Mile 1928 - Butte

A long day. We got up early in Spearfish, South Dakota this morning. Our only key stop was Devils Tower. We are currently in Butte, Montana after a little over 600 miles. Tomorrow our goal is to get to Glacier National Park and plan to check this park out on Friday. Traffic has been generally light although along the length of the Interstate there are numerous areas under construction but since traffic is light the impact is small. Also noticeable are the absence of children. South Dakota schools started last week and Wyoming and Montana this week. We have been told to expect the National Parks to be quiet.


Mile 1388 - Devils Tower

It's an old volcano revered by many of the Native American tribes. From the valley floor below the tower rises up about 1200 feet. We drove up to the base where the tower continues for about 800 feet.


Around the base of the tower is a walking trail that's about 1.2 miles long. It was a good chance for us to get some exercise so we grabbed the cameras and started walking. Along the way we came across this doe and fawn. It was a cool picture to take.


As you walk around the tower, you notice it is fluted with columns and as one column eventually tumbles there's another behind it. In this picture we have three climbers. One is barely visible at the base of the picture. As parents, we had a strong temptation to yell at these guys to get down before they got hurt.

The last picture is from the base of the tower looking away towards the valley below.

Sorry about the short report. Just one stop and a lot of miles.

Blog to you tomorrow,

The Travelers

Mile 1316 - Spearfish

Hello,

We started the day in Rapid City and our first stop was Mount Rushmore. I think if we were to do this trip again we would stay at Keystone. It is closer to Mt. Rushmore and seemed like a cool little town. Rushmore was far and away the highlight of the day. I'm sure between Sue and me we took over 100 pictures. To really appreciate the beauty, you need to be here. From Rushmore we went south to Custer State Park, then to the statue in process of Chief Crazy Horse and finally took route 385 north through Deadwood (where Wild Bill Hickok was buried) and on to Spearfish were we decided to spend the night. Tomorrow we will see Devil's Tower and starting making our way north and west to Glacier National Park.



Mile 1188 - Mt. Rushmore

I think for those of you who like operations, you would like Mr. Borglum. He found the right mountain to do these sculptures. He created plaster models of each president who were placed on the mountain so the workers could "feel" how the faces of the presidents and to translate those to the mountain. Finally,Mr Borglum had his studio at the foot of the mountain where he had a scale model of the final product he could gage the work being done on the mountain. The project, by the way, was completed by Mr. Borglum's son who also completed this statue of his dad. There's a whole other story about how they decided who should sculpted here, but you need to find that out.

The weather was cloudy when we first arrived but cleared nicely so I was able to take this shot (along with about 30 more).



Why, you might wonder, did we take a picture of Lincoln? Actually this was Mr. Borglum's favorite president. He did a sculpture of Abe that currenty is in the Capital. One of the Lincoln family members said this was the best likeness of Abe they had ever seen.

Mile 1208 - Custer StatePark

This park is not far south of Mt. Rushmore. It's a huge and beautiful area. We probably spent a couple of hours driving around. For any of these places you could easily spend days.

We saw two herds of buffalo. We were able to get closer to this one. They advised us to be careful not to get too close. In this picture there was a park ranger with a "whip" presumably for the buffalo. Oh yea, there were signs up not to rollerskate!

Lots of antelope throughout the park. They were a little harder to get close to.

In the spirit of the Democratic National Convention, this picture seemed appropriate. You can add your own names for these animals or make up your own stories. By the way, they were also in the park.

Mile 1256 - Statue of Chief Crazy Horse

This is a few miles north of Custer, South Dakota. As you know, this is a "work in progress".

Mile 1304 - Deadwood

Sorry we didn't take any pictures. Notable here is the grave of Wild Bill Hickok. A nice town along a beautiful valley. At this point in the day, we were starting to get tired and decided to spend the night at Spearfish.

It's hard to believe we started our trip four days ago and haven't yet started the "meat & potatos" part of of our trip. We feel so fortunate to be able to do this and at the same time stay connected to our families.

The Travelers

Mile 1060 - Rapid City

We just got to our motel room after having spent the day on the road. It was a beautiful sunny day that started in the 60's and ended in the low 90s. The car is fueled up and washed (the bugs are pretty bad).


Badlands National Park - Our first national park after we left Minnesota. One of the very nice things about our national parks; folks over 62 can purchase a "Lifetime Pass" which allows entry to all the parks for $10. We took about 30 pictures and could have taken many more. We also saw buffalo and antelope while driving through this park.

Mile 935 - Al's Oasis at Oacoma, South Dakota

This is advertised along the interstate somewhat like the Corn Palace or Wall Drug. Oacoma is located on the west side of the Missouri River where Interstate 90 crosses. We stopped and had lunch there. The food and surroundings were great. This was started by an immigrant (Al) who came from Germany around the turn of the century. I was thinking, Al, that if you ever need a change of pace, this could be ready made for you.

Mile 859 - Mitchell, South Dakota.

You all probably know Mitchell is home to the Corn Palace and you have all probably seen the pictures so we didn't add ours. What many of you may not know is Mitchell is also home to Telstar Motors. Telstar specializes in restoration of Mustangs. In one building they have one of every GT350, GT500, Boss 302 and an original Cobra. The value of the cars in this room alone is over $4,000,000. Over the past 25 years they have restored nearly 230 cars with a turn-around time of 4-6 weeks.



This is a 1968 Shelby GT500 Convertible

• 428 Cubic inch - 360 Horsepower engine
• Aluminum Hi-Rise 4-BBL Intake
• Heavy Duty C6 Transmission
• HD 9" Rear Axel
• HD Suspension and Frond Disc Brakes
• HD Engine Compartment Bracing
• Tilt and Sway Steering Wheel
• 15" X 7" Aluminum Wheels
• Full Instrumentation - 8000 RPM Tach
  
  
  

1968 Shelby GT500 KR Convertible - Total Production 318

• 428 Cobra Jet - 400 HP
• Fiberglass Louvered Ram Air Hood
• Hi-Rise Intake with Holley 4 BBL Carburetor
• HD C6 Automatic Transmission
• HD Traction-Lok Rear Axel
• Padded Roll Bar
• Tilt and Sway Steering Wheel
• 15"x 7" Aluminum Wheels
• Full Instrumentation with 8000 RPM Tach

Mile 360

It's Sunday evening and 10:08 p.m in Sioux Falls, South Dakota in a Super 8 Motel next to the interstate and are trying to fumble our way through the process of posting to our blog. We spent yesterday seeding and harrowing foodplots, unloading five trail cameras, checking out hunting dogs, and trying out BB guns and shotguns at our land near the Canadian border. The weather was a bit chilly, about 60 degrees in the morning and I don't think we saw 70 degrees all day. This morning it was 45 degrees but sunny. The three jobs this morning were; to relocate a couple of the trail cams and put in fresh batteries so they will be good until the next visit and finally to drive Floyd's tractor back into town (about 14 miles).

We've seen lots of ruffled grouse out here. On the trail cams we have quite a lot of deer and a number of Sand Hill cranes.

Ok, so the next first time task for me is to add some pictures from yesterday.

Here's Floyd and Susan scoping what areas can be seeded Saturday





Here's Floyd harrowing around Lake Sanchijebanobe.

Here are some pictures from seeding. An ATV (Chris front, Jeff handling the seeder) pulling a broadcast seeder and a second ATV (Floyd) pulling a harrow section.

Here's Chris unloading one of the trail cam memory chips.

Here's a picture of the hunting dogs, Ole and Cody who were thrilled to see some ruffled grouse.

At the end of the day Paige and Kyla wanted a bonfire and what's a bonfire without smores? Kyla, Paige and Matt.

Tomorrow we are on our way to western South Dakota; Black Hills, Mount Rushmore, etc.

Good night.

Family Reunion

Our family celebrated Mom's 90th birthday last weekend. All the brothers and sisters attended the gathering at Presbyterian Homes.

Many of Irene's grandchildren and great grandchildren and her nephew, Jerry and his wife, Marlys also helped her celebrate.

Crystal arranged entertainment by a Hardanger violin player who played beautiful music and gave the group an education about the instrument, the music and various areas of Norway. We're sure Clifford was smiling and tapping his foot.

This is a test. Today is Thursday of Bob's last week at work.