We spent 9 days in Cody, Wyoming visiting Bill,Elaine,Ron and Rhonda! We had a great time! Bill and Elaine have a very nice “little” house! ya right. very nice and well decorated. Loved it!
Let’s see we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum, went for a ride along the Beartooth highway, went shooting with Bill and Elaine, out to dinner a couple of times and hung around with Ron and Rhonda. The 9 days went by fast! weather was great, well maybe a little warm!
We did go for an atv ride to the wild mustang management area. http://codyandbeyond.com/horses-cody-wyoming.html Within a mile of where we parked we saw the mustangs! Again as we were coming out, we saw them again!
We decided not to head to Island Park, Idaho. Mike and Shar Reynolds were not going to be home and there were fires over there too. So we decided to head toward our South Dakota destination.
We left Cody and headed north, with our first stop being Billings, Montana. The KOA we picked out was way to expensive! The only sites they said they had left, were the deluxe sites, yet we saw a lot of the cheaper sites sitting empty. So we left and headed to Hardin, Montana, near Little Bighorn. http://www.nps.gov/libi/index.htm Found a nice rv park, not fancy, but with long pull throughs and friendly owners.
Our next stop was Terry, Montana. http://visitterrymontana.com/ Our rv site was a small mom and pop campground with very friendly owners. Not fancy by any means but did have long pull throughs. Very small town, but did have a restaurant and a bar with food. We took a
road trip in the car to the Terry Badlands. This was just a preview of the South Dakota badlands. We stopped at an overlook and will walking we heard a buzzing… looking around we could not see anything. Started walking closer to some rocks we heard it again! Hmmm…. buzzing ahhh a rattlesnake. Still couldn’t see him, but we respected his warning and backed off a bit!
Our next stop was Medora, North Dakota. http://www.medora.com/ We got there after the 7th of September and everything was closed! A few restaurants and shops were open, but most of the museums, shows etc were done for the season!
The main reason to go to Medora was to visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. http://www.nps.gov/thro/index.htm We took the scenic drive through the park and saw
wild horses as well as Buffalo. Even watched a man get out of his truck and in front of his door to get a picture of a big bull. No more than 15 feet away from him. Here’s your sign!!!! Not a chance if the buffalo had charged.
Devils tower west of Spearfish was our next destination. Beautiful day for our 27 mile ride to the entrance.
Spectacular views. we took a walk around the base and saw climbers! Thought of my brother Brian! He would have done this! Not me!
Time to move on to Hill City, SD and Crooked Creek rv park. To begin the Shuman family reunion. We did have a couple of days before everyone got there, so we took an atv ride into the black Hills National forest. Not a long or difficult ride, but a nice leisurely drive of about 25 miles. Donna and Bill Morgan went with us in their suv.
Loretta and I both got sick! First me with stomach ache and achy joints. Lasted for about a day and a half. Then Loretta, who was a little more under the weather than I was. Pretty much the same symptoms. We had to delay our ride around Custer State park and the wildlife loop.
We were not disappointed when we did get to ride the loop. We saw a lot of Buffalo. Even got to hear them grunting and dusting ! Also saw a lot of Prong horn Antelope as well.
Although we did not go to Mt. Rushmore,
we were able to see it from a distance. Still impressive and majestic. I liked it better from a distance!
As Loretta was still not feeling well, I took the train ride from Hill City to Keystone. This was on an 1880’s steam train, with restored passenger cars. I expected the ride to be a lot more scenic than it turned out to be. An hour ride up, a 15 minute break and then return. A little disappointing.
Time to move on to the Badlands National Park. http://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm We stayed at the Badlands Interior Campground. Another mom and pop campground, in the town of Interior, SD, population 67. The Morgans also joined us on this leg of our journey.
The Badlands are true to their name! What a lonely desolate area, but beautiful! We took the driving tour through the Badlands and were treated to seeing Bighorn sheep and of course Prong horn too. I just looked at my pics and only got one picture of the Bighorns and it was of their butts! Loretta got lot more.
Actually on the first drive we went to the Minuteman Missle Museum and then drove into Wall,SD to wall drug. Yeah I know a tourist trap! However Loretta and I had not been there in over 40 years and we shocked at how much it had grown. when we were there earlier in our lives, it seemed like the town was small and wall drug was a few buildings with a large parking lot, in what it seemed like the middle of nowhere! This day was wet and cool, so it was a good day to visit inside.
Almost caught up! The next leg was from the Badlands to Ft. Robinson, Nebraska. What a pleasant surprise. The State park is beautiful and steeped in history. Although most of the activities are done for the season, several of the buildings are open on the weekend for viewing.
Yesterday we took a ride to Agate Fossils National Monument. A beautiful, but boring ride. http://www.nps.gov/agfo/index.htm This a very interesting place. During the 1890s, scientists rediscovered what the Lakota Sioux already knew – bones preserved in one of the most complete Miocene mammal sites in the world.
Yet, this place called “Agate” is a landscape that reflects many players – from early animals roaming the valleys and hills, to tribal nations calling the High Plains home, to explorers passing through or settling in the American West.
On our way home we stopped in Harrison, NE. “The top of Nebraska” and ate at the Longhorn Saloon, run by two wonderful ladies. The food was good and so was the decor of the saloon. would recommend stopping if in the area. After we got back to the park, we took a quick tour of the park and the various buildings and did some geocaching as well. So ends our visit to FT. Robinson State Historical Park. So we thought!
The weather turned on us this am. It was cool, windy and rainy, so we have decided to stay another night and leave in the morning for Scotts Bluff.
I hope all had a good summer as we have. Hope to see some of you in Tucson. For us we will be heading to Denver to fly to South Carolina for my youngest brothers wedding on October 5th. will be back to Denver by the 6th and will decide when to leave Denver at that time. Thanks to Ron and Loretta for agreeing to watch Brody and the motor home.
Happy Trails and keep in touch!