.... and other Bucket List trips!
Welcome to Dave and Joyce’s blog. This blog was initially created to capture our Great Loop adventure. However, it has now transformed into our “Bucket List adventures” blog. Many people followed our Great Loop blog and have told us how much they enjoyed it. That somewhat surprised us … and totally pleased us. So we decided to continue the blog with post Great Loop trips … i.e. “Bucket List”. We hope you enjoy our new adventures!
A note about navigating the blog: Since the beginning, the blog was an active journal, updated daily whenever Internet service was available. The latest information is always posted at the top of the blog page to make it easier for viewers to see our daily/weekly progress. However, when viewing it later, the format is a little awkward. For example, to see the pre- Great Loop blog, scroll down to the archive section and click on the last link July 2010 . After the page is displayed scroll down to the bottom and begin viewing by scrolling back to the top. This will give you a better sense of the trip since it is the true time sequence of our travels … we hope this makes sense … Enjoy!
Cell: 317-403-0128
Email: davejoyceajohnson@gmail.com
After Christmas (and decorations taken down) we will head south. We have a condo rented for 10 days in Marathon beginning January 3rd. We are looking forward to seeing all of our boating friends again! Then we will finish the winter in the RV park near Sebring, FL.
It was a great vacation, but we both will be glad to be home!
p.s. the German food here is great ... belly still hurting from eating too much.
Yesterday after a long drive in Nebraska we had an overnight stay in a state park campground. Up early this morning we had a short drive to a campground in the heart of the Amana Colonies.
In 1843 a group of people left their home in Germany, settled first in Ebenezer, New York and then in 1855 traveled to the fertile Iowa River valley where they established a communal settlement on 26,000 acres. Calling their home Amana, they built seven small villages. In 1932 the "Great Change" ended 89 yrs of communal tradition and many new business were established including Amana Appliances, now owned by Whirlpool.
Today many businesses continue the tradition of quality passed from generation to generation. We can vouch for the quality of food. We had a small lunch at the Ronneburg restaurant ... well we though it was small ... a bowl of soup and some appetizers. Dave's soup was beef noodle ... must have been 1/2 pound of beef with homemade noodles and oh so good! Joyce had a cup of chicken vegetable and it was very good, but filling. We took took half the appetizers back in a box.
The Admiral certainly helped the local economy. Wine rack, six bottles of local wine and a small barn painting. Captain Dave got a jar of Amana sauerkraut, brats and cheese curds ... see an imbalance here? And its only day one ... tomorrow could be a disaster.
We will begin our trip home today with several stops along the way. Friends from church, Ed and Cynthia, thought we should stop at the St. Stephen Mission in Riverton, WY., so we did. Interesting place but unfortunately nobody seemed to be home. We walked the grounds and left.
It sure is nice to have phone service and Internet. We should be able to make more timely updates as we head home.
Today we toured the Tetons. They are so magnificent! There are no foot hills to them so its like walking into a cliff. Also interesting is that while the Bad Land is shrinking the Tetons are growing taller ... we watched the movie, but far be it from us to explain it.
We visited the Chapel of the Transfiguration. Above Joyce stands in front and to the right she is inside. The window behind the altar frames some of the peaks ... don't know about you, but this would be a major distraction for me ... gazing out the window and trying to listen to a sermon ... don't thinks so!
We packed a lunch and ate at Jenny Lake. Behind Dave is Jenny Lake with the Tetons in the background.
We drove over the Continental Divide several times.
And we thought we saw it all ... unbelievable colors!
Black Sand Basin - Joyce watches small geyser blow.
Biscuit Basin - more orange and bubbling springs
Biscuit Basin - yellow, orange and blue combinations.
Midway Geyser Basin - and our favorite the Grand Prismatic Spring. Its more beautiful than the picture. Note even the steam from the spring appears blue.
Our campsite for 5 nights. Tight, space but nice view of forest.
Black Sand Basin - note green and orange left of Dave.
Black Sand Basin - note blue and orange. Picture really doesn't do it justice.
Biscuit Basin - Brilliant Blue.
Midway Geyser Basin - Hot water (and hot chick). Note the yellow and orange.
If you have never been to Yellowstone, you need to plan a visit. Nowhere in the world will you see sights like this.
Thursday we head for the Grand Teton National Park.
Yellowstone upper falls
View of Grand Canon downstream the falls.
Mud volcano in the afternoon ... many mud pools, bubbling away ... accompanied with sweet smell of sulfur!
Hot Springs ... and they are hot!
The same falls in background but we are further down the Grand Canyon.
Leaving the falls we see a very large elk grazing in the meadow. We were probably too close ... but look at the idiot upper left squatting and shooting pictures ... you are suppose to stay 100 yds. from these wild big boys ... he must be less than 10.
We tried to see the mud volcanoes' in the morning but couldn't because of the steam.
Well the coyote doesn't think they are so hot ... but he was careful to tiptoe around them.
Today more of an action day than planning. We scheduled a Lamar Valley Wildlife Excursion (and let the driving to them). The tour didn't leave until 3:30 pm so we drove to the Yellowstone Lake marina so Dave could get his boat fix. Okay, but nothing like Banana Bay and other marinas we have visited. This tour was northeast of the routine "figure 8" route and took approximately 5 1/2 hours. On the way to Lamar valley we encountered a Bison bull (above) that created quite a Bison road jam. He would walk on the left side of the road, down the middle then move to the right. Hell he lives here and he can damn well do as he pleases! Once at the valley we saw thousands of Bison, a few pronghorn and some other little critters that looked like chipmunks but were something else. The right picture is Joyce looking at a Bison in Lamar Valley that we waited on to cross the road. The Bison males are beginning to get a little feisty because rut season is only about 2 weeks away. They were making their " I am the king of the herd" noises and we thought we were going to see a couple of them fight. Not yet, but in a couple of weeks, let the fights begin ... and they will.
On the way back we stopped and saw bighorn sheep high up on cliffs. To far away to get a picture, but an awesome sight. We saw elks at a distance, but no bears or wolves ... ya really have to be lucky to spot them ... but I'm sure they spotted us.
We arrived at the Fishing Bridge RV campground at 11am. Dave is walking around with a big head. He was worried about backing the RV into our site ... but aced it! In the track first time ... Gonna be hard to live with for awhile. Of course Yellowstone is awesome. We had a picnic lunch on the shores of Yellowstone Lake then on to Old Faithful with a stop at Kepler Cascade. Tomorrow is planning day.
We finally have reservations at Yellowstone for 5 nights beginning Saturday. We made several short trips/stay-over's in Worland and Greybull. We are now in Cody, Wy enjoying this neat town. We went to the Buffalo Bill Center ... which is huge ... five museums in one building. Hey Rob, how would you like delivering mail in this coach? If you are a gun enthusiast you don't want to miss this one. We never saw as many rifles and pistols in our entire life.
Six days a week Cody closes off a street and stages an old fashion, wild west gun slinger show in front of the old, famous Irma Hotel ... loud, but pretty cool.
Okay Larry McCoy, if we didn't know you were laid up in the hospital, we would swear you were in the show. The guy to the right, looks like you, walks like you and even had a string of toilet paper trailing him leaving the out-house ... oh yeah ... got to be Larry! So do you have a unknown twin??? It was an amazing resemblance .
Today we drove to Custer State Park and saw our first Pronghorn. These antelope type creatures are very fast (60 mph) and can maintain speed for long distances.
We drove several hours thru the park taking in the sights. One particular drive on Needles Hwy was somewhat scary. Beware when the sign says scenic drive. Narrow road, hairpin turns coupled with idiot drivers. Dave was a wreck by the time we got to Sylvan Lake (not to be confused with the lake in New York). It was a nice area and after a picnic lunch we headed for Wind Cave National Park. The cave system is the fourth-longest in the world, with more than 125 miles of rare and unusual boxwork, frostwork and popcorn formations.
Tomorrow we pull up stakes and head for Yellowstone. We will take two days to get there so unless something interesting happens the blog will be static for awhile.
This morning we got up early to catch the first train from Keystone to Hill City, SD. About an hours ride at 10 mph. The ride to Hill City is pulled by an old diesel locomotive. The ride back is driven by an old 1880 steam engine. Interesting "it's a small world" thing on the train ride. We saw a guy we know from Cloverdale. What are the odds on that!
Next we drove to Mt. Rushmore. Interesting place with lots to see besides the four presidents.
Note: Both Rushmore and Chief Crazy Horse sculptures were made using dynamite with the final touches being made with various tools ... its a wonder they didn't blow away centuries of work :-)
You can see the steam in above image. Nothing much to see in either city, but the views to and from were beautiful.
A short drive from Rushmore and we were at the Crazy Horse Memorial. This is in many ways different than Rushmore. It was started in 1948 and is a project in process. It is not funded by tax dollars but by donations and park fees. Joyce is standing in front of the model and in the background is the real Crazy Horse sculpture. Hard to see in this image, but if you note the small dark spot on the background mountain. It is the underarm of Crazy Horse pointing. It is a huge task and I doubt that if in our life we will see the completion. Note: the head of Chief Crazy Horse is bigger than the four Mt. Rushmore presidents.
We went to mass last night in the smallest church we have ever been in. Seven small pews with one isle down the middle. The town of Interior is a very small community ... so I guess the church size is appropriate.
Not to be out-done in size, Interior's jail looks like a one cell job. If they have more than one town drunk they are going to have major over-crowding problems.
We were up and at 'em early this morning. Out of the RV by 6am. We want to hike some trails before it gets too hot. Although today is going to be much cooler ... 98 degree high:-)
Dave had on his hiking boots along with a pick so he could scale the background rocks ... yeah, sure ... wanna buy a bridge? Actually he wanted to play cowboys ... remember the old movies where the bad guys always hid out in the Badlands? Dang ... forgot his six shooter cap gun ... and black hat for Joyce!
We actually did 3 trails this morning, none of them very long. At most we walked 2 miles ... but oh so beautiful.
We love the Badlands, but two days would have been plenty. Tomorrow we head for Black Hawk, SD. We should be able to visit Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Wind Cave, Custer State Park, Black Hills National Forest and more.
We left early this morning, after breakfast at the little RV campground restaurant, and drove through the Badland park to the famous Wall Drug store in Wall, SD. Stayed about 30 minutes ... just to say that we been there!
We saw quite a few Bison. Although, it doesn't look like it this one is fairly close to the truck. We saw a coyote and a lot of prairie dogs ... however the little guys are too small to get a good picture. If you got too close they would bark at you then duck into their burrows.
From Wall's we drove back to the Badland loop and continue to view the awesome scenery. Above Joyce stand on one of the trails right before it gets difficult ... going to look for an easy trail ... we don't like steep, high and slippery ... this trail is rated all of the above and not for seniors:-)
Joyce seems to be squinting a lot. Its not because she is unhappy. The wind here is unbelievable and blows non-stop. Tomorrow we look for an easy trail and perhaps do lunch on a big rock somewhere.
It was a short drive to our camping destination in Interior, SD. It was an awesome drive through the Badlands National Park. Tomorrow we will explore it and have pictures posted. To the right Dave updating the blog with a nice view of the Badlands in the background ... new photographer not any better than the old one.
Okay, here's our strategy. Called our RV dealer and the problem could be a broken gear box. We think we can live in our cozy quarters until we return to Indiana ... we don't need to watch TV and booze doesn't spoil. So, buy more booze and set up a new/permanent bar spot (no more bar lock-down)... hey its a plan!
More later.
Our side trip to Pipestone was worth the time. At the visitor center we watched a film and saw pipes and artifacts. We watched an Indian work on making a pipe from stone taken from the quarry. All of these processes (i.e. mining of stone and making pipe) are performed by hand with no modern-power tools. Then we visited the quarry ... a beautiful place. It is considered a holy place and a place of peace.
Okay, now for the un-peaceful part. We arrived at our camp site in Kenebec, SD around 4:30 pm and encountered our first major RV problem. The dinning/salon slide out would not work. After investigating Dave thinks it is a mechanical, not electrical problem, but still cannot figure it out. Of course we are in the middle of nowhere with no help available. No problem right? We can live in a smaller dinning area. Oppps ... the bar/booze cabinet cannot be accessed with the slide retracted. Thus the major problem:-( ... we are not happy campers!
We had a great Fourth of July this year. All of our 5 kids and their families showed up at Angie and Rob's farm for a cook out ... and more.
Daughter-in-law Karen, made a banner welcoming the Belgium Five back to the US while Grandpa Dave grilled three huge beef tenderloins ... good chow and lots of "suds" (that translates to beer for you teetotalers:-)
Better yet, cool off in the water
July 4th is also our deceased .son, Dennis's birthday. So our traditional visit to the cemetery was captured in the photo to the right. Notice sparkler in front of the Johnson gang, Jerry (son), Keith, Greg, David, Angie, Pam (siblings) and Mom and Dad.
It was a great day!
Off road four wheeling anybody!
Or how about a pontoon boat ride? Hey Linda and Steve (aboard Yesterday's Dream) Dave had his first Kayak ride ... little shaky, but fun.
