July 20-21 - Saturday and Sunday

As we drove south into South Dakota, I worried a little about the campground Bill chose (I usually pick them). It had a website but they couldn’t send emails (yikes). I use the email confirmations to remind me where we are staying and for directions. And we were out of data so we had to use our phones sparklingly (yikes again). Bill seemed to know where he was going. He said it’s near Crazy Horse, so off we wet. As we got closer, we got  deeper into the Black Hills, 

Then we turned into our campground and met the owner, very friendly and thanked us for coming. What a beautiful setting and we could see Crazy Horse from the campground. We took a relaxing hike on the campground land, with Lenny off leash and found several ponds. Bill, you done good!

Now it was time to explore. First was a drive through Custer State Park on the wildlife drive. Look at the herd of Buffalo we found ... on the road!  Yes we were that close to them! Had to wait about 20 minutes for them to get off the road. 

Next we saw the friendly donkeys. 

After that excitement, we decided to drive the Needles highway, a scenic twisty-turns road. We had ridden this road on our motorcycles several years ago and wanted to experience it when we could pY attention to the scenery. There are tunnels on this road that is really narrow. 

Lenny even got a chance to stop and take a dip in a little stream. 

Those rock spires are called Needles, hence the name Needles Highway. 


I can’t stop taking pics of this beautiful scenery. 

Next we decided to stop at the Crazy Horse Memorial. A lot has been worked on since we were through this way about 10 years ago but there is still lots to be done. The family of Korczak Ziolkowski are continuing his work and vision. What a commitment. 

While there we saw some Native American dancing. So colorful and so much energy. 

I have a video of this but didn’t have enough bandwidth to post. Here is the link if you’d like to watch it. 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=TQnvuKzjbvA

Thursday, July 18 - on the road west

Left Fargo, ND and headed west. Stopped in Bismarck at General Sibley Campground. This is the most spacious camp sites we’ve ever had BUT the mosquitoes were bad. We did get to hike 2 miles before the mosquitoes got too bad. 

We crossed the Missouri River which was really high since all the rain (which you can see on the windshield as I took the picture).  

As we continued West, the terrain changed from prairie to rolling hills. 


We are headed for Medora, ND, to see the Badlands of North Dakota before we head to South Dakota to see their Badlands.  

July 7-11 - visit Mary Laeger-Hegimeister in Minnesota

Left PA July 7 after Jillian’s HS graduation party. Stayed at Deer Ridge Campground in Richmond IN. Nice campground. Would stay here again. 

July 8 we made it to Davenport, IA. Stayed in Scott County campground. Nice place but registration was a hassle. 

July 9 we made it to visit Mary Laeger-Hegimeister. Bill and I were both colleagues of hers when she lived in PA. We stayed in a really nice campground about 15 minutes from her place - Town and Country RV Park in Savage MN. 

To celebrate my birthday, we visited Mary’s son’s business called Tacocat. That was fun to see Dan and have some tasty food. Next we went to the Minnesota Institute of Art to see the Native American Women’s art. We had a docent explain a lot of the exhibits. Quite interesting and informative. 

Thursday Bill went to visit Fort Snelling and Lenny and I went to hike in the Wildlife Refuge. This was a sculpture there. There has been so much rain that fields and trails are flooded. 

As we drove across Ohio, Illinois and Indiana, we noticed the fields of corn weren’t very high. They couldn’t get in to plant as early as usual. As we came into Minnesota, corn was much taller. 

Friday, July 12 we left for Fargo. Stayed in Buffalo River State Park. If you’ve heard about the mosquitoes in Minnesota, they were correct. They are all over. We did hike for about 3 miles and got plenty of bites. Nice hike other than that. 

This is a picture of the prairies of Minnesota. I didn’t realize how flat it was here. 

As I was driving to the FargoDome, we saw field of sugar beets. We don’t see many of these back home. 

May 12 - Mother’s Day on the road

Even though we are on the road I talked with each of the kids. Shan and Carl sent this picture to show how they spent Avery’s 1st Mother’s Day. Food and flowers ... perfect. Shan also told me that the Mother’s Day on-site I had gotten Avery was already in the wash ... the joys of motherhood!

Drew and Erin sent this photo of the plants they put in the gutters and horse trough Bill installed. We’re anxious to see how they grow. We got some of the idea when we visited Jeremy Stauffer in Oregon last year this time. 

When I talked with Kristen, she said she is home getting ready for Winter’s graduation. Her oldest is graduating college, hard to believe. 

It was beautiful as we traveled east through the salt fields in Nevada. 

As we made our way into Wyoming, we saw large snow fence and even some snow! They must have had a lot of snow. 

When we stopped at a rest stop, we saw snow fence up close with Medicine Bow Mountain Range in the background. 

Made it to Red Desert Rose Campground in Rawlins, Wyoming for the night 

March 29 - Texas to New Mexico

On the road again headed for New Mexico. It was foggy and very windy. Can you see the windmills?

As we got further west, the blue skies appeared and stayed with us but so did the wind. 

Wish we painted our overpass roads. Makes it so cheerful coming into the city. 

We decided to stop in Albuquerque at a campground we’ve stayed at several times before. The main attraction is the beer garden that we can walk from our campground! Had an IPA and some bison nachos. Yum yum. 

May 12 & 13 - close to home

Well our tiny house camping is coming to an end. Fun trip. We didn’t kill each other, saw the kids, explored and hiked beautiful places, bought motor home. 

Here is my last sunset and even a sunrise pic at a KOA near Terre Haute

We made it the whole way across the US without any traffic holdups because of construction until PA. Sat in traffic over an hour because of a lane closure. Is PA the only state that doesn’t know how to keep traffic moving?  

May 11 - headed across Kansas

Headed across Kansas on I-70. Not much to photograph. The sunflowers weren’t blooming yet. 

Camped in a beautiful campground, east of Topeka, Lake Shawnee. We camped right next to the lake. 

Another sunset on the lake

May 10 - heading east from Colorado

Left Ridgway State Park, CO, early morning. Travelled route 50 east. Was a very scenic drive. Drove over the Monarch Mountain Pass which is the Continental Divide. 

Next time we are through here, I’d like to take the cable car ride. 

Drove to the border of Colorado, Burlington. There was a very small roadside RV Park. Took a walk downtown Burlington, a high prairie small town. 

Had to use air conditioner for the first time, till it cooled down outside. 

May 7 - on our way to Colorado

Before pulling out, we took a short hike around Pallisade lake. Beautiful setting. Campground wasn’t crowded. 

On the road again, I took the first shift of driving. The RV is very easy to drive. 

Although we were on I70, the roadside views were gorgeous. 

We ended up at the Ridgeay State Park, near Montrose. We are in the Mesa and are the foothills for the San  Juan Mts. They had several campgrounds. Our first was at Pa-Co-Chu-Puk. Hiked about 2 miles before cooking quesadillas and a salad for dinner. When we were in Idaho, I had found Tillamook ice cream from Oregon. Tonight was our night to celebrate and have some. 

Here’s the sunset we saw tonight as we sat around the campfire relaxing. 

May 6 - Headed for Palliasade State Park, UT

As we were traveling through Utah, we saw desert on one side of the road and then green-irrigated pastures on the other side. 

We lucked out on our campground again. This was a beautiful lakeside campground. And it had a fire pit so we were able to cookout. Made this Angelfood, strawberries and chocolate mountain pie!  It was delicious. 

Then it was time for a sunset over the lake.