Off the Wall

Wall, South Dakota is dominated by Wall Drug and all the other little shops along the way. It is 45 miles east of Rapid City and was highly recommended by other campers. The t-rex that scared little kids every ten minutes had me standing there waiting patiently for the show. Jackalope figures abound to include the one in the middle of Wall Backyard. Carman tried to get friendly with the lady on the bench, but she couldn’t be moved.

We had time for an unexpected stop at Ellsworth AFB and their Air & Space Museum. Lots of airplanes naturally.

On Saturday, we drove across the highway to the Reptile Gardens, because walking across four lanes of traffic didn’t seem like a smart thing to do. The same young man who did the snake show did the alligator show. He was extremely good entertaining us with stupid jokes and interesting facts. Carman got pictures of him wrestling the alligators, but I didn’t download to my computer. The birds who were supposed to be the stars of their show were uncooperative. I did get a picture of the owl.

For me, the best part was the Rain Forrest. Taking pictures of the reptiles through the reflective glass was a photo challenge, but a great learning experience. The red bird was more interested in grooming himself than posing for us. Parrots are always a photo op.

This trip is going fast and the brain is on overload.

Headed North

     I started my trip to the National Parks and the Pacific Northwest on Sunday June 20. The first night I stopped in Raton and the next day my GPS, “the bitch”, took me through Denver instead of the bypass. Outside of Colorado Springs there were two major accidents which slowed me down for about an hour. I met Carman in Cheyenne. He got there from Florida in two and a half days. On Tuesday we headed for Custer and an rv park called Crazy Horse. On the way we hit road construction and had to have an escort through gravel and fresh tar two different times. They should have called the rv park: crazy parking. We were perched on the side of a hill and we had a thunderstorm that afternoon with horizontal 60 mph winds. Rving is always exciting.

We stayed two days while we visited Mt. Rushmore and drove Needles Highway and went through all the tunnels. They even take the big tour buses through. At first I thought it was impossible, but I saw a video of them doing it.

We visited Keystone, but didn’t take any pictures; and then we went to Hill City and saw their train station. There’s tourist train from Hill City to Keystone and lots of tourists.  We didn’t go to the Crazy Horse Monument, but I got a picture from the highway.

On Thursday, we landed in Rapid City. It was time to refill my prescriptions, which meant a trip to Walmart. Carman talked me into buying a small gas grill so he could barbeque which was fine by me, so we’ve had ribs and chicken so far. The big thing in restaurants here is buffalo burgers. No matter what the Indians say, man cannot live on buffalo burgers alone.

We are parked directly across the street from Reptile Gardens and a couple miles down the road from Bear Country. We had breakfast at the place where they have the set from Dances with Wolves. We ate a cowboy breakfast on tin plates and the guy in Tin Shop did a demonstration for us on how he made all the plates. Bear Country was great; the cubs were the most entertaining. They were only six months old  and sucked on each other’s ears and slept when they weren’t playing. Notice the picture of the guard in the tower making sure no one has their windows down or gets out of the car.

I’ve come to the conclusion that I take way too many pictures. It’s time to get on the road again, so I’ll have to continue this later.

Summer is Here

     I haven’t been able to help myself. The yuccas, petal cactus and century plants are begging to be caught on camera. Then there’s the City of Elephant Butte  making improvements along our walking path through town. Notice the fountain: it’s geared for adults, children and pets. How thoughtful! The locals jokingly refer to the rest areas as “bus stops.” Like there’s a bus that comes through Elephant Butte. Well, maybe, some day.

Last weekend, we had our second outing in the boat for the 2010 season. We were on the lake for six hours and our brown bodies show it. While we were back in our favorite “extreme sport” cove, we saw a mule deer. He was very cooperative when it came to having his picture taken.

Then I got to drive the boat while Marty and Sue fished. Susie is a rather serious fisherwoman and was the first to catch a fish.

The lure kind of matches the fish. No wonder he went for it. Marty caught two fish, but we only got one to pose properly.

When we got home, we relaxed on the front patio and compared sunburns. Caught Sue on camera again. She hates that. Bad Mom!

Oops! Marty and the photographer are in there too.