The Badlands of South Dakota!

Sunday, July 31, 2011

Today we went to the Badlands of South Dakota - now we know why they got their name.  It was 101 degrees in the shade!  WOW was it ever hot.  Mom had packed a lunch, and when we stopped to eat, it didn't take us long to eat and get back in the truck in the A/C.  We really didn't see much as far as animals - they were hiding from the heat - we only saw one lonely buffalo in the distance and some prairie dogs - they were frolicking and having a great time - the heat didn't seem to bother them at all.  Mom is amazed at how green all the grass is given the heat and it's the end of July.


Formations in the Badlands





The erosion makes canyons...



...and sometimes mounds




ONE lonely buffalo




Prairie dog keeping watch




244,000 acres of Badlands


Tomorrow I get to go to doggie day care while Mom and Dad to to Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore - they don't let dogs in those places, and Mom refused to make me stay in the truck, even if there was shade.

Tuesday we head out again and are headed to the Grand Tetons.  Mom says that is her most favorite place in the whole world - so far.....

A trip through the WILDLIFE PARK!

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Today Dad took Mom and I to a WILDLIFE PARK!  It was really cool because we rode through this place and all the animals were checking us out while we checked them out!  Look at these pictures Mom got!  I learned all kinds of things today - one thing I learned is I don't want to live in the wild with these BIG CRITTERS!


Bull Elk





Reindeer - how does he keep his head up?
Does Santa use these?




Big Horned Sheep - Mom said these guys butt heads
to see who is the dominate male - the winner
gets the girl!




Mountain Goat - too busy eating to pose.




Timber Wolf - at first, I thought this was my buddy Duke!



Here kitty, kitty - Cougar



Dad said this was a "BLACK" Bear??  Looks brown to me




They had lots and LOTS of bears - the largest private
collection of Black Bears in America!




You would have thought this guy could have found
a more comfortable place to take a nap!




Grizzly Bear - this is a baby!




Raccoon



Here kitty, kitty - Lynx



Buffalo




The baby bears like to sit in their food pans!



Wow!  What a collection of animals.  We also went to Stergis, Lead and Deadwood.  Stergis is getting ready for the big motorcycle gathering they have every year.  Dad said they will have thousands and thousands of bikers here next week end.  Lead and Deadwood are mining towns and Lead has the deepest gold mine in North America - one of the drifts is 6,000 feet long!  The tunnel is 2,500 feet long!  There is a glory hole across the street that is HUGE!

Whew! Dad hit the brakes....

Friday, July 29, 2011

Dad finally hit the brakes and we have stopped for a few days.  In all fairness to him, there really wasn't much to see but flat landscape, straight roads, corn fields, sugar beet, and soybean fields the last few days.  We ended up going 881 miles in the last three days, and Mom and I are happy to stop.  Mom went grocery shopping in Rapid City, SD and we drove up the mountain and made camp in Custer's Gulch.  It's a nice place with large grassy sites, big pine trees all around, and the weather is GREAT!  (The only thing we don't have is TV, but oh well!)  We stopped and got all set up and didn't have to turn on the A/C once!  Dad even got out the Bar-B-Que and did steaks for dinner tonight - I got the bone - YUMMMMM!  Mom even said she would be glad to cook again - they haven't done much cooking when it was so hot and humid - we ate a lot of takeout...

We are going to stay here for a few days and see the sites - Mt. Rushmore, The Black Hills and Badlands of SD, Crazy Horse Memorial, and all that kind of stuff.


Oh yea, I forgot about the hay fields.....





Are we there yet??




We stopped at an official "over look" and this is
what we saw - a tree!  YIPPEE!







LOOK!  Is that a mountain I see???
YESSS!  It's the Black Hills!!
YIPPEE!!!!!



Mom had to add another map, so we are on #10 now.  The maps will only take so much data and then they go berserk.  She also got all the stats updated and will update the picture of the map later on tomorrow.  Mom also wanted me to tell you, we are in the Mountain time zone now.

I sure hope you all are enjoying this stuff......we're having fun reporting it to you.......

WOW! Look at the miles we've made.....

Thursday, July 28, 2011

WOW!  Have we ever made the miles the last two days - 631 miles!  And all we saw was more corn and more soy beans!!  Today wasn't quiet as bad because we stayed on the interstate.  We are in  Oacoma, SD, at the Oasis Campground.  It's still hot, but not quite as humid.  We started out in the fog this morning - it was in the 70's and the dew point was also in the 70's.  Then we had just a tiny bit of rain, and now its sunny and hot. 

We saw some very strange sites on the way here today.  We stopped by the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD!  The outside of the building is done in 3,000 bushels of rye, oat heads, and sour dock, tied in bundles and attached to the building, then when the corp is ready, roughly 275 thousand ears of corn are sawed in half lengthwise and nailed to the building.  They do a different pattern every year - this year it looked patriotic to Mom and me.

We are only staying here for one night and will be off to the Black Hills tomorrow.  Dad says its only about 200 miles, so tomorrow should be a shorter day.  We have been able to make camp before 3:30 pm each day, so that's not too bad (but we are leaving by 7:30 in the mornings).


Fog over the soybean field - 75 degrees this morning!




Soybeans on the left and more corn on the right - we've
seen three states like this!




I guess they don't have much to do in the winter time,
so they think up things like the worlds largest
bull head and put it out in the middle of a field!




Here's another weird one -
the Corn Palace



This is all done in corn cobs and the grain bundles



Corn cobs by number is what they call this as they put
it together




Crossing into South Dakota!



Mom had a tough time posting this one - that's why it's late - not much Internet service...

Two days visiting with relatives - then back on the road

Wednesday, July 27, 2011

Monday and Tuesday we visited with relatives on Mom's side of the family.  Mom got to meet Berdea and her daughter Boni in Camanche, IA.  Berdea was a cousin to Mom's Dad and they grew up together in Iowa - they were only two weeks apart in age.  She is really funny and let me do what ever I wanted (almost) in her house - like lay in the chair.  She is 89 years young and as sharp as a tack.  Her daughter Boni was really nice too - she takes photos, too.  All the grown-ups went to dinner at a place on the Mississippi river, and Mom brought me some fish for my dinner - YUMMM!  The next day (Tuesday) we went to meet Berdea's brother Vince and his wife Evelyn.  They were really nice too and had a great place in Davenport.  Again, all the grown-ups went out to eat, but Mom saved me some of her cheese burger.

It has been unbearably hot and humid - still - no wonder that corn grows so well.  It's really hard to get comfortable.  We have had the A/C on constantly tying to keep cool.

Today we hit the road and went to Hayward, MN, so now I have two more states to add to my list and map - Wisconsin and Minnesota.  Mom said she will update the stats and map later - she's really tired tonight.  Tomorrow we are going to Chamberlain, SD, so that will be another state to add too.

We saw so many hundreds of miles of corn and soy beans it was unbelievable.  Mom said there are a lot of corn flakes and tofu out here.


Boni, Mom and Berdea after dinner.





This is where Mom's Dad was raised in Iowa.




Corn fields on the way to Hayward, MN




Miles, and miles, and miles, and miles, and miles, and miles
of corn!



Hopefully we will make camp a little early tomorrow and Mom can get everything updated.

Until then.....

A couple of days of travel....

Sunday, July 24, 2010

Yesterday we went from the Detroit-Greenfield RV Park in Ypsilanti, MI, to the Michigan City Campground in Michigan City, IN.  It wasn't a very exciting trip - nothing good to report.

But today....we drove through a really bad thunder and rain storm - Dad even pulled over on the freeway for a little bit to let the storm pass - so did a bunch of other people.


Looking at the freeway!!!!

Anyway, we made it safe a sound and I got to add three more states to my map; Indiana, Illinois, and Iowa.  We are in Davenport at the Interstate RV Park.  It's a nice place, but when we started to hook up, the breaker to our site was broken.  Dad just plugged us into another box and we are good to go.

Mom is going to call her cousin this afternoon and set up a time and place to meet her - she lives just North of here.


Heading into the storm!




The Mighty Mississippi River





Dad said he is going to take Mom out to dinner tonight for her birthday.  Her birthday isn't until Tuesday, but she told me if she plays things right, she may be able to milk this for a couple of days!

A tour of Detroit

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Dad took Mom and I for a drive to Detroit today - it was too hot to do anything else.  It was 102 today in Ypsilanti (where we are camped), and only 100 in Detroit.  We have no idea what the heat index was in Detroit, but it was 110 in Ypsilanti!

Mom is not having any luck in posting the pictures, so she said she will do that later.....it's later and we are connected.

Downtown Detroit





GM Headquarters




Detroit's skyline

We are going to be on the move Saturday morning and will be camping in Michigan City, IL for one night, then we will be heading to Camanche, IA where Mom's (second) cousin lives.  We will visit for a few days or until our welcome wears out and then head farther West.

Busy couple of days

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

We have been real busy the last few days, so I will catch everyone up. 

Tuesday, Mom and Dad took me to Camp Bow Wow for the day to play with some new friends.  While I was playing, they went to Greenfield Village for the day.  It's another one of those places from the past, and was build by Ford.  Mom and Dad had a good time, except Mom didn't care for lunch.  They went to a Tavern and they had a real Tavern menu (Mom just wanted a sandwich).  Dad had an egg and bacon pie and Mom had chicken salad that had NO taste - it was just shredded chicken in mashed up hard boiled eggs with no spices or anything.  Oh well.



Mom and Dad in the Model T

 But, for the fun stuff, they went for a ride in a model T car.  They had a bunch of cars and trucks taking people for rides around the village.

Then Mom saw some kids playing in the middle of the village with "old fashioned" toys - the only problem is, she used to play with these!



Mom and her neighborhood friends 
used to walk on stilts - but not in a skirt!








Then Mom and Dad walked down the street to the Machine Shop and they got to make their very own brass candle sticks on a 1917 Brown & Sharpe Turret Lathe! Mom said she will be adding this skill to her resume!

Dad is really getting into this....

...so is Mom!



OK, you have to look REAL CLOSE to see these!
Now Mom and Dad can have a romantic candle lit dinners!
















That all happened yesterday, and today Mom and Dad went to the Ford Rouge Factory Tour, but, of course, you are not allowed to take pictures in the factory.  They watched how a Ford Truck was build, and Mom said it was very interesting.  There sure are a lot of parts to a truck!  They even make their own metal here from ore, so they really start from scratch when they make trucks.  After that they went to a movie so they could stay inside and away from the heat.

When they came to pick me up, I was having a wrestling match with Jack (in the air conditioned play room, of course), and I almost had him when we were interrupted.  Dad said that may be the last time I get to go to doggie day care, but we will see.

It has been oppressively hot and humid, but we are all drinking plenty of water and staying inside as much as possible.  Thank goodness the A/C is working real good in the trailer!  Tomorrow it's supposed to be 99 degrees with a head index of 110!

We made it to Michigan

Monday, July 18, 2011

We made it to Michigan, and because of our long day yesterday, we were all set up and had lunch on the table before noon.  From our camp we can see the lake at the RV park, and we are camped under a bunch of trees, so it is shady.  It is REALLY HOT and HUMID here!  Mom says it's hard to breath!  The humidity is way over 80 percent!  When Mom went in to register, the lady at the desk said "Welcome to the heat!"  Oh well, this too shall pass.  Dad had to go to Wal-Mart and while we were there, we had a really hard rain storm that dumped 1/2 inch of rain on us.  When we got back to camp, everything was OK, but a neighbor came over and said they were concerned about our awning - that was nice of her.

Tomorrow I get to go to Camp Bow Wow, while Mom and Dad go to the Henry Ford Museum at Greenfield Village - that has something to do with Ford vehicles.  I guess there is a whole bunch of stuff to do there for humans - not dogs.  Dad feels right at home here - he used to live here a long time ago, BL & B (Before Lyn and Bessy).



Crossing into Michigan




Clouds over Lake Erie - we haven't
seen Lake Michigan yet - its
on the other side of the state.














Mom said she will update my map and our stats later - it's taking a long time to upload stuff because she has to use "Annie" (the cell phone) to connect to the Internet here.

We made some miles today......

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Dad really made miles today.  We went farther than we had planed on, but we started real early because of the heat.  It is getting hotter and more humid day by day.  We left camp at 7:30 am and we were all set up by 3:30 pm.  Dad made a lot of stops so Mom and I could get out and stretch our legs (and backs).  We are in Sandusky, Ohio now, so I get to add another state to my map!  We are only staying here one night and the next stop is Ypsilanti, MI and we will be there the rest of the week.  (I get to add another state tomorrow!)  Dad is going to have some springs put on the truck...he said the old springs are getting tired after so many miles.

Mom got a few pictures while we were on the road.....

Mom told Dad to follow these guys...take a real close
look at the left had side of the coffin...BEER TAPS!



Crossing the line....




Cleveland, Ohio skyline




Resting under the air conditioner after a long day
on the road!