And Here We Are...

...in Ellensburg, still.

This is getting frustrating! This is my third attempt to get a blog posted. The connection dies, Picasa freezes, the browser gets “stuck”. Oh well, the joys of technology.

The good news is that the insurance has agreed to pay for fixing the moho! Yay! Repairs can begin at last. There was some last minute haggling between the repair guys and the non-answering insurance people, but it got settled, and Friday we were notified that everything was copacetic. At last!!! The fiberglass front piece has been ordered from Winnebago and probably arrives late next week. Then it needs painting and 3M coating and of course, the damaged innards need to be replaced. Probably here til the end of the month.

Our schedule is in a shambles and I don’t know whether or not we’ll get to visit my family in Minnesota and Illinois, or how long we’ll be able to spend on our other 3 stops. It’s a very teeth-gnashing situation. We’ll be on the road for 4^th of July, which we had hoped to avoid. All the campgrounds are probably already full. That’s a big camping weekend. And here we thought we’d be settled in Virginia for that weekend. Ha! Best laid plans of mice and men, eh? I tell you what though, I am NOT missing out on the lobsters!!! I will be in Maine before 1 August come Heck or high deer.

We’ve managed to keep busy. On the 6^th, we 3 went downtown for a benefit car show. No cars younger than 1969 were allowed. Those cars were beautiful! The 30s and 40s cars in particular have such beautiful swoopy lines to them. Like sculpture, they are. Here’s a few pics. 

We have more, but you’ll have to come see us to get a look at all pictures. It was very hot that day, as you see.

After lunch and a cool down, we drove down Canyon Road, which follows the Yakima River. It’s a lovely, curvy road through a beautiful canyon. Ray drove down, I drove back up, so we both got to drive the curves, which are almost as much fun in the 9’er as they are on the bike! The water looked so cool, and there were many rafters and tubers out that day. Many of them didn’t float far from the launch site, but tied up in big groups and anchored and just sat in the water. We found a DNR campground that is “improved”. That means paved roads and paved parking pads, fire pits and that’s about all in the way of improvements. But several sites were big enough for us and the Circus Train. Even better, we have Senior Passes and would not have to pay to stay. After this Ellensburg Vermin Deer Adventure, we need cheap camping!

On Sunday the 7^th, we took a scenic ride up to Lion Rock, which is actually a mountain. It was a beautiful ride up into the hills and it was much cooler up there at 6,300 feet than it was down in the valley. It was about 20 degrees cooler up there at 76 degrees. And it felt like we could see forever! Such a grand view. Be sure to click on the panorama!

No one else was up there, so we let ol’ Norm roam around, which he really enjoyed. 

On the way up and down, we passed through an area which had suffered a wild fire 2 years ago. Lots of ghost trees! Spooky and sinister. Brrr! 

The last part of the road was gravel, and the very last part was truly terrible. Lumpy, bumpy, rocky, and heavily grooved by people driving heavy trucks when the road was very wet. It was worse than washboard. There were potholes big enough to swallow Mini-Coopers! But Ray was at the wheel and he never met a road he didn’t want to travel, so up we went, lumping and bumping and bouncing, and it was totally worth it! The trip back down the mountain was as beautiful as the trip up. Just a different perspective, but it made the views seem new to us.

We didn’t do much between the 8^th and the 12^th, except visit one of the local laundries, Ray got a haircut while I wandered around downtown, we stopped at a Verizon retailer because my phone battery is worn out but they don’t have any in stock and I get a new phone next month! We toured all the farm and feed stores (lots of them here) but found nothing we needed. Norm went to the day care a few times, while we ran errands and/or had a sit down lunch in air conditioning, a real treat. We also took him along a few times, to a pizza place, and two different Rossow’s U Tote ‘Em’s. Our GPS is not from around here! You should hear her slaughter Kittitas and Umptanum, 

On the evening of the 12^th, Norman started having diarrhea. He was up and down, in and out, all night. Saturday, it got worse and Saturday night, Ray stayed up all night, having to take poor dog out every 10-15 minutes. Both of them were exhausted by Sunday morning. So I got ready and took Norm to the Emergency Vet, which that weekend was a vet at the same place they have the day care. So they already knew him which helped some. We came home with 4 meds, 4 cans of special dog food and a whopping bill. But Norm is better! He still does not seem to have bunches of energy and one slow walk around the perimeter of the hotel property is enough for him. But his tail is up again and we can tell he is feeling better.  I had to help him into the car yesterday, but only a bit. He’s eating again, so I can hide his pills in a food ball instead of having to stuff them down his slimy throat. We both appreciate that. He does not appreciate the probiotics, which came in a large plastic syringe and I have to “shoot” 5cc of probiotics into his mouth twice a day. He may like that less than having his steel-trap jaws pried apart and pills stuffed down his gullet.

Yesterday, Norm being improved and no diarrhea, we decided to take the last of the scenic drives we know about. We went north on 97 up to Leavenworth. At one point, the road goes really close to the southern branch of the Wild Horse Wind Farm, and I think driving among the tall towers is always fun. They are so elegant when they are moving slowly in a light wind.

Along the way we took a little detour to check out the historic town site of Liberty, WA. I thought it might be a ghost town, but no, there are people living up there. Since it snows that high up (snowmobiles have a 25 mph speed limit on that road), I don’t know if they are year-rounders or only summer people. The buildings are very old, and probably most of them are original to the town. A few are newer than turn of the century, but I didn’t see anything I would call new construction, by any means. One of the old places is for sale; we did not stop to find out how much as it is too hot in the summer and too cold in the winter. Yes, we are picky.

We spotted a National Forest Campground and took time to check it out, only to decide there is no way we could get the moho in there, let alone find a large enough spot for it. That is definitely a tent campground. Which is fine and necessary, but not for us. They had a nice picnic area and we wished we’d packed a lunch. But we didn’t.

We had an outdoor lunch at Mickey D’s in Leavenworth, because they were the only place that allows dogs that we could find. I know, I know. Not gourmet food, but food. Highway 97 from here to there is winding and hilly and would be a good, good ride on a bike. Ray drove home and I am sorry to say, his half of the drive was mostly flat and boring. We took Highway 2 between Wenatchee and Quincy, then cut over to the I-90 to get back to E-burg. No deer spotted, or crashed into, thank goodness.

Last night I talked to a tour driver/guide from Atlanta. He brought a bus-load of tourists in, they were at the end of a tour of the Canadian Rockies. He took them to the airport this am and will pick up another load of tourists for the same route. We may be here long enough to say hello again. But I hope not. He was an interesting man, been touring a long time and has been many places in this country, including South Dakota. He actually knows where Box Elder is and has eaten Black Hills buffalo stew!

For supper, Ray brought home a pizza from the Hut, we watched the last installment of Texas Rising and hit the bed. And that brings us up to today. Ray got up early this am to head to the VA hospital because one of his hearing aids does not speak to Bluetooth things. He says they will send the aid in for repair and mail it to us. He was hoping that they could fix it there, but apparently not.

I think we will hang around the hotel today. Norman is sacked out and we don’t want to wear him out too much. He’s a senior citizen now and needs some pampering. Like me.

I'm Baaack!

After weeks of being locked out of the blog, I'm back in again!

As many of you know, we left the Seattle area on 1 June. On that day, about 2 pm, we had another deer encounter. The deer (a nice 4 point buck) decided to suicide on the front end of the moho. No, I did not field dress and freeze the deer. I did not keep his velvety antlers as a "prize". Vermin.

We sat at Ryegrass Rest Area for nearly 4 hours until the insurance company decided what to do and found a heavy tow truck to pick us up and deliver us to  Ellensburg, where we have been sitting since. Waiting. And waiting. And waiting. We waited for the repair estimate, we waited for the insurance adjuster, we waited, and are still waiting for the approval for fixing. It's frustrating for the repair place, and frustrating for us, since we have to pay for the hotel and any food. And yes, the deductible. For $1600 a year, you'd think the insurance company would be a bit more responsive, but no, we, and the repair guys, have been stuck in voice mail heck for days. And because it's Friday, nothing will happen. Again. The repair place called about 4 and let us know someone from the insurance co. had called them back (after 6 or more voice mails on their part) and some from us, and were informed it could take up to 5 days for the adjuster to approve the repair bill. Aack! They are not understanding that we LIVE in our motorhome and are stuck in a motel here. So Ray called the adjuster's voice mail and made it clear we don't HAVE a house to retreat to whilst they take their sweet time not answering their phones. We are full timers and full timers should be treated differently than casual campers who live at home. Yes, I do believe that. It's what we thought we were paying insurance for. It was sold to us as the best insurance for full-timers. Well, based on our experience, that's an outright lie. OK. Rant temporarily over.

On the bright side, we had never thought of Ellensburg as a vacation destination, not in all these years. So now, we have the chance to thoroughly investigate Ellensburg and Kittitas County. We did spent the first few days making and waiting for phone calls, so we got a late start on the tourism stuff.

On Wednesday, we went to visit Puget Sound Energy's Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility. It is the only wind farm in the country that has a visitor's center, and it's a very nice center with wonderful views from up in the mountains. We arrived shortly before 3 busloads of teenagers left. The place was quiet and even though it was hours before the next tour, one of the docents offered us a private tour. Wow, did we learn alot about wind power and wind turbines! It was fun, and even Norm got to take the tour, which he seemed to think was fun too. We had a great tour guide. I would recommend that if you find yourself passing through this area, you take a quick detour up to the facility. You will not regret it.

On the way back, we stopped in Kittitas to have lunch and ended up at Curly's II Bar and Grill. It's a western bar. Very western and very rustic, with a pregnant waitress who is due in October. She's carrying twins and is hoping for either 2 boys or one of each, as they already have a 4 year old girl at home. The food was good, simple fare and we enjoyed it. The onion rings were very good. There weren't many people in there, so we were glad we could provide the place some income.

Then we stopped in at Sure Shot Gun and Pawn to check on shooting ranges. The owner was very friendly and chatty and even offered us a utility-free cabin to stay in instead of the Holiday Inn. Hmm, let me think about that. Um, thanks, but no thanks! But she did tell us that while there are no shooting ranges about, she knew where all the locals went, and was willing to share that information. She even drew what turned out to be a very not to scale map for us, so we'd not get lost.

We decided to go check it out. The last road turned out to be a rock and pothole strewn hot mess. It was a bad road, bordered by fencing and private land. But we have a high clearance vehicle, so we went jouncing down the road for a few minutes. Suddenly, we saw something dart across the road, and decided it must have been a coyote, because we saw a dog-like tail. We kept going and what did we find? Not a coyote, but a working herd dog and 2 cowboys moving a herd of cattle up the road to new grazing. Those cows are near wild as it is, and they were none too enthused about leaving the grass they knew for some other, strange grass. So they kept trying to turn around, or in the case of the calves, flee altogether. We were happy for the skill of the dog that kept those cows in line and moving forward, as we had no desire to meet up with a fleeing herd, not even in the car. We followed at a discrete distance at a snail's pace (or cow's pace apparently) for a while and then decided to try again the next day. We returned to the hotel, prepared supper and hung out.

Thursday we made it all the way up that road. After about a mile and a half, it ceased to be a county road and became some other kind of road, and it was in better shape. We saw the "end of county maintenance" sign and thought, oh no, it's going to get even worse, but it turned out to be an oh, good instead. Much better after the county ceased "maintaining". We had a nice drive far up the canyon lands into cool, piney air. It's range land up there, so there were more cows around and some bulls. The bulls found us beneath their dignity, the cows kept watchful eyes on us and the calves were curious. We found a good place and had some practice time. It was fun, and we heard other people up there shooting too, but far from us. Since Norm does not like gunfire at all, we left him at the doggie day care and he seemed to enjoy it well enough. Again we had lunch in Kittitas, at the bar across the street from Curly's. It is also, surprise, surprise, a western bar. One kind of music, country. One kind of ambience, country. Thank goodness they had more than one kind of drink, and from observing patrons, I am sure the official drink was beer. But we had diet Pepsi. It was not as good as Curly's, although the food was good enough to eat and enjoy. And they had no pregnant chatty waitress. Bummer. We retrieved Norm from day care and fixed supper in our room, read some, watched a bit of tv.

Today, we extended our stay at the motel by 2 weeks, verified we can get mail here, again took Norm to day care, stopped by the moho to switch some things out, leave stuff and get stuff, chat with the repair guys, who are feeling bad we have to sit in motel instead of move along in our moho. They are storing our freezer food for us, nice guys. Then we stopped by Fred Meyer to buy Ray a new belt, went to the Verizon store to get a battery for my phone, found out I can get an upgrade on 20 June, so we decided to skip the battery and wait, even if it means my phone mostly lives on it's power cable. We had lunch at a Mexican place not far from our hotel. Fiesta de Jalisco is a solid 3 star restaurant to us. The food was good, but not quite up to Todo Mexico standards. Still, we ate it all and enjoyed it, and enjoyed not worrying about Norm being too hot in the car. The vet's office told us they are very strict here bout leaving dogs in cars, as there have been several deaths and car windows broken to rescue hot dogs. So we are glad to have a nice place to leave the Norm while we shop and such. The daycare had to wake him up when we came to get him. I don't think he's feeling stressed there!

We'll have supper in the room again tonight, take the dog for a walk, and who knows, when it cools down, we may all walk down the street to Mickey D's and have a dish of ice cream.

Tomorrow there is a car show downtown that Ray wants to go to. I'd like to visit Ginko Petrified Forest State Park down by Vantage, as it is a free weekend at State Parks, but we'll see. We may be worn out by the car show. Or too overheated. The car show should be a dog-friendly event. Whatever we do, it will be dog-friendly, because the day care is weekend care on Saturday and Sunday. He'd have to stay overnight.

We have decided to stay here even tho Seattle is not that far away, because we feel we need to be close in case there are questions, and to keep the repair guys on task as much as possible without being giant pains in the neck. If we go off to Seattle, who knows? And it impresses on the insurance company that they need to keep (or get) moving. Or it should, if anyone there has a heart.

We have an emergency fund and have decided this qualifies as an emergency. We decided we like the Holiday Inn, we like our quiet room and the grass, trees, creek and fields outside our room. We face away from the freeway and can't hear it even when it's cool enough to have the window open. It's very, very clean, it's got at least as much space as our moho has, it's got free high-speed wireless. Even though this is the "dog floor" we have seen only one other dog this week. We are close to the dog potty area, which is kept clean by the staff if the dog parents don't do it (we do clean up after our dog, but it's amazing how many people don't spring for those cheap little doggy bags). It's expensive enough that the college drinking parties don't happen here. There's no bar in the building unless you count the breakfast bar. Plus, Norman seems to feel very comfortable here. That has not always been the case. A few motel rooms he's downright hated. I think they will be full next weekend, as that is WSU's graduation time, but that will be ok. Another plus, they gave us a little price break for staying so long.

Secondary rant: the cost of repairs. It is going to cost $14,300 plus to fix our moho, and the lead time on one of the parts, that being the fiberglass front, is about one week, because Winnebago has none in stock and has to manufacture it from scratch. (I am grateful they still have the fiberglass mold to do that)

Tertiary rant: the so-called trip interruption insurance we bought. Turns out that unless the deer was driving a car, they won't give us a cent. I tried to tell them he was driving one of those little bathtub shaped Fiats, but they didn't buy it. Collisions with other motorized vehicles only, says the fine print. Somebody better train those deer to drive when they cross the road. Vermin!

Good Sam, purveyor of all these non-answering, non-paying insurances, is going to hear from us. After decades of dealing with USAA for our insurance needs, it is a shock to have to deal with another company. Alas! USAA no longer covers mohos. I sincerely wish they did. Comparing our insurance experience with the moho and when the deer killed the mini-van, it is obvious that USAA is hands down the best insurance company in the world.

Ranting over for the day. It's time to think about which type of sandwich to have for supper and whether or not to have soup too. Enjoy your days and don't forget to visit E-burg and Wild Horse Wind and Solar Facility!

States and States Behind

I can tell you one thing. Harley Davidson has more stores scattered across the countryside than God has green apples. There are a lot of Harley stores.

These days, we are busy with relatives and traveling back and forth from our campsite to towns nearby (and far) to meet up with relatives. And reconnect with one friend I've loved since Junior High. It's been a special summer. And a hot one, although the people who live in Illinois will tell it's been a cool summer. I do not see cool when I look at the thermometer, so I can't say. I do know that when we get the car cooled off enough to find it survivable that the windows get fogged up on the outside from the humidity (97% today). The air's so thick with moisture you can hardly breathe and when it's mosquito hours, it's like breathing bug soup. Ugh! Give me regular Washington state moisture that falls from the sky any day.

We are parked under some giant oak trees. For those who have forgotten, or maybe never  met an oak tree, they grow acorns. Lots of acorns. Sizeable acorns. There are no squirrels to be seen within the confines of this rv park and so no one is harvesting the acorns. Except maybe the bunnies. I honestly don't know if wild cottontails eat acorns, but I would guess they do, but they don't climb trees. Maybe rats eat them too. I have not seen rats (sincere thanks, Lord), but I have seen bunnies.

Anyway, back to the oak trees. Come a certain time of year, like within the last 2 weeks, the acorns come ripe and if not harvested by diligent squirrels, fall off the tree. Our 150 foot oak trees are bombarding us with acorns all day and night. When a cluster of acorns hits the roof, it sounds like a gunshot and will wake us all out of a sound sleep or a tv stupor. Those nuts falling that far are NOISY when they hit a fiberglass roof. We can hear them whack the other motorhomes around us too. We get an acorn tympani 24/7 most days. However, yesterday morning and this morning we had big old thunderstorms and winds and that knocked many acorns off the trees. While it was noisy during the storms, it was pretty quiet last night and has been since this morning's storm passed. Perhaps we will get a day's respite from the bombardment.

Poor Norman has not gotten over his fear of thunder. I was hoping familiarity would convince him nothing bad will happen, but such is not the case. I feel so bad for him and we try not to leave him alone when we know it's going to storm. He needs to be close to his Dad when it thunders.

Luckily, he gets along with his dog "cousins" that live with our families. That's a big relief, because he's going to have to stay with said cousins while we travel back to Seattle in October. Yes, we'll be staying at Jason and Lauren's house from Oct 2-Oct 15, and visiting doctors and friends as well as our children. We miss you all so much. That's the bad part of traveling. We miss our kids, our friends, our Norton/Barrett family and our ward. All the wards we have been to have been lovely wards full of lovely, welcoming people, but they are not "our" ward. Probably, with people moving in and out, "our" ward isn't "our" ward anymore either. Nothing stays the same.

I can't believe how much has changed in the formerly tiny country towns that are on the Elgin outskirts. They aren't tiny any more. They are almost inskirts now. (is that a word? Inskirts?) 2 lane country roads are now transformed into 5 and 6 lane highways! Towns have grown well past their former boundaries and they aren't tiny any more. Heavy traffic is everywhere. It makes me feel a tad displaced. My childhood home is no longer the way it is in my memories. It never will be again. It's a strange feeling and perhaps what is meant by the phrase, "You can't go home again." Home as it was is no longer extant. It now takes us a full hour (or more, depending on time of day) to travel the 27 miles to my sister's house. Amazing. My step-grandparent's farm has disappeared, subsumed by two housing developments. Little South Elgin, which used to be about 3 blocks long and 4 blocks wide is now a city unto itself. Life marches on. It makes me wonder what has changed and how much in Shoreline, as it feels like we've been gone a Long Time. (even tho we haven't)

Ray and I had an absolutely marvelous time with our niece Robin in Dickinson, North Dakota. We got to spend an extra week there with her instead of moving on to Minnesota, because work and school drew away my sister and her family during the week we'd have been there. So, no Marcia this trip, but a double dose of Robin!

We did nearly everything there is to do in and around Dickinson, and missed only the things that require an overnight trip to see. I think Rob was glad when we finally left because, 1. she got some rest, and 2. she was out of things to entertain us with. Well, Robin, we were tired out too! LOL

One of our favorite things turned out to be the North Dakota Badlands. Robin drove us around out there one day, showing us some favorite spots and camp areas. So beautiful, you can't believe it. Almost all the trees (except for the deliberately planted ones) in North Dakota are below the ground. So there you are, driving on a dirt road one and a quarter cars wide across dry scrub and more dirt when you come around a curve or top a hill, and there spread before you is a beautiful little canyon just filled with green, green grass and trees! It's simply astonishing and can take your breath away. I am afraid the pictures we have do not do it justice.

Oh, yes. There are no fences in cow country and by cows they mean beef cattle. Big ones. And June-August is when the farmers put the bulls out in the range with the cows and this year's calves. Thus to have more calves in the spring next year. A bull is a big and solid animal. You are liable to be pelting down a 2-track at 45-50 miles an hour (do not ask me why they go so fast out there on narrow dirt roads, as I do not have the answer, except maybe because the country is vast and it takes a long time to find a paved road and anything resembling civilization), round a bend and find cows, calves, and worse, bulls in the road looking at you like something they'd rather stomp flat than spend time moving out of the way for. Cows and calves find the cars startling and will either bolt for parts elsewhere or stand still nervously eyeing you as you creep past, but bulls are another story. If there is a bull in the road, you wait him out and he will move (or not) in his own sweet time, which I am sure is much more related to God's time than ours.

You do not want to hit these range animals. They are valuable and they are big. They will hurt your car, perhaps permanently. Some of them have sharp horns besides. So the cows wander around and munch what grass or plants they like that day and do not care if it's your road. Sometimes, a road will have a cattle guard across it. For some reason, they freak out the cows and they won't cross those. Some of the NFS campgrounds are cattle guarded and some are not.

Much of the land out there is government owned, but a good bit of it is privately owned and there are oil wells here and there, part of the Bakken formation of shale oil. The rules are different for private and federal lands as to what you may do there. It is a person's responsibility to know which land they are on. Thus you buy a large, complexly folded, plasticized map to help you get around. Unfortunately, said map does not have road names or designations or markings which match anything that you see in real life. This complicates things. But we managed to get safely in and out on our own, twice.

We went one day to a picnic area and were the only ones there. It was one of those places that is unexpected and beautiful to see. Plenty of room for other people and many tables and fire pits, but no one joined us. So we let the Norm run loose and sniff where he liked while we relaxed in the welcome shade. North Dakota is another place where it's hot in the summer, and occasionally, very humid. This day was sunny but only a little humid, but we were grateful for the shade trees and grass. We 3 just enjoyed the beautiful world God made for us and then wandered back to town by another route to get ready for supper and games with Robin.

Another time we went to a campground, again, no one else there, and spent some time having lunch and relaxing. Norman did not like this day, as we were target shooting and he does not like gunshots. We should have left him at home this day, but we thought he'd enjoy the freedom of running around and being outside. He didn't. He spent the afternoon in the car with the a/c on, huddled in the far back of the van with the extra equipment. Poor dog. We will not be taking him shooting again.

We went to a concert in the park in Dickinson, but the second was rained out. We went to Medora twice, once with Robin and Norman on our sight-seeing day and then again for the Medora Musical. If you are ever in the area, you must go see the musical. It was good clean fun and music and dancing. This year is their 50 year anniversary so they did a sort of retrospective, honoring the music of the eras and the different hosts. We took Robin with us and we all enjoyed it. The musical is held outdoors, in an improved natural ampitheater. They even have escalators to take you up and down, as it is quite steep. Wonderful fun!

We also attended the Ukranian Festival in Dickinson and ate cheese buttons. These are a sort of Ukranian version of ravioli, but round and smaller. Very tasty and buttery. We went to a restaurant that serves some Ukranian foods, but we opted for fried chicken instead of fleischkuekle (pronounced fleshkooklah).

We visited the Grassy Butte Sod House, but it was closed for the day so we just peeked in the windows. I'm glad I have a motorhome instead. We drove the Enchanted Highway to see the sculptures, visited the North Dakota Cowboy Hall of Fame, went to see Hercules and Planes-Fire Rescue, took a look at the Red Tail and Medora campgrounds, attended the Taylor Horse Fest, went to the dog park, went to Robin's co-worker's home out in the country for a cookout, where one of the summer workers played some tunes on her ukelele banjo, drove the Theodore Roosevelt National Park South Loop to see the wild life, ate at Kings Chinese Buffet, Dakota Diner, El Sombrero, Jack's and J.D. Barbeque. Yum. We also discovered The Best Laundromat Ever. No, not the name of it. It's called Prairie Maid and it was the best we've found yet. The only laundry better is the one at my Sister Lynn's house!

There are more cows than people in North Dakota and more hay bales than cows. Lots of hay. Lots of cows. More cows. More hay.

Yes, there are pictures somewhere, lots of them. I'll get them posted one day. I'm out of order here. There was more in South Dakota. And more to say about North Dakota. And then there's the trip to Forest City, IA and Illinois. And Indiana. Hmm. I shall think on it and try to organize.

Meantime, we are here in Illinois until we aren't. We have ordered a screen house from Cabela's to give us shelter outside from the mosquitos, but instead of shipping it to us here, they shipped it to our mailing address and said, oops, too bad. So, it arrives in South Dakota today and they will send it back here. Double shipping charges. Argh. We are looking forward to that screen house!

Yikes!

Many comments on nothing in this space. I've got to get going on this blog, don't I? Maybe tomorrow....

Too Much Fun

We had such a good tkme in South Dakota, and we have had a blast with our niece Robin. We're sorry we've had neither time, nor energy and sometimes not even a cell phone connection to write the blog.

But we have pictures to post and stories to tell. Tomorrow we're off for Forest City, Iowa to visit Winnie MoHo's birth place,  and then we'll be in Belvidere, Illinois for a week or so.

So, WATCH THIS SPACE!

From Motorcycles to Trout, We Saw It All

On Thursday the 3^rd of July, we make the pilgrimage to the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame. 

It was well worth the trip. We saw so many old and unusual motorcycles, including a number of Indians. And we saw some old familiar cycles too.

There were even a couple of sidecar rigs!

And even a wooden Harley!

And many others. Some fancy…

…and some plain.

We saw big bikes…

…and little bikes...

…and old bikes…

And we had a really good time.

After the museum, we went over to the Side Hack Saloon,

just because of the name and because I have a side hack of my own. The burgers were fantastic! The saloon has its own side car outfit.

But I still like mine better. The ambiance (what there is of it) in the Saloon is pure biker. The entire town of Sturgis lives for The Black Hills Rally. I’m pretty sure it’s about the only thing that goes on there. Sturgis is fairly small and the locals tell me the 20 minute trip takes over an hour during the Rally. I think I’m glad we missed it, although we think it might be fun to go one day just to see all the bikes. Hard core bikers, maybe not so much. Most of the town’s ambiance is biker. They are already touting rental spots for venders for this year’s Rally in August. It must be something to see. The officials report that less than 10% of the people who show up for the Rally bother to register. I guess their attendance reports are a guess.

After our tasty, juicy lunch we headed on our way to Spearfish, to the D.C. Booth National Historic Fish Hatchery.

The witch who lives in the Garmin got us lost again. Not really her fault, maybe, because the most direct road into the hatchery was closed because it’s camping season and the road runs right through the Spearfish City Campground. We found it anyway. The hatchery is in a huge beautiful city park, and makes up only a small part of the park. This trip was an indulgence for me, as I, for some unknowable reason, adore fish hatcheries and Ray does not care if he ever sees another one, because I have dragged him to every fish hatchery we’ve run across. I just love those little fish! 

This is a beautiful hatchery that in the past grew and distributed hundreds of thousands of trout of all varieties all across the west. D.C. Booth used to catch trout in Yellowstone and haul them by wagons back to the hatchery to produce the next generation of trout. The old buildings and homes are still here, and the hatchery now sends out about 50,000 little troutlings a year. The rest of the fish live in the hatchery ponds permanently. Not a bad life for a trout.

Some of the trout have been at the hatchery a long time and they’d make a great dinner!

The historic buildings are beautiful.

And everything is very well kept up, as you’d expect for a National place.

There’s even an underwater viewing area where you can watch the fish, but the view from the top isn’t bad either!

After this, we found our way home to a colorful sunset at the campground.

On the 4^th, we hung out at camp. The big flag was a-flying in the wind and was beautiful. That flag is huge!

The 5^th dawned clear and hot and humid. We made a quick trip to a grocery for our contribution to the afternoon’s barbecue pot luck. Only about half the campers turned out, but that is their loss, for it was a time of good companionship and relaxation. No one here is from Here, but we all call this Home now. We’ve grown fond of our little campground. There were 5 couples from Washington State, more than from California. We had a nice spot in the shade to set up chairs and the two picnic tables, and they opened one of the big garages to set up trestles for the food. The sodas were cold, and that’s a good thing, because it was 94 degrees and probably felt like 100, when the breeze died down about 5:30. We were surprised to see it was 6:30 when we got back to the moho, the time went by so fast. So we took Norm for his walk and huddled up in the a/c. We hosed down after we cooled off and slept well, in spite of the 2 am fireworks nuts.

Today we’re hanging out again. It’s fun to travel about but it’s also fun to be home in the moho and just relax. It’s only 84 now, and so we may go out and sit in the shade. The humidity is only 38% for a change. 

Tomorrow, we will visit the Sheriff and the license plate people. And it’s laundry day. Again. Tuesday fun resumes with a trip to the Crazy Horse Monument.

Alive! Alive!

No, we are NOT in New York. We're right here at "home" in South Dakota. Golly a person takes a few days off for illness and Her Reader gets all grumpy. Cool it, Bro.

As I felt better on Sunday, we both went to Church. It was a good service and good lessons. The day was spectacularly beautiful. We set up chairs outside. Ray cleaned the wheels and put on the covers so they'd stay clean and the tires won't get sun rot. After that he napped in the outside chair and I read. Norman laid at our feet or rolled in the grass. We all enjoyed Sunday! I remember what I fixed for lunch, but I don't remember supper. Maybe spaghetti?

Monday we made the trek to Mount Rushmore. The day was beautiful and sunny, but windy as heck. I sat on a bench for a moment to put on some sunblock and my sunglasses were blown off the bench. Luckily, they were still within Ray's reach through the fence. We walked the President's Trail at the bottom of the mountain. Lovely views of the carvings and the surrounding lodge pole pine forest. Those lodge poles were bending and swaying in the wind. Ray and I were among the oldest on the trail. It was mostly young people and young parents, kids. The ranger said it was easy except for the last .4 mile. And he was right. The last .4 mile was straight up. Luckily there were stairs, and landings to rest on. Holy cow, was it ever UP. We saw Borglum's studio at the bottom of the hill and then hiked back up to the plaza and amphitheater level. It was a good work out. The howling wind kept us cooler, at least. Not many other people in their sixties (or older) were brave enough to tackle it, but we were! We were glad we'd made the trip to Rushmore. I'd like to go back and see the lighting ceremony some evening.

Norman had stayed home, but it turned out that we got a spot in a nice cool parking garage and they do have 2 dog areas by the lots. So he could have gone with.

The roads up to the Mountain are curvy and we wished we had our motorcycles. We did meet a group of motorcyclists from Washington. The wet side even! But most of them trailered their bikes. Weenies! It would have been a challenging ride in all that wind, though.

Right at the base of the mountain is a town called Keystone. It is the world's biggest tourist trap. I used to think that Lake Geneva was, but Keystone has that beat all hollow. Of course there are huge billboards along the way touting each of the many attractions. I just had to think back to when Kim and I were small and begged our 'rents to stop at each and every attraction. If there was a reptile town, we we wanted to stop. If there was a cave, we wanted to stop. If there were trail rides, we wanted to stop. Didn't matter much what it was, if it had a billboard, we wanted to stop. We begged and clamored and carried on. I can remember that we were quite unrelenting and merciless, but by dint of sheer strength and moth of pocketbook we never did get to stop at any of those places. My poor Dad! I'm sorry, Dad.

Here's a picture of the neatest thing at the chainsaw carver's place:

Tuesday, my legs were screaming at me for abusing them on the many stairs I made them walk up on Monday. Ow. My legs have had their revenge. They still hurt, but not as much. Our walk last night was shortened, Ray and I were tired, and I think ol' Norm was too.

We spent the day road tripping. We took a scenic loop trip, which included Belle Fourche (pronounced Bell Foosh for some reason) and the Geographic Center of the Country and continued on to Devils Tower and then home.

Belle Fouche is an old town, and still has some of the older elements. It's the home of South Dakota's first and longest running Rodeo. I am glad we were not there Rodeo week, it would have taken all week to get through town! There's one stoplight in Belle Fouche, and it's right down town. The park where the geo marker is is part of a complex of parks and walkways they call River Walk. You can walk a loop around the city if you have enough time and strength. We saw several portions of the Walk and it's really quite nice. Because of all the rain it's still beautiful and green and the flowers are blooming like mad, just like in Rapid City.

At the park, they have the first log cabin built in the county. It was two stories and quite small by today's standards, but a mansion for the prairie frontier. The man had to take his team of horses up into the Black Hills, chop the trees and then haul them back to his homestead with the team. Each log was hand shaped into a square, and the corners are dovetailed. The last surviving family  member gifted the house to the city for preservation.

Right next to the cabin is the Tri-State Museum. It's small but very informative, with a wide range of artifacts and a bookstore focusing on the history and geology of the area. I am astonished at how small women were in the 1800s and early 1900s. I am also pained thinking about getting laced into one of their corsets so they could fit into those teensy dresses.

After being educated we took off for Devils Tower in Wyoming. We passed through a very small town, Aladdin, population 15, that has a small (tiny) restaurant called Cindy's. They reputedly have THE BEST homemade pies in the whole state. We didn't stop.

Devils Tower is out in the middle of not much but scenery. The park itself is pretty small, but it was one of the first places set aside as a natural, protected area, even before South Dakota was a state. The real name of Devils Tower is Bear Lodge. The Native Americans have long associated it with bears. The Lakota origin story says that two children were being chased by a large bear and found a flat rock in the forest, where they paused to catch their breath. The rock said "Hang on!" and then rose into the sky, carrying the children beyond the bear's reach. He was angry at missing his dinner, and clawed at the rock, trying to climb up and eat the children. But he could not, as hard as he tried. So the children were saved. The legend does not say how they got down, but I'd like to know that.

Bear Lodge is still sacred to the Indian tribes in the region, and every June the tower is closed to climbing, because that's when Native Americans hold ceremonies and religious events at the tower. They still call it Bear Lodge. The name of the tower on the first published map in 1851 calls is Bear Lodge. But in later years, I think 1880s, another map maker visited and for what ever unknown reason changed the name to Devil's Tower. Because of a printing error, the apostrophe was left out and so it became Devils Tower and remains so to this day although Native Americans have long petitioned to have it changed back.

Whatever you call it, it's an amazing sight. Even the geologists don't know exactly how it was formed, which makes it all the more amazing and interesting to me. There is a hike around the bottom of the tower, but it is 2K and my legs were angry enough, so we didn't go. Norman went with us this day, and he could not go on the trail anyway, he could only walk around the parking lot. So that's what we did and still managed some pretty good photos.

On the way out of the park we stopped at the Prairie Dog village and took more pictures.

The entire day was filled with marvelous scenery. I have not even got words to express how beautiful it was. Our eyes were filled and our souls replenished, even as our bodies got tired. We stopped to get a pic of the SD sign, as I missed it on the way in the first time.

In Spearfish was the first opportunity to forage for supper, so we stopped there and had some supper at a Chinese restaurant which was very good. We got home just before sunset, so we took Norman out for his evening walk and then we collapsed into the TV zone.

Today we visited yet another laundromat in an attempt to find "the" one. I think there isn't a "one" when it comes to laundromats. The washers were only 2 bucks, but the dryers cost 25 cents for 5 minutes. It takes a lot of minutes to dry the clothes. We eventually lost patience and came home with several semi-dry shirts, which are now decorating the cabinet door knobs, finishing the drying process. Not very elegant, but cheaper than feeding yet more quarters into the dryers. By the way, SEND QUARTERS!!!

We also stopped at a grocery store. It was nice enough, but no store in this area seems to have heard of sugar-free fruits or pickles. Or sugar free ginger ale. Weird. We did find thin buns though, and some nice Portobellos.

On the way home, we stopped at the Over The Border and had a really late lunch or a really early dinner. We were fairly happy with our entrees, but their refrieds and rice need some work. The salsa, however, was spectacular good.

I don't know yet what we will do tomorrow, perhaps the National Fish Hatchery and the Motorcycle Museum. On the Fourth, I think we'll stay home. The park is having a Pot Luck at 3 pm on the 5th. Summer has arrived in full force, and it will be 93 degrees on the 4th. With the mandatory Thunderstorms.

My thighs still ache. Note to self: climb up and down stairs more often.

By the way, the Black Hills aren't black. They are a rainbow of colors, but black isn't one of them. At a distance, they do look sort of black, because of the dark green of the lodge pole pines. But up close, no black at all. Beautiful, though. We really like South Dakota. If only the weather was more like western Washington!

Oh, yeah, we finally identified the little brown birds that run so quickly and don't fly unless they have to, thanks to Sibley's Guide to Birds. They are Semipalmated Plovers! You should see their little legs go...they blur, just like in the cartoons.