June 12-15 -- On Through the States and Home

June 12-15 -- Trip Conclusion and Review

On June 12^th we began our drive home from Mitchell, SD. Late Tuesday evening June 15^th we were at home. Our driving for those last three days was a little longer than usual. The first night we stayed at a state park in Minnesota. The next morning we were back on the road earlier than usual and moving on through the states. We had to travel through some heavy rain, the heaviest being in Waterloo, Iowa – an appropriate name for such a heavy downpour.

A Best Holiday campground in Illinois was home for our next night. These campgrounds seem to run together to a certain extent. We had rain again that night. We had quite a bit of rain as we made our way back home. Harry would say, “Take a picture”. I would ask him if he would rather have the wiper blades in the picture or raindrops on the windshield.

The last night we stayed in a National Forest campground in Indiana. We had to park in between trees and ended up with a big tree right in front of our door. We will probably remember this camp ground because we decided to go to the bath house and take a shower, which proved to be quite an adventure.

When we looked at the showers heads, they look different from any we had seen before. Being a national park, I suppose they were really trying to go green and save water. We had to have help from the park ranger to figure out how to turn them on. After you pushed really hard on a button it would run for about 40 seconds, and then you had to push the button really hard again to start it back up.

The showers were supposed to have hot water on demand. We kept turning the control demanding hot water like the ranger said, but neither of us ever got any. Harry ended up taking a complete cold water shower. I guess I took half a cold shower, because I was not about to get my hair wet. I could just see me all shampooed up and not able to get the water on to rinse the shampoo out of my hair. Besides I could not imagine that cold water hitting my head. My hair washing would have to wait until the next stop or maybe back at the camper.

After this stop, Harry had targeted Huntington or Charleston, WV to spend our last night. It was around 2:30 PM the next day when we got to that point. We could see that home was around four hours away and we could get there before dark. Harry says that Louise was in a hurry to get home, but I think Harry was in as big a hurry to see home as Louise. We had never been away from home more than two weeks in a stretch before this trip.

Harry drove every mile of the 6,849 miles we traveled. I trusted his driving more than mine, and I am sure he trusted his driving more than mine. While he drove I crocheted several thousand feet of crochet thread. Sometimes I would be making really good time with my progress only to notice several rows back that I had mad a mistake which would not do to leave, so I would rip out and redo. We listened to some of our favorite CD's and one book on tape, and occasionally found a church service or something worth listening to on the radio.

To sum it all up we had a wonderful trip. We made many memories and took lots of pictures. We were in nineteen different states. Harry has traced our route on our Cracker Barrel map with a highlighter. We were blessed with no health problems, and no vehicle problems. We know that there was a lot more to see than we saw, but maybe one day we will be blessed to go back, spend more time, see other things and maybe repeat some of the things we saw this time.

Tunnel at end of canyon


Deep canyon.

Inside tunnel at end of canyon.

Harry, keep your eyes on the road.

This was a wooden car sitting beside a gas station

where we filled up the truck. We thought it was

cute and worthy of having its picture taken.

As Harry said, big skies and wide open grassy

fields, getting nearer home.

The Missippi River

The Mississippi River. Oops I misssed the

driver's head.

We think these last windmills were in Illinois.

This kept me occupied and the hours just

seemed to click by without seeming long at all.

Several times I had to take out several rows and

put them back in again, but this was not too

upsetting, since I had plenty of time.

Finding the perfect spot to put the camper.
Sometimes this takes a while.

Wide skies and big landscapes.

These were cornfields, maybe in Idaho.

Last night camping at a National Park in Indiana.

Nothing like opening the door to see a big tree.

Good camping though.
Nearer home.

West Virginia -- a welcome sight.

Friday, June 11 -- The Corn Place -- Mitchel, SD

Friday, June 11, -- The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota

(Photos Following)

After the long day of touring different places on Thursday, June 10^th, we had a day of driving to our next point of interest which was in Mitchell, South Dakota. We had a long day on the road, but we were now heading east so we had new stamina. When we got to the campground named “Famil-e-Fun Campground” it was obvious they had received more than their share of rain. They said that they had four inches the night before. We unhooked since we had a place of interest to visit. We were hoping for no more big rain storms while we were here.

We had heard about the Corn Palace from several people, and had a lot to learn about it. We drove to the town of Mitchell. The first corn palace was built in 1892 when the city of Mitchell was only twelve years old. It along with a festival was created to celebrate the abundant harvest. Entertainers were brought to the area for people to enjoy as they celebrated. Over 100 years later these celebrations continue year after year. In addition to this entertainment the corn palace is the center of the community hosting basketball games, stage shows, trade shows, and a variety of other activities.

This is the only Corn Palace in the world, and draws tourists from around the world. Inside there are souvenir shops of all kinds. It is a curiosity to see all of the items made of corn or from corn, even corn cob jelly.

The Corn Palace, which covers an entire city block, is known as the folk-art wonder on the prairie of South Dakota. True to its description, it is a continuing work in progress. Over the summer 3,000 bushels of milo, rye, oat heads, and sour dock are tied in bundles and attached. When we visited this had already been started for 2011. The corn murals have to wait until late summer when the corn crop is ready. Over a half million ears of corn, in a beautiful array of fall colors, are sawed in half and nailed to the building following patterns created by local artists. The process is very similar to paint by number, but would be corn by number. This process happens every year giving a new face to the building.

Inside there are murals of every year since the beginning in 1892. There is an informative movie telling about how and why the palace was started. The host offered a tour and explanations of all the murals on the walls, but we needed to shop for a few souvenirs and it was not far from closing time. To learn more about the Corn Palace you can visit WWW.CORNPALACE.COM.

After our visit we went back to the campground and rain it did again that night, two inches more. They had a total of over ten inches in a week. This should make for plenty of materials to complete the new face for the palace. Harry had to put on a rain suit and wade in water to get our camper hooked up for the next day’s move.

These are the only pictures we took of the Corn Palace.

June 10 -- Wall Drug Store

The giant rabbit and its rider.


Louise and the buffalo -- which is which???



Thursday, June 10 – Wall’s Drug Store

All the way to the “Bad Lands” we saw signs for “Wall Drug Store”. Ginny had told us a little about it and said that we should at least stop and see what it was like. With all of the signs for free ice water and five cent coffee, I think everyone would have to stop just to see what kind of place it was.

Wall, South Dakota is a very western town as well it should be from its location. It is just outside the Badlands. The drug store named Wall Drugs was a very small drug store in the town of Wall, SD. Dorothy and Ted Hustead bought the store in 1931.

Mr. Hustead, who had just graduated from pharmaceutical school, had $3,000 that his father had left him. After much prayer by them, their families and friends they decided it was God’s will for them to buy the Wall Drug Store.

Living conditions during the depression in the 1930’s had a lot to be desired and they certainly shared in the dilemma. They strung up a blanket at the back of the store creating a small living space. To say the least they were just getting by from day to day with bare necessities for life. They struggled with very little business in the drug store. Mr. Hustead had also learned some about veterinary business and doctoring animals, and was supplementing their means of living when nearby farmers called on him to take care of sick animals. With so little money passing, this was probably a barter system, but it did put some food on their table. They had a small son named Billy so Mrs. Hustead took care of him and managed the store, which didn’t require much managing.

Time passed and things didn’t improve. The area was sparsely settled and people didn’t visit doctors unless it was a matter of life and death and many times the doctor gave them their medicine right there in the office. There was very little need for drug stores. They decided to give the business five years and if things didn’t get any better they would sell the store and try something else. They began to see a steady stream of cars coming from the Bad Lands, but very few stopped.

A little past their five year trial limit Mrs. Hustead told her husband that he certainly didn’t need her help, so she would take Billy into the back and take a nap. Sleep didn’t come easily since the situation looked so bleak and they were going to have to make a move. She pondered on the situation and came up with an idea that she thought might help increase business.

Upon emerging from the living headquarters her husband asked her if she had a good nap. She said that she didn’t sleep, but had come up with an idea. She asked him, “Now what do you think people driving their hot cars from the hot dry Bad Lands would rather have than anything else?” After asking the question she supplied the answer and said that they would like a glass of ice water more than anything. She told him that she had a plan and his part of the plan was to make signs, lots of signs, to put on the side of the road leading both ways to their store. On the signs he was to advertise “Wall Drug Store, Free Ice Water”.

He and Billy spent the next week working on the signs. At the end of the week they took them and placed them at short intervals on the sides of the road leading to the town of Wall, SD. Now they were ready to see whether or not Mrs. Hustead’s idea was going to work. How could it not work?

As soon as the signs were erected a stead stream of cars were stopping for the free ice water. One of the men and his family climbed up on the stools and ordered ice cream thus creating a new pattern for the store. From there, the store began to grow and the next summer they had to hire eight new workers for the store. Business was booming and has not slowed since that time.

Now this block-sized-plus emporium draws more than 20,000 tourists on a hot summer day. The store has expanded to have a dining room that seats over 500 people. In looking at the brochure, I realize that we saw only a small portion of the entire picture. There is a Traveler’s Chapel, a Life Sized Cowboy Orchestra that plays every fifteen minutes…(it as well as everything else is free), wax displays of Wild Bill Hickok playing his last hand of cards, backyard water park fun, a big stuffed buffalo, full sized T Rex, Giant Rabbit, just to mention a few of the attractions. In addition to these points for entrainment, there are all kinds of souvenir shops, an old time saloon, t shirt shops, and food shops.

Ginny told us that she had the best roast beef sandwich she had ever eaten the first time she stopped there. On their second time to the area, she stopped at Wall Drug just for the roast beef sandwich, and once again it was very good.

With that kind of advertisement, we didn’t have any trouble deciding what we would get to eat. She was right it was very good. It had cheddar cheese, onion, tomato, red lettuce along with a big stack of thinly sliced roast beef. Altogether this made for a tasty sandwich. Along with our sandwich we had five cent coffee which is now advertised on the sign along with the free ice water. The coffee is setting at the side and with it is a container to put the nickels in as you serve yourself to the coffee.

This was a very enjoyable stop after going through the Bad Lands. It is like all of the other things we did, we wish we had spent more time there and seen more of what it had to offer. Next time we will know and plan to spend more time. I can find only two pictures that we took here. I wish we had taken more.

June 10 -- Mount Rushmore SD

Tuesday, June 10 – Mount Rushmore

(Pictures following)

Hind sight is always a good teacher. It tells us we should have left this awesome piece of history for another day, but we were traveling east and that means in the direction of home. Even though it was around seven when we arrived at Mount Rushmore, but we still had some day light hours left and seemed to have enough energy for one more adventure. I’m sure there were other places we could have visited to make us better informed for this great sight, but here we were.

Since we have had time to look through more of our literature we realize that there was a Borglum Historical Center in Keystone, SD, which would be great to visit before the Mount Rushmore visit. I’d recommend doing this if you go there. Borglum did so much more than Rushmore, one being Stone Mountain in Georgia which is a mountain carving commemorating the Civil War. We had the privilege of seeing this several years ago, but didn’t tie the two together until we read about it.

After leaving the parking garage we walked in between the Avenue of Flags which represents the 56 states and territories. They are flying in all their glory below the carvings of the four presidents. Mount Rushmore represents America’s pride and patriotism. It is presently the largest sculpture in the world and is one of the Wonders of the World. Just to stand there and look at it between those flags gave us chills.

Gutzon Borglum started this huge project at age 60. October 4, 1927 he along with 400 workers started the carving. Lack of funding and bad weather made the project move slowly, but it was completed on October 31, of 1941. Each head was dedicated as it was finished. Washington was formally dedicated first in 1930, then Jefferson in 1936, followed by Lincoln in 1937. Finally the last head to be dedicated was Roosevelt in 1939. Shortly after this, in March of 1941 the great sculptor died. His son supervised completion of the heads. The final dedication was held 50 years after Borglum’s death.

After walking between the Wall of Flags, we went into the bleachers and got a back row seat providing us with a back rest sitting there staring at the awesome sight in front of us. There were hikers on the sides of the mountain around the carving, thus viewing it from a different angle. We talked with others from different areas of the USA and Canada who were traveling just as we were. Some were taking their first trip and others do it every year.

As I sat on the bleachers and stared at the faces of those four great presidents, I realized that according to history they were remembered at the greatest presidents, but I wondered why they were the ones chosen to be carved, and if there was ever any discussion about the selection.

Later in the evening, a program was presented on the stage. The host of the program invited guests to come up and ask any question about the presidents. He was well prepared to answer most of the questions. One guest asked why those particular presidents were chosen. I cannot remember the exact answer given, but decided to do a little research and to my surprise I found the reasons to be not exactly in the same wording from place to place, but the meaning was definitely the same.

I will give a couple of the reasons given for each of them. George Washington signifies the struggle for independence and birth of our country. – Father of our country. Thomas Jefferson signifies the territorial expansion of our country. – The Louisiana Purchase and the constitution. Abraham Lincoln was chosen for the permanent union of the United States and equality for all. – Ending slavery. Theodore Roosevelt signifies the 20^th century role of the U.S. in world affairs. –An overall great caring president – also creating the national park system. All four of these presidents had a tremendous affect on our nation so they are very deserving of the honor given to them.

After the program which told us about the history of the creation of Mount Rushmore there was a lighting ceremony. They lit up the faces of the four great presidents. In the blanket of darkness the four honored presidents shined as did their lives.

As we drove back to the camper we pondered our day realizing what a privilege it was to have the freedom and health to take such a trip and see all of the things we had seen. It was an overwhelming thought.

Thursday, June 10 -- Custer State Park

Thursday, June 10 – Custer State Park

(Photos following text)

This day was to be a very busy one so I will make more than one entry, at least three different ones for it, maybe even four, that way pictures for each can be included. We ended up putting entirely too much into one day. Custer State Park was how we started our tour for the day.

We drove up this narrow winding road before we came to the entrance to the park. I kept hoping we would not meet another vehicle because over the mountain looked to be a long way down. When we were finally there, we talked to the park attendant, paid our fee and off we went to drive around the loop which was just to get a little taste of what the park had to offer.

It wasn’t long before we were entering a most breath-taking stretch of twisting, turning roads running through the spiraling rocks and forests of the Black hills. The drive offered stunning views of granite spires towering high above the ponderosa pine and deep valleys. There were tunnels with barely enough room for a vehicle pass through. Needles Highway had huge pinnacles of towering rock one right after another with children climbing as far as they could. One particularly high rock reached above the others and had an oval shaped hole near the top giving it the appearance of a needle, thus the inspiration for the name “Needles Highway”. Once you would stop and look at one groups of these rocks and tunnels, you would get back into your vehicle and there would be another one bidding you to stop and look around again before you entered the next tunnel.

We finally got through this part of the rocks and tunnels, and our map showed the wildlife loop which was to be the next part of our drive through the park. We proceeded to move through the loop seeing no wildlife. I’m still not sure where all of the wildlife was hiding, but about all we saw was a group of donkeys. They were just like my brother’s donkeys, friendly and looking for a handout. They were sticking their heads into people’s cars and greeting everyone. Even though the sign said, “Do not feed the wildlife”, I have a feeling they were looking for handouts which they must have frequently received.

I’m sure there was much more to see in Custer State Park, but this was the end of our tour. We had a lot more planned for the day.

Wednesday June 9 -- Traveling and Crazy Horse

Yesterday we travelled all day. I would say we pushed it a little since it was a nine hour day on the road. Usually we do around six. We stayed at a campground in Lusk, Wyoming. It was a good place. For the first time, I did not have to fight to stay connected to the Internet. It was a secure site and great. I got quite a bit done on my blogs. I had several entries in Word so I just had to post them and work with pictures. I still need to work more with the pictures.

We are ready to hit the road again for a three hour drive today.

10:45 PM – Horse Thief Campground
We are at Horse Thief campground near Mt. Rushmore. We got here around 2:30 so we had some time for sight seeing. We feel lost without AT&T service here at the campground, but this afternoon we had a Wifi signal so I was able to do necessary communication with it.

This afternoon we went to see Crazy Horse, which is a carving in progress, with the 22 story high horse’s head now one-half blocked out. The face of the Indian has been carved and refined. The first blast for this monument took place June 3, 1948. It is a tribute to the great Indians and what they gave the settlers. There is a huge Indian museum with a scale model of Crazy Horse on the veranda from which drilling and blasting can be viewed as they continue to work on the monument. They were not working while we were there, so we didn’t get to see the work in progress. We went to a nice café off the veranda, and had a bite to eat.

A sculptor named Korezak Ziolkowski, with no formal lessons in art, sculpture, architecture or engineering started this project. He worked on it for over forty years, but passed away in 1982 and is buried at the base of the mountain from which the monument is carved. Before he died he told his family to carry on his dream if they wanted to, but to take their time and make sure it was done right. The family is very dedicated to keeping up the work. Some predict another thirty or forty years might see it finished.

If you go to see Mount Rushmore, do not miss Crazy Horse because to us it was as impressive as Mount Rushmore. We spent a lot more time there because of the way our time worked out.

They had a show that night telling the history behind the project, and following that was a laser light show. We got there around 4:30 PM and did not want to miss the laser show so we were there until 9:50 PM when the laser light show ended.

June 7 -- Monday -- Leaving Yellowstone

June 7 ---- More of Yellowstone National Forest

Monday, June 07, 2010

It was still raining and cold this morning. We did not get cold last night. I added a blanket on the bottom and at afghan on top of our trav-a-sack. We were both warm and cozy and slept well last night. The hard part was getting out of the warm bed. We wanted to get an early start out of the park.

When we got back in last night from our venture though the park we could not find the cell phone. We looked and looked. I had finally had a signal down near Old Faithful and had used the phone. We had gotten out to see some animals on the way back and thought we might have dropped it. We kept looking and feeling more panicky every minute. Of course it is our communication with home and family. We need that. I had checked my pockets by feeling the outside of the pants I had been wearing and later decided to go down in the pockets and check. It was deep inside my pocket. Thank you Lord was all we could say. We were so relieved.

We decided we did not want to be cold and wet any longer, so we turned three nights into two nights and drove through another part of the park to leave. It was truly a different type of beauty. We saw some more of those boiling, bubbling pools, but these did not smell very good. They smelled like sulfur. Some were coming out of canyons.
We went up to much higher plains. It was a breath taking drive. Harry asked the attendant at the camp ground about road work on the road he planned to take. He said that it shouldn't be much of a delay. It turned out to be a 15 minute delay for road work and then we were going again.

Soon into the trip traffic slowed again. For nearly an hour, we barley moved. We wondered if it was more road work, but just kept creeping along. When we finally were able to see what the problem was, a herd of bison was slowly moving on both sides of the road and in the middle of it. People were taking pictures and having to wait until they moved out of the way letting just one or two cars pass at a time. The animals truly own Yellowstone. People have to give them the right of way. There was one old one that looked like it was about all he could do just to walk along. There were little calves along with many grown bison.

After a little progress, we see the traffic slowed again and many stopped. It was the bear that we had been looking for. Harry was able to get a picture from the window. It isn’t very close up, but I believe we will be able to identify it. I am glad we got to see at least one bear on our trip through Yellowstone.

Somewhere on that mountain we saw the Yellowstone River. How can there be so much water on the mountain? I don’t know, but it was there. Yellowstone Lake also covered a huge area. I almost felt like I was looking at an ocean. Part of the lake was still frozen over. I have to use my imagination to see what it would have looked like with sunshine gleaming down on it, since we were still traveling through rain which was close to being snow.

As we climbed higher and higher on the mountain, we began to see snow at the sides of the road. Higher still and snow was everywhere except on the road.

One thing Harry is not fond of is going down big mountains, but he had another one today. The road moved along beside a deep canyon and then next to the canyon was another huge mountain. We keep moving along very slowly. After many wonderful sites, and much gripping of the steering wheel we were down the mountain.

We moved on out of the national forest. We ate lunch just outside Yellowstone at Pahaska Tepee Resort. We enjoyed our first buffalo burger. After eating lunch, we drove on to Cody, Wyoming. We are camping for the night at Ponderosa campground. We will move on in the morning. It sure felt good to have a shower and have a warm camper. I like having electricity and heat.

Our next point of interest is Mount Rushmore and maybe some other attractions around it. Harry said that we should be able to get two thirds of the way there tomorrow. Traveling east instead of west makes us feel closer to home.

The Internet Connection is very weak so the posting will have to wait. I am wondering if the problem is on my computer receiving end.