The adventure continues

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It has been quite a journey so far. We traveled from Texas, our state is so large, you can travel forever and still be in Texas. We made it to Dumas, Tx. and spent the night. Got up early and drove all the way to Cheyenne, Wyoming on Monday, Rick and Dale left McKinney on Monday as well and drove all the way to Denver (Jim said "We should have just driven straight thru and taken the route that Rick & Dale took which was different than ours. Oh, well.....it is what it is.

We spent the night in Cheyenne, Wy. If anyone stays there for what ever reason.......you must go have dinner at "Poor Richards".....wonderful meal, wonderful salads, soups, and DESSERT!

We woke early and headed out to Custer, South Dakota. Not a very scenic drive, just rolling plains. Once we got to Custer, I felt like our vacation had started. We got there early enough and visited Jewel Cave, Jim doesn't care to be underground, so he was not very happy when the park ranger told our group that we were 23 stories underground!!! This cave is one of the longest caves, to date, they have explored 169miles!!! We checked into our KOA cabin and settled in. We went to Crazy Horse Monument......WOW, this is some undertaking! I don't think that it will be finished in my life time. This monument is NOT government funded which I think is good, they depend on private donations and revenue from the monument venues. We found a great place to eat, Baker's Cafe & Bakery........yummy breakfast!!! Did not dare eat any of the baked goods as I feared where each bite might settle! Mt. Rushmore was awesome. The Presidential Trail is a very well built trail. Got to meet one of the workers and purchased his book. We drove thru Custer State Park, beautiful park, drove thru 8 tunnels, saw wild burros & buffalos, the scenic drives are excellent, got to take pictures.....as always, pictures never do the actual scene justice.....unless you are Ansel Adams!

After 2 nights spent in Custer, we drove to Billings, Montana. As we left Custer, it started to snow! Jim and I both couldn't believe it...........Jim did have "white knuckle syndrome" as we went over the passes. We stopped in Deadwood, SD to pay our respects to "Wild Bill Hickok" & "Calamity Jane" where they are buried side by side. It was a rainy day with intermittent snow. Our next stop along the way was The Little Bighorn Natl. Monument............it really got to me. Jim had been really looking forward to the visit. After spending a couple of hours there, we headed to Billings, Montana and spent the night there. The following day we headed for Butte, Montana to spend 2 nights with our friends. It was great to see them, we ate too much, and drank too many bottles of wonderful wine. Kathy even made an old german recipe from her grandmother......Dumplings.......YUMMY! It started to snow, and cont'd to snow, we started thinking that we were not going anywhere on Sunday! Well, we waited til about 11:00 am and started our trip to Lethbridge, Alberta. It was sort of nerve racking because it cont'd to snow, but the roads were clear with some slush at times, but we cont'd and made it to the border. The border crossing was not bad, it went smoothly. We spent the night in Lethbridge, Alberta and headed to Banff the following morning.

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