Wieganr1

July 15-16 On day two in the Badlands, laundry almost done, we left the dog’s and drove to the Badlands park visitors center. We enjoyed the archeological bones exhibit. We picked up our magnet. We have 60+ now on the refrigerator from all our trips. Just seven so far this trip. We headed out toward the loop road which explores the western half of the park. There were some beautiful vistas with lush green grass separating the sedimentary formations. The farther north the color of the formations changed and began exhibiting streaks of yellow and reddish hues among the common grey formations. It certainly beautiful in its foreboding desolation. We wondered how did Indians and pioneers survive this area? We saw remnants of sod huts from those days. This area was once inhabited by a large ... read more

July 12-14 It’s been frustrating to blog last week without WiFi and very little cell signal. And it doesn’t seem to be getting better but worse. I’m making notes and will post when I can upload pictures and text. This morning we got up and headed northwest again. We were hoping for better roads but it was only marginally better. We hit a bridge seam that was bad and noticed a shimmy had developed in the truck. It is very difficult to tell if it’s the road or the truck. If we could find a smooth road we might know but that’s asking the impossible. We arrived at Oahe Dam Downstream campground near Pierre SD by mid afternoon. It was hot but not as bad as Iowa. We had to get water as we try not ... read more

July 6 We slept in this morning. I think all four of us were more tired than usual. We had breakfast after walking the dogs. I did a few loads of laundry. We had checked in with Angie and Dan, they thought they would come out to the trailer for a visit. So while my laundry slowly got done we had more time to visit mixed with short walks with the dogs. Around 4 pm we left the dogs at the trailer and the four of us headed into Amana for a little more shopping and we’d have dinner at the Yoke Inn another German family style restaurant. We looked about at three or four shops before heading to the restaurant. I did buy some homemade fudge, just two pieces to try it. For dinner David ... read more

July 4th Happy Independence Day! It was a nice leisurely morning. As usual David took the dogs out, I got coffee and breakfast started but I had extra to prepare this morning as David took home Apple Strudel from the restaurant last night to have for breakfast. I had creme pie last night as did David. The apple strudel is much better is our assessment this morning. We enjoyed it very much. We got showers and I did a few chores before we loaded up and headed the twenty miles into Cedar Rapids. Dan had given me directions for a new road that was more direct to their house but I missed a turn somewhere and our GPS didn’t have the new road listed. Why is it you buy a vehicle that comes with navigation, for ... read more

July 2 When we got up this morning I was worrying about changing the trailer tire. I realized in the middle of the night that we could just call road side assistance. Our issuance has it on the policy, technically were not along the road but I didn’t think just cause were parked that would matter, we are traveling. So I mentioned it to David, who did seem a little reluctant to get started on the task of changing the tire. I called USAA roadside assistance they had me go to a web site to fill out the form and within just a few minutes said they would text me who was coming. Part of the difficulty was we needed to leave for our visitor tour at Warm Springs Ranch at noon so we didn’t have ... read more