July 17th

It is the end of our first week in Custer SD.  We have had such a good time here.  So much to see and do.  We will spend one more week and then start traveling east.  It has been quite a busy week for us here.
We headed up to Sylvan lake on Wednesday the 13.  Had a great hike around the lake and did a bit of fishing.  After the lake, Jess had a hike for us.  We went off trail with all of the kids up to a place called "the poets table".  It was such a neat place.  Up in the peaks of the mountains surrounding Sylvan lake.  People have been heading up there since the 60s and writing poetry.  Somebody even took a table and chairs up from the valley.  Not a small set either.  Full on wood table and chairs.  From the hike it was off to the needles.  Rock spires that you can climb and play around on.  We had a blast.

Thursday the 14th we all headed to Stockade lake for the morning.  The kids swam and I went fishing while Tres and Jess visited.  Next up was the Badger Hole, named after Badger Clark.  Badger was a writer and poet that carved himself a sweet niche into Custer state park in the 1930s.  He built a cabin by hand and had, from the looks of it, many visitors.  The cabin is in the same state it was on the day he died.  Everything in its place.  Off to Jewel cave for a nature/information hike around the grounds.  After the nature hike we took all of the kids on a 3.5 mile hike around the Canyons trail.  It was probably in the upper 80s-low 90s.  Hot in the canyon.  On the way out of the canyon we walk right up to the only natural entrance to jewel cave and the blast of ice cold air is soooooo welcome.  It is like standing in front of a freezer with the door open on a hot summer day.  Everyone was spent.  Time for some much needed sleep.

Friday was my fly fishing morning.  I took the kids to Jess's place to play for the day and I headed into Custer State Park for some much needed alone time.  What a beautiful place to fish.  Some action, but nothing like home.  When I returned to the casa, Tres had some more work to finish up on so I headed down to Hill City for a new pair of Tevas.  (I blew my sandals out in the needles).  Once home again, Tres and I headed out to the Wildlife loop in the park and checked out the antelope, prairie dogs and the wild burros.  Half way around the loop,  the check engine light popped on.  Great timing.  We nursed the truck back, surging and hard shifting the entire way.  Worried that the truck would konk out at any time.  I got on the Internet and found that I can turn my key 3 times in the ignition and get the trouble code off of the odometer.  Pulled the code, looked up the problem on the Internet and found how to fix it.  It was a throttle positioning switch that had gone bad. The NAPA here in town doesn't have one so I had to make the trip into Custer.  To late in the day at this point so off to dinner at the Carroll house.

Sat. I went fishing with Jess's Dad Frank in the morning.  Sylvan lake is gorgeous at 0530.  No one else on the lake yet.  We spent a few hours fishing and talking about whatever popped up.  He is an interesting man with so much to teach.  Now it was time for the dreaded repair.  Off to Rapid city for the autozone and to try my hand at fixing the truck.  The 40 mile drive to Rapid City was a drain.  We got in and got the part, with my assistant Tres at my side we were done in about 15 minutes.  2 bolts, 2 Torx screws, one band and finished.  Thank you lord!!  Truck is running great again.  We were not even out of the Autozone 5 minutes and some 17 year old girl runs right into the side of the truck.  We all pulled over and I went around the truck thinking I was going to see a big hole in the side.  She just barely grazed us.  Her mirror was ripped up, but she said that it was already like that.  My scratches will buff out, no harm no foul.  She was scared to death.  She apologized and we were on our way.  Up to Ft. Hays to check out where they filmed Dances with Wolves.  Ate lunch and checked the old stuff out.  The kids made a hemp rope with a machine from the early 1900s.  Pretty cool.  We had a beautiful drive back to Custer thru Keystone and up the pigtail highway.  Breathtaking.  We finished that day here at the trailer with Jess and the kids.  BBQ and great conversation.  Kids playing and having the time of there lives.

Today was our opportunity to head into Jewel Cave.  The cave had been out of commission for a while so they could fix one of the two elevators that take guests into the cave.  It was well worth the wait.  It is a great cool place to take a walk on a hot summer day.  Beautiful formations everywhere you look.  The tour lasts about an hour and a half.  You should have seen the near panic on my beautiful wife's face when the elevators opened and we were in the airlock room.  Stuffy and damp.  Can you say claustrophobic.  She took a few deep breaths and as soon as the ranger opened the door she was good.  We will finish the day with the Carrolls again tonight.  We have been invited to dinner and will enjoy the time with friends while we can. 

Rapid City July 12th

We hopped over the hills to Rapid City SD and went to the S. Dakota School of Mines and Technology museum of geology.  What an interesting place.  It was jammed packed with every mineral you could think off.  The different colors and textures was amazing.  The museum also had a healthy collection of fossils.

 

The next stop was the Rapid City dinosaur park.  Years ago the city created a park with several sculpted dinosaurs that you can climb and play on.  It has a great view of the city and surrounding country.  We all had a good time. 

Back on the hwy heading back into Custer we stopped at an interesting spot for all of you stuffed animal people.  It is in Hill City SD and it is the worlds largest teddy bear collection.  This place is crammed with, on the day we were there, 7182 bears of all shapes, sizes, and ages.  You can hardly walk around the building it is so full.  Still not sure just how I feel about the place, I will just say it is interesting.  Just up the road was one more stop, the mistletoe station.  Christmas 375 is the best way to describe it.  From the carpet to the ceiling.  Ornaments and decorations for the holidays.  (This one was for the girls.)
Back in Custer we visited with Jess's parents, had some pizza and visited.  Sounds like her Dad is going to show us some fishing spots.  He mentioned something about 5 pound trout and I about jumped out of my skin.
The kids stayed and hung out with Jess's kids for a few hours and Tres and I went out to Custer state park and walked around Bismark lake.  Lots of turtles scooting around and fish jumping.  Another beautiful spot in a really beautiful place.

Custer South Dakota

We rolled into Custer on the evening of the 10th.  I will walk you thru the day, it was an interesting one. 
The drive from Rawlings WY to Custer S. Dakota is beautiful, if you like the desert.  More colors than a crayola crayon box.  Rock formations that would blow your mind.  Rising either out of the dry desert floor or out of a lush grassland. 

We left early to avoid some of the heat.  That worked very nicely for the truck.  She ran like a top.  Until we ran into the black hills at about 90 degrees.  I guess when I say that the day was an interesting one, I really mean the last hour or so.  We cruised thru the thunder basin area and saw the most gnarly coal mining operation I have ever seen.  GIANT!!!  Big trucks, shovels, tankers and enormous piles of dirt everywhere.  The thunder basin national grassland was not what I was expecting.  Basically hills with grass and scattered oil and gas drilling rigs.  Not much to report on that.  Once we hit the foot of the black hills we were still cruising along, enjoying the change to a conifer forest.  Pines and aspen all around.  Still going strong until we ran into a small string of campers at the steepest, most narrow spot in the entire mountain range.  None of which was doing anything to the speed I was looking for.  I am a big fan of momentum.  They were not.  Once we lost the big "MO", it was all over.  Traveling at a snails pace with a big load was hard on the temp. gauge and the transmission.  No matter what I tried I could not find that gear that the truck and I could agree on.  High RPMs to low RPMs back and forth.  What a nightmare.  Tres was not comfortable due to the erratic engine and the steep winding road crammed with traffic.  Needless to say, we made it out of there.
Once in to Custer, we decided that we should get our home for the next few weeks.  Something we should have done earlier in the day when we were calmer, cooler and more level headed.  Tres started making calls,We had wanted to stay at the Crazy Horse but they were wanting something like $660 for the two weeks.  NO!!  By the time she was done talking to them we were now out of town and I was as hot as the truck.  Frustrated!!!  We need to call some more places.  Oh yes.....her phone just died.  This is her iphone, the one with all of the internet connections to find rv parks.  Now we are thru town with no way to see who has what unless we go to every park and get rates.  FRUSTRATED!!!!!  She suggested that we pull off somewhere, keep in mind that I have a long bed truck with 26' of travel trailer behind it and not a ton of experience.  Well folks, faith is still the theme of this trip.  Around the next turn is a great little turnaround spot that just happens to be Custers germinate camp from back in the day.  I pull in and after dragging out the power inverter to charge things up, notice we are right in front of a sweet little rv park.  We decide to check the rates.  Thank you lord.  Less than half of what the crazy horse wanted.  Super quiet little spot with no one behind us.  We have a great view of the hills, pastures, wildlife and did I mention No one behind us.  What really blows my mind was that as we were leaving Rawlings that morning, we did our morning travel prayer and I asked the lord to watch over us and to "show us what he wanted us to see".  I don't know about you, but I believe we were where he wanted us to be.

July 11th.  Today was a tourist day.  Mt. Rushmore in all its glory.  Much smaller that I remember.  It was an educational tour.  We walked the presidence trail and saw the artists studio.  What a feat.  Looking back at the technology that they used, it was quite a feat.  From Mt Rushmore we were toying with the idea of the Crazy Horse monument, but the clouds were aaaarollin in.  Antique shop! might as well hit it.  As we walked around the first corner to the outside displays we are greeted by a 19 year old donkey named Donk!!  This little fat thing has free roam of the store.  Up and down the isles.  Crazy.  We picked up our first license plate and a sweet old jar (ha ha Jenny) for our squished commemorative pennies.  Off to the Custer county courthouse museum.  That was a 2-3 hr tour that we all learned from.  The kids did the scavenger hunt and we helped.  What a great way to learn some history.  So much history in this neck of the woods.

       

Rawlings

Well folks we are in it!!  Made it over to Twin Falls, ID on the evening of July 7th.  HOT drive!!!  Was more than a bit concerned about the truck.  Lots of weight, a hot day and an impatient driver is a bad combination. 

Our first stop on July 8th was Shoshone falls, Tres and the kids had never witnessed it.  Not fully pumping, but beautiful none the less.  After enjoying the spray of the falls we headed up to the Shoshone Ice Cave.  I had forgotten what an interesting place that was.  We had a great guide that could not have been older that 15.  He will be a geologist some day I'm sure.  We had an older couple in the group that was having a hard time keeping up, so I offered a stable hand to a very nice lady from Texas.  She took it, I helped her up the many rickety steps and we talked the entire way back.  Once done at the cave we were off on a drive up to the Craters of the moon.  Fascinating place.  We drove and hiked around for about half of the day.  The highlight was hiking up one of the cinder cones with about a 45mph wind.  I could actually lean into the wind and have it hold me up.  The big gusts felt like 55-60.  All fun and games until the wind blew Lowman's new prescription sunglasses of his face and down the hill a bit.  No worries, super Mom leaped down and rescued them.  It was time to get off of the cone.

We headed East out of Twin this morning bound for Custer, S. Dakota.  We have made it to Rawlings, WY.  A very nice drive with a great tailwind.  Many stops along the way to check out little places and stretch the legs.  I cannot believe how green the desert is.  Just love the wet year we have had.

Short timers

We have sold the Rodeo!!!!  Thank you lord!!! 

I went down and got new shoes on the truck today.  One more step down.  I will have the hitch put on and the trailer bearings done by Thurs.  That means we are rolling out this week.  FINALLY. 

Will be heading thru Southern Idaho and be in Eastern Idaho by the weekend.  Lots to look forward to.  A little trip to God's fishing holes around Island Park, Yellowstone, the Tetons and then over to S. Dakota to see Jess!!!

I think the time has finally come

Delays

Well the day has come for the departure.  We are still in town.  The truck needed some work and we were not able to get it done in time.  It is still in the shop.  Hopefully get it back tomorrow.  We are also going to sell Theresa's Rodeo.  So we may be down a week or so.  It has hit us a bit to have our first setback before we leave the gate, but all things happen for a reason.  At least that is what I believe. 
The last week has been spent feverishly finishing things around the trailer and with family.  Solar charger, power inverter, storage and little things that will make the trip hopefully more cost efficient.  Worked to finish up the landscaping at my parents house.  I think that it looks pretty good.  If I do say so myself. 
We got news that our short-term job in California is not going to happen just yet.  We wish them all the best.  Again, all things happen for a reason.  Theresa has been working online and the hours she is putting in would not work out with the job in California.  I guess you just have to have faith.  With that being said, we are looking at Yellowstone and Eastern Idaho for our first few weeks on the road.  The park is a good deal for a weeks pass, and I can get my family into some GREAT fly and spin fishing.  I have 4 bamboo fly rods, so one for each of us. 
I am waiting to get a picture on the blog until we get something of us on the road, so please be patient.

Recent milestones

Hit another mark on the timeline for the trip yesterday.  HD had her last softball game!  We are getting VERY close.  The kids finished school last week.  We picked up the weight distribution hitch this week and will get it installed in the next few days.  Tres is in the last week of full time work.  She will switch to part time work online next week.  We need to sell the Rodeo and we are OUT.
Things are lining up beautifully!  I still am amazed at how this trip has rolled together, the pieces keep falling into place.  A few more and we can shove off.  I guess I better get with the blog more frequently.