The Badlands of SD

We arrived pretty late but found our camp site in the National Park. We decided to go for a ride in the jeep. The butte's and plains were spectacular. Luckily we had a park map with us... We were on this dirt road and saw our first wild animal a prong horn antelope. We stopped the car to look and take pictures. Now this probably wasn't such a good idea since we had been having problems with the battery in the jeep and we have no cell service. Don't worry the car started again and we were off...it was weird the antelope seemed to be racing with the jeep. We sped up so did it we slowed down so did it.



Maybe I should have mentioned this earlier but there were ominous storm clouds off in the sky. As we drove back the storm was getting closer.... We got back to the RV shall I say just in time WHAM the storm hit hard. I was thankful the motor home was pointed tail into the wind. We rocked and shook for a good 15 minutes. After the worst had passed Joe went out to help the tent campers. Joe had found a pillow blowing by and threw it in the jeep right before it started. He returned it to its rightful owner who was very pleased it was saved and dry. The next morning almost all of the tents were down, some were shredded, and even the top blew off a pop up camper. Yikes. No one got hurt.



We spend another 3 days in the Badlands but didn't see another storm. We did a bunch of ranger programs, geology walk, fossil talk, a prairie walk and the kids did a Jr Ranger program that was awesome. They were involved in finding different things in the park and no we still have not seen any rattle snakes but talk about it daily.

1880 Town

This was the second stop we made because of the road side signs of I90. A town preserved as if it was from 1880 to about the 1920's. The buildings were probably from that time just repaired. We walked around to the one room school house, the kids rang the bell and rang the bell, and rang the bell, the livery, the post office, the printer, the saloon, the jail, the bank, you name it this town had it. The saloon was the high light swinging doors and all. I ordered us a round of beer (root beer) and to our surprise and fellow came out on stage and started playing piano just like in the old-in days.

Corn Palace, Mitchel SD

As we travel I90 there are hundreds of signs boasting the greatest attraction. We chose very carefully and ended up at Corn Palace. The Palace has been decorated with corn every year since 1921. The cobs are cut in half and glued to the walls creating detailed pictures of almost everything...yes it is a family place. They also decorate the outside of the building. Corn. Corn.Corn.

Sioux Falls SD

We are in Sioux Fall SD. WOW it is a beautiful state. We stopped for lunch a huge park it must have had 29 soccer fields, the kids played baseball, wiffle ball, and catch. It was a perfect weather day. Poor Dean got sunburned on his noggin.

We headed west on I90. Some of the rest areas along the interstates have great resources and information about the states. This one had a museum quality display on Lewis & Clark, of course we were right on the Missouri River. It just took us back in time. We also saw our first rattle snake warning sign. Dean & Morgan were a little worried.

Wisconisn Dells

All these places I have never heard of... The Wisconsin Dells boast the largest water parks in the country. Weird that it would be in such a cold place. And that one of our old customers has a store there now instead of Wildwood NJ. And that she would call 2 days before we got there.

It is just as touristy as Key West or the Jersey Shore. They have Ripley's Believe It or Not, lots of t-shirt shops but what makes them special are the fantastic water parks, some indoors some out. We also took am Army Duck tour. An Army Duck is a vehicle that can drive on the land and float in the water. They were used during WWII. Since they were slow and heavy they were good targets, but we got to go over the road and up the Wisconsin River.

We had a splash.

House on the Rock

...I don't know where to begin. Alex Jordan designed this 14 room house which was built into Deer Shelter Rock in the Wyoming Valley.

I think our high light to this house was the infinity room. It is cantilevered out over the valley. there are hundreds of small windows so you can see everything. I can't tell you how long it was but it felt like 5000 feet straight out over air. As you walk further out it gets smaller and smaller until it disappears. Almost at the very end there where you can still stand there is a window in the floor so you could look down 125 feet. "Whoa Dizzy".

I can't stop there this was a three tour event. The house, with low ceilings, red furnishings, rocks as walls, and automated instruments playing music. The museum there was everything from snuff to doll houses, and the carousel with 20,000 lights and not one horse has a horse head. The organ room had hundreds of different organs from the giant ones in churches to regular ones. The sea creature which he had built has to be three storied high. The whole time over and over there were automation instruments set up to play music, flutes, Violins, Cello's, Jugs, drums, I even saw a harp. Does anyone remember the Herbie Hancock video? It was fun, bizarre, creepy, funny, eclectic, and weird. check out the website photo gallery to see some of the bizarre stuff in the house. http://www.thehouseontherock.com/.

Spring Green WI

Our destination was Montana by Friday the 12th, It is now Saturday the 13th so we decided to go to Spring Green WI home of Frank Lloyd Wright's home Taliesin. We didn't tour the house but we did get to tour the aritechure school and see people working. He is just briliant. We love his work. It was worth stopping. Later that night Joe met some full time RV'ers that said we must see House on the Rock while we were in town. Hmm you wonder what is House on the Rock......

Chicago Tire

We are in Chicago to get new tires for the motor home. Joe found new tires on eBay. He called to make sure they really had the tires which they did. They asked where to ship the tires and Joe said oh I'll pick them up can you put them on. Sure. As you know things never go as planned. The tires we new but a few years old, stored in a warehouse. We found out when Chicago Tire got the tires they were mad too the warehouse they got them from did not disclose there real age. Anyway in the end the price was very fair and a much better ride.

New Hair Cuts

We decided to do the short hair look.

Ohio

We stopped in Milford, Ohio. Hmm... I went to check out the almost deserted town while the kids finished watching Lassie. (They couldn't tear themselves away). I found and antique store, a furniture store, auto parts store, a pizza place and "Rocket Pub & Grub", I didn't have enough guts to go inside by myself to check it out. I went back to the RV to collect my family and get dinner. We decided on the pub. I made Joe go in first... it turned out to be a friendly little bar. I haven't seen food prices so low since I was in college, $3.25 for a burger, $2.25 for grill cheese. They food was OK but the atmosphere was great. The bar tender made the kids special Shirley temples and gave them 75 cents to play pool but the pool cue was to long so he sawed it in half. We are starting to the meet many characters that make up this great country. This bartender being the first. Did I mention he only had 9 and 1/2 fingers.

Leaving NJ

After spending two days at Tom's getting the jeep ready to be towed we hit the road. We made it all the way to Reading, PA. The next couple of days were about traveling, one day there was a lot of traffic but the next we got some miles under our belt. We got off the interstate and found some nice highways were we could see the country.

New Jersey

Coming home is always awesome. I love to see my family and friends but never seem to have enough time. We packed so much into one month, Mothers day celebration, a first communion, visits with Mom, three birthday parties, Family Fun Day, BBQ, swimming in the pool... we had a blast.