July 23, 2023
We sat down this week and figured out exactly how much further we could go on our trip around the United States since we have to be in Red Bay, Alabama on August 12th for repairs on our RV. It looks like we will be pausing the trip around the United States at Wisconsin and heading down to Alabama from there. We plan to pick up our trip at the same place next spring and finish our loop around the United States. But just because we won’t be continuing our circle around the US that does not mean our adventures will be ending. We still have lots to see between here and Alabama and afterwards even more to see and do.
7/17- We have had a wonderful three days at our Harvest Host location. It has been perfect for seeing the surrounding area and all the tourist attractions without spending a fortune at a tourist campground. This morning it was time to explore the Badlands National Park. I have never thought much about visiting there because of the name. It just didn’t sound like a nice place to visit. But apparently the name does not do justice to the unusual, wonder and beauty of the landscape there. As soon as we began to enter The Badlands both Frank and I felt as if we had arrived on another planet. The landscape was so different than what we had seen elsewhere. https://www.nps.gov/badl/learn/index.htm
First of all I have to say one of my favorite college class was Geology. I have always been fascinated by rock and how it was formed. So if you are a geology buff The Badlands is a park you will want to visit. In the Badlands you can see the effects of deposits and erosion. You can see how the rock has deposited on top of other rocks to form a shape that resembles tiers of a cake. The various layers contain sandstones, siltstones, mudstones, claystones, limestones, volcanic ash, and shale. Once the deposits were built up erosion started to do its work and the cliffs were worn into unique jagged edges. We couldn’t help but oooh and ahhh as we drove through the park.
When we reached the end of The Badlands we were on the edge of the town of Wall, SD. As you drive out of the park you immediately start seeing signs for the “World’s Famous” Wall Drugstore. Wall Drug has quite the history. It was started in 1931 by a gentleman and his wife and with the Depression they were not getting a lot of business. Cars would pass by all the time but rarely stop. One day his wife had the idea of offer free ice cold water. They put out catchy jingle signs and soon their business was booming. Through the years they continued to grow until the store now covers two city blocks with a variety of shops and even a restaurant inside. https://www.walldrug.com/about-us We stopped for lunch and did some wandering around. Frank had to head out to the car for a business call so after I finished seeing all I wanted to see I drove us back to our campsite.
This evening quite the storm came in with high winds and lightening. We closed the slides on the motor home and hunkered down until it passed. Before it arrived we had a beautiful sunset but after that things were a bit wild. Gratefully it passed quickly and we were able to put the slides back out and go to bed.
7/18- Drove down to Hot Springs, SD this morning. It was a short drive so we got in early. When we arrived the campsite was a mess. While we had been hit by wind, rain and lighting they had been hit by baseball size hail. We were grateful we had not been there as so many cars and motor homes had been damaged by the hail. We saw people taping up broken out windows with garbage bags and the camp host told us her solar panels had been destroyed. We could see the good size divots in the grass left by the hail next to where we parked our motor home. Boy it just reminded us how quickly an enjoyable trip can be changed to one of disaster due to unexpected circumstances. Frank had a full day of work to do so once we got settled he got on the phone and I headed over to do our laundry.
7/19- As we headed out of our campsite this morning we saw a sign for The Mammoth Site. https://mammothsite.org/visit/ We weren’t sure if it would be worth a visit but since we were there we decided to stop in and see what it was. Boy were we surprised! It was an actual active dig for mammoths. In the mid 1970’s a developer happened upon some Mammoth remains as he began to excavate. It was quickly discovered that there wasn’t just one Mammoth but many more. Instead of just digging up the remains and moving them to a museum they decided to turn the site into a place of learning. They enclosed the dig and allow visitors to walk through as they continue to recover artifacts. It was so amazing to be at an actual dig and watch as bones were found.
Then we drove on to Wind Cave National Park, which was our original destination, before we stopped to see the Mammoth Site. https://www.nps.gov/wica/index.htm As we approached the park we came upon a huge herd of Buffalos crossing the road to get to some water on the other side. We were able to pull over and watch them cross right in front of our car. There were lots of baby buffalos along with their moms. It was fun to watch them run over and wallow in the mud.
Everywhere we go we buy a sticker to put on the motor home to remind us of where have been and what we have seen. Today was no exception and we were excited to add Don’t pet the fluffy cows to our collection.
The wind cave was discovered in the 1880’s by two brothers who were out hunting. They heard a whistling and went to investigate and saw wind blowing out of a hole in a rock. The wind cave is one of the longest most complex caves in the world. Depending on the atmospheric pressure, wind either blows into or out of the cave at all times. Instead of being a cave full of stalagmites and stalactites, it has popcorn and boxwork that reminds you of honeycomb. It is also full of fossils that reveal that it was once part of a great ocean. Since we were not up to walking the hundreds of steps we took the ADA tour and enjoyed viewing and learning about the cave with a small group of people.
After we got back from the wind cave we had hoped to book a time at Moccasin Hot Spring but they were booked for today so we reserved a time for tomorrow and extended our stay one more night at our campground. So instead of soaking we wandered around the town and saw the old buildings and the hot springs running near the town. We had some dinner and ice cream before heading back to the motor home.
7/20- What a relaxing wonderful day. We had booked three hours at Moccasin Hot Springs. Moccasin Hot Springs was originally built in the early 1880’s where the hot springs naturally came out of the ground. https://www.moccasinsprings.com/history For 80 years the hot springs were used by visitors from around the world but in the 1960’s due to damage from a fire the spa was closed and the pools filled in. In 2014 the area was purchased and the new owner began to restore the property keeping as much of the original structure as possible. Today there are multiple pools to soak in ranging from 80 degrees to 106 degrees. The spa only allows a small number of people in for each three hour soak. It is an adult only spa, no cell phones are allowed and patrons are asked to keep their voices low. Because of that it is a very relaxing experience. We enjoyed rotating between the various pools during our time there. We left ready to head back to the RV and take a long nap.
7/21- We left Hot Springs today to head up to North Dakota. We planned to visit the Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but since the drive was longer than we like we stopped for the night in a little town of Bowman. They had a campground there that was run by the park and recreation department. It was inexpensive and made for a nice stay. We always enjoy meeting and getting to visit with others that we meet in campgrounds so after a long days drive we just hung out at the campground and visited with our neighbors.
7/22- July is a busy birthday month for our family, several of our grandchildren, our daughter-in-law and Frank celebrate their birthdays in July. Today was Frank’s birthday and we celebrated it by heading out to do some more site-seeing. We visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park today. I think it would have been more impressive if we hadn’t just visited The Badlands. The landscape between the two places was very similar. So we decided to see if we could find Theodore Roosevelt’s original ranch. https://www.nps.gov/thro/index.htm
Over 30 miles of dirt roads later we pulled into a deserted parking lot with signs directing us to a walking trail to the remains of the ranch. Since it was a hot day we decided instead to follow a worn-down Jeep trail in the direction that the walking trail went. Before we knew it we were right on the river banks of the Little Missouri River. Although we never found the remains of the ranch we did have a nice drive both to the ranch and back. We took a different way back and what had been an hour and 15 minute drive out became an almost two hour drive back.
We saw a prong horn on our way back which was amazing. We stopped in the town of Medora on the way back where we viewed an old meat packing plant and got some fudge and ice cream to celebrate Frank’s birthday.
7/23- We had heard about the Enchanted Highway and so today we headed off to find it. https://www.ndtourism.com/regent/attractions-entertainment/family-fun/enchanted-highway We headed about 30 miles down Interstate 92 toward exit 72. Then we drove another 32 miles along Highway 21 where we were able to see the amazing tin statues welded together by artist Gary Greff. In the 1980’s Gary wanted to tempt tourist off the interstate into his small town of Regent, ND. He learned how to weld and using supplies from the oil field he began to build his creations. From geese flying, to a tin family, the stops along the road allow you to pull off and really view the art. Once reaching the town of Regent you could view several more smaller works of art before viewing the largest creation he is currently working on. The Knight and Dragon were impressive and we took pictures of each other by these statues so you could see how truly large they are. Although this was a long drive out of the way both of us enjoyed it and felt it was worth the time to stop and see. It is just the type of curiosity we enjoy.
Tomorrow we finish up North Dakota before heading into Minnesota and Wisconsin. It is sad this trip is winding down but we have been on the road now for over 5 months and will hit our 6 month mark by the time we arrived in Red Bay, Alabama.
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