11/2/19

Well, now that we’ve been back at Thompson’s Mills in Oregon for over a month and a half it’s about time I post something about the end of our summer trip. Sorry for the delay but we’ve been quite busy here at the mill.

From Dickinson North Dakota we drove to central Montana and stayed two nights. While there, we drove to Pompey’s Pillar August 23. There’s a small National Monument there where William Clark carved his name on the side of a rock outcropping he had climbed to survey the Yellowstone River valley in that area on his journey back from the Oregon coast.

 

Over the next couple of days we made our way to Missoula, Montana, then to Ronan, Montana. We stayed a little over a week so we wouldn’t have any trouble finding a place to stay over the Labor Day weekend. Where we were was about half way between the National Bison Reserve and Glacier National Park, so we spent some time going to both.

We didn’t see too many bison at the Bison Reserve but we did see a few black bear, close up.

 

 

That last guy was up in the top of a tree alongside the road, eating berries, about 15 feet from our truck.

Glacier National Park is always an amazing place. The first day we were there, we took the free shuttle to Logan’s Pass. School had started by that time and being that the tram drivers are usually school bus drivers working during the summer, most of them had gone back to work for the schools, so there was only one tram running, when there would normally be three, making for longer waits than usual. The second day we drove from West Glacier to St, Mary and back, in our truck.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After Labor Day we drove into Idaho and stayed at Farragut State Park with a host friend of ours. From there we drove to Hells Gate State Park on the Snake River. While there we drove into Hell’s Canyon for some sightseeing. There is a pullout along the road where you can take a short hike on Buffalo Eddy trail to some rocks where there are petroglyphs.

 

After a few days at Hell’s Canyon we headed to Oregon and stayed at Farewell Bend State Park for two days, then we made our way west to Clyde Holiday State Park in Mt. Vernon, Oregon. While we were there we toured the Kam Wah Chung State Heritage Site in Junction City. It’s an old trading post that was bought by two Chinese gentlemen. One was a grocer the other was an herbal doctor. They moved out/died in the 1940’s and 50’s and they gave it to the city of John Day and was promptly ignored for decades. Finally, the city figured out that they owned it and began restoring it. After a period of time, the property was turned over to the state and became a state historical site. When the Chinese owners moved out, they didn’t pack up or take anything with them and all the items in the store were left where they sat the day they went out of business. It’s a great way to look back into history.

 

 

 

Finally it was on to Thompson’s Mills. When we left in July, they were just finishing up the restoration of the rooves of the silos and had started repainting the historical logos on the face of the silos. We made a couple of spot lights to show them off at night. They look really good all lit up.

 

Now it’s back to work.

8/21/19

After Rapid City, in our last post, we headed east and stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota. We stayed a couple of nights, which gave us time to visit one of Penny’s aunts and drive through Woonsocket, the town that Penny lived in from birth to 3 years old.

From there, we continued east, stopping in Welcome, Minnesota, only because it was half way to our next destination. From there we drove to Galesville, Wisconsin to see Don’s mom and some friends from Yellowstone.

Originally, we intended to continue east to Philadelphia to see our son and daughter-in-law but they are going to Ireland the week we would have been back there, so we changed plans and headed back west.

We stopped again in Welcome, Minnesota, then turned south into Iowa. Based on our experience, Iowa does not waste taxpayer money on road maintenance. They have some of the bumpiest roads we’ve ever travelled on. We stopped at a park in Omaha, Nebraska and visited another aunt and uncle of Penny’s.

From there, we returned to Mitchell, then to Belvidere and on to Rapid City, South Dakota. While in Belvidere we took another drive through the Badlands, with a side trip to the Minuteman Missile Visitor’s Center.

In Rapid City, we picked up our mail again and fortunately, Penny’s passport had arrived, so she will be able to go on her cruise to the Bahamas in October. We also took a day trip to Devil’s Tower in northeastern Wyoming. We had been there around 2004 but didn’t get any photos at that time because we left the battery to our camera in the trailer that was parked in Gillette, Wyoming. This time we made sure we had our fully charged battery.

 August 18^th we moved to Dickinson, North Dakota and spent the last couple of days touring the badlands of North Dakota, Theodore Roosevelt National Park and has some very interesting geologic formations. Penny got to see her favorite wild animal too.

They also have an area with large balls of stone called Cannonball Concretions.

 They also have a lot of other erosion formed areas that are interesting.

Tomorrow we head west into Montana. The plan is to visit Glacier National Park, but it will take a few days to get there.

7/24/19

On the 15^th we left Twin Falls for our trip to Rapid City, south Dakota. We stopped for the night at a county park near Ririe, Idaho. Ririe is about a dozen miles east of Idaho Falls. The RV park is on the banks of the Ririe reservoir.

The next day we headed into Wyoming south of Jackson. We wanted to avoid taking the trailer through the narrow streets of Jackson, so we headed a bit south through Alpine, Wyoming, over to Lander. We spent another single night in Lander, then headed to Douglas, Wyoming, east of Casper.

Wednesday the 17^th we drove from Lander, Wyoming to Rapid City, South Dakota. The weather was good from Twin Falls to Rapid City, but it was getting warm - as can be expected. We stayed in a campground south of Rapid City for a week, waiting for some time sensitive mail that we were expecting. It finally showed up on the sixth day of our stay.

On the 18^th we started doing the touristy things around Rapid City. We went to Mt Rushmore in the morning. Unfortunately, there was construction going on inside the park, so we could go no further than the visitor’s center, but that was probably close enough with our camera.

 

That afternoon we took a drive down towards Custer State Park. We didn’t actually enter the park that afternoon because we didn’t want to rush ourselves around the park. The drive down there is interesting though. It is a very narrow, winding road with one lane tunnels that are as low as 8 feet high and tight 360 degree turns.

 

The morning of Friday the 18^th we wanted to take a tour of Wind Caves National Park, which is south of Custer State Park. Unfortunately, their elevator into the caves is broken and won’t be fixed until late August. So we opted to go to Jewel Cave National Park, west of Mt. Rushmore. There is some evidence that the two are interconnected somewhere in the underground labyrinth. Jewel Caves elevator was, thankfully, working. Even with the elevator, the tour requires you to go up or down 736 steps. By the time we were done, our legs were tired.

 

 

 

After the caves we actually did drive through Custer State Park and the needles highway, since it was on our way home. Lots more rock formations, narrow roads and tunnels.

 

 

 

 

Saturday we drove east to the Badlands, another interesting geologic display, though we also got to see a few animals. First, on the west side of the park we saw a herd of bighorn sheep, with some young ones.

 Up the road a bit, there is a town of prairie dogs, a couple of them were quite chummy.

On the east side of the park there was a lot of interesting rock formations.

Monday we went to the air and space museum at Ellsworth Air Force Base. Besides a number of World War 2, Korean War and Viet Nam War era airplanes, they have a Minute Man I training missile silo.

Tuesday we went to the Crazy Horse Monument.

 We took the needles highway home.

Tomorrow we resume our trek east, towards Wisconsin.