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.

Tuesday, July 27

We left Clear Lake early this morning before the bicycle crowds started arriving. Our destination today was Mitchell, South Dakota. Ivan and I had an appointment to have an oil change on the motorhome, so Yvonne and Curt settled in at the campground ahead of us.

Our maintenance did not take long and we were only a couple of miles from the world’s only Corn Palace. Who knew? We have learned about so many interesting towns and attractions on this trip because of Yvonne and Curt. They met us at the Corn Palace which was originally built in 1892 and is known around the world as a folk-art wonder on the prairie of South Dakota. Each year a new decorating theme is chosen and the outside of the Corn Palace is stripped and redecorated with new corn and grains. Over a half million ears of corn are sawed in half and nailed to the building following pattern created by a local artist. Free admission, included a film of its history and a tour. The bag of popcorn was great too!

We have long been familiar with Cabela’s, famous outfitter for hunting, fishing and outdoor gear. Our kids in Florida are avid hunters, and though they have never visited Cabela’s, they think it’s awesome and frequently order from their catalog. They will visit vicariously through our pictures!

This was quite a long driving day and a busy one, so we were happy to settle in our campsite for the night.

Curt and Yvonne Arrive, Monday, July 26

Curt and Yvonne pulled in to the park today and it was so great to see them after about 10 days. We are right next to each other and enjoying being together again. We have been in Clear Lake for over a week now so we’ve become the “tour guides” today. We walked down the main street and down to the lake and marveled at the preparations for the great bicycle ride which will come through here tomorrow.

“RAGBRAI”, the 7-day bicycle ride across Iowa, will find its way to Clear Lake tomorrow. This, the 38th year, is a route which averages 472 miles. It begins somewhere along Iowa’s western border on the Missouri and ends along the eastern border of the Mississippi (the route changes each year). It is amazing how this little town has prepared to host this event and welcome the thousands of participants and their crews. It would be fun to hang around and be part of it, but we will move on in the AM. Perhaps at some future time, we will come back and, who knows, Ivan may decide to join the ride.

Sunday, July 25

I again attended the service this morning in the little church here in the park, which was nice. This time there were 14 of us!

The fact that we didn’t find station #8 yesterday in the maze was really disappointing and we strongly considered trying it again today, finding the final station and logging a much better time. Maybe next time! I did a long lake walk instead and Ivan worked on his blue ray project.

Art Fair & Maze, Saturday, July 24

Daily, nightly, weekly activities are continuous in Clear Lake. Today, we went to an art fair in the city park which is bordered by the lake and downtown. Ivan especially enjoyed talking with the potters (at least 8 or 10), who were displaying their wares. It was really fun to visit the displays of so many artists of varied talents.

OK, so much for the cultural part of our day. We moved on to the “Fort Custer Maze” just outside of town. This was an amazing structure of stacked pallets which had been used on the owner’s potato and carrot farm. Instead of discarding them, he used them to construct a maze which covers 2 acres. The objective is to find your way to 8 stations, where you stamp the station number on your card (given to you at the entrance) in the fastest time possible. We understood that the average time was 45 minutes, but some smart kid had done it in 33 minutes. Well, 1 hour and 30 minutes later, we were hot, thirsty and tired and decided that finding station #8 was not in the cards today. We left, went 8 miles down the road to Best Buy and bought a blue ray disc player for the motorhome. It was our “bandaid”.