were for the Calvary

 Sturgis

 Montana--southern part

 The Memorial for the Native Americans that fought Custer

Custer and his remaining men killed their horses
 to use the horse's bodies to protect them from the attacking Indians.

We got to our KOA campground around 7:00.  It's on the Yellowstone River.  It's the first KOA --it was started in 1962.  They were cooking dinner.  David had steak and I had rainbow trout.  It was our "Happy Anniversary" dinner.

We only have about 400 miles before we get to Glacier National Park.  We check in on the 25th.  We are stopping in Great Falls, Montana and then staying in St. Mary's campground.  This will be a leisurely drive to Glacier.

South Dakota

Yesterday we left the campground on our way to the Badlands.  The soft rolling hills on South Dakota were covered in crops of sunflowers, sorghum, corn and wheat as far as the eye could see.  There were virtually no trees except for the few around a farm and/or homestead.

We stopped to visit an historical prairie homestead before the entrance to the Badlands.  There were white prairie dogs all over this farm.  What a hard life these earlier settlers had!

And then we went on to the Badlands--- and what a sight to see
The Dakota Indians labeled them "land bad."  They were just mind boggling to see these outcroppings of land in the middle of prairies. They were truly majestic.

 You can see our RV in the background

We did go visit the Wall Drug Store.  It is HUGE!!   It reminded me a bit of South of the Border.  I think it had 26 venues to buy items.  The neat thing about this store was that it started in 1931 and to get customers coming into their store, the owners offered free ice water.  That slogan and service allowed the store to flourish.  We ate bison burgers and David had to have a homemade doughnut AND cherry pie.

On our way to check in to our campground, we stopped at Mt. Rushmore. We spent a couple of hours there. We climbed 254 stairs to do the Presidential Trail. And then we returned at 8:00 pm to watch the lighting of the monument. I didn't feel the need to return to look at the monument again but I'm glad that we did.  The program lasted about 45 minutes and both David and I so moved by it.  As an added bonus, there was a mountain goat grazing on the hillside.

 Lit up at night

 Look closely to see "my" mountain goat

Today we went to the Crazy Horse Monument.  I remember seeing the sculptor on television documentary when I was young and I wanted to see this.  We spent several hours there too.  It so amazing to see them still working on this and they will continue to work on this monument for many more years.  There is no federal or state money involved.  It is funded through private donations and the money raised at the memorial.

I can't download my good pics of this stop.  Will have to wait until we had "good" internet again.

Leaving the Mt. Rushmore area tomorrow.  We're headed to Sturgis and then we're moving north toward Montana.

Sunday Bliss

Today was just a wonderful traveling day.  Before leaving Wisconsin, we stopped and bought cheese- of course.  There were about 300 Amish dairy farms around Sparta, Wisconsin.  We bought some delicious cheeses, candy, and beef jerky.

 David eating beef jerky.  It was really very good.
We crossed the Mississippi River and the Missouri River today.  I was a GREAT navigator today.  We stayed on 90 West the whole day.  The campground was just on the interstate, had internet AND a hot tub. "Winner, winner"

 Dairy farms were everywhere.

 Mississippi River

 Wind mills were all over.

 Sculpture on the side of hill

 Missouri River

 Rolling hills of South Dakota

Fields of sunflowers

Help Wanted--must be able to read maps

Saturday was not one of our better days.  Making our way around Chicago was horrendous.  Six lanes of traffic for hours.  We did take a nice detour through the Ohare airport.  Yep, we took the RV right thru the passenger arrivals and then got back on the highway we needed to be on.  That was the first "oops" with navigation.
David and I have been married 21 years (next week) and he SHOULD know by now that I am "spatial challenged" and have NEVER EVER been able to read a map.  All my friends and coworker know that about me.  So it shouldn't surprise him when I gave him inaccurate directions for our campground Saturday. I do believe I heard David mutter "that I should be spending time learning how to read a map instead of playing Candy Crush!"  LOL!!    I only wish I had taken a picture of Wisconsin Dells when we went through it (twice) about 5:00 pm.  Think of Myrtle Beach, Key West, and Atlantic City rolled all together.  This will give you a picture of what it looked like as we crept through town with me navigating.  It was NOT a pretty sight.  We finally get to the campground and it did NOT get any better there. Came in the wrong gate, went down a long hill that was difficult for David to turn around.  I checked us in and rode to the site on the golf cart with the lady.  Thought maybe David might need some alone time.    No cell service.   Needless to say, we were excited to leave Wisconsin Dells.

  This was town at 8:30 on our way OUT!!

In case you are wondering what Wisconsin Dells is..... it is on the Wisconsin River and EVERYBODY must come here to see and be on the river.

These people were having FUN on the Wisconsin River at the campground.

We are waking up in Benton Harbor Michigan this morning.  We rode 12 hours to Bedford, Ohio and stayed with Harry and Betts.  Harry is an old army buddy of David's.  Friday we (and Harry and Betts) headed to the outskirts of Detroit, Michigan to meet Pat, another army buddy of David's.  These men had not seen each over in almost 40 years!  After a great visit, we are finally moving on to "our" trip!  Today's plan is to get around Chicago and stay in Madison, Wisconsin.

We have less than a week before departure on our "grand" adventure!  Reservations were made many months ago for Glacier National Park, Yellowstone, Zion and the Grand Canyon.  The mule ride at the Grand Canyon and the cattle drive in Colorado have been booked.  The RV has been serviced and gassed up.  David has planned and planned and planned (lol).  Our backpacks have "everything" we will need  (and then some) when we go hiking.  What's left??  Oh yeah, we need to get our clothes together and pack the RV.  Come join us as we travel westward.