Back to the Barn

When we left Missouri Thursday morning we had only one mission, to get back home to Maryland. It's kind of like a horse who at the end of the day wants to get back to the barn and doesn't want to stop for anything. We arrived home yesterday (Sat.) after 1100 miles on I70 and some intermittent problems with the diesel turbo cutting out. Had a great time on the trip, covered over 7K miles in the 8 weeks.

I'm not sure how many have been following the blog, there were 9 that registered as followers and some more that didn't register. I would be pleased to receive your comments on what you thought of our travel blog, + or -. You can email me at halsey6418@msn.com

This will be the last entry until we take off on another trip. Thanks for keeping up with our trip.

Bye for now, Halsey & Nita

Jesse James ain't dead yet

I had a relative who frequently said "Jesse James ain't dead yet" when he thought he was cheated or got the short end of the stick. On the way back east we stopped to visit my nephew in Kearney, Missouri. One of the claims to fame for Kearney is the burial site of Jesse James. Jesse was an outlaw and the most famous member of the James-Younger Gang. There is some question about whether the body buried here is the real Jesse, in 1995 the remains were exhumed and supposedly the DNA matched the closest living relative.

Free ice water and 5 cent coffee

For hundreds of miles in any direction from Wall, SD you see signs advertising Wall Drugs and all it has to offer, like free ice water, homemade doughnuts, etc. Wall Drugs has to be one of the biggest tourist traps in the country, however it kind of like an oasis in the middle of a desert so you stop, and it is fun. About 15 years ago we came into Wall on a motorcycle with temps of around 110 degrees, a nice spot to cool off. Yesterday it was much cooler.

From there we traveled on to Mitchell, SD, home of the Corn Palace and spent the 4th of July night. This morning we visited the Palace. It serves as a civic center with entertainment and sports. Each year a new decorating theme is chosen and the outside is stripped and redecorated with new corn and grains. The pictures on the palace are made of corn on the cob.

Badlands, Minuteman and Henrietta loves Buster

At the Bandlands RV park the owner has a 6 year old pet buffalo cow named Henrietta that he say is sweet and docile, she seemed to be as I stood a few feet from her separated by a strand of rusty barbed wire. Two years ago he put a weaned 2 mo. old cattle steer, named Buster, in the field with Henrietta, having no calves of her own Henrietta took on Buster as her baby. Today Buster is almost as big as his momma, wherever Henrietta goes Buster follows, when she lies down so does he. You can see the love in their eyes.

Off of I90 east of Wall, SD on a dirt road is a Minuteman Missile silo. It has been decommissioned and is displayed by the Natl. park service. There used to be 450 of these missiles silo's buried around this part of the country. I shot the picture of the missile through the added glass cover as seen in the 2ND picture. There was not much to be seen above ground when they were operational. The other picture was taken in the Badlands.

Needles Hiway and train ride

This morning we took a ride on an 1880's steam train from Hill City to Keystone and back. It was an interesting ride but nothing as scenic as the Durango to Silverton train ride in Colorado. Has a good rain storm on return and had lunch and read the paper in the motor home till it blew over. Decided to take the Needles highway which everyone advised against due to the short narrow tunnels, but read the dimensions on the tunnel and figured we could make it through. Had to fold the mirrors in to clear and went slow. It was a beautiful drive, would have been a shame to miss it.

Iron Mountian Road

Today was a relaxed day, drove up to Hill City with thoughts of taking a ride on the 1880 steam train, we just missed a train and decided not to wait for the next one. Cruised on over the Keystone and walked up and down main street, a quaint looking town but definitely geared up for shopping tourists. We then got on Iron Mountain road that goes south through a series of 3 tunnels and snakes it way down to Custer State Park, then back to Custer. We are staying at a National Forest park called Oreville just north of Custer. We may shorten our stay here by a day and move on tomorrow.

Pics: Will the View fit through this tunnel, it did and a burro roadblock.

Crazy Horse Monument

Tuesday morning we visited the Wind Caves National Park and took an hour tour of the cave, the tour was fun, the pictures inside the cave were not great. On the way to the caves we came across a herd of about 50 buffalo, the calves are about 2 months old. They were on both side of the road, when we came out of the caves there was no sign of them.

Crazy Horse Monument is a sight to see. Standing Bear and his fellow chiefs hired sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1949 to make a sculptor to let the white man know the red man has great hero's too. Korszak died in 1982 but the work is carried on by his family, I heard estimates of 40 more years to complete. You can see the dust flying in the last picture, they are drilling holes for blasting. I took the first picture from a mile away, Mount Rushmore could fit in the area of Crazy Horse's head and flowing hair, the horses head is outlined in paint. The hole under his arm to be is 10 stories high. The monument when finished will look like the model in the foreground.
Does Nita, who is part Cherokee, look anything like Crazy Horse?

Crazy Horse's left hand is thrown out pointing in answer to the derisive question asked by a white man. "Where are your lands now?", he replied, "My lands are where my dead are buried."

Some of the followers of this blog have had trouble leaving comments. Please read David Marler's comment on the last post (The Black Hills) on how to comment.

The Black Hills

Arrived in Custer about noon today, a day early. Picked an rv park with wifi to catch up on blog, owner wears a real live 38 revolver, hope it's not a sign of his clientele. The next 3 days we will be in an National Forest park without a lot of amenities, may be a challenge for Nita, will have to keep her busy touring during the day. On top of that our Virgin cell phone service with Sprint is almost nonexistent here in the wild west. Anyway after check in we hopped back in the View and toured the hills in the area. The Black Hills are very green and beautiful, a local said a 11 year drought has been broken. Nothing is level here, up down and curves is the norm, View performs like a mountain goat, have put on more than 5K miles since we started in May. The antelope moma has her hands full with these 3 kids.

Bear Lodge in Wyoming

The Indians call it Bear Lodge, the white man named it Devils Tower. The tower is considered scared by a number of tribes and they hold prayer sessions around the tower. They leave behind prayer cloths in the trees around the base of the tower, there are signs not to disturb them. About 5000 people climb the tower every year, however in June the park bans climbing in respect for the Indians. This was the country's first national monument, named by Theodore Roosevelt in 1872. It's a shame it is June and we couldn't climb it, had to settle for a 1.3 mile hike around the base, oh well. They have a great camp area, our site looked straight up to the tower. We were surrounded by prairie dogs, they are fun to watch, deer wandered around the area. At 9pm a park ranger put on a slide show and lecture on the first climbers of the tower.

Pics: In line to enter the park, colored prayer cloths in trees and dinner time with a tower view.

Buffalo Bill Days

This event in Sheradin started Thurs. and ends this evening with a Wild West Show. This morning we attended a parade down main street. Pictures: Buffalo Bill leads the parade, a local observer, bareback Indian riders, women's Calvary, and Calamity Jane?

Over the Bighorn

It's a pleasure to drive the non interstate roads in these sparsely populated states, you can go for miles without seeing other vehicles and can travel at leisurely speeds and enjoy the interesting scenery. This morning we headed north from Thermopolis and took rt. 14 over the Bighorn mountain range, destination Sheridan, WY. Had light showers much of the day but visibility was good, saw lots of deer, antelope and a few elk. Lot's of curves and hairpin curves and the summit was over 9K feet.

Sheridan is a cowboy town, the old Sheridan Inn was partially owned by Buffalo Bill and still has the bar he installed. Kings Rope and Saddlery is not to be missed, full of supplies for riding roping for working ranches and rodeos. Salesman told me they sell 40 thousand ropes/lassos a year. Most of the clientele, men and women were right off the ranch and dressed like it. Was invited down to the basement where they make their own ropes, the ropes are hard and stiff, after they are wound they are soaked in hot wax then heated till cured. Had a beer at the Mint Bar where the locals hang out.

Pics: Kings, at first thought this big animial was a bear-seemed to enjoy his position, Buffalo Bills bar in Sheridan Inn and decending the Bighorn,

Hot Springs and digs

Thursday morning we decided to spend another day in Thermopolis, WY. The town is on the corner of The Wind River Indian Reservation, is was a part of it but when the gov. discovered the hot springs they decided it would be nice to develop and paid the Indians $60k for it in the late 1800's. The Big Horn river races north through this small town. We spent the day touring the attractive Hot Spring State park where you can bathe in a 104 degree pool, checked out a local buffalo herd, visited the WY Dinosaur Center and Dig and went to one of the 60 identified dig sites. The one we visited was called a Jurassic feeding site and had dinosaur bones and foot prints, it dated back around 150 million years ago, a relatively young site.

Pics: leg and rib bones, more dig sites, Nita and view of Thermopolis and Big Horn river from surrounding hill.

I Got the Sheriff, song by that name?

Tuesday morning we left Layton and headed north to Wyoming. Thought about going to the Tetons and Yellowstone but have been there before, after arriving in Evanston decided to go to Flaming Gorge. We went down 414 through Mountain View, kind of a pause in the road. It had a 35mph speed limit and being the law abiding citizen that I am that's what I did, on exiting the town I picked up speed again, about a half mile out of town here comes the sheriff in a flashing pickup truck. Was informed that the last few feet in town I sped up to 50, here we go again, I seem to attract zealous lawman or as it turned out lawwoman. After many questions and inspection of my licence, insurance papers, and registration she decided to let me off, the day just got a little bit better, she was about 22 and must have felt sorry for an ol' man.

It was a beautiful drive to Flaming George, had a camp spot right near the water. There were antelope wandering all over the country side as well as at our camp site. This morning we left there and drove north up through Rock Springs, Lander, Riverton and have stopped for the night at Thermopolis. We enjoyed the scenery all the way, lots of antelope, the old Oregon Trail and just before Lander the Red Canyon. There are some interesting sites to see around Thermopolis and we may decided to spend another day here, depends on our joint mood in the morning. The picture with Nita on the Oregon trail shows the ruts left by the wagon wheels from 1870 to early 1900's, the Parting of the Ways is actually a few miles west of this point where the trail splits, one going to Utah and California and the other toward the right to Oregon.

Layton, UT

We had a nice visit with our son Chris and his wife Kathy Sunday and Monday. Had some time to clean our dirty View and get it in the shop for a front end alignment, tires were wearing uneven. Monday evening Chris and Katy had a picnic where we meet Kathy's family. Kathy's son's dog was killed 2 weeks after giving birth to 8 pups. The picture is her son Wiley feeding one of the 8 pups which he must do every 4 hours, doesn't get much sleep. The other pic is Kathy giving moral support to the pups.

Uinta National Forest

On our way to Strawberry Reservoir in the Uinta's to meet our son and his wife we had to climb over the mountain on rt. 191, about 9100 feet in alt., the little ol diesel didn't have a problem. Stopped at Dochesne for lunch and was entertained by the prairie dogs, there were so many. Taking a picture of them was a challenge, many were standing by their hole but when you would get close they disappeared, kind of like the "whack-a-mole" game, back off and up they popped again. We ran into some snowy rain on the way to the lake at about 8000 feet, some cross country bicyclers were really suffering.

We had a beautiful campsite on Strawberry Res. We were at 7700 feet, the first night got below freezing and our water hose was frozen the next morning. My son Chris and his wife arrive the next day, he lives in Layton, UT and he brought his boat and camper to join us. Didn't catch a lot of fish but did get 2 nice rainbow trout. There is a large group of white pelicans on the lake that were fun to watch. The last morning there we had a good storm and a pretty rainbow when it ended. The boat picture is Chris and Nita.

Capital Reef National Park

In the wilds of Utah have not had much wifi access to make new posts so am somewhat behind. Capital Reef is another outstanding Utah park with great sights and hiking trails. We got a nice site in the park for last Tues. and Wed nites, handy to many trails and full of Mule deer.

Pics: 1st 2 hike through the Grand Wash, view of park from hike up in the ridge, campsite, and pink rocks and pink lady.

Still behind will catch up later, gotta run to Salt Lake to meet my son Chris for lunch.