Kansas City Here We Come!

On to Independence!!

We are set to leave our little spot here at the Graybill's. Our little RV was comfy, here among the oaks and laurels. Just across the way, Greg and Caytie's homey farmhouse lights winked welcomely to us. 

We had a few days free from long distance driving while we got to know the two grand babies, one three years old, the other three weeks. 

We attended Greg’s church while there and enjoyed meeting the congregation. It was evident they loved their pastor and his family.

Today we'll drive across part of Iowa and head south to Missouri. We'll take most of the day to get there and tomorrow, we'll head over to the Truman Library and learn some more history. 

There were more farms along the way and we saw many combines harvesting corn. 

We had strong wind gusts for the more than 300 miles, and I declined my time to drive—too scary for me. Jim did a great job driving our SQ and we drove by an accident that just happened where it appeared a gust of wind tipped a large pick-up truck and its trailer down an embankment. 

Next day.....

We visited the Truman Library and Museum. The expansive green lawns and established trees contrasted with the bright blue sky. 

Later this afternoon, we'll walk the neighborhood  and see President Truman’s home. It is located in what is called Old Independence. There are many Victorian style homes in this neighborhood.

 Tomorrow, we head out to Kansas. Eisenhower Library and Museum are next on the list.

Catcha later!

Backbone of America

On to Illinois and Iowa!

We slept in on Thursday and left our very quiet and quite empty campground, heading east through the lower portion of the State of Minnesota, planning to camp in LaCrosse, Wisconsin. 

We’re here in LaCrosse, our campsite is right on the Mississippi River—only 25 feet away. It is beautiful here.

 We’ve just finished dinner and plan to relax tonight—and hit the sack early. We’ll get up early so we can get the 213 miles before noon in order to meet up with my cousins on my mother’s side of the family at the Stockholm Inn. They have fantastic Swedish pancakes and I’m pleased all four Lang cousins and mates will be there tomorrow.  

We drove around 300 miles today through farm country. I saw a sign that said:

Agriculture is the backbone of America

I’d say we drove along that backbone today. Here are some scenes. 

We had an interesting encounter on the freeway yesterday. He was driving an eighteen wheeler and on the back of the truck, neatly painted were these words:

In loving memory of Jerry, the best brother on earth.

It listed his birthdate and year of death

John 3:16

As we passed the truck, I gave the driver a thumbs up. He nodded and smiled at me.

Looking forward to completing our drive tomorrow to stay with the Graybill’s, who live near the Quad Cities in Iowa. We’ll stay the weekend and rest up and reacquaint ourselves with our grandchild and her new baby sister. 

Driving Through Badlands, Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore

We arrived after dark at our reserved spot at Yogi Bear Resort. It is dark in South Dakota when the sun goes down. We drove right past the campground, because the directions said to turn left. It was on the right. We promptly turned around and checked into our spot. I must say, I really like "glamping". We don't have to drag our suitcases into the hotel. Or pitch a tent. Everything's right here. As I write, the riblets are in the pressure cooker and I've put together the cole slaw to go with them.

Our drive through South Dakota was unbelievable. I've never been in this part of the state and it is BEAUTIFUL!! 

The Badlands aren't "bad" at all, but beautiful, and sharp and almost beyond description. Jim thought it looked like something out of Star Wars. 

Badlands

Badlands

I could add so many more photos, but suffice it to say, the Badlands are a place to visit. Give yourself a day to stop at every view point. Explore the walking trails. We didn't have time, because we didn't allow it (we will next time).

We also visited Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse today. 

What I didn't realize is that Crazy Horse is privately owned. It was developed by two people, a white man and an Indian. An Indian, Henry Standing Bear, asked Korczak Ziolkowski, a sculptor who worked on Mt. Rushmore, if he would build a Native American memorial for one of their heroes. In 1948 Ziolkowski started the project and was dedicated to the completion of it. He started with $138.00 in his pocket and determined he would never receive any funds from any government. Though he was unable to complete it, his family (he had ten children) plan to do so by 2050. Thus, the birth of Crazy Horse Memorial which will be bigger than Mt Rushmore and even taller than the Washington Monument as well as pyramids.

A smaller scale of the monument

There's the head of Crazy Horse. It will be some time before it is completed.

There they are: Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln

Buffalo burger!

We looked at this while eating our burgers

My mind is so full of what we saw today, my comments and photos are scant. God's creation is so marvelous and beyond words.

My mother's family homesteaded in South Dakota. My grandmother Sara even homesteaded a place by herself in South Dakota. Here's a real cabin that homesteaders lived in. We are so spoiled with what we have!

One of my regrets is not being able to stop and see the museum at the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder--Little House on the Prairie--in DeSmet, SD. Well, maybe next time....

See ya tomorrow! We'll travel through Minnesota and camp in Wisconsin. A shorter day with less stopping and just driving. Maybe we'll sleep in tomorrow!

South Dakota, Here We Come!

We left our friends in Bozeman, early--7:30 am. Mary had freshly baked pumpkin muffins so we decided our coffee and the muffins would serve for breakfast. Soon we were on our way. Five-hundred miles.

 It was a cool, clear, fall day with pale blue skies and scattered clouds. As the miles flew by at seventy miles per hour, the topography changed from barren hills, to tree laden ones, and back to barren, golden hills with huge chunks of rocks throughout. 

We stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield. It's very moving to see white markers sprinkled throughout the five square miles. The white marker meant someone died in that spot. 

US Cavalry Soldier's Grave

Here we are in front of the Custer Monument

Soon, we drove into Wyoming, through the upper NE corner of the state. So pretty and diverse.

Soon, we were in South Dakota. We saw a sign warning us there might be bighorn sheep. Sure enough, just around the corner, there they were.

Big horned Sheep

Bison, too

I love horses in the fields. There were many.

We're staying at Beaver Lake Campground and it is nice! Beautiful, quiet, with lots of pines. 

We've finished dinner and plan to head on over to Crazy Horse Monument as well as Mount Rushmore tomorrow morning. Then we'll cross South Dakota and stay on the eastern end: Sioux Falls.  

See you tomorrow....

Off to Bozeman

We left our nice RV spot on Blackwell Island and headed out of Coeur d’ Alene by 9:30. The lake was beautiful 

We had a 389 miles drive to our destination in Bozeman, Montana. 

It was another perfectly clear, blue-skied day. The temps are cooler here than closer to the west coast. The Aspen were in their full golden color and made a nice contrast to the dark evergreens.

We had a beautiful drive through the mountains in Idaho and Montana. Rivers and rocks and trees filled our windshield with beauty.  

We loved the speed limit, though we didn’t drive that fast. 

For lunch, we stopped at a Rest Area and I quickly put a salad together. 

Jim and start our day with prayer and a scripture reading. As we sipped our second cup of coffee, we read in the Old Testament—Deuteronomy chapter six. Verse 12 caught my attention. It says,

   

“When you eat and are satisfied, be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.”

I don’t ever want to forget the provisions and care the LORD has given to me. He took care of me in my widowed state. He’s taking care of me in my happily married state. And He’ll be with me when He takes me home to him. And in the meantime, I’ll enjoy traveling with Jim—as we explore our beautiful country!

We had a wonderful evening with our friends, Dean and Mary, catching up, and listening to their boys, Kyle and Bryce, talk about school and Montana and cold winters and football. 

We’re tired so will hit the sack early tonight. Tomorrow’s a long day. 500 miles! 

Tomorrow, South Dakota, land of the Badlands, Custer's Last Stand and more. Catcha later…..

Idaho!

We headed out toward our destination in Idaho. There were hazy blue skies with wispy cirrus clouds. We passed farmlands and evidence harvest was done. I could see tiny spears of winter wheat poking their heads above the tilled dark soil.
















We entered Spokane. It kind of reminds me of Denver with the city and mountains behind.




We arrived at our reserved spot in Coeur'd Alene. It was nice and I'll show some photos.

We enjoyed a nature walk...

Our shadows show how large the tree is

A pretty Sumac tree at our site

Lots of birdhouses

A nice place to relax and get ready for a longer drive tomorrow. Bozeman, here we come! We'll visit some friends for the night and then on to South Dakota. Crazy Horse. Badlands. Mt Rushmore and much more....

Catch you later!

Off We Go!

Our road trip started early. We worked hard all day on Friday, making sure our supplies for the RV—I’ll refer to it from now on as the “SQ”—short for “ShirleyQ”, Jim’s name for our coach. We made our lists and checked them more than twice. Next day, we completed packing everything and were ready to go. It was around one pm and we’d done everything we could do, for when we get back from this road trip, we’ll need to hop in the car and head to Seattle on another adventure. But I’ll tell you more about that later—I don’t want to get too far ahead.

We sat down trying to decide what to do with the rest of the day. We could go see a movie. Relax and read a book. I suggested, “Why don’t we just leave right now?”

“I don’t see any reason why not,” Jim countered. So we closed things up and headed out.

It was a beautiful fall day. The sun was brightly shining, with a peacock blue sky. We drove east along the Columbia River Gorge, the golden hills looked like mounds of freshly baked bread cooling from the oven. Farther east, the windmills marched across the tops of the loaves and languidly turned their propellers. It was a perfect start to a trip. 

I'm at the wheel--fun!

We enjoyed the trek up the Gorge on I-84, our destination for the first day, Tri-Cities, Washington. We stayed at an RV Resort—really no resort at all—our view was a gravel lot with lots of trucks parked inside the fence. That’s all right, it was dark now, and we were hungry. We sat down to our dinner of St Louis Ribs and Kale Quinoa Salad, the meal we’d planned to eat in Vancouver and instead brought for our first dinner in the SQ. 

After cleaning up, we sank into bed, grateful for the rest.

Next stop: Blackwell Island RV Park in Coer’d Alene, Idaho. We’ll see if this is more of a “resort”. We’re about 150 miles from our destination today because of our early start. 

We couldn't find a church that started earlier than 11:00 and we wanted an earlier start so instead of attending a church for this time, we’ll listen to Pastor Paul on-line. 

Hope you have a restful Sunday. Catch you later!