Today, we FINALLY have a good wi-fi signal (none in South Dakota now last night in Sheridan Wyoming. So here goes!
Well, we can't believe it is already Saturday, June 11th. My last Blog left you thinking that we would be hooking up our trailers and heading East to Lanesboro MN for overnight and the Pearces would be going on to Chicago for a Navy graduation whilst we relaxed in Lanesboro. But. . . plans changed some and we "day-tripped" to Lanesboro on Thursday the 2nd of June w/2 vehicles. After spending an enjoyable time there and lunch, they took off for Chicago and we took off for our trailer-home awaiting us back at Teri & Bob's place. They returned late Friday night, and on Sunday morning we made the 5 hour (or so) drive West to Mitchell, SD (remember the Corn Palace?) for overnight w/4 of us and 2 trailers!! And on to the Black Hills of South Dakota the next day (Hill City) located about 30 miles outside of Rapid City) the next day. We camped at a really nice place until Friday morning. While there, we visited the Crazy Horse Memorial, Mt.Rushmore, Deadwood SD.
Friday morning (yesterday June 10th) Teri & Bob & Tom & I hugged each other g'bye until we meet again.
As we headed Northwest on Highway 16 from our campground in Hill City, Tom and I decided to drive through Custer State Park in Custer Wyoming. A friend had told us that there are herds of buffalo roaming there and we'd be disappointed if we didn't check it out. Well. . . . . . ! We did! We actually saw 1 (one) buffalo from a distance in the whole "Wildlife Loop" drive...about 20 miles round trip & a $15 entrance fee. However, we did see a bunch of donkies blocking the road so everyone had to stop and wait while they came up to our closed windows and checked us out before we could proceed. I did take a video of them w/my IPhone and discovered after the fact that the video was not running, so we didn't even get pictures of the donkies. Hmmm!
Last night we checked into a KOA Campground in Sheridan WYO and the folks there had been to Custer State Park a few days earlier and saw hundreds (100s) of buffalo out there. That just added insult to our injury!! Oh well.
Today we traveled about 130 miles to Billings, MT. Went downtown to their strawberry festival, which was reminiscent of the Fullerton Farmer's Market that we used to frequent on Thursday afternoons when we lived there. This is a huge city basically in the middle of nowhere. Here, they have Costco, Sam's Club, Target, Olive Garden, etc. Once leaving here, we'll be back on the range again in wide-open spaces!
We have seen soooooooo many great things here in the mid-west. . . in MN, fields upon fields of newly-planted corn, soy beans and fields yet to be planted.
South Dakota is a land of wide-open spaces. Reminded us of the old cowboy song, "Give Me a Home Where the Buffalo Roam" (even if we didn't see any grazing animals besides cows, nor any wild Indians, although we traveled through the Crow Indian Reservation!). Lots of American History along the way...to much to write about here.
Today we drove past the fields of the Little Big Horn battle, and several others which my mind is not recalling at the moment. But beautiful countrysides the whole way from Sheridan.
Have you ever heard the state of Montana referred to as the "Big Sky" state? We have, and now we know why - practically a 360 degree view of big sky meeting earth almost all the way today. Blue sky, white clouds, green prairie grass, cows grazing now and then, road-kill deer now and then. WOW!
We watched the storm clouds we heard about this morning on the news actually forming as we traversed across Wyoming and into Montana along I90.
Of course, this would be more interesting with pictures inserted here and there, but I haven't been able to download them as yet. Tomorrow, (Sunday 12th) while you're doing whatever is on your agenda for the day, you will find us traveling from here in Billings MT to Dillon MT (or somewhere near there), unless the predicted rain & T-storms in that area call for us to go elsewhere. Tune in next time and you'll find out where we ended up and where we'll be going after that.
Until then!
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