July 16, 2023
We don’t travel in a very straight line. We wander whichever way when there is something we want to see. Because of that we have been and out of some states more than once on this trip. So it is little wonder that we ended up back in Wyoming and Montana on our way to South Dakota.
7/10- Today as we drove through parts of Wyoming we kept seeing a cleft in a rock and as we got closer to it we saw a sign that said Martin’s Cove so we had to pull in and check the place out. On November 4, 1856 pioneers traveling from the British Islands across the United States toward Utah became trapped near what is now Mills, Wyoming due to the cold and snow exhaustion and lack of food. They had walked and pulled handcarts across the plains and were too weak to continue their march. They were eventually rescued by members of their church, but before that rescue many died at Martin’s Cove. It is a place that honors and remembers these pioneers. Many people come there to reenact their trek. We lifted an empty handcart but did not attempt to pull it. We could not imagine what it must have felt like to pull a fully loaded handcart across the country for months walking the whole way. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/learn/locations/martins-cove-mormon-trail-site?lang=eng
After a long day we arrived at River’s Edge in Evansville, Wyoming. We are camped on the edge of the Platte River and saw the Cottonwood trees in full bloom. We met our neighbor who is also a full time RVer. He has a RV bird that travels with him named Lola. Lola was very friendly and was happy to meet me and even wanted to give me a kiss which I had to decline.
7/11- Today was another long day of travel. We are staying at a Harvest Host location on a golf course in Sheridan, Wyoming. Along our drive we stopped and visited Fort Phil Keaney Historical Site. The fort was only in use for two years from 1866 to 1868. During the short time it existed there were a couple battles with the Indians who did not want the white men on their land. After the Fort Laramie treaty the government abandoned a number of forts including this one. It was burned shortly after it was abandon. Today they have used plans to recreate parts of the fort. https://www.fortphilkearny.com/fort-phil-kearny-history
7/12- The Harvest Host we stayed at last night was pretty busy with golfers until about 9 pm, then things settled down and we were able to relax and rest. We left very early this morning as the parking lot where we were camping was very small and difficult to get into yesterday with all the golfers cars. So once golfers started arriving at 7 am we decided it was time to get out while we could. We headed only a short distance up the road to Little Big Horn where Custer’s last stand took place. The Battle of the Little Bighorn was fought along the ridges, steep bluffs, and ravines of the Little Bighorn River, in south-central Montana on June 25-26, 1876. The combatants were warriors of the Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho tribes, battling men of the 7th Regiment of the US Cavalry, along with their Crow, and Arikara scouts. The battlegrounds showed both sides of the story between the soldiers who were determined to move the Native Americans off the plains toward reservations and the Native Americans who were fighting to keep their land and way of life. There was a sadness there as we explored the battlefield for almost an hour. https://www.nps.gov/libi/learn/historyculture/battle-story.htm
Then it was off to Broadus, Montana where we are staying at a small quiet campground before heading back into Wyoming on are trek toward South Dakota.
7/13- We are spending the next couple days at a KOA in Devil’s Tower, Wyoming. It was here in 1977 that Steven Spielberg filmed the closing scenes of the movie Close Encounter of the Third Kind. Because of that the campground shows the movie every night at 8 pm for visitor’s to view. As soon as we were just a few miles from the Tower we could see how impressive and big it was. https://www.intermountainhistories.org/items/show/226
Our campground is really nice and they had a restaurant and an outdoor stage where they have performers. While we were there they had 2Country4Nashville preforming. They were a fun band to listen to and were even familiar with the area in Tennessee where we use to live. In fact they had even preformed in Red Boiling Springs at the Donoho Hotel which originally belonged to some of Frank’s ancestors. They played Rocky Top for us and we had fun singing along. We spent an hour enjoying their music before heading up to Devil’s Tower. https://2country4nashville.com/about/
Devil’s Tower is so busy in the daytime they have stoplights that monitors traffic and stops cars until there is room for more cars in the parking lot, so we had decided to head up in the evening when a lot less people went up exploring. We got up to the Tower at 7:30 pm and decided to take the hike around it. The hike was a 1.6 miles and we were not sure if we were up to that far if it was a lot of up and down hills, but most of the hike was pretty level. Still it took us almost an hour and a half to get around the Tower and we were glad to get back to our Jeep before dark. I did have to sit down and take a small break along the way. We found ourselves taking lots of pictures as we hiked around it. We learned a lot about the tower such as it was a volcanic plug which got pushed up creating what we saw. Although the Native American’s had their own legend of how the tower was created by a Bear that chased their people up a giant rock and clawing at the rock as he climbed. https://www.nps.gov/deto/index.htm
7/14 – Today was a day for exploring the back dirt roads around Devil’s Tower but first we wanted to head back to the Prairie Dog Town near Devil’s Tower to see the Prairie Dogs who had all gone to bed when we went by last night. They were so cute to watch as the ran around.
As we headed off-roading we managed to get lost a couple times along the way and by the end of the day had spent almost 50 miles exploring the back country. It is a beautiful place and we both talked about how much we loved the open country and backroads.
This evening we decided to try and watch Close Encounter of the Third Kind at the campgrounds, but between the mosquitos and the cold we gave up and headed back to the motorhome.
7/15- The first time Frank asked me out to lunch in 1973 was on the backseat of his Honda motorcycle. We started dating and I enjoyed riding around on the back of his motorcycle. By 1979 we both had a motorcycle and we would plop our two sons behind us and go for a ride. Over the years motorcycles have come in and out of our lives from a scooter to a Harley. Riding was always a joy and we would often talk about how someday when we were retired we were going to tour the United States on a motorcycle. Unfortunately, health and injuries put an end to that dream and put us in an RV touring the United States pulling our Jeep behind us. But that didn’t mean we stopped loving motorcycles which was why Sturgis, South Dakota was a destination on our bucket list. Today we checked that destination off the list. We got to visit the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum where we saw a wide variety of motorcycles.
One of the motorcycles that Frank was most excited about was a Sears Allstate which was the first bike Frank ever owned. Then after spending a lot of time browsing there we headed across the street to the Harley shop to pick out some tee-shirts with Sturgis’ name on them. It was a wonderful stop and we both enjoyed our time there.
Then we arrived at our Harvest Host Farm where we will be spending the next couple days at. It is located just outside of Rapid City, South Dakota and they allow you to stay more than one night for the charge of $10 a day and also have 30 amp power hook-up for another $10 a day. There was already someone hooked up to the power today but they are leaving tomorrow and we will go ahead and hook-up then. We love our solar and it does an amazing job running most everything in the RV but it will not run the Air Conditioner so when we are on solar we open the windows and use a couple fans and hope for a good breeze. The farm we are staying at is 5 miles up a dirt road and then another ½ mile their driveway but it is an amazing place with ducks, geese, goats, pigs, horses, cows and a turkey.
7/16- When we were in Sturgis yesterday the woman there gave us a map of great motorcycle rides and what is great for a motorcycle can also be great for Jeep too. This morning we moved our RV up to where we could hook to the power on our Harvest Host Farm and then headed out for the day. The first road we got on was Iron Mountain Road. It is 17 mile long stretch of road with 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 pigtail bridges and 3 one-lane tunnels along a beautiful setting. From the road you get an amazing view of Mount Rushmore without having to fight the crowds. https://www.ironmountainroad.com/
As soon as we finished the Iron Mountain Road we only had to travel a few miles to reach the next road on our list, Needles Highway. Needles Highway runs through Custer State Park and is 14 miles long and has 2 one-lane tunnels, the narrowest being the Needle Tunnel. The drive on Needles Highway really highlights the Granite Mountains in the area which were the inspiration for Mount Rushmore.
We made it through the highway and managed to successfully thread with our Jeep through Needles Tunnel. https://www.custerresorts.com/activities/scenic-drives/needles-highway
Before heading back to our campsite we decided to stop at the Crazy Horse Monument to see what progress had been made since our last trip there in 2001. They had added quite a few buildings but the only progress we could see on the monument was the addition of a hand. We enjoyed seeing the exhibits there and the sculptures workshop. https://crazyhorsememorial.org/ One our way back we had to stop and take a picture of a giant carved Smokey the Bear.
Then it was back to the RV where I cut up some watermelon and took the rinds out to feed the pigs. The pigs were in hiding but several of the other animals seemed to enjoy my offering including the turkey who had to strut and try to let me know who was boss. I let him know I wasn’t getting pushed around and he settled down.
We watched the baby calves come in from the field and the horses eating grass outside our RV window before heading to bed. One more day at this beautiful farm before we hit the road once again.
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