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Al and I are thrilled that you have found your way to our blog. We hope you enjoy reading our journal and viewing our photographs of the natural wonder of our United States of America. Let's hit the road together!
Homer, Alaska

Friday, May 27, 2016

Trek West and Arrival Back at the Ranch!

Let's see, where did we leave off?? We had left Lexington and all our fun activities there, and I had already posted about our interruption due to mechanical issues prior to that. So we were in Rock Island, IL, and not too far from one of Al's favorite show's home base, American Pickers. Since the repair to our landing gear was so quick, once we got the rig back to the campground and set back up again, we took off to visit Antique Archaeology.
I had no idea where we were going when the GPS directed us into a narrow alley, but Al recognized the car right away.

I was expecting a much larger shop, but they did have quite a bit of stuff (junk??) tucked away in the small building. I then realized that there was also a second building full of more stuff. I quickly came to the realization that there must be a lot of people that really like old signs, old tools, old bikes and old motorcycles. Of course, there was also a good amount of logo items available to purchase :-). It was an interesting diversion for a cold, rainy afternoon. 

After stocking up at Walmart on groceries for the next several days, we just relaxed in front of the fireplace and caught up on some shows. The next four days were going to be driving days as we headed west towards Custer State Park. The first day was all easy driving, straight across Iowa on I80. It was rainy, and I found there was a lot of truck traffic along this route. we stopped to refuel at the exit where you find Adventureland, a popular amusement park for workampers; what a nightmare this exit was! I have it marked "never again!" unless absolutely necessary. Our stop for the night was Wilson Island State Park, right off the highway as you switch over to I29. Electric-only sites, but easy access to water and a dump station if needed, and the sites were pretty big. It was also mostly empty, and easy on/off of the highway. Next stop was an overnighter at Mitchell, South Dakota, as we were traversing South Dakota. While in the area, it was absolutely necessary to check out the world-famous Corn Palace.
The Corn Palace is not actually built out of corn, but reinforced concrete. Every spring, however, the exterior is completely covered with thousands of bushels of native South Dakota corn, grain and grasses that are fashioned into large murals.

Each year's theme is different, and the theme for 2016 is "Rock of Ages."

The next day, we headed further west, and stopped at Badlands National Park for the night. After setting up, we had a quick dinner, and then took a ride out through the park to see the sunset from a nice vantage point. This area is called the Yellow Mounds, and is always stunning with the last rays of the sun illuminating the mounds.

Our actual sunset spot, though, was at Conata Basin Overlook. You could tell it was quite early in the season, as we were the only people hanging out here. It was so quiet and peaceful, not even a car drove by this late, and all we heard was the coyotes yipping in the distance. Simple moments like this are what we love about this roaming life :-). Priceless.

A short, 90-mile drive the next day landed us at our destination for five days, Custer State Park. Another electric-only campsite, we filled up with water and settled into a site at the Game Lodge Campground. It was still early in the season here, but the campground was quite busy, especially on the weekend when all sites were filled. This campground actually has no sites set aside for walk-ins; if you don't have a reservation, you must call the reservation center before taking a site to see if it's available. In the interests of conserving water here, so we wouldn't have to fill our tanks halfway through the stay, we used the showers at the bath house and they were very clean and well-maintained. A big thumbs-up to the camp hosts here, they are doing a great job!

A huge reason for our stop here for a few days was to visit our good friends Phil and Rudee, of Workin' Rv'ers fame. They have settled in Custer for now, working year 'round at Crazy Horse Memorial. We were also delighted to find out the Steve and Joan were also in Custer, hoping to secure jobs at Crazy Horse for the summer (which they did). We all had dinner together one night, minus Rudee, who was in Indiana attending to some family business. We also met Deb and Jim Britt, friends of Steve and Joan, who are also at Crazy Horse this summer. I love the intertwining of our lives :-). We had a great time at Black Hills Burger and Bun, a new favorite for us when in Custer.
While here, we took a drive along the Iron Mountain Road, finding several pronghorn along the way.

We did some geocaching at an old abandoned ghost mining camp...


searching for the caches among the dilapidated buildings and cars.

We did a cruise past Mt. Rushmore, but didn't see any mountain goats...bummer.

Back on the Needles Highway to another favorite area, Sylvan Lake, where we took a hike around the perimeter of the lake.

The going gets pretty narrow at the far end of the lake!

The reward on the far side of the lake is this beautiful view.

We also had an up close and personal tour of the Crazy Horse Memorial, the advantages of knowing people in high places :-). Thanks, Phil!

While we were checking out the progress of the sculpture, we were being checked out by a pair of suspicious marmots.

There's still a very long way to go before this statue is finished.

A model of the finished version is on display in the Visitor's Center.

This picture shows the lines drawn on the existing block of the mountain. It sure is a prodigious amount of work involved, and it's all done without any government or tax-payer funding.

Being early spring, there was an abundance of "red dogs"....the term for the baby bison. We had a really great visit, even getting together one night with Steve, Joan, Deb and Jim for some rousing games of Marbles, Cards and Jokers, and they taught us a new game (for us), Qwirkle. I think I see it in our future :-)

With a fond farewell to everyone in Custer, we headed out once again, west into Wyoming. We had an overnight in Casper, then drove north to Cody to spend a few days before reporting to the ranch to start work. The drive through the Wind River Canyon from Shoshone to Thermopolis was simply magnificent, even with the light snow that we were driving through :-)!My main drive for stopping in Cody for a couple of days was to visit the Buffalo Bill Center of the West, which I had heard was quite interesting. This was very true! We spent a whole day there, and only were able to see about half of the exhibits. We really needed another day, but had the good fortune to be in Cody for the beginning of the "Spring Into Yellowstone" Festival. I had no idea it was going on, but I found several different events taking place, one of which I was thrilled to find available spots for: a visit to see the wild horses on the BLM lands of the McCulloch Peaks. Sign me up!!

So on our second day in Cody we took the dogs for a long walk, first visiting the dog park and then walking around Beck lake and the reservoir. After lunch we joined the ranger, loaded into an over-sized van and headed out to the BLM lands east of Cody. It wasn't long before we found one of the herds!

Every horse is named and kept track of by rangers with the BLM. The woman leading our expedition has been working with this herd for 25 years.

It was so interesting to just hang out and observe these wild mustangs.

Each male has his own "harem", and in this instance, the females roamed a bit farther away than he wanted. He started rounding them up, in a maneuver they called "snaking."


What a beautiful setting it was, and all too soon it was time to head back to civilization. I am so happy to have experienced this. Once again, one of the reasons we are doing what we are doing!

We had one more day in Cody, as it was Friday the 13th, and I refused to travel that day :-). We had planned to go back to the museum, but the toilet that started leaking everywhere that morning had different plans for us! At least it happened in a spot where there was an Ace Hardware store only five minutes away! We accomplished that task, along with some other small items, and did some cleaning and grocery shopping. We splurged on going out to dinner at the Chinese Buffet in town, as we really don't have anything like that near us for many more months. It was pretty good, but so far I haven't found any Chinese Buffet that comes close to being as good as the one in Brooksville, Florida!

So we arrived here at the ranch mid-afternoon May 14th. We started work on the 16th, and worked eight straight days :-)! The season is kicking off with a strong showing of bookings, and we've been working hard on the spring cleaning, getting everything all spiffy. There hasn't been much time for pictures or socializing, but we have a really nice group of workers this year, and we look forward to getting to know them all better. Now that training is underway, and everyone seems to be getting the hang of the procedures, I think we're going to have a great summer. So hang on, and we will start our summer adventures soon! Thanks for coming along with us this spring, we had a wonderful trip west.

8 comments:

  1. Awesome post as per usual, Karen. So glad y'all had great fun traveling west. Our family will be heading to the "mouse's house" for Bill's 70th birthday celebration. We'll be sure to give Mickey your regards. Enjoy your summer and the beautiful west.

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  2. We're loving it in Custer now, except for George's surgery thing. Gotten together with Steve & Joan and Deb. Phil, Rudee and Jim were working that day, but we have all summer to get together! Have a great summer!

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  3. Great post. You really made the most of your journey to your workamping job. I would have loved the BLM tour

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  4. What a great trip west you had. I'm amazed at how many friends you had at Crazy Horse. I actually prefer it to Mt. Rushmore which has gotten ridiculous over the years in my opinon. Although actually I'm not much for men carving up mountains for any reason, coal or statues. Great pictures. I loved riding along. You've got a great place to be for what I hear is going to be a very HOT summer.

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  5. Glad you made it to your summer home. Look forward to pictures of the Tetons. Enjoyed visiting with you two.

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  6. Glad you made it to your summer home. Look forward to pictures of the Tetons. Enjoyed visiting with you two.

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  7. We are not too far from you. We are working in Yellowstone National Park for the season and the closest "large" city to us is Cody. We have even eaten at the same Chinese restaurant. The owner is very nice.

    Thanks for the recommendation of the Buffalo Bill Museum. We have not made it there yet.

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  8. Sounds like a wonderful trip, always fun to meet up with friends. We got our Chinese fix in before leaving Salt Lake City, who knows when we might find some again.

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