Yellowstone, Tuesday, August 3

We drove to Yellowstone today, with a beautiful river beside us along most of the mountainous road. We quickly set up and hopped in the car to drive to the National Park. “Old Faithful” was only about 30 miles into the park and we had a brief ½ hour wait (along with hundreds of others) for the old geyser to do its thing! It was a pretty exciting thing to anticipate, then see, but I’m easily amused, and/or impressed. Ivan’s expectations are much higher, but he did enjoy it and now we can say we actually saw it!

On the drive to Old Faithful, we did see a grizzly bear, deer and a huge bison. Ivan had commented, when we saw hundreds of buffalo in South Dakota, that they were not as big as he had always imagined, and I agreed. This guy was the the picture we had!

We had hoped to do some fly fishing here, but were disappointed to find that the waters close to us are still too warm to be productive. Maybe we’ll investigate further tomorrow. Meanwhile, Ivan’s idea of a fabulous meal is to stop at KFC and take home chicken. I fixed my favorite……salad, and afterward managed to burn a bag of microwave popcorn. It will be a challenge to eliminate the smell from our coach. Another lesson learned!!!

Curt and Yvonne’s 36th wedding anniversary, Monday, August 2

Today is Curt and Yvonne’s 36th wedding anniversary. We traveled together to a campground in Bozeman, Montana, and celebrated with them at Outback Steakhouse for dinner. This will be our last night together for a while, since they will be heading for Glacier National Park and we will go to Yellowstone. We will miss each other, but will be in touch and possibly catch up again on the way home. Stay tuned!!!!

The Little Big Horn, Sunday, August 1

We traveled 330 miles today, which is a pretty long stretch for us. It was a very nice highway that landed us in a campground only 8 miles from the Little Big Horn Battlefield National Monument, Montana. The Montana license plate which boasts “big sky” is quite accurate. It is amazing how the terrain changes from state to state. This is beautiful country.

We were able to include in our afternoon, a ranger talk and a walking tour of this famous site of “Custer’s Last Stand”. Remember that from your history books? The details were foggy to me, but I soon learned much about the major battle fought on June 25, 1876, between Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians, against the U.S. Army. Major General George A. Custer was victorious in the Civil War battles he engaged in with Confederate forces; however, we stood at the site where he was killed in this battle. The headstones mark the spot where each solder in this battle was killed. Custer’s headstone is black and white. His remains were later moved to the cemetery on the grounds of the West Point Naval Academy in New York. Another history lesson for us today.

Ivan's Ear Phones, Saturday, July 31

This was a pretty uneventful day, unless you consider visiting Radio Shack where Ivan bought a set of wireless ear phones, so he could watch a DVD in the RV at a volume level that wouldn’t deafen me. We also went to the grocery store. Exciting!

Friday, July 30

Curt chauffeured us about 100 miles today on a very beautiful, exciting, drive with took us through Custer State Park in the Black Hills. Soon after we started our journey, we saw white tailed deer (bucks, doe and fawns before encountering herds of buffalo. We were absolutely stunned and spellbound with the site.



Hundreds of buffalo on both sides of the road, some right next to the car and even crossing and blocking the highway roam free in the foothills of this 71,000 acre park. We respected the potential danger and heeded the warning signs telling not to get out of the car. It was mating season, so we had quite a show. Many of the cows had calves and we watched some of the bulls fighting and charging each other. It was truly a magnificent experience.
As we drove along the Wildlife Loop Road, we saw pronghorn antelope, more deer and more herds of buffalo.

There were wild burros waiting for us along the road too. Their MO is…..one blocks traffic while the rest of the gang conducts a car-to-car search for treats. They are very sweet and docile, poking their heads all the way inside the car, asking for food and/or a rub on the nose and head.

The Needles Highway is a scenic route through the most rugged real estate in the Black Hills. It included tight hair-pin turns, spiral bridges, six tunnels and towering granite formations.

We parked at a unique rock formation called the “Needle’s Eye”, named for the opening created by wind, rain, freezing and thawing.

This was also the entrance to one of the tunnels, all of which are one-way, this one having a . 8’ 6” wide clearance. In line to go through was a small motorhome (brand new). Several by-standers, including Ivan, Curt and Yvonne, pulled his side mirrors in and walked in front of and behind him, guiding and (of course) taking pictures. Curt told him he could make it because he was from California…..I thought it was a pretty expensive “gee, I hope I make it”. Well, he did make it and received cheers from about 50 of us watching.

The next stop was the Crazy Horse Memorial. Chief Henry Standing Bear and other Lakota (Sioux) chiefs invited Korczak Ziolkowski, already a famed sculptor, to carve a mountain to show “the red man has great heroes also”. They wanted it named for Crazy Horse, the famous fighter at the Battle of the Little Big Horn”. Korczak began the carving in 1948.

The face of Crazy Horse was completed in 1998; however, the entire monument which includes his horse, is far from its completion dimensions of 641 feet long, 563 feet tall and carved in the round. Since Korczak’s death in 1982, his wife and 10 children continue his project. It is truly one of those amazing things that you have to see in person to appreciate.

It was a great day!

Mt. Rushmore, Thursday, July 29

One new A/C unit later, Curt and Yvonne are now parked next to us. We drove to Mt. Rushmore and finally stood in awe of this magnificent National Monument. It truly is a wonderful site and one that we will long remember as one of the highlights of this trip. We left the presidents with thunder and lightning and threatening clouds in the distance and arrived at the campsites in rain and wind.


We realized it must have been storming for some time, since several campers had lost awnings and chairs. We know enough to never leave an awning out; however, we did leave our flagpoles up. Ours had simply come out of the holder and our neighbors put in under the coach for us, but Curt’s had broken. More lessons learned! There are new ones each day!

Wednesday, July 28

Our drive today included the Badlands National Park, SD. It is the largest expanse of protected prairie ecosystem in the National Park system.




It is very interesting to view beautiful rock formations, prairies and trees at the same time. As we rounded a sharp turn, we saw a large field covered with low mounds of dirt, and before I could even ask about the holes in those mounds, the little guys popped right out to look around. They were prairie dogs…..too cute, but too fast to photograph.

The road through the Badlands ended in Wall, SD, home of the famous Wall Drugs. Curt had explained to us earlier that this was not really a “drug store”. Well, one of its many stores within the complex did sell pharmaceuticals, but there were countless t-shirt, souvenir, leather good shops, etc., not to mention food, drink and ice cream. Ivan and I each had a “first”. He had a buffalo burger and I had a buffalo dog. They were good, but I’m not sure they were that much different from beef. Anyway, we can say we’ve had the Wall Drug experience.

Fifty miles down the road, we again took different directions. Curt and Yvonne had an appointment to have one of their air conditioners replaced and spent the night at the repair station. Ivan and I arrived at the campground 18 miles from Mt. Rushmore where we will be for four nights.