Laurel, Nebraska

We had a great trip today, 200 miles, on US20 from Valentine to Laurel. We went from the Sand Hills area, large hilly grasslands with LOTS of cows and rolls of hay to small easy rolling hills with corn and, I think, beans. We were going to stay at a state park in South Sioux City but passed by a nice city park with 5 cement pads and 30a service so we filled our water tank from a city faucet and set up home. Ya can't beat a nice $5 a night site like this one. We went into town but the side walks were rolled up and locked away for the day.

Judy even drove for the first time in several months. Our neighbors are from St Augustine, FL but are originally from Detroit. They are in a class B on their way to Alaska. We are looking forward to another nice drive on US20 in Iowa tomorrow.

Valentine, Nebraska

We pulled out this morning at 8:45 and arrived in Valentine, Nebraska mid afternoon Central time. This is a one night stand, an economy ($15) Passport America CG next to the BIG cattle auction yard, that's our neighbors in the picture. The auction house plays a recording of oldie's & country songs and fair ground PA recordings all the time, I assume it's purpose is to calm the beasts. It's working on me too. Judy doesn't like it here because the BIG flies like her too much.

All these cows are making me hanker for a nice steak.

Custer State Park

Today we visited Custer State Park with Deb & Gary on our last day here. The park is known for it's tight tunnels and wildlife. The tunnel picture was of the taller & wider tunnel. There were so many people crowding around & taking pictures at the tightest tunnel I didn't think it was prudent to stop there so ya got pics of the roomy tunnel. Tour buses were even squeezing through but scrapping their mirrors! Gary was disappointed, me too, that we didn't get to see a large herd of buffalo but he did get acquainted with a couple burros.

Mt Rushmore & Crazy Horse

Today we went with Deb & Gary Pearce to Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse after a good German lunch in Hill City. Both have changed a lot since we were there 25+ years ago with Judy's mom and Jody & Randy. We walked up and down on a long path in front of the 4 presidents. They haven't changed but everything else has. The walk took us to various structures used when making the sculptures. After this we visited Crazy Horse who now has a face. I was more impressed with the buildings and grounds around Crazy Horse than I was at Rushmore. We watched some Indian dancing & Had a tail gate supper as we awaited darkness and the laser show on Crazy Horse. This was impressive and lasted 20 minutes depicting Native American history to the present. The Ziolkowski family has been working on Crazy Horse for 60 years & I doubt it will be finished when Devyn is my age. Their goals include an Indian cultural Center and University.

Minuteman missiles & Badlands

We had a looong day, 10 hours of sightseeing with Gary & Deb Pearce who we were with at the Escapade last week. They arrived at Hart Ranch CG about 6 miles from us yesterday. We travelled 80 miles to a new National Park, a 1960's cold war nuclear Minuteman Missile underground launch control center which controlled 10 missiles. A retired Air Force "missilleer" who was stationed in a launch control center described what life was like and what his responsibilities were. We then travelled 6 miles to a Minuteman II missile silo. This site tour was conducted by.....Egor, a young Russian here for the summer. There's a chance the missile and silo he was working at was aimed at his parents!

After this we stopped at Wall Drug Store for a few minutes on our way to the Badlands. We spent a couple hours driving through the Badlands and had a picnic lunch before taking a scenic drive back to Rapid City.

Escapade

Well, the Escapade ended Friday, there were 1017 RV's and 2250 people in attendance. We attended a few seminars; geocaching, Cowgirl Nan about local history, a melodrama by a local theater group, materialistic minimalism or getting along without much, ice cream social, closing ceremonies, & the 30th birthday party. Friday morning we went to the Gillette Independence Day parade, they did good! Friday evening we invited several new friends & fellow HitchHikers over for a social. As it got darker there was an amazing fireworks display by the subdivision across the street. Lots more than we saw sitting at Wamplers Lake, these people in Gillette go bonkers over fireworks. A little after 10pm these was a large professional display here at the Cam-Plex grounds (convention center/fairgrounds where the Escapade was held) so we just swiveled our lawn chairs around to watch. Gillette is a major coal mining area and we stopped at a park on the Cam-Plex grounds to check out some mining equipment.
Saturday we hooked up and drove the 150 miles to Rapid City SD where we are staying for a week at another free membership CG. We like free, so far we've saved $1500 on the $5700 membership we purchased in March.
Sunday we went to church, had lunch at Wendy's, grocery shopped, relaxed and planned our route back to MI.

Escapade day 2

Today we attended a presentation on geocaching, something Judy and I want to do for fun & entertainment. We think Devyn will enjoy it too. Judy & Deb attended a presentation on Gillette's history but the one Gary & I wanted to attend was cancelled. At noon the four of us skipped out and had lunch at a nice Mexican place then spent a couple hours at the Rockpile Museum containing lots of local history. This evening we returned for the door prizes and the Escapade had an excellent comedian we all enjoyed, better than last nights country music band.