On Tuesday, August 21st, I left Rapid City heading for the “Life on Wheels Conference” in Des Moines, Iowa. Once I had left the Black Hills area there isn’t an awful lot to report about South Dakota. The scenery is quite blah! I stayed overnight in Salem, South Dakota, a weather front came through during the night and it was drizzling a bit while I was packing up, but nothing too serious. The drizzle turned to rain around the South Dakota/Iowa border—then the rain turned to downpour and by the time I got to Sioux Falls I was in a deluge. Fortunately about five miles later the Iowa Welcome Center appeared and I sat there for about 30 minutes thinking “welcome to Iowa.” Fortunately I ran out of the rain, but from the weather forecast I ... read more

I have really been amazed at all the interesting places here in this area. Mount Rushmore is just the draw to get folks here. There are caves, gold mines, wild-life parks and on and on, in addition to the know attractions. There is a little place called Sturgis, just north of here and each year they host the Sturgis Bike Ride, the locals call it “Sturgis week.” I had never heard of it. It attracts 400,000 motor cycles! I was talking to a lady on my bus tour the other day, she was staying at the Holiday Inn, she told me that there were two groups of bikers that were also staying at there, and one of the groups had shipped their bikes over from Italy and the other from Ireland! Go figure. Thankfully the ... read more

I was travelling on Hwy 85 through North and South Dakota and had reserved my campsite in Medora because there simply wasn’t another campground on Hwy 85 for miles. I had originally planned to stay one night, but about 50 miles away the scenery started to change and when I turned onto Interstate 94 heading for Medora the view from the scenic overlook changed my stay from one to two nights in a hurry. Medora is most unusual. General George Custer stayed here in 1876 on his way to Little Bighorn, All of the sidewalks in the downtown are wooden and the buildings are built in the 1880-90 style. It is a great place to visit. The town was founded in 1883 by a French nobleman and was named for his bride. He came to Medora ... read more

I arrived in Medicine Hat on June 26th and settled into a very pretty campground just outside the limits of the City of Medicine Hat. The campground is located on a golf course and the view through my windshield is of the 18th tee. There are several avid golfers out on the course by 7 a.m., which is usually the time I take a walk, so I have enjoyed seeing some good shots and heard “fore“ several times. Our family arrived in Medicine Hat on July 1st of 1977, the population then was about 36000. The land approaching Medicine Hat is very flat in all directions but the city itself is built in and around a cluster of hills known as “coulees.” Which is apparently a French word. The campground/golf course is located in one of ... read more

When I was first planning this trip I had only planned to stay one day in Salt Lake City, primarily to see Temple Square, then I saw how big The Great Salt Lake is and decided that I should stay the extra day so that I could take it in also. The Great Salt Lake is an inland sea stretching 75 miles long by 28 miles wide, it is the remnants of the pre- historic lake which covered 20,000 square miles during the Ice Age. The lake has no outlet; water leaves only through evaporation. Water flows into the lake from four river drainages carrying 2.2 million tons of minerals into the lake each year. Because of this high concentration of minerals are left behind and salinity levels range between 4% and 28% compared to ... read more