Word Blog

We left Grand Teton National Park around lunch and enjoyed the scenic drive to Idaho Falls. We stopped briefly in Jackson to take in the Elk Antler Arch in the middle of town. We stayed in Idaho Falls with my cousin Ed and his wife Becky. We camped with them in West Yellowstone over the weekend. They provided us with a nice bedroom ensuite in their basement that was so wonderful. We took showers, did some laundry, cleaned the car, and relaxed for a few…Continue Reading “Idaho Falls to Utah”

The drive through Yellowstone to Grand Teton National Park was beautiful. We stopped at several spots along the way to view the glaciers, then headed to Shadow Mountain for our campsite. We found a great campsite on Shadow Mountain. It took a pretty brutal ride up the mountain and several failed attempts to find the perfect site. But we ended up with a beautiful spot. We set up camp, made some dinner and enjoyed a nice fire. Stew was able to do some droning. We…Continue Reading “Grand Teton National Park”

Wearing my new souvenir shirt from Bill Cody Ranch, we headed to Yellowstone. That evening we were meeting my cousin in West Yellowstone at the Baker’s Hole Campground where he (Ed) and his wife (Becky) set up camp. We entered Yellowstone at the East Entrance, and drove around Yellowstone Lake, past the Canyon Visitor Center and the Norris Geyser Basin Museum. The drive was beautiful and we saw an elk just outside the Madison Visitor Center. We arrived around 6:00 pm at the campsite in…Continue Reading “Yellowstone!”

We left Devils Tower mid-morning and headed to Cody, WY where we will be horseback riding through the Shoshone National Forest and mountains. The trip to Cody was about 300 miles and somewhere we lost cell services and the GPS was not directing us correctly so we went about 60 miles in the wrong direction!! A long day of driving took even longer. The mountain formations and scenery were beautiful on the drive, we even saw a bobcat or mountain lion and some mule deer….Continue Reading “Horseback Riding in Cody, WY”

After our late breakfast (early lunch) in Custer, SD we headed to Devils Tower (officially no apostrophe) in Wyoming. This is the famed monument from the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”. This was the place Stew was most excited to see. You could see this imposing monument from very far away – It stands 867 feet from its base to its summit and is 180 feet by 300 feet on the summit (about a football field). There are many Native American Legends as…Continue Reading “Devils Tower (but no aliens)”

Our plan when we left the hotel in Rapid City, SD was to hit Crazy Horse monument. But we ended up with a problem with our cooler. The 12v plug no longer worked so we had to find an electronics store that supplied 12v plugs. After several calls, we found one and headed over. Thankfully it was one we could easily rewire. Once that was accomplished we were famished and headed for an early lunch at Jersey Mikes. Finally, on the road we headed to…Continue Reading “Custer State Park in the Black Hills”

This morning we woke in the Badlands to another rainy overcast day. We debated what to do since we had now been in the rain off and on for days. Most of those days the rain contained itself to the evening and morning, this was going to be an all-day rain, and it was cold. We wanted to see Mount Rushmore so we decided to head to Rapid City and take in another library. We also needed some groceries and a few other misc items…Continue Reading “Mount Rushmore in the rain”

Our night on the edge of the Badland wall was quiet other than noise from the storm – some lightning and rain but little thunder. Still very windy so we opted to buy coffee in Wall before heading back into the Badlands. I drink “Dandy Blend” in the morning so just one coffee and some hot water for me. We also filled the other to-go cups (we have a total of 6 to-go cups and 3 gallon jugs with us) with ice water for later….Continue Reading “Badlands – day 2”

Sun was out and it was finally a nice day. Although we were trying to stay off highways we decided to take I90 into South Dakota. We could not believe that the speed limit was 80, it dropped to 65 or 70 for road work!! I90 turned out to be a good choice as there was very little traffic and there was a lot to see along the way. Windmill farms were everywhere we looked and roadside sculptures which I grabbed a few pictures of….Continue Reading “Corn Palace, Giant Prairie Dog, and the Badlands”

After leaving our campsite we decided to spend some time at a library – get caught up on wifi and charge up all of our devices. We have been doing okay charging things as we drive and running the cooler on the car charger, but the large solar generator doesn’t always get charged completely. The solar generator runs the Coleman 12v cooler when we are not driving, but it will only support it for about 8 hours. We have to choose what 8 hours to…Continue Reading “Library Time and the Jolly Green Giant”