Spring Green, Wisconsin and House on the Rock

Pull into the Wisconsin Riverside Resort on Sunday the 25th to see the House on the Rock. This is a pretty campground surrounded by the Wisconsin River on one side and corn fields on the other three sides. The river, like most of the rivers that we have seen on this trip, was running brim full. For dinner that night, Carl and I drove down to "Arthurs" for Turkey Dinner carryout. This was enough per serving for nearly three meals. No shortage in the servings here. Drove over the the "House on the Rock", about 8 miles south of town, on Monday. I was a little skeptical of this, despite Tom Hanlon's description - BUT, it was a great experience in everything. I can't begin to describe the variety within this "house". His personal home through a mock up village, a whale/giant squid battle, an infinity room, a hughe carousel with 249 animals (no horses), Asian sculptures, knights, on and on and on. Three sections and we were there most of the day, finally leaving exhausted. This picture is of Carolyn, Anna, and Carl in the "Streets of Yesteryears".

This will probably be the last entry in the Blog as from here we are just doing overnights throught Illinois, Indiana, Ohio and home. We expect now to be home sometime Friday afternoon, July 30th. See you there.

July 21st Badlands South Dakota

Wednesday July 21st we drove down SD-240, the Badlands Loop Road, to visit the famous scenery in this area. The Badlands were formed basically when water runoff from the Black Hills washed down onto the prairie area east of the Hills and washed away the soft sandstone and ash, leaving fantastic gullies and watersheds that create the tortured look of the land here. It is desolate, and at the same time beautiful and in constant contrast between the grasslands and the washed away landscape. We drove slowly around the loop road, stopping at most of the turn-outs to take a short walk and read about the landscape. Took a side trip out a dirt road to the Prairie Dog town. Saw the Bison herd at a distance only. If you are driving down I-90 in the area it is worth a day to see. Don't miss it.

We also discovered an old Minute Man Missile silo Museum where they were giving tours right at the intersection of I-90/SD-240. The tours were booked up a week in advance, so will have to plan for that next time we are in the area.

While here we also did the Wall Drug tour for a couple of hours. Interesting, reminds me of "South of the Border", but ten times more interesting. Now that we have been here, we don't need to come back to Wall.

I am getting this in a full week late because of a lack of WiFi until we got down to Richmond, Indiana where I am posting this from.

Sunday in Custer State Park

Sunday we got up fairly early and drove down to Custer, SD then on out to Custer State Park. We took the Wildlife loop counterclockwise, starting out in the mountainous area then down throught foothills into the prairie. Herds of Pronghorn Antelope were grazing everywhere that we cared to look. Down into the southern part of the loop, around the praiie dog town, a herd of donkeys were gathered around the tourists, especially the children, begging treats. On up the east side of the loop we went off pavement to drive the dirt road over to the buffalo corrals, where the rangers round up the herd and sell what they can't maintain in the park. The herd was just coming up over a hill and wandered across the road in front of and behind us, then on off to graze in other areas. I counted over 100 in this herd, and more were a little way off grazing separately.

Back in the town of Custer we had lunch at a small cafe and bought doughnuts to go. We were told about "grandma"'s Pie bakery so drove over and bought a large Strawberry/Rhubarb to take home with us for after dinner. Actually, it lasted a couple of nights.

Monday we drove up to Deadwood, SD and went up to St. Moriah Cemetary to view "Wild Bill's" grave and the other stones throughout the park. The view over the town from the top of the hill was amazing. Down to walk the streets and have lunch to a live country singer. The Ford Model T club was having a major rally in Rapid City and were spreading out throughout the area. We ran into literally, hundreds of them in the Hill City area and even out into the Badlands later.

Mount Rushmore

Friday, July 16th we drove up to see the Mount Rushmore National Memorial. The walk down to, and through, the array of state flags was beautiful, as those who have seen it can attest. We too the tour walk down to the "cave" beneath Washingtons head and on around the walkway.

That afternoon we drove down into Hill City for a walkabout and window shopping up and down the street.

Saturday we went to visit Keystone for a shopping tour and then on up to "Bear Country", a drive through zoo south of Rapid City. Unfortunately, we had gotten a late start and most of the animals were down for their mid-day nap. We saw Elk with tremendous spread of antlers curled up in the grass, as were most of the animals. We saw them all, but had to look hard. The bears were an exception, walking about in their area and holding up traffic as they wandered across the road. After "Bear Country" we stopped by two wineries for a little sampling. A Corvette club was also doing some nipping and having a great time. We ended up buying several local varieties before heading back to the campground.

July 15th Black Hills South Dakota

Today, July 15th we pulled into the Rafter J Bar Ranch CG south of Hill City, SD. We took US-16 from the Devils Tower area and cut across country to come into the CG from Custer in the south. The trip was a pain because of road construction in several areas that held us up for maybe fifteen minutes each time. Not a major problem, but you hate to sit still when you could be traveling. Did OK until we came to the Hell's Canyon area. The road went down into the canyon via a series of sharp switchbacks then back up the other side using more switchbacks. Twenty MPH most of the time watching front for the road, ahead for oncoming cars/trucks, and behind to see how the wheels on the trailer were tracking. We made it. If you are up for an adrenaline kick, I recommend this section of US-16, otherwise just take I-90 to Rapid City and come south. This post is late because the WiFi at the CG was too limited to be of use, so we were not able to keep up with the Blog until arriving in Mitchell, SD on the 22nd. Sorry.

Yellowstone NP - The Adventure Continues

Tuesday, July 13th, and we drove back into the Park again today to the Old Faithful Geyser Basin for a trip around the boardwalk paths behind the old boy. We didn't get to this area either in 2007 or this week so we had to try it. They have some beautiful springs and geysers back there so I took a movie of one of them spouting off for us. Old Faithful was getting close to blowing so we stopped and found a nice place to take a movie from behind it, using several trees to frame the eruption. Very nice effect. The wind was blowing hard so I made good use of my tripod to steady both the DSLR as well as the Kodak movie cameras. Temperature is still holding in the upper 60's, fairly consistent each day that we have been here (upper 30's at night). Should pull out Wednesday morning for Billings, Montana as an overnight then on to Hill City, SD for Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore. More after getting to Hill City.

Painted Bison

For those of you who have been in West Yellowstone, you know that one of the common sights in town are the Painted Bison around town. We can't have a blog without a picture of one of them. This Bison was outside of the Wolf and Grizzly Discovery Center with others spread out around town.