A Slight Reprieve

The sun came back just long enough for one more night of camping. 

A beautiful campground on Bishop Lake, Brighton, MI

Uncle, uncle!!

Somewhere in southern Michigan 

Ok we are done.  Rain to the south, rain to the east and cold to the north so time to go home.  Nonetheless it has been a great trip. The high point for me was the Dakotas.  Definitely a part of the country I was thrilled to see.  Any time you get on a horse and have a good ride when you are seventy is a day to cherish. Loved Chicago, suprisingly liked Cleveland and Duluth.  Sorry the Upper Peninsula was so rainy because it looked like fun.  Bypassed Mackinac Island this morning because of driving rain and fog.  Meet some fun folks on this trip reminding me again we have much more in common than we have differences.  Still the best country on the planet!

I'm sorry the blog swallowed some of your comments, this happened the last time also and I haven't a clue how to fix it. Will look for a new blog service on the (God Willing) next trip. Thanks to all who read and followed the blog!  The upside of going home is there are a few graduations (Jay, Caroline and Bethany) and several bdays (Mason, Luca and Christiano) to attend. Happy travels.

ABANDON

so today was the day we abandoned the tour (in Tour deFrance parlance). Faced with nothing but more cold, rainy, and windy weather everywhere we looked, we decided it was time to bite the bullet and head toward home.

Thought about taking the ferry to Mackinac island today, but 38 F windy, drizzly morning dissuaded us.

Too damn wet and cold to camp

Duluth MN May 19&20

Going under the elevated bridge Duluth 

Spending a couple days here hoping for improved weather. Yesterday was chilly but not much rain or wind. We were able to tour around the North Country and downtown Duluth which is right on Lake Superior. The town is surprisingly attractive with much of it built right into the hillside with cool views of the lake. We also took the drive up the north shore of Lake Superior which again was very scenic. It is too cold to do much outside but we did go to the army corps of engineers hq where in conjunction with NOAA they handle shipping coming and going into the port  We saw one of the big ships set out for the ocean from here in northern Minnesota-strange.

At COE visitors center

Today is a different story winds 20mph going to gale force later and 24 hours of rain coming. We have chores today laundry and food shopping and  will have lunch and dinner out, first time since Chicago. The weather throughout the country looks pretty dreadful. Not sure which way to go to get warmer and drier!!

Duluth, MN (May 19)

Lots of Paul Bunyan statutes

The aerial bridge - very cool. It lifts up to let huge ships pass!

Canal Park

Amity Creek, Seven Bridges Road

We are the only ones in this campground (Indian Point, Duluth, MN) - May 19

May 16 - Hiking at Theodore Roosevelt Natl Park, ND

Bluffs hike

Wind Canyon hike

May 16 Coyote on the hunt - Theo Roosevelt NP

May 20 - How did I get here? (Duluth, MN)

Holed up in the Aliner - 43F with 20 mph winds - rain arriving shortly. Not the camping experience I was hoping for. (Indian Point CG,  Duluth, MN)

Fargo ND May 17

So bad weather to the west (2foot of snow in Yellowstone) and bad weather to the south (tornadoes  in the plains) so we went north and east to Fargo, ND.  We drove across North Dakota into 30 mile per hour winds and got to Fargo for a hotel night.  It was a good one.  Hot tube, free dinner, great breakfast and all for $68 per night, the C'Inn just great. 
Looking at a new plan, the upper peninsula of Michigan, Lake Superior and then into Canada.  Maybe back to Algonquin Provincial Park (thinking about you Bill and Billy Lee).  Gotta be flexible!

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, Medora, ND May 15&16

Hiking in TR Nat'l Park

So the forecast and the long range forecast for Yellowstone was really very sobering so we decided to go north to Roosevelt NP in North Dakota.  We've spent two lovely days here.  This is probably one of the least visited NPs in the country because it really is on the road to nowhere but nonetheless a really neat park.  We got another great campsite and had hardly setup before another bison arrived to greet us.  The area is different from the Badlands and the Black Hills but still has a other worldly look to it.  Giant mounds rising from the earth surrounded by sagebrush, wildflowers and prairie.  I can only imagine what the settlers thought as they came upon this place.  We were able to bike part of the wildlife loop, complete some short hikes (at the ranger's suggestion, and we always do what the ranger suggests) and finally see our first coyote.  Carole spent a bit of time trying to get her GoPro movie camera into a prairie dog hole, no joy there.
Current plan is to go east and then into the upper peninsula of Michigan and then into Canada.  We are watching the weather carefully and are grateful not to be further south where the tornados are a real threat today.

Carole's Go Pro on her biking helmet on top of prairie dog home!

This is why we decided NOT to continue on to Yellowstone

Bison in the campsite

Custer State Park sightings - South Dakota

Western Meadowlark singing

Just another bison

Turkeys gobbling like crazy

Kathy on horseback

Custer SP part 2

So on day two at Custer we did the tour around the park.  There are some stunning vistas that were difficult to photograph but we tried, more to come. We also visited Mt. Rushmore which is an iconic image from my child hood.  My dad was a life long railroad employee like his father and the annual Union Pacific calendar with its full page color photos was much anticipated.  Mt. Rushmore was often included.  I found the actual sight larger than life and a moving tribute to our democracy. Unlike every other place we've been it was crowded.  All kind of folks there, many clearly first generation Americans.  Good to see! Took us most of the day to see the entire area. 
Also worth mentioning here is that the campground has a flock of demented wild turkeys. Almost the entire day the toms chase the females around the campground going "gobble, gobble, gobble" incessantly. Before this I heard a turkey gobble maybe once in my life. 
We settled in for a quiet night when we had the mother of all thunderstorms.  The lightening was impressive but the thunder reverberated back and forth between the cliffs.  Carole wanted to abandon the camper for the bathrooms but that ship had sailed so we waited it out at 2am as golf ball size hail hit the camper. Nothing quite like a thunderstorm on the Plains.  Attaching a video of our visiting buffalo.

Our next stop was supposed to be Yellowstone but they are expecting a foot of snow at the north entrance tomorrow so clearly we need a new plan!

Custer State Park May 12, 13, 14

Riding Confusion!

This had been our original Black Hills destination and indeed it is a wonderful park.  Our campsite is nestled in a pine forest.  When we arrived we were greeted by campground hosts (people who stay in the cgrounds for free for weeks at a time and kind of oversee things).  Mostly we never see these hosts but these people were very helpful with park info and most importantly going to each campsite to warn of impending bad weather.  More on that later.
We've had a wonderful time here.  We drove the wildlife drive and saw pronghorn, buffalo, wild burros, bighorn sheep, prairie dogs and mountain goats.  Pictures to follow.  We even had a buffalo saunter through the campground as we were eating breakfast! We took an after breakfast horseback ride through the hills that was great fun. Unlike my last horseback ride I managed to stay on the horse  for the entire ride!  We both enjoyed this ride!
Close by is the Crazy Horse Memorial, a stone carving of enormous size in the side of a mountain.  It was started in the 1940s by a crazy Polack (Korczak Kiolowski) and still under construction by his ten children. Really a great American story, Polish immigrant dedicating his life's work to honor Native Americans.

More to tell about this place but will try and post now while we still have cell service. 

Wind Cave NP Traffic Jam!

Wall Drug - obligatory tacky tourist stop!

Badlands scenery

Full Moon at Badlands Campsite

Badlands wildlife

Bighorn Sheep

Burrowing Owl

Wind Cave National Park, SD May 11&12

At a rest stop in South Dakota

Arrived in the Black Hills after deciding not to stay in the primitive campground in the Badlands. We had intended to but decided there wasn't enough for us to do there, so we pushed on.  We got to our destination at Custer State Park but could not get in because it was full. This is the first time we've had this problem. Traveling in off season hasn't required much advance planning but today it did. In a stroke of luck we drove on to Wind Cave and had a delightful camping experience there.  Because it has no electricity most of the off season RVs avoid it so we were almost alone in a beautiful  campground.  We hung out and hiked the nature trail the next morning before touring wind cave.  Wind Cave is a large underground cave with numerous passages about 175 feet below ground. It was interesting to see which is good because it will be the last cave I ever enter. I managed my claustrophobia for most of the tour but will not do it again.  Lots of wildlife here which Carole has photographed and will share.  Back to Custer State Park for the weekend.  

The Badlands SD. May 10 & 11

Campsite at Badlands

Rolled into Badlands NP after another long car day.  We camped in Cedar Pass campground right at the foot of the mountains.  Perhaps mountains are the wrong word for these cliffs.  The whole place has the feeling of being on Mars.  Crevices and peaks, side by side going on for miles.  Not much greenery here.  We had a torrential rain storm the night we arrived and it extended into the next morning.  The weather forced us to find something to do inside, so ended up at a Wall Drug.  A tourist trap in the middle of SD, it is advertised with road signs for miles before you get there ala South of the Border.  It did the trick though and the weather greatly improved by late morning.  We drove through the park and saw the scenic overlooks and did some of the shorter hikes. We left Thursday morning via some of the more remote portions of the park, checking out the wildlife as we went.  On our way we stopped at the National Minuteman Ballistic Missle site.  While there are no longer ballistic minuteman missles in SD at one time there were 25000 nuclear armed missles in the ground here.  The site had a lot of history of the arms race, most of it very sobering.  We then drove out to see one of the silos. I pray the people in charge of these weapons never use them!    Heading to the Black Hills.

Hiking in The Badlands 

Afternoon reading/cocktail view

Minnesota (almost SD) May 8 & 9

Almost got to South Dakota but stooped just east of Sioux Falls at Blue Mounds State Park.  Nothing special about this stop except the park has its own buffalo herd.  

We got a glimpse of the buffalo but not too close.  We drove across cropland, the breadbasket of America.  Pretty boring, nothing planted yet just empty fields.  We need a shopping, laundry stop and this was it.  Camping might be primitive in the Badlands so we wanted to be clean, showered with clean clothes and enough food before that adventure. Went to see the National Wildlife Refuge Tall Grass Praire unit.  Thanks to our Kansas visit and tutledge by the Vernon's we were in the know here.  We did get the bikes out and take a nice bike trail around this park, but mostly R &R.  Weather finally nice, sunny and in the 80s.  

My happy place - blue sky, sun, trees and a hammock!

Mirror Lake State Park, Wisconsin Dells

Wisconsin Dells boat tour

 At Witches Gulch

Mighty cold and windy on the Wisconsin River.

Cocktails at Ishnala Supper Club overlooking Mirror Lake