I was there!

Leaving Sturgis, we headed to Yellowstone. We went thru Buffalo to enter on the east side. Stayed at Fishing Bridge campground in Yellowstone. I thought it was a ripoff for $46.50 per night. Saw Old Faithful and cruise thru coming out in Montana. Headed north from Missoula to a campground on Flathead Lake. Had a windstorm that snapped off a tree and hit someone's motorhome. Headed north again thru Glacier National Park. Awesome views over Logan Pass. Looped around the park to a campground between Kalispell and Libby. Now in Libby, headed into Idaho and then into Washington. Couple of days at Lake Wenatchee State Park and home for granddaughter's birthday on Saturday. Haircut, shave and back to work and our winter routine. This will be the final entry until the next adventure!

As we travel right along, we left Stephen Forbes State Park in central Indiana and moved north to Johnson-Sauk Trail State Park. Nice place in the trees, had quite a few campers here. The next day we headed out on I-80 and stopped at the "Largest Truckstop in the World". This place has everything you could imagine for a trucker. Dentist, barber, showers, a store full of chrome accessories and videos of "Smoky and the Bandit". On we went to Dolliver State Park in central Iowa, near Lehigh. Next day was a new state, Minnesota, we stayed at Blue Mounds State Park, they had a bison herd. Today is Monday the 19th and we have moved to South Dakota. We stopped in Sioux Falls and found a car wash/dog wash combo. Pretty cool, we washed Oliver with a setup like a car wash, then washed the motorhome. We sopped at our new favorite market here "Hy-Vee", they are an employee owned, grocery chain. We have been pretty impressed with them. Tonight we are at Oahe Downstream Park in Pierre, South Dakota. Hardly anyone here, it's great. Tomorrow we move to Custer State Park near Mint Rushmore. South Dakota has to have the best tourism, hands down, of any state. We started at Wall, home of the famous Wall Drug, a huge tourist trap. It reminded us of the Caribbean , when the cruise ships would stop. We then proceeded to drive thru the Badlands, similar geology to some of the Nevada areas we have seen. Onto to Custer State Park, my favorite park of the trip. We spent two nights, to see all of the sights. We got up early the first morning to do the wildlife drive, we saw turkeys, deer, prairie dogs and drove thru a herd of 1300 bison that were on the road. Mint. Rushmore and Crazy Horse were next, quite the dedication from the two fellows that spearheaded the monuments. A quick stop in Custer to get groceries and do laundry. Next day we left the area, going thru Deadwood and Sturgis on our way out. We plan on spending the night in Wyoming and heading to Yellowstone tomorrow. This area has a lot to do in a small area

A walk in the campground

With only a few more tick sightings, we left Maumee State Park near Oregon, Ohio and headed to Michigan. I see where the mispronunciation of Oregon by “easterners” comes from, Oregon, Ohio is pronounced “oregone”. We cruised up the shores of Lake Huron thru Toledo, Ohio, past Ann Arbor, Michigan up to Tawas Point State Park on Lake Huron. These last few parks have been huge. There are 3 to 4 hundred campers, all crammed into the smallest space possible and full. Hard to walk the dog, because of all the barking that takes place. We left Tawas and headed across Michigan to Lake Michigan, to the little town of Manistee, cool little place with a harbor right downtown. We turned south and headed to Van Buren State Park, right next to the Palisades Nuclear Plant in South Haven. Odd to see these Nuclear plants here, being from the area where we have stopped building (Satsop) or torn down (Rainier) ours. Another park of 3 to 400 packed people. We have noticed a change from RV’s to trailers, our last camp had 8 Rvs compared to 200 or so trailers or tents. Out west it was almost 50/50 split, I’m not sure of the change. We headed again south to meet friends in southern Indiana. Down to Gary, Indiana, glancing by Chicago thru Indianapolis to Patouka Lake near French Lick. Another huge park, though not as full. We stayed two nights, first time since we left Kansas, that we have not moved on after one night. Our friends are about 15 miles south, we are going to stay two or three days and head for the west coast. Mnt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse and Yellowstone are our goals for home. Our grand daughter has a birthday on Sept 3 that we want to be at. Then it is load the boat, head to the San Juans for a week or two, then back to work and our winter routine. Sometime thru the winter I am sure next summers plans will hatch. We spent an enjoyable few days in the back hills of Indiana. This has to be the “Conspiracy Theory” capital of the US. Chemtrails, 9-11, IRS, Muslim religion, Obama and Federal Government are all subject to conjecture. We went on a local zipline, did a tour of the area, went fishing(where Suzie caught a catfish and I didn’t catch anything). Our friend are building a log house in the hills, no inspections, no permits- there are none in their county. We have headed out to Stephen Forbes State Park in central Illinois. We have made the turn to return home, feels kind of strange to point west.

Neat cruise thru the middle of America. People are way friendly, even if they are hard to understand. I didn't realize there were so many turkeys around. I had never seen a wild turkey before this trip, now from Missouri to Virginia we saw them every day. Odd, thru the middle of America- a "fireworks" superstore and. "XXX" superstore at every major exit. Different fast food and grocery stores also. We have stayed at Edgar Evins State park by Knoxville, TN, Davy Crockett birthplace state park in eastern Tennessee. On to Virginia, thru to Pipestem state park in West Virginia, to Kanawha state park near Charleston, West Virginia. Then to Salt Run state park near Cambridge, Ohio. Today we are headed tho Marker state park on Lake Erie near Toledo, Ohio. We are going to loop up thru Michigan after. We had a tick infestation with Oliver, so we had to make a stop at Petsmart in Charleston for a dip and wash. Suzie has a thing for ticks, so it has been an interesting few days.