Home Sweet Home...

Leaving Utah on 50

We made it home today, a day earlier than we had planned, but being here sure does make the long hours of driving along Highway 50 worth it.  We picked Ruby up from her Lake Tahoe vacation with Diane and Stephan and headed home.  OhNo had been wonderfully looked after by Robin and when we got home, both Robin and OhNo were here to greet us.

This blog has been a fun way to share pictures and thoughts.  Thanks for checking in with us on our vacation to the Badlands and beyond.

Thank goodness for satellite radio, part 2.

Well, I didn't think we'd be able to post anything, but lo and behold, I do have a little signal on my iPhone! Unfortunately, we can't post any of the photos we took of some of the nicer landscapes in Utah before we hit Highway 50. But you aren't really missing much, if you've ever driven it in Utah or Nevada before.

We're currently in Eureka, Nevada, (not exactly on our have-to-see list, but it's home for the night) and will hopefully finish this blog from home tomorrow night. As much as we have loved every day of this vacation, there's really no place like home (and our family and friends!) Thanks for traveling with us and sharing your comments.

Scenes from a freeway





Hey, thanks to all of you who left comments at the last blog.  It sure is great to think that somebody is actually reading this!  Seriously though, it makes us feel like we're able to share some of our day's experiences with our friends and that's important to us.



OMG! I love pancakes!!





Today was our last day in Colorado and we ended it on a tasty note with Deb at breakfast.  We met at Snooze, which is a Denver breakfast and lunch joint that serves some outrageously good food.  Just check out Deb's reaction!

After we said our goodbyes, we hit the road for home, taking Highway 70 through some beautiful Colorado landscape.  We hope to make it to Placerville by Friday morning so Denna will have a couple of days before she has to get back to (ugh!) work.  Plus, we really are looking forward to reuniting Sonny with his sisters, Ruby & OhNo.....oh, and we'd really like to see them too!!!



Aspens in the Rockies



The Colorado River
in Glenwood Canyon



The drive took us up into the Rocky Mountains and we passed some famous towns and ski resorts (Vail, Breckenridge).  Of course, we also went through some unusually named towns like Rifle, Silt, Parachute, and Fruita (of the Looma...that was Denna's contribution).  We drove through a nearly 2 mile tunnel (the Eisenhower) and an area that seemed like we were at the bottom of a (not-as-grand) Grand Canyon.  Unfortunately, Colorado has also had the pine beetle devastate huge sections of their forests, but we were able to see autumn coming with the change of color in the aspens.  It was a beautiful drive.

The pilot and co-pilot

We spent the rest of the day in the motorhome and are now in Utah at a KOA in Green River (the last exit with services for 110 miles!).  Although we'd like to think we could drive the rest of the way through Utah and Nevada (across the loneliest highway) on Highway 50 into Lake Tahoe tomorrow, we know that covering over 700 miles in one day could be deadly.  So, we'll probably stop somewhere, anywhere, along the way to spend the night and hopefully cruise into Tahoe Friday morning (to pick up Miss Ruby) and home by noon.  If there's no new post on the blog until Friday, we're probably in the middle of nowhere with no internet.  Stay tuned.

Taco Tuesday!

This is just a short post today since we didn't travel anywhere but to our friend Deb's house in Aurora.  She came by our campsite around noon and we sat outside for a couple of hours enjoying the weather and catching up on each other's lives.  Although we thought Deb had been away from Placerville for maybe 3 or so years, she said it would be 6 years in December that she'd lived in Colorado.  Time really does fly......

Enjoying our tacos!



Deb and Bella



We followed her to her home in Aurora and met Kathy, her partner, and their 3 dogs and 2 cats.  They've really revitalized the home they purchased almost 2 years ago and they have good reason to be proud of the results.  Of course, no visit with Deb would be complete without some of her tacos and she did not disappoint.  We ate our fill (she admitted she had changed the recipe, but it didn't change the essence!) and then sat in their backyard and enjoyed the beautiful evening.



It was good to spend some time with Deb and to meet Kathy.  Although we heard a lot about them, we hope to meet Kathy's 2 high school aged kids, Caitlin and Blake, someday too.

We did the "hat trick" today

Today was a major road trip for us and we managed to drive through 3 states on our way to Aurora (just south of Denver), Colorado.  After leaving the Black Hills we drove south until we got to Scottsbluff, Nebraska, where our niece, Sarah, is a freshman at the local college.  We've watched her develop into an extremely good softball pitcher and player and it's hoped she'll be able to continue on to a major softball college.

We didn't make it to town until her classes were over and she had to be at softball practice, so we parked the moho at the local Walmart and drove the Element over to the field to watch her. Of course, most of the times we have visited her recently have been at the softball fields, so this was a familiar place for us. 

After watching practice for awhile, we said goodbye and headed to Aurora.  It's a little strange to see so many cars on the road - for the last week the traffic has been amazingly absent (a big difference from California!).  We arrived at the Cherry Creek State Campground this evening and are in one of the best RV sites yet. Tomorrow we'll get together with our friend, Deb, and her family.  We've been promised some of her famous tacos for tomorrow night's dinner and we can't wait :)

A day in Deadwood

Welcome to Deadwood.

Today we finally made it to Deadwood, the formerly lawless town run by infamous gamblers and gunslingers.  The town we arrived in, however, has become a quaint and a beautifully reconstructed collection of gaming halls, restaurants, saloons, and hotels.  It's pretty apparent that the casinos are making money and they contribute a lot to maintain and improve the town and its community.  But we did see several cars parked along the local stream and their occupants were busy panning.

Wild Bill Hickok's place
on Boot Hill (alias Mt. Moriah
Cemetery)

Calamity Denna at
Calamity Jane's grave

We did several geocaches that involved a series hidden near the signs for Deadwood at all conceivable entrances to the town.  Of course, no visit to Deadwood is complete without visiting the final resting place for Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane.  Although the original saloon in which Wild Bill was shot by Jack McCall has since burned down, the town continues to maintain a marker at that spot.

We headed up to Lead, another mining town near Deadwood, to find a Subway for a sandwich and found the Homestake mine.  It's an open pit mine that was the second largest gold producer in the U.S.  We thought Placerville had been left looking scarred by the mining, but it's nothing compared to this nearly mile-long pit. 

Tonight is our last night in the beautiful Black Hills and we're off to Nebraska tomorrow to visit our niece who is a freshman in college.  Then we'll roll on to Colorado to see our good friend, Deb, who lives near Denver.  This trip continues to be a lot of fun and we've been able to see so much of this great part of the country.

The Badlands ain't so bad.

The original Wall Drug
dinosaur

T-Rex at feeding time.

We began the day with a trip to Wall, South Dakota, to visit the infamous Wall Drug.  This is no ordinary drugstore and it has remade itself into a showcase of food, gifts, jewelry, western clothing, historical photographs, panning and mining equipment, candy, rocks, pharmacy, and 5 cent coffee.  It also boasts an 80 foot Brontosaurus (along the freeway) and a T-Rex who feeds every 12 minutes. No trip to the Badlands is complete without the requisite stop at Wall Drug and so we stopped, shopped and took pictures.

Denna riding a giant
jackalope at the store

The drugstore began in 1931 and its new owners needed something to get people to stop in and shop.  Since the surrounding prairie was a hot and desolate area and the towns' people were dirt poor, they needed a hook.  They began offering free ice water and posting signs for it along the highway. Needless to say, during the depression anything that was free and helped to beat the heat was a welcome stop. The rest of the story is history; they still serve 5000 glasses of ice water on a summer day and the signs advertising it all dot the highways up to 30+ miles away.

Sonny & Kathy

We headed off to the Badlands National Park, which was once a part of a giant salt water sea, and watched the prairie literally drop away into gigantic valleys with sharp edges and strange formations.  It supported a large marshy area after the salt water sea receded and there are fossils of sabre tooth cats, crocodiles, camels, dinosaurs and rhinoceroses.  Today it has a landscape that has very little plant and animal life and is in a constant state of erosion.  Most of the area that is not exposed to erosion is covered in native grasses and today the forest service was burning the grass to stimulate new growth.

Kathy finds some
cypress trees and has to
touch them to see if they're real!

The Badlands earned its name from the Indians (who called it mako sica - bad land) and the French trappers (who called it "bad land to cross") who explored the west in the 1800's.  It's a beautiful area, but we were happy to return to the Black Hills and all its trees!

A quick comment to your comments!

This is just a post to respond to some of the wonderful, funny and interesting comments we've received about our blog posts.

Leslie - Glad you lived here and could help us understand that we were coming to a beautiful part of the U.S.  Yes, we're going to Wall Drug today - how could we miss it???  It's about the only "good" thing in the Badlands and we absolutely plan on visiting the dinosaur.  And it may be the original area 51?  Even better!  We'll definitely keep an eye on Sonny :).

Cory - You know what, we'll just have to come back on mototcycles and do it again. Sturgis awaits!

Donna - We hope to continue keeping Ethel entertained - Sonny sends his love!  Gnorman the travelling Gnome doesn't say much, but we're sure he's gonna love Ethel, too!

Diane - Of course we didn't make Gnorman climb all the way up Devil's Tower - we dropped him from a helicopter and he rolled to the bottom!  Thanks again for taking care of Miss Ruby - she would have hated all this driving!!

Dad - We are having a great time!  Glad you were able to get on the blog.  Let us know via email about your trip up north.

Daisy - Can't wait to see your version of Devil's Tower (grits and mashed peas for sagebrush?!)

Robin & Chris - Yep, Mt. Rushmore was a real rush.  Hope you have a great time at Rascal Camp.  OhNo is in the best hands with you taking care of her - thanks again.

Judy - Hey, we haven't heard from you in awhile.  We're off to the Badlands today for a heavy dose of geocaching.  They are everywhere!!!

Val & Bob - Thanks for checking in with the blog.  We're planning on spending some time in the Great Basin on our way back through Nevada - any suggestions on special have-to-see spots?

Deb & Kathy - We're coming your way soon.  Looking forward to seeing you and beautiful Colorado.

Linda & Bob - This is the kinda stuff you can do with that beautiful motorhome of yours.  The grandchildren would love you (more!) for it.

Lauri - Can't believe you and Jim even stopped long enough to have surgery!  We are having a great trip, but we'll never be able to keep up with you two :)

Keep those virtual cards and letters coming - we love every one of them!!

If it's Friday, we must be in South Dakota....

We took the morning off and caught up with some chores around the moho.  Last night's thunderstorm left quickly and the temperature had dropped to the 30s by morning.  But it was a bright, sunny day, so we had to go somewhere!

A lone bison grazes
over the Wind Cave

We headed to Wind Cave National Park, the first national park we've been to this trip.  It is the 4th largest cave in the world, but you'd never suspect it lies just below the surface of the tranquil rolling plains.  The cave was discovered in 1881 by 2 brothers who ranched in the area.  It was not much more than a 2 foot hole in the ground, but cool air blew out of it and made a low whistling sound.  When the air pressure is high outside, the air rushes in.

Some of the boxwork formations

The tour took us through a slightly larger opening and down through the cave about 200 feet below ground level.  This cave has a relatively unique feature called "boxwork" and it's calcite deposits that have formed delicate box-like formations over the walls and ceilings.  It was a fun tour and a real different world from what we've been through recently.

The model for the mountain...

...and the mountain.

Of course, we couldn't miss the other huge rock carving in the area and on our way back we stopped at Crazy Horse Mountain.  This is an unimaginable carving of a granite mountain into a memorial to honor all Indians.  It was begun in 1948 and, as pictures seem to indicate, may never be completed in our lifetimes.  They said that Mt. Rushmore could fit into the area of Crazy Horse's head, so that gives it an almost unreal dimension.

Tomorrow we're off to the Badlands National Park (America's most mysterious national park, according to the brochure), so we'll hopefully be able to let you know why they earned their name.

Girls gone wild!

Mt. Rushmore at night

The lighting of the Mt. Rushmore monument last night was a very special moment for everyone present.  The ceremony was especially well done with an illumination of the presidents while the audience sang along with the Star Spangled Banner.  Following that, all of the military veterans and active military members of the gathering were invited to the stage for the flag lowering ceremony.

Dog Casa threading
the needle.

Eye of the needle

Today we travelled into Custer State Park, which is sliced out of the Black Hills National Forest, and drove through some of the most beautiful countryside we've seen this trip.  Of course, many places are named after the infamous general, but it seems that he took his troops through most of these areas on their way to map out the territories for acquisition of land for the U.S. and fight the Indians for that land.  The park has huge rocky outcroppings (from which Mt. Rushmore was carved), ponderosa pines (many of which have been decimated by the pine beetle), and an abundance of wildlife.  The Needles Highway is named for the needle-like granite formations that seem to pierce the horizon.

Wild burro

Pronghorn

The 18 mile Wildlife Loop Road took us through open grasslands and an abundance of native and non-native wildlife.  We were able to get close to most of the critters to take pictures - it felt a little like Yellowstone, but without the crowds of 2-legged critters.

Bison herd

Mountain goat

Kathy at a local geocache

We managed to squeeze in a couple of geocaches on our way home before the skies opened up and poured.  Gotta love these midwest thunderstorms, especially when you're inside watching the first NFL game of the year!!!

Our next adventure in the Black Hills - what a Rush!

The tilt from the little shed at the top

is called a "tipple."  This is the Aladdin

Tipple Mine (coal).

As it turned out, the internet at our next campground was not working until today, so this post will cover our last couple of days.  After leaving Devil's Tower area, we took a very scenic drive through Belle Fourche (a town which claims the title of being the geographic "center of the nation" status), Spearfish, Deadwood (which we'll come back to later) and Hill City (where we are spending the next 6 nights). The road took us through the Black Hills National Forest and past the beautiful high plains (Leslie, our friend the South Dakota native, said this was a great time to see them and she was right).  We stopped at an interpretive center/geocache that turned out to be an old coal mine called the "Aladdin Tipple Mine."

Entering the Avenue of the Flags

Today was our best day to travel to Mt. Rushmore since the weatherman calls for thunderstorms tomorrow and Friday.  It's good to be here when the summer crowds are gone, but we've heard the evening program at Mt. Rushmore is not to be missed and will still be crowded.  So that's what we'll do in a few hours, but we wanted to share some of our pictures from the monument.  It is a place where you find yourself looking up constantly; the presidents' faces change with the changes in the daylight.  It's a spectacular sight and we spent several hours walking through the exhibits and along the Presidential Trail across the front of the monument.

Washington and Jefferson

Roosevelt and Lincoln

We're looking forward to this evening's performance.  And keep those comments coming!  We love knowing others might be watching over our shoulders.

Gnorman takes in the monument.

You'll never guess where we went today......

It all started with dinner.  The mashed potatoes started to look like the postcards we had just picked up.  With each scrape of her fork, Denna made them look more and more like something else.  It was the infamous Devil's Tower and we felt obligated to go to the real thing - and we did :)

Here are the pictures to prove it!

Amazingly, this chunk of rock looks different from every angle and we had a chance to see it all the way around.

Tomorrow we hit the road again and we're headed from the Black Hills to the Badlands (obviously not the original names the Indians gave the areas).  We are travelling through Belle Fourche, Spearfish, Deadwood and should hit Hill City, South Dakota, late in the afternoon.

Oh, we forgot to say that we have an extra passenger with us for the trip.  He was a gift from my folks for my retirement (cause he looked like he was already retired!) and we promised him that he'd see the world with us.  His name is Gnorman and he's a gnome - a travelling gnome.  We thought we'd share some of the places he visited.

Gnorman the Gnome

He had a busy day today. We'd like to show some of the pictures we've taken of him along the way and give you an idea of how retirement is treating him.

Happy Labor Day!

Well, it's Monday morning and I'm afraid we didn't quite make it up to the Tower Walk, like we thought we'd do.  This is our first non-motorhoming day, it rained cats and dogs last night (and some more this morning), and we just had to catch up with the relaxation phase of vacation.  Actually, it consisted more of having a leisurely pancake breakfast and taking long, hot showers!

So, since we watched "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" last night and the weather looks like it's clearing up, we will make our trek up the fabled mountain this afternoon.  Stay tuned....

From Last Stand Hill to Devil's Tower

Although we didn't quite make it to the 8:30 movie, we did manage to get back to Little Bighorn in time to hear the ranger talk.  This ranger was a retired history teacher for high school and college level students and both Denna & I agreed that we would have paid much better attention in history class if he'd been our instructor.  He told us that he wanted to "dispel the myths and distorted history" of the battle and he did a great job of doing just that with documented and factual accounts from soldiers and Indians.

Along the Deep Ravine trail &
looking up at Last Stand Hill

Following his talk we explored the museum and then walked along the Deep Ravine trail.  It took us past numerous tombstones of fallen soldiers that graphically told the story of how they desperately tried to retreat back to the Last Stand Hill as the Indians swarmed the hillsides.

Of course, we had to stop and
geocache along the way.

We then got on the Warrier Trail, otherwise known as Highway 212, to travel the sparsely populated range land on our way to Devil's Tower. 

Eventually, Denna just knew we would see the tower over the next rise and she was right.  It's a tremendous landmark in a landscape of low rolling hills.  We got set up in the KOA campground, which advertises a view of the tower from every site (and they're right!), and just sat and enjoyed the sun setting behind it.  Tomorrow we'll head out for the 9:30 tower walk and ranger talk :)