Branson, Missouri

We left Tea, South Dakota Tuesday morning the 30th and drove to St Joseph, Missouri, however it wasn’t quite that easy.  We headed out going south on I –29 and did fine until we got almost to Council Bluffs, Iowa.  About 15 to 20 miles North of Council Bluffs we got detoured going East on I-680.  We finally pulled over at a truck stop close to Avoca, Iowa and had lunch.  We then went South on US 59 till it ran into I-29 in Missouri.  The reason for the detour was flooding on I-29.  These are some pictures I took at a rest stop in an area that probably was closed at one time but was open when we came through.



The black bags on the road were filled with small gravel and the bags were plastic coated canvas and they were connected to each other.  The small bags at the vending machines were just regular sand bags.  You know I didn’t see a single FEMA truck.
I figured we went at least an extra 60 miles out of our way.  We spent the night at A-OK Campground in St. Joseph, Missouri.  Wasn’t the best campground but it only cost $22.00 for the night.
This morning we left out about 8:40 am and drove to Treasure Lake in Branson, Missouri.  I followed the directions in the Trailer Life Campground CD and it routed me right through downtown Kansas City on I-29.  Never again.  My GPS tried to take me around on the bypasses but I ignored it.  Not the smartest thing I have done but I doubt it was the dumbest either.
We will stay here in Branson for 1 week and then see if the hot weather has broke in Oklahoma.  If not we will stay another week and then we will head back even if it is still hot.

Tea, South Dakota

As you can see by the title we have moved again.  I should catch up in this blog.  Yesterday I left it with us getting to Keystone, SD.  We stayed at Kemp’s Kamp about 1 1/2 miles from town.  Of course we were here to see Mount Rushmore.  We had been by Mount Rushmore once before but we didn’t actually go into the park.  We went up the first night we got here for the lighting ceremony.  Turned out it was a special ceremony with former Senator George McGovern as the speaker.  He never was a favorite of mine but he did give a good talk on how Washington needed to work together to solve our problems.  I don’t remember him as too cooperative when he was in office.  The lighting part of the ceremony was nice.  The first picture is just about sunset and the second after dark and when they turned on the lights.  I had to hold the camera still since a flash wouldn’t do any good at that distance.

The next day, Thursday the 25th, we went back.  Twila and I walked the path around the base of the monument and I took several pictures.

They had a model that they used during the carving of the mountain.  They said the carving kept changing due to faults in the granite.  As you can see in this picture, at one time they intended to have Washington and Lincoln in much more detail below the head.

Some facts on the monument.  Each face is 60 feet tall, each eye is 11 feet wide.  Washington’s nose from the top to the bottom is 21 feet long.  Something I didn’t know was why these Presidents were chosen.  Washington is for the birth of our nation, Jefferson for the expansion (Louisiana Purchase), Roosevelt for development (Panama Canal, National Parks) and Lincoln for Preservation of the Union.

We left Keystone and drove to Mitchell, SD, but first I stopped in Rapid City and had the motor home’s radiator fins washed out.  I had been having trouble with the motor home trying to overheat when I pulled long hills.  I had to keep down shifting to keep it pulling without pouring the fuel to it.  I called a truck repair place in Rapid City and had an appointment set up for tomorrow but the service manager suggested I try washing out the fins first.  I had used my water hose several times without any luck but he said that wouldn’t be enough pressure to properly clean it out.  He was right.  I stopped at a truck wash and they used their large hoses with nozzles like firemen use.  Worked great.  Mitchell is the home of the Corn Palace.  The inside and outside of the building is decorated with corn.  Both the ears and the husk.  They are made into murals depicting different scenes.

The first picture shows how the artist lays out the pattern.  Then they cut the ears in half lengthwise and glue the ears according to the color designated on the pattern.  They grow different colors of corn especially for this event.  The design changes every year.

These were on the outside of the building.

They were having a festival and as you can see they had all kinds of food and a carnival.

We stayed at the Famil-E-Fun Campground Friday and Saturday Nights and then moved to where we are now in Tea, SD at the Red Barn RV Park.  We are here to renew our tags on the motor home and the Jeep.  We will be here tonight and tomorrow night.

Mitchell, South Dakota

Long time No Blog.  Just having too much fun.  Twila and I are now by ourselves.  Jack and Barbara left yesterday morning from Keystone, SD where we had been for 2 days while we saw Mount Rushmore.  I guess the easiest way to do this is to back track to Sand Point, ID and work to here.

August 14 and 15.  We drove up a mountain overlooking Sand Point.  It is a ski resort during the Winter.  It was about 15 miles from town.  This is a picture overlooking the town and the lake next to it.

After we got down we drove to a Museum on aviation and inventions.  It was way out in the country and I think it was about 15 miles from our campground.  They had a lot of interesting items.

When we left Sand Point on the 16th we drove to the Riverfront RV Park in Garrison, MT.  Well Twila and I did.  Jack and Barbara had a blowout on their trailer just before they got into Montana and had to call Good Sam Emergency Service to put on their spare.  This wasn’t a big deal but when they had another one about 40 miles from Garrison it turned into a very big deal.  It turned out the bands around the springs had broken and were cutting the tires.  Jack had to have it towed back to Missoula to get it fixed, but after staying overnight, 4 new tires, and a lot of repair work they caught up with us the next day.  Garrison is close to Deer Lodge, MT which had a lot of interesting things to see.  Guess who forgot their camera?  They have an old prison which started in 1871 and was active until 1979 when everyone was moved to a new prison 4 miles West of town.  Their was also an old car museum that was the best I ever saw.  They had 200 cars.  I took some pictures with my phone but have no idea how to get them from my phone to the computer.

From Garrison we went to Columbus, MT to the Mountain Range RV Park.  They told us we should go over the Bear Tooth Pass on Highway 212 which is a Scenic Byway going to the East side of Yellowstone.  It is a drive I would recommend to anyone unless they don’t like driving on high mountain roads.  It was paved all the way and was quite beautiful.  On the way over we stopped at Red Lodge, MT.  It was a pretty little town and we ate lunch there.

These are some pictures I took going over the pass.

We left Columbus and went to Sundance, Wyoming to the Mountain View RV Park.  This park is close to Devil’s Tower National Monument.  Devil’s Tower is off I-90 about 25 miles and we had never taken the time to see it.  I’m sure glad we did.  It is something else.  Yes, I took lots of pictures.  This one was probably 10 miles away or more.

These were taken up close.

I walked all the way around it.  The trail was about 1.3 miles long.  There were several people climbing it.  Even when I was young and foolish I wouldn’t have even thought about it.

Can you see him in the top picture?  You got to be crazy!!!!

We left Sundance, and yes the Sundance Kid took his name from the town, and we traveled to Keystone, South Dakota to see Mount Rushmore.  I will try to take up there tomorrow.

Sandpoint, Idaho

Before I get into where we are I need to catch up and little bit.  When we left Turah, MT we drove West on I-90 towards Idaho but we stopped at St. Regis, MT.  St. Regis is 33 miles East of the Idaho state line.  We stopped at a campground that Twila and I stayed at back in August of 2005.  It is called Campground St. Regis.  It is one of the prettiest campgrounds we have visited.  I didn’t take any pictures but I did have some I took in 2005.  There are wood carvings in several of the tree stumps through out the park.

 

We stayed there for 4 nights and then left out for Travel America Park in Sagle, Idaho.  We got here on the 9th and paid for a week.  We haven’t done a whole lot since we got here.  However we did go to the Sandpoint Festival today.  Sandpoint is another 5 miles North up Highway 95 and is on Lake Pend Oreille which is pronounced Ponderay.  It is a pretty town.  The festival is in the city park which is on the lake.  These are some of the beach pictures I took.

 

This is the festival it’s self.

They had a lot of nice stuff but these pictures really caught my attention.  These are not photographs.  They are painted.  The man is really talented.

The man with the beard is the man that painted them.  He also painted his own picture.

We ate at the festival too.  Jack and Barbara had the chicken teriyaki and Twila and I had the orange chicken.  Really good.  Ours with 3 egg rolls was $15.00.  We shared the orange chicken plate.

This is a picture taken from the bridge going over to the park looking towards an old bridge that has been made into a shopping mall.

This is a shot taken from the mall back towards the bridge to the park.

I have no idea where this picture came from.

This is my new philosophy for life.

Mountain Climbing

Well,  that’s mountain climbing  a 70 year old, out of shape man can do.  That’s by Jeep.  As I stated in one of the earlier blogs from this location, there are mountains on both the North and South sides of this valley.  I –90 runs down the North side of the valley and our campground is on the South side.  This is a picture of the roads on the South that I can see from the campground.

I have looked at them since we got here and hadn’t been able to find out anything about them, so I finally got on my trailer Life DVD map program and was able to find out where they started.  Turned out it was only about 2 miles from the campground.  It is a logging road which means it is just a rock and dirt road primarily single lane.  Twila and I decided to try it yesterday.  It is a dead end road so we only followed it until it crossed over the top of the mountains and started down the other side.  I think it was probably 5 or 6 miles.  It was fairly rough but didn’t even require 4 wheel drive.  This is a picture looking back down on our campground.

These are just some pictures I took showing the road.

This is our last day here in Turah.  Tomorrow morning we will head East on I-90 to St. Regis, MT which is almost to the Idaho border.

Jack and Barbara left here Wednesday morning to park their trailer at a cabin their son and his family have rented close to Stevensville, MT which is South of Missoula.  They will meet up with us again Sunday at St. Regis and then we plan to continue looking around Northern Idaho.