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 18th 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.
