Rapid City, South Dakota to Yellowstone, Wyoming (23-25 May)

     As you know if you're reading the posts to this blog - Ed and Kay had to abort the trip due to health issues. Kathy and I regret that but we are too far in now to turn back. Ed and Kay gave us the inspiration to do this.....I remember telling Ed that our big trip this year was gonna be to Yellowstone and he said "heck, why stop there, let's go to Alaska". From that conversation on I have been planning it.

We really miss them and hope that Kay's health improves quickly....and we are thankful that it didn't happen far from home.

May 23 (Rest and maintenance)

Another day of temps mild overnight 50's & beautiful sunny daytime high around 75

     After the Harney Peak hike we were so late getting in and so tired that we declared a rest day along with laundry and other maintenance related items  around the camp. We spent the day in the campground (Rapid City RV Park) except for a run to Walmart to replenish supplies....an overdue visit. We've been running wide open to this point.

     So, our original plans for the 23rd  (Badlands National Park and the Minuteman Missile Site) were cancelled and will have to see them on another day. Really regret not making it to the Badlands but since we have a reservation in Yellowstone beginning the 25th we didn't have the luxury of extending a day in Rapid City.

May 24 (on the road to Yellowstone)
     We departed Rapid City heading west with tentative plans to stop somewhere in the vicinity of the town of Buffalo, Wyoming or the Big Horn National Forest in one of their campgrounds. Since we prefer the State and Federal parks we were hoping for the National Forest and my google engineer/co-pilot worked on that as we traveled.

     As we entered Wyoming on I-90 we stopped at their welcome center which was nice and the lady working there was very helpful. We got directions from her on getting to the Devils Tower National Monument Park. We detoured off I-90 for a visit there and were happy to be able to use our Annual National Park pass for admission. We went in the visitor's center and walked some of the paths up to the tower but did not do the hike around it because of time constraints. Interesting spot and nice break from the highway.

     The helpful lady at the welcome center also provided us with information about camping in Big Horn National Forest....she said most of the campgrounds were closed (hadn't opened for the season yet) and she said that was a good thing because you could pull in and camp for free......she recommended the Sitting Bull Campground.

     As we drove into the National Forest we were climbing over a mountain range that still had snow on the ground and plenty of snow visible in the higher elevations. Our phone and internet reception went to zero. As we reached the campground we were undecided about continuing on in the direction of Cody, Wyoming or staying there but it was nearing 4:00 and I was a little tired so we set up camp.

     We were in a campground that was closed and there is only one other camper but no signs of life there so far. There is no water or electric. We are camped right on the edge of the woods next to a beautiful meadow with a snow covered mountain as the back drop. All of that is really nice but soon after getting set up (oh yeah 41 degrees and dropping fast) it started raining and thundering.......then turned to snow (big flakes) mixed with rain. My co-pilot seems excited and a little nervous with the whole arrangement but I think it's cool!

May 25th (Check in at Yellowstone)
     We woke up very early in Big Horn National Forest....another camper or two had joined us in that park for the night. We woke up to find snow on the ground....not much and not completely covered but enough to make it exciting for us.

     We were underway heading for Yellowstone pretty early.....heading down the west side of Big Horn Forest was a big downhill run with great views.
    
     We made it to Cody, Wyoming just before noon and believing that would likely be our last Walmart visit in a week, we stocked up on some additional supplies and headed west for the 77 miles to Fishing Bridge Campground in Yellowstone. We were greeted by more snow (flurries mixed with rain) but got set up okay.

     We were both pretty tired but too excited about being here to rest (yet) so we set out with our iPhone app called "Just Ahead" with the Yellowstone guided tour. We only went a short distance before returning for dinner and hopefully a good night's rest..... but in that short time we saw some spectacular views and sighted some bison, elk, big horn sheep, and a grizzly bear so far away that I had to take someone's word that's what it was. Looking forward to seeing the remainder of the park in the coming days.

A few photos from the last few days below:

Wyoming scenery

Heading into Big Horn National Forest

Devils Tower (Wyoming)

Devils Tower (Wyoming)

Big Horn National Forest from the distance

Devils Tower

Campsite view at Sitting Bull Campground (before the snow)

"Ed Says" - Bad News, must abort their trip

Kay and I did not get to leave on May 21 as planned to meet Darrell and Kathy in Yellowstone on our way to Alaska.

Kay developed severe lower back, hip and leg pain.  The doctors informed us today that she has degenerative discs in the lower back.  So we will be taking trips to the orthopedic instead!  We are fortunate this occurred before rather than on the trip. 

It is with great disappointment that we must abort our plans for the trip.

We wish Darrell and Kathy safe travels and will be keeping up with them thru this blog and other communications. 

Ed and Kay

May 22 - Custer State Park (South Dakota part two)

Temps mild overnight 50's & beautiful sunny daytime high around 75

     At the recommendation of our good friends, Ted and Debbie Haguewood who visited here last year, we added Custer State Park to our South Dakota visit and what a great day we had.

     Besides the beautiful weather we knew it was gonna be a good day when we arrived at the park prepared to pay the $20 daily admission and they said it was open house week-end and the entry to the park was free. We spent enough time talking to the young man at the gate to get tips on how to spend our day....wildlife viewing, taking photos, and hiking. The only downside (if there was one) is that the park may have been more crowded than usual....Sunday AND free - but as a result, we also met and talked to alot of nice folks from different parts of the country including another couple headed to Alaska in a RV who were from Florida.

     First up was a drive through the wildlife loop road. When I say loop - think big, as this is a huge park. The loop road was paved and nice but they also had numerous dirt roads that we could take off in different directions (and we did). While we didn't see as much wildlife as we hoped, we did see a lot -  bison, pronghorns, prairie dogs, burros, and many birds including what we think was an eagle who had captured a prairie dog in his talons and was flying away with him.....taking him out for lunch I think.

     Later, still in the loop road, we stopped in a very nice area called Blue Bell Lodge for a picnic lunch. This area also had cabins, horseback riding, a restaurant and a general store.

     From there, at the recommendation of the gate agent we took an off the path road to the Mount Coolidge Fire tower and Overlook. Obviously the views from there were awesome but the ride up and down were a story too. This road (dirt) barely wide enough for two cars to pass had no guard rails and huge drop offs on the downhill side. Oh, and we are in an F-250 truck with big ears (mirrors). I had a nervous passenger on my hands by the time we made the top.

     We then continued to a drive up the Scenic Needles Highway.....another very narrow (but paved) road that ascends to a beautiful lake area (Sylvan Lake). The views on this road were magnificent but the road was windy and narrow with tunnels that a single vehicle (especially with big ears) could barely get through. Two vehicles ahead of us a tour bus inched his way through so I felt more confident that we might make it then.

     You will notice from the photos that a lot of the forest areas are destroyed ...leaving only piles of dead trees and pretty bare looking hills. This is evident in many places throughout this region we've seen. We learned from a local gentleman that this is caused by pine beetles....they destroy entire areas of trees. Pine beetles are also a problem in areas back home but the difference is most of the forests in Georgia are a mix of pine and hardwoods so it doesn't leave the hillside completely bare. 

     Sylvan Lake at the top end of the Needles Highway is a beautiful lake and day use area that is very popular with the locals. Many families kayaking, hiking and fishing. We enjoyed a one mile hike around the lake and a soft serve ice cream cone at the lodge there while we decided on whether to hike the Harney Peak trail.

     Harney Peak Trail - So, the last thing on our list for Custer State Park was the recommended climb to Harney Peak which is the highest peak in the Black Hills. The gate agent said if you are in reasonable shape and enjoy hiking (we think we are and we do)....it is a 3.3 mile hike up (really UP) and then the 3.3. mile return trip. Our dilemma was that the signs posted and what we learned from talking to others is that this hike could take 4-5 hours and it was now 4:15 in the afternoon....running out of time. I really wanted to give it a try and Kathy was a little less enthusiastic about it.....we decided to grab some water, snacks, and cameras and go at least part way up and if it looks like we can't make the top we would return at a safe time. Oh, and we grabbed a jacket to take with us that turned out to be a really good idea....even though it was warm and sunny when we left.

     We pushed hard in our attempt to reach the top. I figured if we could make the top in two hours or less we'd be okay on the down hill return. We reached it at 6:05 and to our surprise some pretty cold and windy weather (estimate 50+ MPH wind and temps cold and dropping fast). The peak elevation is at 7,244 feet and it looked at that point like some weather was moving in. Thank god we thought to bring the jackets. We spent very little time taking pictures there but the view was incredible.

     On the return trip Kathy led the way and I struggled to keep up with her....she was on a mission to beat the weather and get back to the vehicle before dark. It began to rain lightly soon after we began descending the mountain and felt like it had ice in it. By the time we got to within a half mile of the truck it was raining/sleeting pretty hard and we were happy to see the truck.

What a great ending to great day!

Many photos posted below

Bird eating grasshopper

Bison herd - Wildlife loop

Bison profile shot

Wildlife loop

Wildlife loop

Tunnel - Scenic Needles Highway

Scenic Needles Highway

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Sylvan Lake

Harney hike

Harney hike - near peak

Harney hike

Harney peak

Coolidge Fire Tower Lookout

Coolidge Fire Tower Lookout

Sylvan Lake

Prairie Dog - Wildlife loop

Scenic Needles Highway

Sylvan Lake

Bison - wildlife loop

Harney hike

Harney hike

Harney hike

May 20-21 Kansas City to South Dakota (part one)

Temps overnight mid 40's & daytime highs averaging near 65

We left the Kansas City area early on Friday the 20th of May and broke the camp down in (you guessed it) rain again. We are batting 1000 on rainy departures but I am getting pretty good at handling them. We traveled north on I-29 through much of western Missouri, Iowa and on into South Dakota. We were officially in the great plains.....flat (but very pretty) farm land for as far as the eye could see. We made our way into Sioux Falls, South Dakota where we turned west on I-90 to get a little closer to Rapid City - our next tourist destination. We ended up resting (boondocking) for the night in the parking lot of a Cabela's in Mitchell South Dakota.

Cabela's was set up to encourage RV'ers to stay....they had a rather large area designated for RV's with room for 15 or so to park. They had a dump station and a dog kennel area for pets. Several other campers joined us overnighting there and some even set up their grills in the parking lot...we walked to a local restaurant for dinner and an early night.

Early at it this morning (Saturday) to the sound of rain on the roof :-)
It sounded loud like a hard rain (like a tin roof) but it was actually not raining as hard as it sounded. I think the soothing sound helped us sleep until the clocks woke us. On the road before 7:00 with a busy day planned. Again we gained an hour today as we moved into Mountain Standard time.....now two hours behind folks at home.

We made our way across South Dakota heading west....again great plains farm land. We found the lack of trees remarkable as we moved from relatively flat to rolling hills as we made our way west. Beautiful but no trees. I had a nice discussion with a local farmer (Wesley) who, in addition to farming, also worked at one of the rest areas. He said they farmed mostly wheat and raised cattle but in recent years have begun growing a drought resistant corn. He was very interested in the South Georgia farming (peanuts and cotton).....I told him I was married to the farmer's daughter but I was not the farmer.

We made a quick visit to Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota. It is kinda like South of the Border on I-95 (South Carolina) in that the signs are plentiful and begin hundreds of miles before you get there. After reading all the signs you HAVE to stop to see what all the fuss is about.....like Pedro's place in South Carolina....it wasn't much but gave us a needed break from the road.

As we approached Rapid City the hills got bigger and darker....the Black Hills. We settled into the new campground where we will be for the next three nights. After we got set up we headed out to visit the Crazy Horse Monument and the Mount Rushmore Monument. The weather was not great (clouds, fog and light rain) so visibility was not good....we were thinking we wouldn't even get to see the sculptures but the skies cleared just enough for us to get views (although still pretty foggy) of each of them.

This afternoon was our first (but not likely last) glimpse of snow on the roadside. My co-pilot/weather lady/google engineer informs me to expect snow in Yellowstone next week.

A few photos from the I-90 drive today below:

A few photos from the visits to Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore:

FYI - The Crazy Horse monument dedicated to Native Americans and close to Mount Rushmore is not a government/state venture, instead privately funded. It was begun in 1948 and they told us today that they expected it to take 75-100 more years to complete. I plan to compare this photo to the one I take when it is completed :-)

"Ed Says" - Ready for their departure

Family and friends

We are finally ready to join our traveling partners, Darrell and Kathy. 

All issues with truck and trailer have been resolved.  The trailer and truck are packed and ready for the road!

We leave the morning of May 21 .  We will overnight in Cullman, AL, where we will visit our aunt, uncle and cousins.  Sunday morning we will be on the road west bound.  We plan to make miles through AL, MS, AR, MO,  and KS.  We plan to slow down and start acting like tourists when we get to Nebraska.  There are some historical sites, museums and a buffalo ranch we plan to visit.  After crossing through the eastern and northern parts of Nebraska we will tour across Wyoming.  We will be staying in the Jackson Hole and Teton National Park area for a few days before joining Darrell and Kathy in Yellowstone NP on May 31.

From there it is onward to Glacier NP, touring through Alberta, British Columbia and the Yukon, and then into Alaska!

We are looking forward to the exciting adventure!

Ed and Kay

May 17-19 Cloudland Canyon to Kansas City

850 total miles driven since leaving home
Temps overnight mid 40's & daytime highs averaging near 70

     We left Cloudland Canyon State Park in Georgia early Tuesday morning (17 May).....had to break down camper in between rain showers but managed to get it done without getting too wet. We left there with a goal of getting near (or past) St. Louis, Missouri which is a long travel day (475 miles) pulling an RV. We gained an hour as we crossed into central time zone and that helped. We traveled through five states that day - Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, and Missouri. Beautiful (but rainy) scenery in all states.

Walmart Camping Experience:
     We finally settled down for the evening in a Walmart (that's right) parking lot just west of St. Louis in a town called O'Fallon Missouri and walked to a nearby Applebee's for dinner. This was our first experience at Walmart camping and using our new generators with the rig. We went to sleep with only one other rig near us in the parking lot and woke up in the morning with three or four others camping near us. The price was right but it was a bit noisy.....luckily we were tired enough that we still slept ok. Lesson learned - find a better corner spot in the parking lot to avoid all night traffic and bright lights. We will do it again - need plenty of free camping to pay for the generators.

     After making coffee for our large cups and the thermos we got on the road again headed for the Kansas City/Independence Missouri area for a two night stop and some sight seeing. We used an app on the iPhone called "Oh, Ranger" to locate a county operated RV Park called Blue Springs in Lee's Summit, Missouri. Great park and a great place to operate from while in this area. We arrived early enough to get a visit in at the Truman Library and Museum that we really enjoyed. We had visited Truman's little white house in Key West earlier this year and love the history surrounding his presidency.
     Thursday (today) plans included lunch at a hole in the wall (but locally famous) Kansas City BBQ joint called LC's. Reminded me of something we might see on Drive-ins, Diners and Dives. The food was great and plentiful and I took photos both inside and outside to share with you.

After that we visited the #1 tourist activity in Kansas city (according to trip advisor) which is the World War I museum. It is a very nice museum with great exhibits and history of WWI....recommend it if you are in the Kansas City area. Photos below are the museum itself and a shot of the Kansas City skyline from the observation deck of the museum.

Resting up this evening with plans to depart for South Dakota in the morning (rain predicted again for our breaking camp time). Current plans are to drive to Sioux Falls for an overnight (maybe Walmart again) and continuing the next day to the Rapid City area where we will do some sight seeing.

Cloudland Canyon (May 15-17)

We departed on Sunday morning (May 15th) on schedule. We decided to spend the first couple of nights at Cloudland Canyon State Park....still in Georgia but the northwest corner not far from Chattanooga Tennessee.

This has been a great stop for us as we have talked about coming here for a couple years. We arrived early enough on Sunday to get a good hike in to the waterfalls in the park...they are not spectacular but still nice and the exercise was great. About 500 step (stairs) down to the bottom. I can still feel the burn from the return trip.

Today we hiked another of the trails here called west rim trail...it is about 5 miles long and travels along the rim of the canyon with beautiful views. (posting a few photos here) We enjoyed a picnic lunch at one of the overlooks with a great view.

Plan is to leave here tomorrow heading westward.....in the direction of Kansas City, Missouri although we will not make that in one travel day. We will overnight somewhere on the way and arrive there on Wednesday.