Storage

The King is in storage for the winter.  We took it there last night, after spending the last few weeks cleaning up, winterizing and repairing the damage from the blown tire.  New plywood replaces the floor where the hole was, so hopefully no small creatures will take up residence inside.  We have a friend with some land and some storage buildings where the King will ride out the winter months, freeing up some driveway space.  He really packs them in!!

The last few weeks of our trip really flew by, and I kinda fell behind with postings and pictures.  After Mount Rushmore we made a few more stops, at Wall Drug and Badlands National Park in South Dakota and The Dells and Oshkosh in Wisconsin.  We ended our trip much like we began, with lots of great visits catching up with family and friends.  Wall Drug was kitchy and fun!  We had breakfast there and spent some time just looking at all the wacky stuff for sale.  I think we were also able to convince the little dude that Jackalopes were a real animal, as he spent much of the afternoon looking out the window for them along the side of the road!

The Husband even made a new friend while we were there!

South Dalota was really beautifull and we loved Badlands National Park.  It is much smaller than many of the other parks we visited, and this sign kinda freaked me out a bit...

 

They were EVERYWHERE!! At the visitors center, trail heads and every few miles along each of the trails we hiked.  Luckily we had a rattlesnake free day and enjoyed hiking the trails and climbing on the rock formations.  They were very cool!

Our last stop before meeting back up with family and friends was Wisconsin.  We took a Duck Boat Tour and did some touristy things in the Dells,

 

 Then it was off to Oshkosh, and a visit to the EAA Air Venture Museum!  Loads of planes and history and simulators and cool things to see and do, the boys loved it!  But the highlight was when Ed took the boys out to Pioneer Airport where they each got a turn to go up with a pilot and fly an actual plane!!

How cool is that!  It may have been the highlight of their trip!

But, as all good things must come to an end, it was time to start heading back home, with just a few stops to visit family and friends.  We decided first to go back to the beginning and spend a night in Columbus, Ohio sharing our adventures with Aunts, Uncles and Cousins!

 

We made another stop in Central Pennsylvania to visit Grandma and to meet our new cousin Joey!!  Joey was born in July, I think while we were in Colorado.  He's super cute and really smiley!  The boys were so hapy to finally meet him!

 

 



Our last stop was Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where we met up with the Boy Scout Troop and a bunch of wonderful friends.  What a great way to end such an awesome adventure!  First, we toured the battlefield on horseback.

Next, we visited the fabulous museum and the Eisenhower farm, where the little dude added to his collection of Junior Ranger badges and pins by becoming and honorary Secret Service Member!

We squeezed in some time for a quick swim in the campground pool before heading off to a haunted Ghost Tour of the town,

And ended with a driving tour of the battlefield monuments before beginning our long drive back to Buffalo.

The King was a bit of a wreck by the time we got home, but it was a wonderful trip, full of amazing memories, that ended with Grandma and Grandpa greeting us at our house with pizza and wings.  I can't think of a better way to end our adventure, and I'd do it all again in a heartbeat!!

I Took My Kids to Sturgis

Sort of....but more on that later. Actually, our next stop was Crazy Horse Monument and Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota. Carved between 1927 and 1941, Mount Rushmore was never actually completed. The artists original plans called for President Washington's coat to be carved almost to his waist, Roosevelt's chest to be carved also, and only a few of President Lincoln's fingers were completed. Carving ended with the death of the sculptor, Gutzon Borglum, and the beginning of WWII. Borglum's plans also included plans for a Hall of Records, a giant granite room behind Lincoln's head that would have inscriptions carved into the walls and house historic and relevant documents relating to the history of the US. This also was never completed and the general public does not have access to this space.

Originally proposed as a way of bringing tourists to South Dakota's Black Hills, Mount Rushmore now includes an avenue of flags, visitors center and artist studio where Borglum did most of his sculpting and design work. The studio also has a scale model of what Borglum envisioned the completed carving to be and offers the best view of the sculpture on the mountain. We enjoyed a ranger led walk along the Presidents Trail which takes you as close to the mountain as you are now allowed to go and also down to Borglum's last studio. It is a beautiful hike and also fascinating to see how the expressions on the faces of the Presidents change as the sun moves across and the mountain is viewed from different angles.

Here's a fun fact about Mount Rushmore, Thomas Jefferson was originally to the left of George Washington as you face the mountain. As carving progressed it was discovered that there was insufficient rock in that part of the mountain to complete the face and also a crack in the mountain running across Jefferson's nose. So, he was blasted off and moved to the other side.

Compared to Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse is huge. Unlike Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument continues to be a work in progress and when completed will be the world's largest mountain carving. Begun in 1948 when Chief Standing Bear of the Lakota Tribe invited Korczak Ziolkowski, a well known sculptor who had worked on Mount Rushmore, to return to the Black Hills and carve a monument that would honor the North American Indian People. To date, Crazy Horse continues to be a private monument and has never accepted any government support. It is funded on entry fees, gift shop revenues and private donations. Ziolkowski passed away in 1982, but 7 of his 10 children continue to work on various aspects of the project and his wife Ruth runs the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation.

When completed Crazy Horse will stand 563 feet tall and 641 feet wide. The monument will be visible from all sides of the mountain and the entire project includes extensive plans for museums, cultural centers and educational institutions with a scholarship program for Native Americans. Most of the carving is done by blasting away huge chunks of the mountain. Crazy Horses face is finished, and they are currently working on his hand and beginning work on the horses head. Carving on the hand and fingers is projected to be completed in the next 5 years. The horses head could take the next 15 - 20 years.

We spent quite a bit of time in the Museum which houses many works of Native American art and artifacts as well as a childrens area and a beautifully painted tipi. The buildings that house the visitors center and museum are built from the stone that has been blasted off the mountain and there is a section dedicated to the Ziolkowski Family and how they lived when they first came to the Black Hills to carve the monument. At one point, visitors could walk up the mountain and out onto Crazy Horses arm, but as blasting has progressed that area has been closed to visitors. There is a bus tour available that takes tourists fairly close to the base of the mountain.

A quick note about planning a trip like this. If your going to be spending a couple of days in one area, take a quick peek at the local chamber of commerce website to see if there may be any festivals or other big summer events occurring during your stay. We didn't do that, and as we had made campground reservations well in advance with no problem, were surprised when we arrived in the Black Hills on the first day of the 2012 SturgisMotorcycle Rally. In Custer City, we were greeted by General Custer on the sidewalk waving to incoming tourists and a main road with a row of motorcycles parked down the center. Our campground was in Hill City South Dakota and by or first full day there the main street was closed to all traffic except motorcycles. I have never seen so many motorcycles before in my life! They were parked solidly along both sides of the road with a double row parked down the middle. In all honesty though, it ended up being a very neat experience. The bikes are beautiful, and no two are exactly alike. We walked the main street in Hill City one evening, and stopped in the Harley Davidson shop where the boys each picked out a t-shirt. We met a lot of really nice people at the campground and in town and other than a few traffic challenges had a really great time!

   

Thoughts

As our trip winds down and I begin to reflect on the whole process I have some thoughts about this whole adventure...in no particular order:

1. Oklahoma is really windy. But as windy as it is, Oklahoma has nothing on Wyoming and South Dakota. I thought we were going to be blown right into Canada while driving through both Wyoming and South Dakota.
2. I could write an entire book just on the goofy signs and billboards we've seen along the way. From ½ price divorce lawyers in Vegas, signs cautioning against allowing your children to eat wild animal feces while in the park (yes, we have seen more than one) to bathroom signs reminding you not to dye your hair (Vegas), wash your dog (California), wash your bike (Wyoming), or clean any rocks ( South Dakota), they have all been entertaining! We even saw a sign in South Dakota, in desperate need of some punctuation, advertising an “All you can eat biker breakfast.” I hope not too many bikers were devoured in the name of a healthy start to the day!
3. People in the western part of the US take their jerky products very seriously. We went through grocery stores with entire isles devoted to the process of purchasing, enjoying and even making your own jerky. In fact at the grocery store in Tusayan, Arizona I could only buy milk in 1 pint bottles. I could, however, purchase beef jerky in obscene quantities. We also found packages of not just beef jerky, but also deer, bison, elk and antelope jerky.
4. There are absolutely no straight or level roads in Oregon or Wyoming. We actually drove up the side of a mountain in Wyoming on a road that wasn't finished yet. That was a long day...
5. 200 square feet is not a lot of room for 5 people and all their souvenirs.
6. There are wineries in almost every state in the US.
7. You can find helpful, friendly, interesting people everywhere!
8. My kids go through a gallon of milk and a half gallon of orange juice a day. RV refrigerators will only hold 1 gallon of milk and ½ gallon of juice. Not every small town has its own grocery store.
9. The National Park Service is an amazing organization.
10. The earth is fragile. We have seen evidence of forest fires in almost every National Park we have visited. We watched grass fires start in New Mexico and witnessed the local fire department scramble to put them out. We've had our plans altered by active forest fires in Utah and danced on the sidewalk with park employees in the Grand Canyon when it rained for the first time in over 10 months. It has been an extremely dry summer everywhere and we have been reminded at every campground that no campfires or charcoal grills are allowed. There are signs along the side of the road from Oregon to Montana, Wyoming and South Dakota reminding drivers not to throw cigarette buts out their car windows as the grass is so dry it will go up in flames immediately. The National Park Service message is one of conservation and kindness to the earth and I hope that this trip has taught my children to honor the lessons the park rangers share with visitors every day.

Yellowstone National Park

I took over 200 pictures in YellowstoneNational Park. The husband and the boys took almost as many. We spent several days here and in Grand Teton National Park as there is so much to see and do. The wildlife in both parks is spectacular, as are the lakes, mountains and rivers. With seemingly endless hiking trails, bike trails, rivers and lakes for fishing, ranger programs and scenic drives we left feeling like we could have spent a few more days, and are already planning our next trip back.

We headed into Yellowstone from the west toward Old Faithful. The road in leads you through several active geyser basins and we stopped to take a walk through and enjoy them on our way. Most of Yellowstone, like Crater Lake, sits in the caldera of a collapsed volcano. With large magma fields still under ground heating water just under the surface, Yellowstone is home to more than half of the worlds geysers and hot springs.

We reached the Old Faithful Visitors Center just before lunch and had time to visit the museum and grab the cooler full of sandwiches before heading outside. Named for its predictability, Old Faithful goes off regularly every 60 to 90 minutes. Times of all of the more predictable geysers are posted in the visitors center and we found them to be very accurate, never waiting much more than 15 minutes at any of these geysers. Old Faithful is spectacular, and I took a series of pictures as we enjoyed the view.

We spent the afternoon exploring and hiking in the black sand basin, where the sand is...white. Through the ranger program we attended we learned that the basin got its name from the black sand geyser about a mile to the east where the sand is, in fact, black. The colors in the geyser pools are amazing, ranging from brilliant blue water, the result of silica deposits eroded into the water, to vibrant orange and yellow from the tiny bacteria that live and thrive in the warm pools of the hot springs.

I know I've said it before, but really, the ranger programs in the National Parks are excellent. Filled with geology, history and current events, we have most enjoyed the ranger led hikes through various parts of the parks. For example, one of the geysers in black sand basin is named Handkerchief Geyser because in the early days of the park visitors would drop their handkerchief into the geyser where it would be sucked under, battered around, and spit back out, sometimes clean, sometimes shredded, through another nearby geyser. Ranger Landis soon became the little dudes new best friend and spent a ton of time answering questions and letting the boys measure the temperature of the water.

Yellowstone is also known for its wildlife viewing opportunities, and sure enough, we saw a bison just hanging out on the side of the road on our way into the park. Home to mule deer, coyotes, wolves elk, bears, moose, bighorn sheep, pelicans, ospreys and pronghorn, the best place for wildlife viewing happens to be in Hayden Valley, just to the north of our camp ground. There were also several hikes to geyser basins and mud pots that we wanted to do, so off we went. Herds of bison can be found around every turn, but we also saw elk, mule deer, osprey, pronghorn and a wolf. The middle child is our resident wildlife photographer, so many of the pictures are his. He did a great job!

The Park Rangers are all very knowledgeable about wildlife and the park newspaper comes with an insert, on bright yellow paper, with a wildlife warning stating among other things that “Many park visitors have been gored by buffalo and elk.” All the park rangers carry big cans of bear spray and when we asked about the best locations for wildlife viewing the rangers told us “all the bears are in Pelican Valley,” I could have enjoyed my vacation just fine without seeing a grizzly up close but guess what else was right in the middle of Pelican Valley? Fishing Bridge RV Park, which only allows hard sided camping vehicles (a.k.a. “bear resistant containers”) and where we had a campground reservation. So, bear bells in hand, we parked our bear resistant container at our camp sight, heeded the warnings from the ranger that checked us in and the signs that greeted us, and rang our bells furiously every time we dashed to the lavatory.

Seriously though, Fishing Bridge was a really nice camp ground. We could walk (with our bells!) to a general store that also had a little cafe where we had breakfast one morning. There was also a really nice visitors center with an amphitheater with nightly ranger programs and a beautiful black sand beach on the shores of Yellowstone Lake. The boys were able to swim and fish each evening after a long day of hiking. Cut Throat Trout are native to Yellowstone Lake and must be released if caught. However, Lake Trout are a tasty but invasive species and if caught, may not be returned to the water, but may be taken to the Old Faithful Inn where they will cook it for you to enjoy. Sadly, the men in my life did not come through on this one and we ended up poaching some salmon that I bought at the store instead.

Adjacent to Yellowstone to the south lies Grand Teton National Park. We decided to leave the bear resistant container, hop in the rental car and spend a day checking it out. Yellowstone, with its geysers and hot springs, is all about the geology of the region. Grand Teton is where people go to play! With extensive bike trails and hiking paths, marinas and boating and gorgeous glacier topped mountains to view there are endless amounts of things to do.

We spent the day hiking to Jenny Lake and checking out the Laurance S. Rockefeller Preserve. Featuring a Leed platinum certified visitors center and miles of hiking trails through grasslands, forest, around lakes and streams, it was a beautiful hike.

I could go back tomorrow and easily spend another week in each park. We had a great time and really didn't want to leave. The Continental Divide runs right through Yellowstone, and we crossed it several dozen times during our stay. Very cool!