July 29th A pretty dull day in Brighton, CO

I had big plans to complete a boatload of laundry in the morning at the campground laundromat but discovered at 8:45am that the park had turned off the water to do some repairs to its water distribution system. After waiting all day the water was finally turned back on this evening at 7:50pm. Hmmmm, I'm not loving this place as its more than rundown, I'm thinking it could be considered a dump with it's nearly empty green colored water swimming pool and rundown, messy trailers (in my row at least) . This is a disappointment to me because it's a Good Sam and AAA recommended park and we're are paying $33.00 a night to stay here. Oh well, it looks like tomorrow will be laundry day. As I had time available (due to not being able to do 4 million pounds of laundry) I planned out the next phase of our trip. Here's the deal: We'll leave Saturday morning and head up to Fort Laramie NM in Wyoming. On Sunday we'll head to the Cody, WY area to stay in a national forest campground for two days before heading into Yellowstone for four nights as I was able to secure a campsite at Fishing Bridge RV Park which is the only full hookup camping area within this national park. Now, we don't need full hookups, in fact I'd prefer not to have them as it's half the cost per night but it was the only campground in the park that accepts reservations that had space available. While I was planning this portion of our trip wicked thunderstorms moved into the area and it started to pour buckets of water. I heard a dog barking and crying at the Airstream next to me and realized that the dog's owners were not at their site and the dog was tied up outside without any shelter. I went right over and unlinked him from his lead and brought him into my trailer where I toweled him off, gave him some fresh water to drink and had him lay down on a blanket that I placed for him on the floor. He is a nice dog and seemed happy to be out of the rain. After a few hours the sky cleared so I took him back to his site and relinked him to his lead. I wonder if his owners noticed he was dry when they got home..... :-)

July 28th Camped in Brighton, CO for a few days

I dropped Leon off at the Denver Airport early this morning so he could catch his flights back to New Hampshire. I'm now holed up at my camp for the next few days which is in a private campground that is crowded, noisy, expensive and rundown to boot. It's only saving grace is I'm parked next to a hot looking late model International 75th Anniversary Editon Airstream travel trailer. I hope they'll be staying for a while. On the other side of me is a wicked run down, messy (junk all around it) older trailer that is being used as a main residence by a gentleman with two barking dogs. Lovely, I'm keeping my door locked.

Don't expect any exciting posts for a bit, I'm going to spending my time catching up on laundry, doing some grocery shopping and cleaning the trailer (it's amazing how much dirt and grime has gotten into everything over the past 3600 miles). I'll also take the time to do some trip planning and maybe try to get campground reservations in Yellowstone, wish me luck!

July 27th Rocky Mountain National Park

Ok folks, you cannot "do" Rocky Mountain National Park in one day. There is just too much to see, hikes to take and ranger programs to attend. But we did not have the luxury of time so we decided to take the loop road through the park before heading to the Denver Airport area in the evening. If you read my last journal entry you know that we suffered trailer brake failure on the way into Estes Park and no one in their right mind would tow a trailer on the Rocky Mountain NP loop road without trailer brakes so Leon spent time in the morning looking for the point of failure. He found a couple of things that were suspect; old taped up wires and a crushed wire but no smoking gun. We connected the truck and trailer and by some miracle our trailer brakes were now working so we decided to continue into the park with trailer in tow as planned. We gladly left the crowded, noisy, expensive RV "resort" and entered the park at the Fall River Visitor Center entrance and began the climb up the mountains passing through the treeline and into the alpine area. The drive was beautiful, breathtaking actually but we were saddened to see the extensive damage done to the park's trees by the Pine Beetle. 60% to 75% of the trees are dead or dying because of the beetle epidemic which ranges from Canada to Mexico. As we drove through the switchbacks with sheer drop offs with only stone railings I changed my mind and decided that no one in their right mind would tow a trailer of any size on the loop road. It was wicked scary at times! Not that Leon had any issues, our GMC HD2500 had no problem handling the thin air or pulling the trailer up the inclines and the trailer brakes worked flawlessly. I had the problem! I have a fear of heights and had forgotten how scary this road was when we drove it in a car back in the 80s, never mind driving it with a huge truck and 25' trailer! My knees were knocking together! Anyway as we got into the alpine area we were thrilled to see herds of elk resting on the mountain sides near the road. We could not pull over to view them due the size of our TV & trailer combo (45 ft in length) so I took pictures as we slowly drove past them. They were stunning to see! After a few hours of enjoyment and terror (on my part) we left the loop road and Rocky Mountain NP and headed east towards Denver as I had found a campground that was within a half hour drive from the airport for me to camp out at while Leon was back home. When we were about 30 miles away from our destination the sky darkened and the wind picked up big time. Our truck and trailer were being pushed hard by the wind so I turned on our CB to the emergency channel where we heard that a severe thunderstorm was approaching us with winds up to 58 miles an hour and golf ball sized hail. YIKES! Airstreamers hate hail! So we made the decision to pull off the highway and wait for the storm to pass through the area and after 45 minutes we were able to get back underway and we arrived at our new base camp before 5:00pm. I was tired from having been terrorized for a good portion of the day and didn't feel like cooking so we went out to a local chicken wing chain where the food was nothing special though I did down 3 Margaritas which helped to reduce my stress level.

July 26th Scotts Bluff NE & travel to Rocky Mountain National Park CO

After a good nights sleep we hooked up the trailer to our TV and towed the short distance to Scotts Bluff National Monument. Scotts Bluff has scientific interest from a geological standpoint as the north face shows more geological history than any other place in Nebraska. It's also the second highest point in Nebraska (which tells me Nebraska is a wicked flat state) but our reason for visiting this NM is it's connection to the settlers movement west via the Oregon, California, Mormon, and Pony Express Trails. The settlers could see Scotts Bluff from miles away as they were traveling through the high prairie and after days and days of the same scenery it must have been a pleasant sight for them. As they traveled through the bluff it became a bottleneck and they needed to have the wagons go through in single file which caused deep ruts in the landscape which can still be seen today, 160 or so years after the wagon trains went through. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) built nearly every structure at the Scotts Bluff National Monument in the 1930's - the summit road, Saddle Rock Trail, the visitor center, the maintenance barn, and a residence now used for administration. The summit road is the most spectacular of their work with three tunnels carved through the rock and the way it was designed insures it cannot be seen as you view the mountain from the ground so the mountain appears untouched. Leon and I viewed the short slide show in the visitors center about the trials of the settlers on the Oregon/California/Mormon Trails and then walked through the exhibits to build upon what we learned from the slide presentation. I got the mother lode of national park stamps here as all of the settler wagon train trails run through this park, I got 6 stamps for one visit! Outside of the visitor center we took the 1/2 mile trail to view the ruts left by the settlers wagons, it was amazing to me that they are still there! On the way back we took a peek at the display of the types of covered wagons that settlers used and we were both surprised at how small they were. We ask a ranger about the ones we'd seen in western movies from our childhood and he told us those were later period wagons used by freight companies to move goods west. Man! If we can't trust Hollywood who can we trust? :-) Before leaving the park we took the shuttle up to the top of the bluff where we had an excellent view of Chimney Rock in the distance. The ranger who drove the shuttle provided us with additional details about the settlers and the America Indians who called this area home, it was very enlightening. We hit the road about 11:00am as we had a 4 to 5 hour tow to Estes Park in Colorado. As we were arriving in Estes Park, right at the point where the road grades became steep we lost our trailer brakes! We pulled over and tried to troubleshoot without success so we carefully towed into Estes Park to secure a campsite. We checked with a ranger at Rocky Mountain NP who informed us all NP campgrounds were full (not a surprise) so we were forced to select a private RV "resort" just down the road from the park. It was everything I dislike about private parks: Big, crowded, noisy & expensive. It was rally style parking! People who had slides only had a foot or two between them and the next persons slide. Awful! And Estes Park has grown too, and not in a good way. It's a giant tourist trap now which is not how it was when we visited in the late 1980s. Oh well, sometimes you cannot go back again. As I was too tired to cook dinner we went out to a local Mexican joint which was a disappointment. Not a good end to our day.

July 25th Devils Tower WY & Agate Fossil Beds, NE

After breakfast we headed over to the Devils Tower visitor center to attend a 1 1/2 hour, 1.3 mile ranger walk around the base of the Tower. There was a large group of folks gathered for the walk, more than the ranger normally guided but he was not fazed. He set some ground rules about keeping to the trails and not touching the American Indian prayer cloths that could be seen hanging from some of the trees and we were off. We made six stops around the tower and at each stop the ranger gave us insight into how the tower was formed 1 1/2 miles underground and exposed as the landscape above it eroded away, what the tower means to the Native Americans, climbers and local ranchers and the wildlife of the area. It was an interesting talk and we got a lot out of it, much more than if we just walked the base of the tower ourselves reading the information signs along the way. The tower looks so surreal, I understand why it was selected as the spaceship landing site in the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind. I didn't see any UFOs though (bummer). Anyway, here's the geological story as told by the ranger: About 50 million years ago molten magma was forced into sedimentary rocks above it and cooled underground. As it cooled it contracted and fractured into columns. Over millions of years, erosion of the sedimentary rock exposed Devils Tower. The Tower rises 867 feet from its base and stands 1,267 feet above the river. It's teardrop shaped top is 1.5 acres and it's base is 1,000 feet. After our walk we dropped into the visitors center so I could get my Devils Tower stamp stamped into my National Park Passport and to view the exhibits. Before 11:00am we were back in the campground hooking up our trailer to our TV so that we could get on the road to our next stop for the day: Agate Fossil Beds National Monument which was about a 4 hour run from Devils Tower. We traveled on Route 85 in WY to Route 20 into NE to Route 29 down to Agate Fossil Beds. These roads traveled some of the most wide open spaces I ever saw, there was nothing to be seen except prairie for miles at a time. Strangely beautiful though, with the exception of the many junk cars lined up outside of run down mobile homes which were sprinkled along our route. We finally arrived at Agate Fossil Beds NM, man it is out there! No homes, or towns for miles. I wonder how long the commute is for the few rangers that man this lonely park. Anyway, we watched the introductory movie and viewed the exhibits. It was fascinating to learn that the fossil beds were created about 19 - 20 million years ago when a drought struck the plains of what is now western Nebraska. Deprived of food, hundreds of animals died around a few shallow waterholes and over time their skeletons were buried under silt, sand and volcanic ash which preserved them. The most common fossils found are Moropus, Palaocastor, Menoceras, Daphoenodon and Daeodon - Do not ask me to pronounce these! After getting my National Park Passport stamped we continued on our way as it was getting late in the day and we still needed to secure a campsite for the night. Our goal was Riverside RV Park in Scotts Bluff, NE. I had done a bit of research on www.freecampgrounds.com and found this park listed for $10.00 with water and electric. After about an hours worth of travel we pulled into Riverside (which is connected to the county zoo) and found they had spaces available for us. What a deal! It's a very clean park with full hookups for $15.00 and W/E sites for $10.00. We selected a W/E site because we didn't need to dump, paid our 10 bucks and set up camp. We had a little bbq and then retired for the evening as the next day we would be visiting Scotts Bluff NM and then travel to Rocky Mountain National Park.

July 24th Travel day to Devils Tower and some very sad news

We were packing up the trailer and TV when Leon's cell phone rang around 8:00am MT. It was Lucia, Tyler's wife (Leon's boss) calling to tell him Tyler had passed away the night before. We were both shocked. His health had been declining but his death came much sooner than expected. Lucia told Leon he went quickly and peacefully, and that he had been happy the day that he died. Tyler was a great man and Leon loved working for him at C & M Engineering. He will be greatly missed.

It was a quiet commute through the Black Hills of South Dakota into Wyoming. We stopped at the Wyoming visitors center (Route 90, exit 189) to dump our tanks and fill our fresh water at it's modern, clean and free trailer waste station. After dumping and picking up some brochures about Devils Tower and Yellowstone we stayed in the parking lot and made up some lunch (yes, we washed our hands first). Another Airstream had pulled in while we were dumping and the gentleman who owned it came over to chat for a bit. He and his wife had been full timing in their trailer for about 4 months seeing the country and were loving it. This is something Leon and I hope to do someday too. After lunch we hit the road towards Devils Tower, arriving there mid afternoon. We found an available spot in it's campground and set up camp. I found we had a slight cell signal, just enough for me to connect my netbook to my mobile phone for internet access so I searched for flights out of the area so Leon could get home to attend Tyler's services. I did not have too much luck, pricing was quite high so we made the decision to change course and head to Denver, CO so Leon could take a Southwest flight out on Tuesday using some of my banked tickets. After booking Leon's flights we walked around the campground a bit before making dinner and retiring for the night.

July 23rd Jewel Cave National Monument

We slept in, packed up a picnic lunch and then did some work on the inside and outside of the trailer because our Jewel Cave tour reservations were for 1:45pm. Jewel Cave is a national monument instead of a national park so it does not receive the funding that Wind Cave does which means there are fewer rangers available to lead tours and there are fewer areas in the cave that are "tour ready" (meaning no lights or paths). It's also "free" just like Wind Cave with the exception of the cave tours. Tour prices ranged from $5.00 to $8.00 with Senior / Access National Pass holders receiving a 50% discount. After a 45 minute commute which took us outside of Custer SP and past the small town of Custer we arrived at the national monument where we took advantage of it's nicely maintained picnic area. After lunch, when we were in line at Jewel Cave to pick up our reserved tickets we saw many folks being turned away because all of the tours for the day were already sold out. In fact we heard a ranger telling one family group that the next tour opening was 2 days away so we felt pretty darn lucky that I was able to reserve the "Lantern Tour" the day before. The "Lantern Tour" is a 1 3/4 hour tour that follows the paths of early cave explorers using only oil lanterns for light (well, if you are a little kid you get an electric "oil" lamp so you won't burn yourself. I selected an electric "oil" lamp myself). The tour started at a historic ranger cabin that was built by the CCC. The ranger / guide pretended that we are in the year 1936 and provided the history and geology of the cave as it was known during that time period. After the cabin tour we all picked up our oil lamps and descended many steps down to the "natural" cave entrance. Back in the day the first explorers used dynamite to enlarge the opening so I'm thinking it's not so natural anymore. Anyway, we entered the cave and within moments were descending old, steep steps down deep into the cave. It seemed like we were descending 1000s of feet but the ranger said we only went down about 150 feet. It was a tight fit and we were going through small holes in the cave instead of paths. Lots of bending and stooping and it was wicked dark too! Even with my lantern I could not see my feet or where the next step should be. Up and down (mostly down) stairs we went until we got to a small room where we viewed the calcite crystals that lined the walls of most of the known cave. Jewel Cave is named for rooms and passages that are lined with the jewel like calcite crystals which sparkle like gems with illuminated. It was magic! As the tour progressed our guide left 1936 and came back to the present to provide us with the current understanding of the geology of this cave with the most fascinating being it's projected size. Per our guide and the exhibits in the visitor center it is believed that only 5% of the cave has been discovered / explored. If this is true than Jewel Cave has the potential to be the largest cave in the world. Right now 146.1 miles of passages and rooms have been documented (this is updated everyday) compared to the current largest cave in the world (Mammoth Cave in KY) which is listed at 387 miles. Remember at 146.1 miles it is thought that only 5% of the cave has been discovered! I'll keep an eye on this over the next few years to see if it actually does end up being the largest cave, wouldn't that be cool! Half way through our tour it was time to head back and of course we had to climb up all of the 750 steps we can down on. There was lots of panting going on, even the little kids were struggling with the climb. Oh, I should mention that cameras were not suggested due to the tight spaces so I did not bring mine in. Others did, in fact one family took about 30 pictures of themselves during the round trip which blinded the group each time their flash went off. I was thinking to myself how many pictures does one need of of themselves next to brown rock? Oh well, I hope they enjoy their memories. As this was our last night in the area we decided to spurge by going out to dinner at Sylvan Lake Lodge within Custer State Park. We arrived a bit early for dinner so we got a couple of drinks from the bar and found a good spot to use the lodge's free Internet access to do a couple of blog updates. We went to dinner around 7:00pm and we both ordered game. Leon got bison and I got elk which we shared. The food was wonderful and worth the $$$ though the service not so much. The wait staff were friendly but not well trained which distracted from the fine dining room and food. After dinner we headed back to camp to begin to pack up as we were leaving South Dakota and heading to Devils Tower in Wyoming in the morning.

July 22nd Wind Cave National Park

After breakfast I packed up a picnic lunch and we headed out to Wind Cave National Park which was a scenic 21 mile journey from our base camp in Custer State Park. Along the way we saw lots of pronghorn and prairie dogs within Custer SP and once we crossed into Wind Cave NP we were delighted to see the large bison herd that is maintained there. Wind Cave was discovered by settlers in 1881 (American Indians knew about long before that) and became the 7th national park in 1903. The park is "free" with the exception of cave tours which were priced between $7.00 to $23.00 per person depending on the tour you select. Holders of Senior or Access National Passes receive a 50% discount on tour prices but those of us with the standard yearly National Park Pass do not receive a discount. Leon and I selected the "Fairgrounds Tour" and after a brief wait we lined up with 28 other tourists to ride the elevators down into the cavern. As we began our tour we discovered that Wind Cave is very different than the caves we've visited back east. The caves at home are damp, or down right wet with rivers and lakes within them. Wind Cave is dry, stays at constant 53 degrees and doesn't have any animals or insects that live in it due to the lack of water. The cave is currently listed as the 4th longest in the world and it is a maze structure with multi-levels that all fit within one square mile of land. The most amazing feature of this cave is it's unusual and abundant formation called boxwork. It is nearly square in nature and resembles cubby holes you'd find in a post office. Our tour explored portions of both the upper and middle levels where we saw lots of boxwork and some popcorn and frostwork formations. The tour was strenuous with 450 stairs along it's route with one flight of 90 steps up! The cave has not been modified for tourists, meaning it's passage ways have not been enlarged or the pathways made level so there was a lot of bending and ducking that needed to be done which I though really added to the enjoyment of the tour. The tour lasted a short 1 1/2 hours, we could have loved to stay down in the cavern for many more to continue to explore. It was fascinating! After our cave tour we took the time to view the exhibits which covered the formation of the cave, it's human history, it's becoming a national park and the prairie land above the cave which supports a variety of wildlife. I stamped my National Park Passport with the Wind Cave stamp and we then headed out to the park's lovely picnic area for lunch where we watched deer grazing as we ate our sandwiches. Back in Custer State Park we stopped at the State Game Lodge to enjoy a couple of adult beverages and we laughed and talked with the bartenders. We told them of our plan to head to Sturgis before motorcycle week started and they both recommended we skip it. They said the SP wasn't anything special and that the crowds of bikers were already beginning to grow. They warned us it gets pretty rough there and we may not enjoy it. In it's place they recommended we detour to Glacier National Park before we headed into Yellowstone, so that became our new plan and we were both pretty excited by it. After dinner back at camp we attended an evening ranger program within the campground about the history of Custer State Park and then retired as the next day we had reservations for a tour at Jewel Cave National Monument.

If you are ever in the Black Hills of South Dakota Wind Cave is a must see!

July 21st Custer State Park

We pulled out of Horsethief Lake campground early in the morning and headed towards Custer State Park. After a brief stop in the town of Custer where we connected to the Internet to pay some bills we arrived at Center Lake Campground around 11:00am to find we had a large variety of sites to choose from. We selected a long, level site without much tree cover in loop A and set up camp for the next three days. We've learned over the past few weeks that tree cover really reduces the effectiveness of our solar panels so when we dry camp we try to select a site that has full sun. Lucky for us the weather has been cooler than normal at each of the places we've boondocked so being in full sun hasn't cause the inside of the trailer to over heat. In the afternoon we drove the Wildlife Loop Road where we viewed lots of mule deer, pronghorn (antelope) and prairie dogs. We were surprised that we didn't see any bighorn sheep or buffalo so we stopped at one of the park's visitor centers to inquire about the "position" of the bison and the ranger directed us to head over to the Iron Mountain Road loop as this was the last reported sighting of the herd. As soon as we pulled onto Iron Mountain Road the buffalo were everywhere! We laughed as we watched park rangers in a SUV with a large guard attached to the front of the vehicle herd a group of bison down the road. The rangers were trying to get the bison to move off the road in an effort to relieve the long traffic jam but they were not successful. We enjoyed slowly driving by these great beasts as they passed within inches of the sides of our truck and they could not have cared less about the lines of vehicles they needed to navigate around. I guess they are pretty use to cars and of course they have the right of way within the park. After we passed the buffalo herd we stopped at the State Game Lodge which is one of the parks historic lodges. The State Game Lodge served as the "Summer White House" for President Calvin Coolidge in 1927 and was also visited by President Dwight D. Eisenhower for a few days in 1953. It is a beautiful stone and wood lodge surrounded by ponderosa pines and was well worth the stop. We enjoyed an adult beverage in the lodge's newly restored lounge before heading back to camp to prepare dinner. After dinner we walked the campground and then retired early as we were heading to Wind Cave National Park the next day.

July 20th Mount Rushmore National Monument

We enjoyed a leisurely morning at camp and then packed up a picnic lunch and headed the few miles to Mount Rushmore National Monument. Entrance to the monument is "free" but there is a $10.00 per vehicle parking charge (which means to me that the monument is not free) and National Park Passes are not accepted for parking charges. As we pulled into the park I commented to Leon that I thought the heads would look larger than they did. Even though they are around 60' high the parking lot / monument area are about 800' down the side of the hill from the sculptures so they didn't appear very large to me. Getting into the park was a flipping zoo, we could not believe how many folks were visiting on the same day as us! After parking our TV in the very narrow spaces in the parking garage we went up to the monument to take in the museum, sculpture studio and to walk the pathways which provided good vintage points in which to view the 4 presidents represented in the carvings. We both agreed this monument was very well done with an avenue of flags which represented each of the fifty states with a fantastic view of the sculptures right above them. We spent a couple of hours here, taking in two ranger talks and enjoying the pathways. It would have been better if there were less folks there but this is peak season so the crowds are to be expected. Before leaving the park we purchased a couple of soft serve ice cream cones that were gigantic! We were so full from the ice cream that we didn't even eat our picnic lunch.

As we had lots of daylight left we decided to check out Center Lake campground in Custer Lake State Park to see how many sites would be being vacated the next day so that we could determine if we should attempt to get into this campground or head south a bit to stay in the national park campground at Wind Cave. As we were turning into Custer State Park we experienced an amazing event, their own version of a traffic jam! There were bison (buffalo) everywhere! In the middle of the street, on the sides of the road, just everywhere! There was one huge bull that must not have liked the sound of our diesel engine that "yelled" at Leon! Leon yelled back and the bison yelled at him again before crossing right in front of our TV. Very cool and amazing!! After checking out the campground (lots of sites would be available the next morning) we traveled on Iron Mountain Road through the park which took us through tight tunnels drilled right through the rock hills which were designed to frame the presidential heads on Mount Rushmore. Truly breathtaking! Next we took Needles Highway (in Custer State Park) which was even more scenic than the Iron Mountain Road loop and brought us through rock tunnels so narrow we needed to pull the mirrors in on our TV. We were both very impressed and glad that we had decided to stay in Custer for 3 nights. After we got back to camp we enjoyed dinner and began to pack up as we wanted to insure we secured a campsite in Custer the next morning.

July 19th Travel to the Black Hills of South Dakota

We left Badlands National Park in the morning and heading west on Route 90 towards Mount Rushmore in the Black Hills of South Dakota. We stopped briefly at the famous Wall Drug 80 FT Dinosaur off of exit 110 for a Airstream photo opportunity and were disappointed that we could not get our TV and trailer close enough to the statue for a good shot (see photo, our rig next to the Dinosaur, on the right hand side). Our travel goal for the day was Horsethief Lake campground which is managed by the U.S. Forestry Department. This is a "first come, first serve" campground just a few miles from the entrance to Mount Rushmore National Memorial so we were concerned it could fill up if we didn't get there early enough in the day. After a brief stop in Rapid City for supplies (Walmart Supercenter) it was an easy and scenic run into the Black Hills so we pulled into the campground shortly after noon. Good luck was with us as there were 6 open sites for us to select from. We choice site #19 which was one of the largest sites in the park and was fairly level. After setting up camp we gathered our week's worth of laundry and went the few miles to Keystone, SD which had the closest public laundromat to our campground. Keystone is a tourist town with lots of fake saloons, pizza shops, mini golf courses and tacky shops so we just did our laundry and headed back to camp where we enjoyed a beautiful walk around the lake on well maintained paths before making dinner and retiring early.

Note to our Airstreaming friends: Horsethief Lake campground does not have hookups, showers or a dump station. RV size limit is posted at 25' but we saw a few there that were larger. There are very few sites available that would hold more than 25' though. Nightly fee was $23.00 which at first we were shocked at, it was the highest price we've paid for a site for the trip so far. But then I checked out the KOA which was just down the street (where the campsites were tightly packed together) and the overnight fees started at $57.00 before discount. The KOA has full hookups but that is a wicked big price difference! Of course the pricing is all about location, location, location - being so close to Mount Rushmore.

Blog posts will be delayed, we are in a Verizon "dead zone"

Hello everyone!

Our blog updates will be posted in a few days, after we leave the Black Hills / Custer State Park area of South Dakota. Lack of quality cell / internet service is causing the delay. Please check back on Thursday or Friday, all updates should be posted then.

July 17th & 18th Badlands National Park and Minuteman Missile NHS

July 17th: After a restful night in Cabeba's RV parking lot we readied the trailer and then took advantage of their free RV dump station before hitting the road. We made a quick stop at the famous Corn Palace where we viewed new murals being added to the outside of the building and the permanent murals inside. After an easy 5 hour tow westbound on Route 90 we arrived at Badlands National Park. After purchasing our park pass we headed in and we were amazed by the unusual rock formations which seemed to change color as the sun went in and out behind clouds. As we did not have reservations for a campsite our first destination was Cedar Pass Campground to inquire about available sites. Lucky for us lots of folks had pulled out that morning so we had a large choice of slots. We selected a site that overlooked a wall of sculpted spires and set up camp for the next two nights. Cedar Pass Campground is near the visitor center and is part of the National Park. It does not have hookups, but has nice bath houses and a RV dump station. The price was right too: $10.00 per night with a $1.00 fee to dump and fill domestic water tanks. This campground rarely fills up, mainly because the temperature at the park at this time of year is normally around 100 degrees and there isn't any shade. We were fortunate that the park was having odd weather at the time of our visit. It was in the mid 70s during the day and in the 50s at night making it very pleasant!

After setting up camp we headed over to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center to view the award winning video that outlines the geology and history of the park and to wander through the excellent exhibits which cover geology, fossils, wildlife and park history. We also took some time to talk to a ranger to find out what programs the park offered that day and from them we selected to take a guided prairie walk and to attend a night sky program. The prairie walk was very informative and one of it's highlights was being shown a recently discovered fossil! Very cool. As there was a few hours before the night sky program we went back to our trailer to have some dinner and enjoy the sun setting over the buttes and spires. It was truly beautiful, the colors of rock formations changed before our eyes as the sun slipped down in the west. Just before 9:00pm we headed up to the campgrounds amphitheater to the night sky program. It was outstanding! It was done in two parts. The first part being a slide show about what there is to see in the night sky and the second part was a star party where we viewed distance galaxies, stars and the milky way. The sky is still very dark in the Badlands (not too much light pollution) so the milky way seems to stretch out forever and it looked like rolling storm clouds. It was fantastic! We finally left the program and headed back to our trailer at 12:45am tired but excited by everything we had seen and done that day.

July 18th: We slept in a bit as we had been up wicked late the night before. After breakfast I packed up a picnic lunch as Leon picked up the trailer and then we headed out to drive the park's loop road (it really isn't a loop though). We drove through a combination of prairies, peaks, gullies and buttes with the colors of the rocks changing with the light. We stopped at most scenic overlooks to admire the scenery and to scan the area for wildlife. We saw mule deer, a wild goat and lots of cute prairie dogs! At one of our stops we enjoyed a fossil talk with a park volunteer. As the Badlands were once under a shallow inland sea many fossils have been found (and are still being found) within the park boundaries. In the mid afternoon we exited Badlands NP and headed to Minuteman Missile NHS. It was fascinating! We were able to look down into the missile silo and see a deactivated Minuteman Missile. Using our cell phones we were able to hear the history of the missile program, why South Dakota was selected as a major missile site, the present state of our missile program and it's future. We stopped briefly at the Minuteman Missile NHS Visitor Center so I could get my passport stamp canceled and then we headed back to camp to enjoy dinner, another beautiful sunset and a second night sky program.

Spectacular is the word that sums up Badlands National Park. GO THERE!

July 15th & 16th Two bum numbing days of towing

Two long days in transit to South Dakota are behind us now and boy are our bums sore from sitting in the TV (tow vehicle for you non Airstreamers). We left Jackson Center and the Airstream factory before 8:00am on July 15th and pushed into Indiana where we encountered some of the worst roads we've ever driven on. Route 70 is grooved concrete with expansion joints every 10 or so feet so our TV and rig bounced to the loud whine of the tires as they passed over the grooves. When we stopped for fuel (our first stop of the trip because of our extended fuel tank with automatic fuel transfer - we carry 101 gallons of diesel on board between the two tanks in our truck) we checked to see how things were riding in the trailer and found one of the mattresses halfway off it's bed, the microwave door unlatched and open, cabinet doors open and their contents spread all over the floor of the camper. What a mess! Also Indiana didn't seem as pretty as Ohio because we took the highway route to increase the miles we could cover each day. We'll need to put it on our list of states to visit in the future, maybe in a few years the roads will be better! Anyway, we continued our travels into Illinois with the hope of visiting the Caterpillar factory in East Peoria. We stopped at the Illinois Welcome Center when we entered the state to inquire about tour times and were told that the Cat factory was shut down for scheduled vacation time and the tours were not running. You should have seen Leon's face, you would have thought someone told him Christmas was canceled this year. As we approached East Peoria Leon pointed out the Cat factory and we both noticed it seemed pretty active for being on holiday. It's parking lots were filled with cars and we could see equipment being moved around on the property. We didn't stop because we didn't have any details about the tours (Leon looked wicked grumpy). As time went on we made the decision to find overnight parking somewhere around Davenport, Iowa. So as Leon drove I used my mobile phone broadband access to search for spots using www.parkfreeovernight.com and www.freecampgrounds.com and found a Walmart Super Center, a Flying J and a Welcome Center as options. Well, we checked out Walmart and received permission from the assistant manager to stay overnight but Leon wasn't loving the lot as we could not find a level enough spot. So we moved on to the Flying J which I did not love because our TV and rig were a bit too big for the RV slots they provided, meaning the nose of our truck would be sticking into the driveway where the big rigs enter the rest stop. We moved on to the Welcome Center and finally found a slot that was acceptable to both of us. We parked, made up some dinner and then retired for the evening because we wanted to be on the road about 7:00am.

July 16th we pulled out of the Welcome Center at 6:30am after both having had a crappy night's sleep due to the number of big rigs that came in and out of the rest area overnight. We decided to shoot up to Minnesota to catch Route 90 which would bring us into South Dakota. Frankly, as pretty as the farms and fields are we were growing weary of them and were hoping for a change of scenery though it was not to be, it's amazing how much corn and soy beans are being grown here in America's heartland. As we were traveling on Route 380 in Iowa heading north towards the border I spied a faded, peeling sign that proclaimed the worlds largest frying pan attraction was just at the next exit. I was tempted, but I didn't give Leon enough warning so we could not pull off the highway safely. Oh well, I'm sure it's better in my mind than in person. But I'll tell you I cannot get the little ditty from the movie "Michael" out of my head after seeing that sign; The lead actress singing "I was sitting on the side of the road in the middle of nowhere" which was after they got a flat caused by the angel Michael because he wanted to see the darn worlds largest frying pan. As we approached the border with Minnesota we passed through an amazing wind farm which was located on both sides of the highway. There must have been 100 wind turbines spinning in the breeze! Very impressive and beautiful. After we entered Minnesota we decided to have our lunch stop at the Jolly Green Giant statue in Blue Earth. What a hoot! The well kept park is behind a rundown and defunct gas station but the giant did seem to mind. After lunch we traveled another easy, pleasant 3 1/2 hours to Mitchell, SD for overnight parking at Cabelas.

July 14th Airstream factory tour, WBCCI Headquarters & Jackson Center

I slept in. I finally got up about 9:00am because Leon was making me breakfast! Coffee, eggs and toast, yum. The rest of the morning I spent updating our blog and Leon read and then removed a dead bird from the wiring between the solar panels on the roof of the trailer. He told me it had been there awhile, it didn't smell very good and was filled with maggots. Poor thing, it must have hit the top of our trailer and passed away early on in our trip. On to the rest of our day: To fill some time we took a drive down to the WBCCI Headquarters which is about 1/2 mile from the factory. We looked at the few displays that are set up in the waiting area and picked up a national caravan flyer. It was very quiet there, I assume because it was lunch time and only one person was watching the store so to speak. Just before 2:00pm we gathered in the lobby of the Airstream Service Center to wait with 25 or so other folks to take the factory tour. Our tour guide was a retired Airstream employee who had worked at the factory for 30+ years. He told us the history of Airstream, how Jackson Center was selected to become Airstream's headquarters, the types of trailers and motorhomes that had been built there and what was currently on the production line. As we explored the factory it appeared to me that it was organized chaos, I'm sure there is a well thought out system to how and when things are done but my untrained eye could not see it. The biggest things I took away from the tour were:

• 34' trailers are discontinued
• Slides are discontinued
  
• The 31' model *may be* discontinued
• Currently the hottest selling models are the 25' and 27' front bedrooms, the next hottest is the 19' Bambi
• The EURO models are doing fantastic (we saw 4 of them on the production line)
  
• A year and 1/2 ago they were building 40+ trailers a week, now they are building 15 and more than half of the production staff have been laid off
  
• Our tour guide did not know why Wally's "golden trailer" was no longer on display. But he did point it out in a fenced in lot a distance from the factory
  

After the tour we visited the Airstream store and purchased a few replacement parts and a trinket or two.

For our last evening in Jackson Center we planned to visit a cafe in town that came highly recommended from other Airstreamers who had visited "Mecca". We walked the few short blocks from our trailer to the restaurant and were disappointed to find it was closed, it only opens for dinner on Fridays and Saturdays. So, it was back to the trailer to fetch the truck to head out to the little town of Lakeview for dinner at "Captains Point" which was nothing special (and I'm being kind). As the next two days would be spent traveling through the "I" states (Indiana, Illinois and Iowa) we retired early.

July 13th Travel day to Jackson Center, Ohio

We hooked up and hit the road at 8:00am leaving Pennwood to head to Jackson Center, Ohio and the Airstream factory. We traveled mostly on rural routes so that we could view the pretty farms and small towns. After a 7 hour run we arrived and pulled into the Terraport (camping area) at the factory. I'm pretty sure I heard angels singing faintly in the background - our Airstream had returned to the Mother Ship and all was well with the world.

While we were registering to secure a site in the Terraport I met a gal and her three dogs who were waiting for her husband to complete the factory tour. We got to talking and we found out that we were parked next to each other for the evening! Cathy and Scott are newbie Airstream owners who have a 27' front bedroom and belong to one of the WBCCI Pennsylvania Units. We hit it off and enjoyed Happy Hour together under one of the large trees in the Terraport. A bit later we held a flag raising ceremony at their rig as they had just purchased a 3 place flag holder setup at the WBCCI Headquarters which is located right here in town. We ended the day by walking the grounds looking at all the vintage rigs on display and at the rigs waiting for service. We were disappointed that Wally's "golden trailer" was no where in sight. I'll ask our tour guide about it.....

July 11th - 12th Pennwood Airstream Park

We got an early start on Saturday morning and traveled through New York to Pennsylvania via the interstate highway system in an effort to out run the approaching thunderstorms. For just over 7 hours we passed through the rolling hills of NY into the mountains of PA. We both were pleased with the performance of our tow vehicle (2008 GMC 2500HD) as we barely knew we had a trailer behind us even in the steepest inclines. Shortly after 2:00pm we arrived at Pennwood Airstream Park in Limestone, PA. Pennwood is a non-profit Airstream only RV Park that is affiliated with the Pennsylvania Unit of the WBCCI. The park is run and maintained entirely by volunteers and they have an operating budget of about $30,000 a year.

What a beautiful and friendly park! As we pulled in we were greeted by a volunteer who told us to take any open site and offered to get a "parker" to assist us with backing the trailer into it's spot. Leon declined as he prefers to back in on his own. After we set up camp a number of folks stopped by to introduce themselves and to invite us to Happy Hour. Before Happy Hour we walked through the park enjoying the well maintained buildings and grounds and of course we checked out the many Airstream filled campsites. Happy Hour was a total blast. We talked and laughed with the folks at Pennwood about traveling, WBCCI and just about everything else. Later in the evening we attended their giant bonfire and introduced them to tracking the International Space Station (ISS). We had a wonderful time, we fit right in. We had originally planned to only stay one night but since we had so much fun we extended our stay to two nights and are very glad we did. On Sunday we relaxed at camp, enjoyed talking to many fellow Airstreamers and enjoyed another Happy Hour.

If you are an Airstream or Argosy owner we highly recommend you stay at Pennwood when you are traveling through western Pennsylvania!

I added two more states to the travel map located on the inside of our Airstream door - NY and PA. Our map is beginning to look like we've been places!

Friday July 10th we're off! FIrst stop: Howe Caverns, NY

We finally hit the road! We left our little town around 8:00am and traveled through the beautiful Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, Vermont and the Hudson Valley of New York. We stayed mostly on back roads passing through small villages and farms. In the early afternoon we arrived at the famous northeast tourist attraction Howe Caverns, located in Howes Cave, NY. After enjoying a light lunch in the trailer we went off to explore the cavern and grounds.

The good folks at Howe Caverns run a tight ship, if Disney World had a cave this is how it would be run. We purchased our tickets and waited just under 20 minutes to be called for our cave tour. We spent our time looking through the small museum which records the history of the discovery of the cavern and it's being turned into the attraction it is today. When our tour was called we lined up with 28 other tourists and boarded elevators for the 156 foot descent into the cave. The air was quite cool, being right around 52 degrees (Fahrenheit). We followed our tour guide on paved paths listening to him outline the history and geology of the cavern while we admired the limestone walls. Towards the end of the tour we took a little boat ride on the underground river. The river is not natural, it was created by a water dam that was put in place to support a nearby limestone mining operation. Our boat stopped at the water dam and we looked down into total darkness in part of the cavern that is not included in the tour. There was a loud fan running so I ask our guide what it's purpose was and he explained that the cool air of the cave was being pushed into the buildings above ground to be use as natural air conditioning which I thought was brilliant. After our cave tour Leon and I explored the beautifully maintained grounds and took in the views of the surrounding hills. All in all a wonderful way to spend an afternoon. Howe Caverns in New York, I recommend it.

It was getting on in the day so we pulled out our maps to plan our route for the next leg of our trip. While I reviewed the travel options Leon listened to the weather forecast on our CB and discovered that bad storms that could produce hail were predicted in the area where we would be traveling the next day. Armed with this information we decided to seek an overnight parking spot closer to the highway so that we could get an early start in the morning to attempt to out run the storms. I used my Netbook and mobile phone broadband connection to search for parking on www.parkfreeovernight.com and located a nearby Walmart. I called the store (using the phone number provided on the site) and received permission to park so we packed up and headed on over. We were both pretty darn pleased with this Walmart. They had us park next to a field full of birds and flowers and the way we parked gave us a lot of privacy on the door side of the trailer. We enjoyed dinner in the trailer, did some reading and then went to bed early as we wanted to pull out by 6:30am the next day.

Airstream work list - what we planned and what got done

We had a large list of trailer upgrades and repairs we wanted to complete before we started our trip and the good news is we were mostly successful in getting them done. Here's the list:

• Install front, lower curtain track
• Catalytic heater
• Paint galley walls
  
• Install new latch for couch drawer
• Trailer state inspection
• New 7 pin connector
• Gas connection for fire pit (our little "fake" fire)
• RV solar system
• Repair cracks in bathroom shower pan and paint
• Check and repack wheel bearings
• Repair or replace exterior flood light
• Polish and wax trailer
• Install new LCD TV (with built in DVD player)

Our plan to install a catalytic heater was shelved due to cost. It would have added an additional $500.00 to our upgrade budget which was already stretched thin by the purchase of the RV solar panels and charge controller. We also did not get to the gas connection for our little fire pit. We'll pick up the needed parts at an RV store and install them while we are on the road.

The biggest jobs we completed were the installation of the RV solar panels and charge controller and polishing / waxing the trailer. The solar panel installation was very time consuming and the missing parts caused us a few days delay in it's completion. I estimate it took Leon and Rick 20 hours to finish this task. The polishing and waxing of our trailer took 50+ hours. Without Rick's help with these tasks we would still not be done. Thank you so much Rick!

Ok, now for the completed but not happy with the results list. I painted the galley walls with "counter top" paint and the results are not as wonderful as I had hoped. I was not able to get a nice, smooth finish so the walls will need to be sanded and re-coating when we get home. Leon repaired the bathroom shower pan's cracks using a two part putty (this part came out great) and I painted it with POR 15 White Coat. The finish is terrible, filled with bubbles and sags. I'm very disappointed in it. And to top off this disappointment when I removed the blue painters tape I had positioned above the edge of the shower pan from the shower wall it pulled off most of the "counter top" paint underneath it. NOT a good thing, now the shower pan and the shower walls look like crap. We'll deal with it when we get back.