Sunday, July 31

Another busy day:
* Mt. Rushmore - clear day and great views. It is amazing what hard work and skill that took! Joann climbed 159 steps - a record!
* Custer State Park - beautiful views and some wildlife. The donkeys were tame and would walk up to your car, put their heads in the window and beg for food

* Legion Lake  - great lunch of chicken salad and rueben
* Black Hills National Park - again, beautiful views!
* Crazy Horse Memorial - unfinished, but very impressive
* Deadwood, SD - we had expected a small town and there are only 1,083 residents, but it is a mecca for casinos, so is big and busy.
*Spearfish, SD - where we are tonight. We had a wonderful steak meal at "Bum Steer", are busy washing clothes, have had  a dip in a blue-bottomed pool, and are ready to call it a night and veg a little.

This next week is bikers week in Sturgis, SD which is super close to where we have been, so there are bikers everywhere! They are really enjoying the switchback curves of these mountains and always seem to travel in herds - older men with their biker-babes riding on the back.
I have been the queen-of-the-U-turn this trip and made the ultimate U-turn today. Blissfully traveling to what we thought was Deadwood, I realized we were only 5 miles from the Wyoming border and that meant we were 25 miles out from where we were supposed to turn for Deadwood. Problem here is the mountains get in the way of just taking the next road over to the right highway- you have to retrace your steps and start again - but at least the views and the switchbacks were worth it!

Guess Who!

From Custer State Park

Donkeys at work!

Legion Lake

Crazy Horse (will eventually be riding on a horse)

Only sighting of jack rabbit so far

Yes, Merrily there is such a thing as a jack-alope!



Saturday, July 30

Before I forget.... I meant to say on yesterday's blog that Katherine Lee Bates rode up to Pike's Peak in a carriage, fell in love with the view and wrote: America the Beautiful!
Also, saw 4 separate windfarms yesterday in eastern Colorado with more than 50 windmills each.
Today was supposed to be a short day for us where we would stop around 2, rest, write pastcards, swim, wash clothes as we are down to the bareminimum of bare minimums.
We went from NE to SD and saw so many long trains with coal - from Canada?
 We rode into Hot Springs, SD with the best of intentions and then saw the sign for the Mammoth Exhibition. So we went into and saw the largest Columbian mammoth dig in the world. It is still active and was really neat to see. After the dig, we went to a no-name cafe and had our best meal yet - go figure.
Then on to the Badlands via:
*a gravel road under construction with huge machines to navigate around
 * the Oglalla reservation with beautiful views and some strange sightings
* Scenic,SD, a virtual ghost town where almost everything is for sale
* a 30 mile gravel road through the center of the Badlands - the most incredible ride and place to go! We saw antelope, bison and prairie dogs and unbelievable views!
* dinner in the Badlands where I had Sioux Indian Fry Bread taco with buffalo meat - yum!
We are in Wall, SD now - it is around 11pm and we've been here for about 20 minutes. So goes our short day of rest and dirty clothes. Tomorrow morning is Wall Drugs and then on to Mt Rushmore and more.
So far, I've done pretty well I've only killed  one wildlife specimen - an unfortunate bird.
Furniture is in the new home - thanks Reeves and Ashley!

Mammoth bones

My wildlife picture - everything else moved too fast

This man is headed down a loooong stretch of road using his lawn mower for transportation!

A poor showing of all the wonders of the Badlands

Friday, July 29

A wonderful morning! We were up early and checked out of the motel by 6:30 because we had to be at Manitou Springs Cog Railroad by 7:30am. We took the railroad up tothe top of Pike's Peak! It was an hour 10 minutes up and equal time back, but the ride was great! Pike's Peak is 14,100 feet tall. We had about 50 minutes up there to take pictures and walk around. Unfortunately, after about 20 minutes, Joann and I (and a lot of other people) were feeling  the effects of the high altitude and were back in the train about 10 minutes early. One of the have-to's at the top is to have mile-high donuts - which we did  - light-headed or not! Only wildlife we saw was a marmot and beautiful butterflies, but saw bucks and does at Garden of the Gods again.
Afterwards, we went to old Colorado Springs and had lunch at a French deli - very good!
Then back to the Colorado plains as we headed northeast towards Nebraska.
We are currently in Sidney, Nebraska.
Tomorrow we head north to South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore.

Merrily on Friday looking a little woozy after the gold mine tour.

End of the line for the train at Pikes Peak

Joann before the woozy sets in at the top of Pikes Peak

The view from the top of Pikes Peak

Painting on side of building in Old Colorado Springs



Thursday, July 28

I'm  late, I'm late, but...... we have had a very busy day!
We began by taking a trip to Canon City - about 1 1/2 hours over the mountains - where we rode a train to the top of this beau-ti-ful gorge (pic below). Then we took a back way back and wandered through the little town of Cripple Creek, CO, where I took a trip down a mine shaft 1000 feet! A miner gave a wonderful talk-and-walk for about an hour and demonstrated old and newer mining equipment while he showed veins of gold, copper, and sulfa. It was great but a little scary as 7 of us scrunched into a mining elevator and went down 1000 feet- I repeat 1000 feet!- and then rode a mining car in complete darkness for awhile!
After that, we continued the back way to Manitou Springs where we shopped (surprise!) for awhile, rode through Old Town Colorado Springs, and then went to the Flying W (Robert it's like the place we went in Jackson Hole) Ranch and had a "cowboy" supper on tin plates and listened to cowboy songs. The fiddler was a 5 time national fiddle champ and he was great!

Royal Gorge with Arkansas River at bottom

One of many views on back road to Colorado Springs

More tomorrow night!

Wednesday, July 27

I forgot to say that we were in Garden City, Kansas, last night. Not a garden in sight!
Field trip - 4 1/2 hour trip to Colorado Springs, Colorado. As soon- and I mean immediatey- as we hit the Colorado line, the world turned green and at least a little hilly. We stopped in Lamar, CO and the visitors' bureau person there was complaining about too much rain! Said she was tired of mowing her lawn and weeding!
We also found that from Garden City to Pueblo, we were on the northern part of the Santa Fe Trail. I had always thought the trail was for people moving to the west, but it was in existence for about 50 years as a commercial avenue between the US and Mexico.  We stopped at a trading post/fort called Bents. It was beautifully restored with all the trappings of a lived in fort. Well done.
The Rockies are amazing anytime!
Anyway, after a brief stop in Pueblo for a mandatory oil change, we went to Colorado Springs and visited the Garden of the Gods - beautiful! It has a look of Arches National Park, but with vegetation.
Temps are wonderful- 85 degrees with rain and lightning and thunder over the Rockies - great view!   
Tomorrow is  another day in Colorado Springs with many neat things planned - stay tuned!

Fort Bent, CO

Garden of the Gods



Tuesday, July 26

I know Lee Hunt likes the prairie, but I think we are in overload! From Childress, TX,  this morning to the Oklahoma line, the road was curvy and a little hilly and really neat. OK is flat and gassy (not grassy), while the parts of Kansas we have seen so far are just flat! Saw a couple of feed lots and that was interesting and it is really fun to watch the clouds gather on the horizon, though. We went through a really cute town named Shamrock in TX and they have taken great pains to restore buildings from the early 1900's.
 We are going to take a field trip tomorrow and will blog about that tomorrow night. In the meantime, we would have taken pics of supper, but we haven't hit our stride yet on picking great places to eat!
If you don't believe TX is in a severe drought, take a look at the picture of the Red River. I don't think the picture shows the 4-wheeler marks all over the riverbed. The Brazos River  looked the same. The Brontosaurus was made by a former highway worker and is named Aud after his wife.





Sunday-Monday, July 24-25

OK, OK, so I'm a day late! I'll be better as Joann and I continue our trip!
We had such a good time at Lee Hunt and John's! We stayed busy, but still had time to visit with each other. Marie and Bill C were there and LH and J threw a party for framily ( for those of you who are not familiar with that word it means friends and family) Saturday night. It was great to see everyone. Sunday, we went over to Tina and Amy's and saw the nursery- so cute! The top picture in this grouping is from one of 3 panels that was made by Stephanie and birds were painted by other framily. The second pic is of the incredible shower! What food! and the  photo booth was great fun. Pic 3 is of the proud moms-to-be! Pic 4 is a crazy sign seen on a north central TX highway. And pic 5 is of the Goodlett home (genealogy rears its ugly head) in Goodlett, TX.
We are currently in Childress, TX, tired after 11 hours on the road,  and looking forward to being more reasonable about time in the car tomorrow. We are definitely in the prairie and the houses and towns are few and far between, but neat to see. (Childress was 105 degrees at 6:30 tonight - but it was dry heat)
More tomorrow!



Saturday-July 23

These are pictures from Little River Canyon which is close to Ft. Payne, AL, home of the singing group, Alabama. Little River Canyon is the deepest canyon east of the Mississippi, is called "Little Grand Canyon" and is 11 miles long. I stopped there on Wednesday morning and then "rode the rim" to take other pics of the canyon. Fascinated with tthe fact that they had to post a sign telling people not to jump from the falls - DUH!

I picked Joann up in Kingwood yesterday - on her birthday - and we stopped at Chappell Hill, TX and ate at a wonderful Czech restaurant - Kolaches!

We are now in Austin and have had a great evening with Lee Hunt and John, lots of visiting and a wonderful supper at Blue Dahlia. I need to start taking pictures of the food!

Today Lee Hunt and John are hosting a dinner for framily - around 18 people. Bill C will be here before lunch, as will Marie, John's mom. The guys are going to be surrounded by geriatrics! 

1.  

Wednesday-Thursday, July 20 and 21

Can't post pictures until I get to Austin and buy another cord to link the computer to the camera.
Spent Wednesday with Judith and Bill. Had a good visit and Judith treated me to an "ultra" pedicure.!
Today was spent on the road toward Houston and Austin. For those of you wishing for rain, I was in and out of storms almost the entire day and wished y'all were getting the rain instead of me!
I am in Lafayette, LA tonight. Supper was catfish at Fezzor's - a local seafood restaurant.
I'm looking forward to picking up Joann in Houston tomorrow and then getting to Austin to see Lee Hunt, John, Marie, Tina, Amy, and "little pip!"
I'll get the cord so I can put pics up and hope to have pictures by Saturday night!

Tuesday-Day One

No pictures today...hopefully some tomorrow!
First day of traveling. I left MP this morning after a tearful goood-bye in the Huddle House parking lot with Sherry.
Short course was to go to Columbia and then Augusta to Atlanta to Huntsville to see Judith and Bill. However, I've never been a short course person, so I went to Columbia, then up to Spartanburg with flowers to "talk" with Lee and Mom and Dad. Couldn't go through Greenville without one more hug from Robert, and then on to Atlanta 5 o'clock traffic - YUUUUUUCK!
I am in Rome, Georgia, now  in a Hampton Inn ( for those of you who know about my  feud with HI, they sent me a silver card and I willl forgive them when I can't find anywhere else to stay!)
I ate at the Beacon in Spartanburg - a Road Food choice and one I've eaten at before, decent but nothing to leave the road for. However, supper was altogether different! I asked for a favorite local place in Rome and got La Scala, Italian fantasticness. I was  brought a chef's small appetizer of pasta pocket with pear and cheese and covered in prociutto (sp), walnut sauce - Yum! Dinner was gnocchi with tomatoes, sausage, and sauce - Yum! and topped off with creme brule cheesecake  - yet another yum! Expensive, so that won't bee repeated, but definitely worth it!
For those of you wondering, I was a good person and stopped every 80 minutes - except for my 2 hour delay in Atlanta - feet are good!
Swim in the pool and a good book and I'm done!