We're Home !!!

Our House

It is with both joy and sadness that we are home.  After 45 days on the road, 7822 miles and 26 states, our great adventure has come to an end.  We're thinking that next summer we will do Newfoundland and Ontario.  We want to thank all of you that have been following us on our blog.  We really enjoyed our adventure and if you haven't done it - don't wait - life is too short.  ENJOY!!!!

After a little rest and recreation, we headed towards Michigan to hook up with some friends from Canada who unbeknownst to us were in Michigan playing in a volleyball tournament.  We were supposed to meet them in Canada!!  We left Wisconsin in the rain crossed over the Mississippi again.

We entered Illinois - sorry about the picture!!

Going around Chicago was very trying - we went passed Chicago O'Hara Airport as well as Midway.  Also the train yards.

Then into Indiana

And then into Michigan

Since there were no KOAs in the southern Michigan area, we looked for one at the Welcome Center.  We decided on Cranberry Lake Campground.  We didn't realize how many dirt roads there were in Southern Michigan and that was the only way you could get to this campground.  It was a nice campground if you liked boating and fishing.  You could also swim in the lake.  We called Paul and Judy and found out they were only 78 miles from us.  So the next morning we headed out to hook up with.  We watched volleyball and swam in the pool yesterday and today watched more volleyball.  We left there around 1 to head home.
Yes, I said home - we've been on the road for 6 weeks.  It's time. We went into Ohio.

and then Pennsylvania - we're staying at a KOA SE of Pittsburg



For those of you that are following our blog, for the last three days we have taken a rest.  Bernie found a nice little campground called Valley View Recreation Club -- sorry no pictures!!!

Today, we left South Dakota.  Other than Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and the Badlands, South Dakota is mainly corn and wheat fields.  We crossed into Minnesota.

Minnesota was nothing but miles and miles of corn fields.  Didn't see any cattle or other animals, no farmhouses either.

They did have wind turbines.

We passed 8 rest areas in Minnesota and this is what we saw...

guess the state is cutting costs!!!

We crossed the Mississippi River - it was still roaring...

and we entered into Wisconsin and are staying tonight in Oakdale Wisconsin (isn't that where the Guiding Light people live?)

July 17, we left Rapid City, South Dakota and headed east.  Having seen all the sites on our bucket list!! We drove through the northern section of the Badlands.

At the northern gateway of the Badlands is the town of Wall.  A small town with one thing - a drug store.

In 1936, the owners of the drug store started a marketing campaign to attract tourist by offering free ice water.  It worked - they have signs all along the road - even in Europe!!  It now takes up a whole block and the signs remind me of South of Border but at a smaller scale.

We crossed the Missouri River

Rest Areas in South Dakota all have these.

We stayed in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.



On Saturday, July 16th, we went to Crazy Horse Memorial.  Crazy Horse was born in the Black Hills of  South Dakota.  While at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, under a flag of truce, he was stabbed in the back by an American soldier and died on September 6, 1877 at the age of they think 35.  Crazy Horse had been defending his people when the Treaty of 1868 was broken.  The treaty stated that "as long as rivers run and grass grows and trees bear leaves, Paha Sapa - the Black Hills of  Dakota will be forever the sacred land of the Sioux Indians.  Korczak Ziolkowski, polish sculptor, was summoned to the Black Hills by the Indian Chiefs of the area.  It accepted their proposal and started work on the mountain at the age of 40 in 1948.  Unlike Mt. Rushmore, he worked by himself.  The head of Crazy Horse is so big that all four heads of Mt. Rushmore could fit in the head.  Ziolkowski died in 1982 - his widow, their 5 sons and 2 daughters are continuing his work.  I doubt this memorial will be finished in our great-grandchildren's lifetime.  They refuse to accept any federal monies.  It is all being done by donations and by admission charges.

This is Ziolkowski's vision of this finished monument.  This is 1/34 the actual size. 

The children are currently working on the horse's head.  During the week you can hear explosions.

We went through Hill City.

and just for you Sharon ....

Wine anyone????

Cool Bridge -- all made out of wood!!





Yesterday, July 14th we left the campground and went into the Devils Tower National Park to get an up close view and to see the colony of prairie dogs that reside just below the tower.

The Prairie Dogs

We drove through Sundance, Wyoming.  It lies at the foot of Sundance Mountain named by the Sioux Indians.  It is believed that Harry Longabaugh, better known as "The Sundance Kid", assumed his nickname in Sundance during his 18-month sentence in the county jail for horse stealing.  The town was much - if you blinked it was gone.

and on to South Dakota!!

We entered the Black Hills of South Dakota.  Spearfish is in a valley in the northern part of South Dakota.  It name came from when the Sioux and Cheyenne Indians speared fish in the creek.  Spearfish creek is interesting in that it freezes from the bottom up and flows south to north.

Then on to Deadwood.  Deadwood only has 1 main street-all that space would allow on the floor of Deadwood Gulch.  In the late 1800s it was a haven for gunfighters and gamblers like Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday.  Hickok was shot and killed here during a poker game in 1876 - guess he got caught cheating!!  Boot Hill (now Mount Moriah Cemetery) contains the graves of Calamity Jane, Potato Creek Johnny, and Wild Bill Hickok.

Boot Hill



The Black Hills National Forest - Pactola Lake

Hill City is where we are spending 2 nights.  Hill City's first settlers were miners who arrived in 1876 lured by the discovery of gold and copper.  Later came the ranchers and lumbermen.

We checked into the KOA and then immediately headed for Mt. Rushmore.  We saw some of the same rocks that Gutzon Borglum looked at before choosing Mount Rushmore to do his scupting.

Arrived at Mt. Rushmore - they actually had handicapped RV parking.  We stayed for 6 hours.

There had been a naturalization ceremony just finishing when we got there.  New citizens with their certificates and the American Flag.

Our first view

Later in the afternoon

The had a ranger talk, a movie, flag lowering and then the lighting of the monument around 9:30 PM.
When the idea of having the sculpture done, they talk of local heros - indian and white heroes, but Borglum wanted national heroes. 

George Washington (the Birth of our Nation)

Thomas Jefferson (the Growth of the Nation)

Abraham Lincoln (the Preservation of the Nation)

Theodore Roosevelt (the Development of the Nation)

There is a Presidental trail - unfortunately,  we only went half way because there were steps.  We passed the Heritage Village

How would Bernie's profile look on Mount Rushmore????

The Ampitheater

just after the Naturalization Ceremony

The Avenue of Flags

The Avenue of Flags at night with the moon

Good Night!!!