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Published: August 13th 2008
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A Nice Bison!!!!
Devin was psyched to have a bison so close and also comforted by the walls of the RV. Since the last time I wrote we were playing in the Tetons. We awoke at Flagg Ranch for a day in Yellowstone National Park. I apologize in advance to all of you out there that have been to Yellowstone and LOVED it. I LIKE it. Nick really wanted to see Old Faithful so we decided that we would do a 60 mile loop within the park which would allow us to see about 40 sulfur spewing geysers, waterfalls and painpots. We got to Old Faithful and had to wait only 45 minutes until the next display of thermal activity. We got front row spots for the 2 minute show. It was good and the boys’ were glad to have seen it. We then did a 2 mile walk around the geyser where there were many smaller geysers and beautiful bacterial mats that I took pictures of for school. It was really hot walking around so we went into the Yellowstone Lodge and had ice cream for lunch. I just had to get the Huckleberry ice cream and it was everything I wanted it to be; cold, wet and yummy. We then hit the road and stopped at various sites along the
Posing at Wall Drug....
Can't believe I got Nick to have his picture taken with me and this lady....do you see how far he is leaning away? way as we made our way to the East entrance of the park. Towards the end of our loop we saw MANY bison…one that was walking up the road towards us. Beautiful!!! By the end Devin had become so desensitized by the bison he would just go, “another Bison, I am sick of bison”. We had decided to stop in Cody, WY for the night. For those of you who know Buffalo Bill Cody well this would be the town for you to visit. Museums, statues, etc. We did not go to any of them but we did have a nice stay with about 50 bikers on their way to Sturgis, SD for bike week. You should all look at a map at this point and find Sturgis because you will quickly notice that we are right in the path for the bike fest. A key fact learned about the rally is that about 700,000 bikers come to Sturgis for it and there are about 700,000 residents of SD. Can you picture our Cruise America cruising down the road and bunking down with all of these people? We had decisions to make as we headed east….
After a good
Chris and I
Badlands, SD night sleep we went to the “cute” downtown of Cody and had a nice country breakfast. My Nannie would have liked the biscuits and sausage gravy I had We then decided to go to Deadwood, SD for the night. It would put us in a good place to get to Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, etc. We found a neat title RV park called Whistling Gulch and made a phone call. The lady was very nice and said that it would be 70.00 for the night (the book said 33.00) and that she had just brought the price down from 110.00. Was it bike week I asked and she said, “yes”. WOW!!! We booked the site since we figured that our options would be limited in that area. Off we went…over Big Horn Pass. It was a beautiful drive and we had a place to stay, hurray. We got off the exit for Deadwood and headed for downtown. There is no way we were prepared for what we were to see. More motorcycles than a person can count, EVER! I thought the rally was in Deadwood? Who knew… We didn’t stop in town but went straight to the campsite. We left the RV and took the trolley into town for dinner and I forgot the camera, arghh. Downtown Deadwood was crammed with people and bikes. It was overwhelming! We eventually decided to eat at the Gem Saloon (said to have the best steak in town)…it should be noted that ALL establishments had casinos in them. The Gem was not a typical drinking saloon in the old days according to the old photos on the wall. The bikers had found the restaurant too. The table sitting next to us had a woman in a bikini and just her chaps. Interesting dinner wear! There were a few moments where the boys just looked and clammed up. Comical. We found where Wild Bill Hickock had been murdered, had ice cream and watched the sites. There was a lot of entertainment but we got out before it got dark
It should be noted that Nick had been keeping track of license plates of the US states since New England and Deadwood provided him the best opportunity of finding his last two states ND and RI. Can you believe he had found Alaska and Hawaii already? Well there we were on the street and he found them in about 30 seconds as he looked at motorcycle license plates. He felt very accomplished…as he should.
We had a good night sleep returned to Deadwood for a few photo opportunities and a Sturgis T-shirt for me and much to my disappointment the motorcycles had cleared out overnight.
We then hit the road to Mt. Rushmore which was on Nick’s list of places to see. It must have been on many of the bikers’ lists also but we made it only to discover that they charge $10.00 to park. Are you kidding? Four faces (albeit they were important people) carved in stone requires 10.00 to park? We decided to boycott the parking few and park along the side of the road with our new found biker friends (people waved at me with my new Sturgis shirt on, doesn’t take much to make new friends) and snap a few photos.
Off we go to Wall Drug, Wall SD. What a zoo? I think the boys’ really liked it but it is a crazy place. Packed with people and full of “stuff”, it was a quick stop for us as we looked for entertaining things to do in SD. Can you believe that we didn’t buy anything at Wall Drug? There were so many opportunities…..
Off to the Badlands. We did the loop through the Badlands and it was neat. Not a place I would stay for a long period of time but there were beautiful colors and it was amazing since most everything else was grassland. We put to use our Annual Park Pass once again for the 15.00 entrance fee. The pass was worth the purchase since we have well surpassed the 80.00 fee of the pass in our travels.
We then headed East on 90 and tried to determine how far we would make it when we settled on Belvidere, SD. We did laundry…I know some of you can imagine 4 people and the laundry created on a trip like this. We just keep filling up our shower with dirty laundry until we can’t stand it any longer and Belvidere was the place. We even saw a little of the Olympics. The best part about our stay was that we made homemade chocolate ice cream with my cool ice cream making ball I got for Christmas. You should have seen the four of us throwing, running and rolling this green ball for 30 minutes. I am sure we looked ridiculous but it was well worth the pint of chocolate ice cream we got to eat
Well that is enough for now….hope all is well and we will see most of you very soon!!!!
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