Road Trippin'

It's about time for us to pack up the grill, the cooler, and the lawn chairs and move on down the road. In my opinion, the Black Hills area of South Dakota is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. But winter is coming, and this is not a place we want to be when it starts to get really cold.

We are already making plans to come back here for next summer. There is just so much to do and see here. Mark has been sick much of the time we've been here this year. I think he'll enjoy coming back here when he may feel more like getting out and going places.

Now that we have declared South Dakota as our legal residence, we'll have to come back here at least once every five years to take care of business. Hopefully, next year we'll be making the trip back to take our motorcycle license exams. We've been wanting to buy a couple of small scooters (250cc), and it looks like next year might be THE YEAR. At least we hope so!

Our next stop is Carlsbad, New Mexico. I know...been there, done that. But this year we have to stay settled (somewhat) while we complete some medical business. And we both liked Carlsbad quite a bit. So, if we have to be in one place for months, at least we can pick somewhere we know we like and where Mark can tolerate the climate. I'm already looking forward to seeing some of the people I made friends with while we were there last winter. I am even hoping to go back to work at the same job, while we are there this winter.

We'll be hitting the road the day after tomorrow. So this last group of updates will have to suffice until we get settled in our new home, which shouldn't take more than a week or two.

I want to leave y'all with some final pictures of the black hills of South Dakota. If you ever want to visit a place with lots of natural beauty and plenty of things to do, I highly recommend Rapid City, South Dakota.

And a final thank you to Sonya and Terry, who once again provided these lovely pictures.

Ok, so when I came to South Dakota, visiting The Crazy Horse Memorial was pretty high on my priority list. But to be honest, they haven't done much to it that you can see from a distance. I DID visit, but only in passing, and I didn't even take a picture. (I don't know why.)

I found out later, that in June there is a hike up to the top of Crazy Horse. It only happens once a year, and I missed that opportunity. Besides, if I remember correctly it's a really long hike! But fortunately, my friend, Sonya, did go and she took tons of pictures. They were so cool, I just had to share them with y'all. It's not often you get a bird's eye view like this one.

I just wanted to mention to anyone who may not have noticed, that I have begun to add links to the places I write about. If you click on the title of most of my posts, you will now find a direct link to the websites of those places.

Happy Surfing!

One of our final outings here in Rapid City, was to Bear Country. We went with Gina, who is a fellow workcamper and also our neighbor. When we arrived, we ran into Terry and Sonya, also fellow workcampers, and continued the tour as a group.

Bear Country was wonderful. It's one of those parks where the animals are free and you drive through in your vehicle. And afterward you can take a walking tour of the area where they keep the babies. Seeing the adult animals was cool, but watching the bear cubs play was the highlight of the day for me.



This little guy laying in the grass was having so much fun. Everytime he grabbed the end of that big limb, it caused the entire thing to rock and all the other bears couldn't seem to figure out what was going on.





After we finished looking at the animals, we HAD to make the obligatory stop by the gift shop. I was really proud of myself for not buying anything at this stop, but Sonya was not so lucky (depending on your point of view, of course!). Sonya loves caps and she couldn't resist one from Bear Country. Here she shows off her newest addition, but can't seem to bring herself to decide between the new cap and the one she was currently wearing. No problem, just wear them both!



Oh! Did I mention that Mark has once again cut all his hair off? Yep, and he's going with his natural color, which is a very distinguished graying shade of brown. I think I like this look on him. Or it could be those cool new Bono-ish sunshades!

John expressed a desire to visit a tourist attraction nearby called The Mystery of the Cosmos. Since this was high up on our list of "must-do things", we were all excited to be going there. Maybe not giddy, but definitely excited.

For anyone who has ever visited a place like this, you probably have heard of the concept of forced perspective. This occurs when something is built so that you truly feel things are one way, when, in fact, they are exactly the opposite. For example, the rooms were built on a slope, the floors were actually sloped, but the items in the rooms were level. And since you are standing on the side of the hill, everything in the rooms seemed to be off-balance rather than the reality which was YOU were off-balance. (If this made no sense at all to you, perhaps the photographs will make it more clear.)

Not long after John and Sandy arrived, we decided to make the drive into Wyoming to visit Devil's Tower. It was something we all wanted to see while we were in this part of the country. It wasn't nearly as irrisistible an urge as the folks in the movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, experienced, but we really did want to go.

I think I could have sat for hours and watched crazy folks climb this mountain. But watching someone climb a mountain is a little bit like watching snow melt...you know it's going to happen, but it never seems quite fast enough.

Fortunately, one of my friends took some photos of some other folks climbing the Tower and shared them with me. So, I'll share them with all of you. If you look closely at the third photo, you will notice a small speck in the middle of the Tower. The next photo is a close-up of that same photo and you can just make out that it is a climber. Compare that to the first photo of the Tower and you can see what a long climb it is to the top. And speaking of the summit, it is said that the top of the Tower is an area the size of three football fields.

This first photo tells the myth and history of the Tower. It is still considered a sacred place for the Native Americans and many of the trees have colored prayer cloths tied to them.









Here's a photo of us enjoying the view. That John sure seems camera shy, doesn't he? Or maybe he was just mesmerized by the view.

John and Sandy are coming!
John and Sandy are coming!
Don't get me wrong, all the workcampers here are wonderful people and we have made some fine new friends. But we were so excited to know that our friends from Moab were going to be spending a week with us on their way back east.

I made all kinds of plans for things we could do and places we could go while they were here. But then I remembered they are at least as laid back as Mark and me, so my over-ambitious plans had to be scaled back to something more closely resembling reality. There were some things we just had to do, such as visit Mt. Rushmore and Devil's Tower. But mostly we were happy just to have another opportunity to sit around and visit.

Here are just a few of the pictures we took at Mt. Rushmore.







Sandy gives a wave; we're off to see something else!

There is a place across the street from the Happy Holiday Campground called Reptile Gardens. One day early in our stay, we decided to go over and check the place out. It turned out to be one of the most fun things we've done here.

Reptile Gardens has a HUGE glass dome in one part of the park. Inside this dome is one of the biggest hibiscus trees I've ever seen. It's also home to all kinds of birds and snakes and other kinds of reptiles.

Reptile Gardens is home to the largest crocodile in captivity, which is 15 feet long. Imagine you are walking along and as you round a corner...BAM! there it is! It's name is Maniac, and it's bigger than you can really comprehend without seeing it in person. Just think of it like this...from snout to tail you could fit two six foot tall men...with room to spare! Or consider this, the crocodile is only 10 feet shorter than our entire motorhome! I didn't get any pictures of this crocodile as I was too busy staring in fascination!

I did manage to get some pictures of the young man who wrestles alligators. He seemed so young that my first thought when I saw him was to wonder if his Mom knew what he did for a living. However, he seemed to know what he was doing, and he was very entertaining....probably nuts, but very entertaining.







Even though the alligator wrestling was fun to watch, I think I liked the giant tortioses and the birds at least as well. The area under the dome, was like an indoor mini tropical jungle. And the tortioses, which had their own seperate habitat, seemed so old and wise. It's amazing to think that both the birds and the tortioses have an average life span that is often much longer than our own.







This fellow does not seem to be very amused by all the attention. If looks could kill, huh? I think this was my cue to move along!

After spending an hour or so walking and gawking at Wall Drug, we headed into the Badlands. If anyone ever wondered why it's called the badlands, they will understand within minutes of entering this area.

I can't imagine what it must have been like for the pioneers who found themselves faced with having to pass through this landscape. But I'm sure it must have played a role in Rapid City's very existence. I can just picture some hardy pioneer woman putting her foot down and refusing to travel another mile after getting out of the badlands and finding herself in the beauty of the Black Hills.

For this trip we spent the day with Jake and Bonnie, who were also workcampers here at the park. On a side note, it was nice to find out that even though they live in Florida for part of the year, they are originally from the same area in Ohio as Mark. Some times you just have those "small world moments".

Anyway, here are some photos of the four of us in The Badlands National Park. As you can see, Jack and Mark were much more adventurous than Bonnie and me. No way was I going to get that close to the edge!









The Badlands should be desolate. It's definitely a harsh, rugged landscape. But it also very beautiful. The day we visited the sun was bright and hot, and the sky seemed enormous. I wish I could explain how it felt to be there, but words just don't capture the spirit of many of the places we've seen. Pictures only begin to do so. That said, here's my humble photographic attempt at showing you what I saw.

For what seemed like hundreds of miles before we got to Rapid City, we saw signs along the road advertising Wall Drug. Shoot! When visiting their website you'll find that they have store signs as far away as Moscow and the South Pole!

Needless to say, by the time we arrived we knew it was one place (besides Mt. Rushmore and the badlands) that had to be added to our must-see list. And since Wall Drug was on the way to visit the badlands, it quickly became our first stop.

Wall Drug has been around since the 1930's. It's claim to fame in the early days was that it offered free ice water to travelers who stopped into the store. This may sound hokey now, but I'm sure in the days before air-conditioned vehicles, this was quite a draw after driving through the badlands.

These days Wall Drug has grown into a huge establishment with what seems like dozens of buildings. The decor is early Americana and the store deals in mainly tourist kitsch. Ok, it's just a big, huge tourist mecca! But it WAS fun and I'm glad we went. I even had some of that free ice water!

While I was there I made friends with an old cowboy. He wasn't real talkative, but he seemed happy enough!

Well, it looks like I've been lazy on this blog again. Someone really needs to give me a good talkin' to! Here we are getting ready to leave South Dakota, and I have yet to post anything about all the wonderful things we've done and seen while we've been here this summer.

We have been here at The Happy Holiday RV Resort in Rapid City for a little more than three months. And Mark and I both agree that this is one of the best experiences we've had since we began fulltiming. The manager and his family are really good people, the park is excellent and the workcamping has been a dream. So much so that I think we'll actually plan on coming back here next summer....maybe.

Here are a some pictures of the campground and one of Fritz and Susan, who manage the campground and motel.









There were over 20 workcampers at the park this summer, and they were all truly wonderful people. We got together for breakfasts at the park and also at a local Elk's Lodge. And on several occasions Mark and I joined some of them for dinners, and other outings. I'll post pictures of those in later posts.

Here are some pictures from one of workcamper breakfasts, which was held right after the big Sturgis Bike Rally Week. Boy! Were we all tired and ready for a little down time. It was really nice of the manager and his family to treat us to breakfast, which they cooked for us.