Devils Tower. aka Bear Lodge

Made it to Devils Tower. Not much signal there so I had to leave before I could send everyone an update.

It's quite a sight. If you get a chance to visit I would highly recommend it. Wish we had another day to burn here. There are a number of hiking trails around the monument which look like a great way to see it up close. We did take a hike this morning around the paved trail which is nearest the mountain. Up close and personal. It's a lot of fun watching the climbers maneuver around on those columns. I don't have much desire to do it myself but I sure admire the talent and ability required to do it. There were even a bunch if them coming down last night while we attended the ranger talk at the campground.

Now we have moved on to Deadwood. Spending the night at a fancy RV resort with power and a pool. Oh, and a laundry ;). Getting cleaned up and a fresh batch of cloths before hitting a number of National Forest camp sights in the Black Hills.

It's been dang HOT! Several days over 100F. Really tough on some of us. It's a bit cooler here about 5 miles outside of Deadwood. Currently 88F with thunder in the distance.

Well, I've got to put some quarters in the dryer. Don't get too concerned if I don't check in for a few days. Might not have many opportunities to post much. The "Where are they now" link on the right side of the page will hopefully give you an idea where we are. (yay amateur radio :)

Take care.

Day seven (already)

Wow, that's too bad. Day seven on the road already :(.

That's how it goes though.

We departed Lewis and Clark Caverns and headed east on I90. Still would prefer the back roads but when one needs to put on the miles it does the job.

Visited the Little Bighorn Battlefield Monument. It's a very well done
facility. We chose to take the self guided tour from Last Stand Hill down the five miles of paved road to Reno-Benteen Battlefield Memorial. About five miles of battles between the combatants. Grave markers are placed throughout the complex marking the spot where someone fell. Sure gives the memorial a sense of history. Another option would have been the guided tour. It was tempting considering the temperature was over 100F.

Late in the afternoon we finally got some non-Interstate miles. U.S. 212 then Indian road 314 to Tongue River Reservoir. A nice lake lake in southeastern Montana. Got the camper setup and took a late evening swim. Just what the poor body needed.

334 miles behind us today. We may stay here another day or head to Devils Tower sometime Thursday.

Best to all.

Day two addition

What a great day at Lewis and Clark Cavern.

Wish I could put all of our pictures here but the connection is poor and it's late.

Tomorrow we head to The Battle of the Little Bighorn.

Montana - Day Two

We have relocated seven miles to Lewis and Clark Caverns State Park. Some spots opened up after the morning flush so we hopped in one. We have hiked up to the visitors center at the entrance to the caves. You can see the rail road grade across this picture. When I was here last, one could ride a narrow gage train over to near the cave entrance. Need to find someone who can tell me what happened to it. That ride was half the fun. Into the cave soon :)

First night in Montana

Moving on down the road. Departed Beauty Creek Camp Ground late Monday morning. Planned destination - Lewis and Clark Caverns just a bit east of Cardwell. There was only one spot left that wasn't reserved. Dang it! We left the spot for the "B's" and hot footed it back to Cardwell before the store closed at 2100 shutting off access to the camp ground. We made it with at least two other rigs behind us that had hoped to overnight at Lewis and Clark Caverns too.

We will head back up the Jefferson River in the morning, join up the the "B's" and take a tour of the caves.

Now a bit of a rant. Montana isn't the only state with this problem but we are recent victims of their inadequacy so they are the brunt of my rant. These states really should do something to modernize their campground reservations systems. We called the State of Montana campground reservations line this morning and there's was nothing they could do to help us. They require at least 24 hours before the dates requested. Alright, we can play it that way. Then we get to the campground and discover spaces that were reserved for LAST NIGHT that had not been used. Just sitting there vacant. When asked, the poor camp host said we couldn't have it because they might show up tonight. (they had reserved it for three nights). To make matters even worse, the visitors center had been telling people that called that they had plenty of spaces. Well, they didn't. Come on Montana, and all of the rest of you the have these very inflexible and unfriendly policies, time to get out of the 80's level of service to your citizens and guests.

Nothing spectacular for pictures today. Got this one of the huge stack at Anaconda and the only help the camp host at Lewis and Clark could give, the phone numbers for area campgrounds. Which by the way, they only had one copy so I snapped the pic so we could get out of their way so they could deal with the next hopeful camper.

333 miles today for a total of 797.

Into Idaho

Got out of Moses Lake around 1600 and headed east. Made it to Beauty Creek Campground. A National Forest campground in northern Idaho. Looks like a squal came though a while ago but the Sun is out nicely. Not nearly as HOT as Moses Lake. YAY!

Day one of Mt. Rushmore trip.

Hi everyone.

Finally got on the road late Friday afternoon. Made it to Moses Lake around 2300. There's is a swim meet here this weekend P is swimming at.

Sometime tomorrow, after the swimming is done, we will head east.