Visiting Grey Max in Boulder & Lis in Colorado Springs 10.31.11

Bill & MJ are our cruising friends from Mexico, our dock-mates for the past couple years, and one of our buddy-boats when cruising up and down the Mexico coast. Here’s Grey Max (their boat)….bonus points for telling me where the photo was taken…



And here’s how we usually look when we go for our walks….


On our walk today….



OK, so it’s a little bit different but still just as much fun. We made it to Boulder and drove the canyon to their house mid-afternoon. The canyon they live in was where the 4-mile fire was last year and the devastation was still apparent. There is much rebuilding and under a blanket of snow, it was still beautiful.

We had a great time catching up from our summers and felt just like being in Mexico while the girls chatted about beading & living gluten free while Michael listened to Bill play guitar. Well….almost like being in Mexico…. Though the snow on the ground reminded us we weren’t in Mexico anymore!



Our visit was much too short. We had so much fun with them both and was amazed how quickly the days went!

We left early Halloween morning and booked it down to Colorado Springs where we met up with Lis, a dear friend of mine from my early Army days.



Ahhh….Colorado has been good to us, bringing us together with some good friends. We’ll miss cruising with Bill & MJ and everyone else this winter! And it was great spending time with them both. Next time, definitely a longer visit…. :-)

On to Kansas!
Rene

Chicago is the windy city, my ass! 10.29.11

On our way to Boulder to visit Bill & MJ, our cruising friends from Grey Max, we stopped for the night in Wheatland, Wyoming, near Cheyenne. We arrived at dusk and scoped out our campground then went to dinner at El Gringo’s Mexican/Chinese place (haha!). We settled in for the night at the campground and were rudely awakened at 3am with ungodly gusts of wind. They started slow but kept building and building….until finally we were both awake and worried that the whole top of the van would rip off (unlikely, but it sure felt like it!)

At about 4am with the wind getting stronger and stronger, we climbed down from our bed and decided to close the pop-top. It was a coordinated effort and we had to wait until the perfect time so that it wasn’t ripped back up into place. With the pop-top in place and 4am, we weren’t about to rearrange the entire back end of the van so that we could sleep so we curled up on the couch and floor and tossed the bedsheets & blankets on top of us and slept (yeah, right!) in the most god-awful positions for a couple hours.

The next morning I asked Michael, ‘how windy do you think it was last night?’ so he googled “Wheatland Wyoming Wind” and promptly learned that Wheatland Wyoming is the ‘Windiest spot in the nation’. Yes, in the NATION!!! How luck were we to have had the pleasure (yeah, right!) of camping there! I’ll bet no one else can say they’ve done that!! Yeah, yeah, so I’m sure no one would WANT to camp there…haha….

We were in such a hurry to get the hell out of there I didn’t even take a photo…

Until we were on the highway where we saw this sign… No shit Sherlock.



Thanks for reminding me! Wait….that means not only did we have to survive the gusts all night, we have to put up with the all day too?! Yep. Hmmm….I’m rethinking visiting this part of the country. :-)

Eventually we made it to Colorado where we were greeted with yet another view!



Pretty, isn’t it?! I think so. I haven’t seen snow like this for years. It was so pretty! And cold…. :-)

Next stop, Boulder!
More to follow…
Rene

Crazy Horse & Cousin Jim 10.29.11

One cool thing about our blog is having friends & family follow us and participate in where we’re at. I had a vague recollection of my Dad being born in Coeur D’ Alene, but was reminded once I posted about visiting and then learned that my grandma and grandpa were married there! Cool! And on the day we were leaving South Dakota, Michael was contacted by, get this, Mike Ditton and told that he had another cousin, Jim, just down the road from where we were staying. Michael called him up and we stopped by to meet him!

Since it was a very last-minute stop, we could only stay a short while as Jim was expecting a phone call any minute. But we had a wonderful visit, and connected the dots on the who’s who of the family. (Jim recently made the chandelier – it was gorgeous!)



We backtracked a bit to go to the Crazy Horse Memorial. Before going, I was worried it would just be ‘another carving in the mountain’ and it was….but it was impressive and I’m glad I went. Mount Rushmore is massive, but the entire Mount Rushmore carvings fit into the face of this carving. When this carving is done it will truly be spectacular.



Did you notice the tractor on top of his arm? Or the people walking up there as well? Take another look. Yep, that’s how big it is….



Check out the actual carving under his arm….my attempt at art. Haha…



OK, we’re really outta here. Well….we did stop at a winery on the way out and had some fascinating berry wines. We purchased a Pumpkin Wine to give to our friends Bill & MJ on Halloween…..I hope they like pumpkin! Haha… Hic!

More to follow…
Rene

Mount Rushmore 10.29.11

Wow. Another Wow – what an amazing place, again!! Mount Rushmore was one of the top things on my list when we were deciding the route for this trip and I am SO glad we did! You know that we’ve been watching the weather pretty closely as and I was worried when we took off this morning that our luck had run out…..it was bitterly cold and the clouds were everywhere. And even after being told at breakfast that it was too foggy to see Mount Rushmore, we went for it anyway. It was gorgeous.

Instead of driving on the main highway out of Rapid City, we took the back roads – the 79 to the 36 just outside of Hermosa, to the 16 or Iron Mountain Road. These are little 1-2 lane roads that wind through Custer State Park, through the stone tunnels that frame Mount Rushmore. It turned into another gorgeous day, with white poofy clouds, blue skies, sunshine, and crisp temperatures.

Our first glimpse of the mountain:



Driving through the stone tunnels…. Mount Rushmore was framed in the background





The roads & bridges along Iron Mountain road were absolutely gorgeous – beautiful wood structures with interesting names. A couple roads twisted around in a spiral and were called “pigtail bridges”.



We saw signs warning of wildlife all through the drive but the only wildlife we spotted were some black tail deer.



Once we arrived at the Visitor Center, we paid our $11 parking fee, kidded around with the gal about the swarms of people there today and parked in the main lot with about 40 other cars.

The Avenue of Flags greeted us as we arrived. There are 56 flags one for each state, commonwealth, district, & territory and we searched to find the 5 flags of the commonwealths, districts, & territories which was interesting.



Walking a bit further took us to the Grand View Terrace for some great views & photo opportunities!





There were so few people we had a ton of fun taking photos of other groups so they would take a photo of us, we met some very nice families.

Just below the viewing terrace is the Visitor Center where you can watch a short 12 minute movie about the carving of Rushmore and a nice museum with information, photos, & memorabilia of the carving. It was some feat! It boggles my mind that it took 400 employees a total of 14 years to carve the mountain! I know I’m young but I haven’t managed to work anywhere for 14 years in a row. :-)

Next we wandered along the President’s Trail, a nice meandering ½ mile walk through the grounds & back up to the Visitor Center. The Artist’s studio was closed (surprise, surprise) so we finished up by picking up some squished pennies for my Neice & Nephew and headed back to the van.



We spotted this on our way – can you see what’s out of place?!



Everywhere you looked there was a great photo of the mountain – even Scooby got a nice photo!



Amazing! A definite must-do and I’m glad we’re checking it off of our bucket list. ;-)

On our way back to the hotel we stopped at the Dinosaur Park in town where I ran into this horny little fellow…hahaha…



We’re leaving South Dakota, headed to Colorado! There are lots more photos of Mount Rushmore and our trip so far on our photo album located here. Enjoy!

More to follow…
Rene

The Badlands 10.28.11

Today was one of the coldest days we’ve had yet. The upper temps are in the 40’s and the lows are dipping down into freezing. Because of this, we decided to check out The Badlands instead of Mount Rushmore because we would be in the car more! Haha…

Wow, it was gorgeous! The colors, the carvings in the rocks, the wildlife – it was amazing. Around ever corner were different views and carvings to see.



I was particularly taken by how dramatic the scenery would change – from grasslands to jagged cliffs & soil eroding away from every rainstorm. It was gorgeous.



One thing nice about being in these parks off-season is that at the drop of a hat you can come to a stop for photo opportunities – sometimes even going in reverse! During the entire day, we saw maybe 6 other vehicles in the park. And that’s exactly what we did when we spotted this fox! He was running/jumping around the tall grass and we were lucky enough to catch a glimpse.



Other than the sly fox, we also spotted some bighorn sheep – actually you couldn’t help but spot them since they were sitting on the side of the road! I told them they shouldn’t sit on the side of the road as we drove by but they didn’t listen.



And prairie dogs…



Outside the park was a whole family? Pack? Clan? Of all-white prairie dogs…cute little squeaky things.



Another great National Park….we really should have purchased the National Parks pass, which we did last time we were traveling California – I forget how each park has entrance fees! Yellowstone was $15, this one was $15 but I know in the next couple months that will add up! But so worth it…I may still get one. :-)




More to follow…
Rene

Wall Drug & Minuteman Missile (AKA Crazy Cows) 10.28.11

What visit to Rapid City is complete without stopping at Wall Drug, the crazy tourist trap, restaurant, free ice water (not needed today!), 5 cent coffee, and souvenir extravaganza place. We had seen the million or so signs advertising it and had to stop and see what the big deal was.



From the outside it looked like an everyday small town shop. But inside was a maze of shops, incredible historical photos, an outdoor courtyard complete with a 9’ jackelope, and even a travelers chapel. Again, we were one of maybe 12 people inside and had our run of the place. There was every souvenir imaginable to the junky crap to beautiful art, to saddles, to walls and walls of cowboy boots, camping items, western wear, you name it, it was probably here!

We couldn’t help ourselves and took advantage of a Jackelope ride…



We left in a state of consumer overload (and lighter in the wallet) so we stopped for a quick geocache before heading to the Minuteman Missile National Historic site. The first stop was at the Visitor Information center where Delta-01 Launch Control Facility and met a wonderful NPS ranger who showed us a short video and answered any questions we had. They had control center tours but the last one had already left. Oh well.

Our next stop was a few miles down the road where one of the actual Minuteman Missile silos (Delta-09) is preserved. It was amazing that it looked like nothing – a concrete slab in the middle of ground with some posts & poles sticking up behind a fence. But to the imagination, it is the end. We looked down into the silo to see a replica of a Minuteman Missile, it was all very impressive! And to imagine that there were 450 of these sites scattered throughout the North Central states. Pretty cool. Though I wouldn’t want to be a missileer! The hours of boredom, the moments of stress, and the isolation….



Now the most crazy thing about going to the missile silo site was that once off the freeway, we had to drive on a dirt road with cows on both sides. I am positive that these cows are (said in a whisper) spy cows. I’ve driven past my fair share of cows and I’m serious when I tell you that they were just plain creepy. Their eyes followed our every move. Every. Single. One of them!! I’m thinking that their eyes were recording devices and was transmitting the information back to mission control or who knows? Possibly to Moscow!! Either that or they had some kind of mad-cow disease by being so close to the missile. There were even a couple right in the middle of the road that waited until the very last minute to move and when they did, they kept their eyes on us the whole time. Ugh, it still gives me the creeps…. :-)



More to follow….if we make it out of here alive…..
Rene

Camping in Rapid City 10.26.11

Brrrr!!! It’s just downright cold. We were lucky last night, although it snowed, we just happened to miss it but it still dipped down into the low 30’s. The next three nights it’s supposed to get even colder. Luckily, we found the absolute perfect campground in the area. It has EVERYTHING we need!! Hot Showers, Wi-fi, right off of the freeway but quiet, not too many neighbors, and it even comes with Cable TV, a hot tub, and serves Breakfast too!



Uh huh, We like to call it ‘Michael’s minimum requirement for camping in the teens’ haha…

Camping in Yellowstone was fun but had it’s moments. One big thing was that because of the wild animals in the area, you were not allowed to leave any bits or scraps. You couldn’t wash dishes by the spigot, couldn’t wash them in the bathrooms (but of course I was forced to share the sink with someone doing exactly that), and in general that was a bit of a pain. So we simply employed the ‘lick and wipe’ method of cleaning dishes. Haha!! It works perfectly! Why haven’t we used this in the past?! Lick the utensils & wipe the plate with a paper towel. Works like a charm…

It was gorgeous and sunshiny when we were there and I wasn’t paying any attention to the altitude….and ended up with a sunburn on my face, not a good thing with new scars. Doh! I know, I know….that is the worst thing I could do! Oh well, live and learn… :-)

Speaking of people who are oblivious to the rules…. Have you ever noticed how there’s always ‘one’?! One person who the rules do not apply, one person who will leave dog poop, etc. At our campground in Yellowstone, they had a ‘no generators’ rule from 8pm to 8am. Yep, you guessed it, we had some jackass who was running his generator until after 10pm which we could deal with, but when they fired it back up at 4am, that was uncool. Still, during the four hours that we were spared generator noise, we did hear the bugling of the Elk and the amazing night sounds (or quiet!) and saw just spectacular stars at night. Aaaaahhhhh…..

OK, enough griping…the hot tub is calling my name. Back on to the good stuff! Tomorrow….The Badlands!
More to follow,
Rene

A quick stop in Wyoming 10.25.11

We scooted through Wyoming on our way to South Dakota. Although there is plenty to see & do here, we are on a mission to get to Mouth Rushmore and enjoy it before it dumps snow on us so we hightailed it from Yellowstone with a winter storm right on our heels. We stopped in a little place called Buffalo, WY and had researched a campground on the internet. However, as we were passing through the town, Michael spotted another area that just seemed to call us so we stopped and checked it out. It is called Mountain View RV & Campground. The owner, Chuck, was incredibly welcoming and we immediately felt comfortable and he even set us up in the perfect spot for the weather coming in. We are expecting temps to dip into the 20’s with snow likely. Brrr!! 



The site was great – perfect hot showers with unlimited water (a necessity after no showers in Yellowstone!), a great courtyard with BBQ’s and chimeras that were burning for the evening. There were even Teepees setup right alongside our site and I couldn’t help but check it out….



Next stop, Rapid City!
More to follow…
Rene

Yellowstone 10/24/11

Wow, wow, wow.

When we were in Idaho, we contemplated skipping coming to Yellowstone because there is some bad weather headed our way and when we looked at the weather report it showed snow & freezing temperatures for the time we were there. Not to mention the road closures in the. I am SO glad we decided to go for it!

We arrived at the North Entrance outside of Gardiner and went directly to the Mammoth Hot Springs Campground.



I had called for information on reservations a couple of months ago and was told there would be no problem finding a spot. Mammoth Hot Springs Campground is a first-come first-served campground that in the height of the summer all spots are taken by 9am (which is checkout time!) but had no problem today... The yellow slips indicate spots being used.



As we pulled into our spot, we were welcomed by a passing Elk who hung out on the hill beside us while we setup camp.



Yellowstone is an extremely diverse place and there is so much to see & do! Because of the road closures and weather in the area, we were only able to do the Mammoth Hot Springs to Old Faithful drive. But we saw so many different things in such a short trip!

Our plan was to high-tail it directly to Old Faithful first to ensure we didn't miss it and it was incredibly difficult not to pull off at every sight. We held out though, making notes of places we needed to stop on our way back. A couple of times we just couldn't help it though....

Like for the Elk that was sitting on the side of the road...



And for the Buffaloes who were also on the side of the road... (I liked this guy!)



Of course some things I couldn't help but take a photo of - like this one of the Geyser Basins. :-) It was chilly - with temps in the 50's - but the skies were clearing up and the sun was trying to come out. It couldn't have been more picturesque.



We made it to Old Faithful just before noon and went inside the Visitor Center to find the projected time of the next eruption to be in the next 20 minutes - sweet! We checked out the visitor center, learning everything we could ever want to know about how Geysers work. The Visitor Center is absolutely gorgeous as are the adjoining buildings, though it's obvious it's the end of the season as we couldn't find a Park Ranger or employee who wasn't a jerk! Oh well...

We went out to the viewing platform and waited, and waited... Old Faithful toyed with us a few times, kind of 'burping', and finally....



Let the show begin!



The show lasted a minute and a half or so. It was really amazing. So much water! Or steam, boiling water, vapor, or whatever it is! haha... The show was fun but the people we were sitting by and chatting with made it all the more fun.

We left Old Faithful and headed towards all of the spots we missed - Upper, Midway, & Lower Geyser Basins where many of the great colorful hotsprings - clear & calm deep pools - are located as well as Mudpots & Fumaroles.



On the way we were delayed as we had to wait until a herd of Buffaloes crossed the road. For some reason I can't get the song 'Home on the Range' out of my head... haha!!



Continuing on we stopped at Fountain Paint Pots where we stumbled onto this tree and had so much fun trying to get a photo with setting the camera on another log, setting the delay, and running around the tree. The best part was all of the spectators who were watching us intently. :-)



We continued North with stops at Gibbon Falls, a gorgeous Waterfall on the side of the road...



Roaring Mountain...



And finally to the Upper & Lower Terraces at Mammoth Hot Springs. The Terraces is where the interaction of water & limestone creat chalk-white travertine. The water flowing over them is different colors and great intricate patterns.



And truly so much more!! :-) Be sure to check out the rest of the photos taken during the day - on our photo album (click here)

The wildlife was amazing, the scenery was different at each turn, and there was so much to see & do! It's a shame that we have to bail so quickly but the snow & cold temps is headed our way and we gotta get outta here! But we will be back - we can imagine a motorcycle trip up here during the summer. Mmmmm...I can't wait! :-)

Thank you all for the well-wishes on a speedy recovery. I'm recovering well, the scabs are falling off, & the retainer is helping my front teeth significantly. Though I'm still not quite ready for any close-ups yet. :-)

Next stop....Mount Rushmore, the Black Hills, & Badlands!
More to follow,
Rene