Answer to Taco John's Question

To answer my question, Taco John's is NOT the same as Taco Bell.  We passed a Taco Bell in our travels today.

South Dakota Week 2

 The major benefit of living in a  small space is the speed in which you can clean your entire living space (including, mirrors and windows) Zero to clean in about 30 minutes.  I love that aspect.  The most annoying part, (to me) is having to take stuff out of cabinets to find things.  That drives me nuts!

On Saturday, May 17, we took a ride up the 385 to visit Hill City and Deadwood.  Here is an example of the lakes you see as you drive these back roads

Hill City is exactly what you might imagine a small old western town to look like.  They are old and ornate.  Many of them have facades that look like they have been there for 100+ years.  There is a long wooden sidewalk under cover.  Most small towns have old time photo booths, antique mercantiles, tee shirt shops, and interestingly enough many have Harley Davidson shops, Subway sandwich shops and Dairy Queens.  Mexican restaurants are few and far between, and I think Taco Bell just might be known as Taco John's in SD.

From Hill City, we traveled North to Deadwood.   This town looks like South Dakota's answer to Las Vegas.  There are casinos and saloons on every corner.  We had heard that Mount Moriah Cemetery was in this town.  Ken and I both love old cemeteries, and this is where Wild Bill Hickock and Clamity Jane are buried.  It is a beautiful, well-maintained cemetery with lots of history.

Deadwood is a historic mining camp, built on a rowdy history of gold, gambling and gunpowder.

One of the reasons we headed up to Deadwood was to see a Neil Diamond tribute concert playing in town.  The band was great, and the lead singer, Surreal Neil, had the moves and antics down pat.  It was a fun concert and the crowd, old as we all were, rocked out!    

Our trusty GPS took us on a wild ride home.  The first hour was in pitch black on winding roads with virtually no other traffic.  It was sort of foggy and you honestly could not see farther than the length of the headlight beam.  I was a white knuckle passenger and could not believe we were the only people on the road.  I now know why they call these the Black Hills.  We drove 47 miles at about 10:30 at night and never saw another car.  It was out of the twilight zone.  The last part of this adventure took us on a 10% downward grade that twisted and turned for two miles.  The only saving grace was you could see light at the end of the tunnel.  I now want to take that drive in the daylight just to see what we missed!

We went back to the  Mount Rushmore Ward on Sunday and hung out around the park for the rest of the day.  I love kickback Sundays.  I read the final book in Richard Paul Evans "Walk" series today.  It is such a luxury to sit and read a book without feeling that there is other stuff that you "ought" to be doing.  I love my Kindle.

It dawned on me on Monday that I haven't been doing as much art as I thought I'd be doing on this trip.  I think it's because even though I packed a lot of supplies in the RV, things were not very well organized and when I sit down to do anything I spend a lot of time looking for stuff I want or need.  I decided to stay home all day, empty my craft cupboards and really organize my art supplies.  I know my artistic friends will appreciate the work and the pleasure that a task like this entails.  It took me the better part of the day, and a did forgo a trip into town, but I got it done.

On Tuesday we took a road trip to see the Drug Store at "The Wall"...Wall Drug Store is located in the town of Wall, which sits on the edge of the Badlands at "The Wall," a rugged barrier of tinted spires, ridges and twisted gullies between two strips of undaunting prarie.  This store opened in 1931 and almost didn't make it.  You can read their full story at www.walldrug.com  It now spans a full city block and people come by the busloads!  We had a Buffalo Burger here and it was delicious.  

The Badlands were nothing like I imagined.  I don't think the human mind is capable of imagining the wonder, beauty and majesty of this place.  The Badlands National Park contains some of the most spectacular vistas and scenery in the world.  Its geological and paleotological resources provide insight into climatic history and biological diversity during the Eocene/Oligocene periods.  Badlands also contains places of spiritual and historical significance for the local Lakota community.  Here is a sampling of the dozens of pictures I took on our visit of this most beautiful place.  I think everybody should see this in person...just sayin'!!!

The pictures don't even begin to do it justice.  VISIT THIS PLACE.

Wednesday was a chillax day around the RV park.  On days like this I like to bake or cook, read, watch movies or take walks.  Ken has been keeping busy removing decals feom the RV, working on an electrical glitch, going through his tools and tackel box and trying to fly his helicopter and kites.  Can you believe there can be too much wind for a kite??

Who knew??

On Thursday we headed Northwest to check out Hot Springs and Wind Cave National Park.   The hot springs in Hot Springs were a little disappointing.  I had imagined they would be like the hot springs in Mammoth, out in nature.  Not here.  They are enclosed in a YMCA type pool that was packed with elementary kids on an end-of-year field trip.  I can imagine this place getting a lot of use in the winter months, but as for me, my new bathing suit still has the tags on!  

The town of Hot Springs was charming, and some of the old sand stone buildings were beautiful.  Check it out:

  

We had a hankering for Mexican food while in Hot Springs, so we went to the only Mexican joint in town...Taco John's.  Somebody check this out, is Taco John's Taco Bell of the west??  (Like Carls Jr.  is Hardees of the east??)  

We left Hot Springs and headed to Wind Cave National Park.  It is one of the nation's oldest national parks.  It became part of the system in 1903.  The park began with the cave and some surface land, expanding in later years to the present 28,295 acres above ground.  Today, Wind Cave National Park actually houses two worlds:  the terrain and wildlife of the surface and the hidden labyrinth beneath the surface.  The cave system is one of the longest in the world, with 119 miles of rare and unusual boxwork, frostwork and popcorn formations.  Unfortunately, the tours were sold out for the day, so we didn't get to actually go down into the caves, but the visitors center was fabulous and the movie they showed left you feeling like you had been there!  The ranger gave us a "tip" about a gravel road running through the park that would surely take us by a lot of wildlife.  The term gravel didn't exactly apply, and for an hour drive, we only saw one other car, coming toward us, and we had to get off the road to let him pass.  The road truly is a one lane path through a prairie.  Check out the pictures of elk, bison, prairie dogs and the breath-taking scenery:

As we got closer to the edge of the park there were beautiful horses (here's one of my favorite)

This herd of cows, along with their cute calves, were right in the road:

It was a beautiful day.

Friday was a perfect day.  Sunshine, blue skies, gentle breeze.  It was a perfect day for an artist to sit outdoors and create.  Here is a sample of some ATC's I made on Friday. I used Twinklkng H20's to create the backgrounds and busted out one box of stamps and forced myself to use what was on hand to make art.  I am going to bling them up a bit and abandon them this week in Rapid City:

Ken did sit for a spell and put new fishing line on his reel.

Stay tuned for more living

South Dakota Week 1

Wyoming here we come!

We  thoroughly enjoyed our stay in Orem and left
early Monday morning, May 5, 2014.   We headed out Provo Canyon to Heber.  What a beautiful drive.  I got a few good shots of the area:

  We hit the 80 east of Salt Lake City and were on our way to Wyoming.  It was going so well.  The scenery sure is beautiful in that part of the country.  

We were tooling along about 55 m.p.h. enjoying the beautiful day and talking about stopping for lunch when BOOM, we blew a tire on the passenger side of the RV.  Really??  Luckily (again) we were right near an exit, so we limped up the ramp to survey the situation.      Ken wanted to change it himself, but my instinct said to call Good Sam and wait for a tow truck.  At this point we are about 20 miles outside of Rock Springs.  It took Good Sam about 30 minutes (while we held on the phone)  to locate a tow truck that could be there in an hour.  Oh well, we are not on any time schedufle, and since our RV has a fully stocked kitchen, I was able to make a nice lunch while we waited.  Our tow truck was dispatched from a tire center.  It didn't take much convincing to decide we had had it with the new tires we bought before we started this trip. We were told to follow the tow truck and he would lead us back to the tire store.  At this point we do not have a spare because it is on the RV.  About 15 miles down the road there is an even  louded BOOM.  Can you believe we blew another tire???  The tow truck driver is way ahead of us at this point and we begin to limp along on the shoulder.  The exit was not conveniently located this time.   The tow truck driver, realizing we are no longer following him, pulls over and waits for us.  

We limp back to the tire dealership and park it in their lot.  Let me tell you, these Wyoming boys know their stuff, and they ALL have trucks and trailers.  Their recommendation was that we scrap the trailer tires and go with new rims and truck tires.  Only problem, not in stock.  They have to be ordered, but can be in the next morning.  The manager suggests that we park our rig in their parking lot, so we spent the night at the Tire Den.  We did disconnect and drive into town to have a nice dinner.  We were grateful to be safe, and I was glad that we didn't have to drive any where else that day.  It was no problem to stay in the RV that night.  We played Rumikub and watched a little TV before turning in early.  It was pretty quiet and uneventful until a big rig pulled up right along the curb at about 3 a.m. to fill out his log book.  The new tires and rims were in by 10 o'clock and by noon we were on our way.  It took so long because after the tires and rims were installed, and we were sent on our way, Ken did his brake check and realized the trailer brakes were not working.  Apparently, when the tred broke loose it severed the brake line.  The tire guys were able to fix it and readjusted our Reese Hitch and sent us on our way.

We decided to head to Caspar.  The RV felt safe and secure so off we went.  I found a nice campground located behind Fort Caspar.  Our GPS system took us off the main highway and into the belly of Wyoming.  OMG it is so beautiful.    There is lots of wide open spaces, buttes rising up here and there,  huge ranches, lots of lakes and streams, herds of cattle, tons of baby calves, horses, deer and hawks gliding on air everywhere.  

There is a ton of Pioneer history in this area.  We have noticed a lot of historic markers along the way.  It's not always easy to pull over when you are towing an RV, but we couldn't resist the marker for the 

Mormon Handcart historic site.

We thoroughly enjoyed the facilities tour, and had a chance to talk to some of the missionaries serving there.    It looked like a marvelous place to serve, and you can bring  your own housing.  They did say you have to be in good shape because you are responsible for taking 17,000 youth on pioneer treks over the summer.  Could be fun!!  (and you get to wear cute prarie dresses!!).

We got into our site at Fort Caspar about 6 p.m.  got set up and took a quick walk around the grounds.  It was cold and windy.  We spent the next day in downtown Caspar.  The buildings are old with beautiful detail work on most of them.  We had a real good carne asada lunch at a small Mexican restaurant downtown.  I have to have my Mexican food fix about once a week.  I do miss my Mexico Viejo in Carlsbad.

In this picture, I thought you'd like to see the facilities at the rest stops in Wyoming.  Funny thing, though, when we were here the kids didn't touch the play structure, they choose, instead, to climb in the roofs covering the picnic tables.  Go figure!

The Fort and museum are manned by volunteers, and the entrance fee is just $3.00.  We spent about three hours here and learned so much.  Here are some pictures of the buildings on site.  A local stake has built a replica of the ferry used to transport the early pioneers across the Upper Platt River.

We enjoyed our stay in Caspar and are anxious to see South Dakota.  The weather has been unseasonably cold with lots of wind, rain, sleet, hail and even snow.  We have a break in the weather so are heading out to SouthDakota.  Stay tuned for more living.

Our Stay in Orem

It was pretty nerve wracking driving from Fernley to Orem.  We ran into rain, sleet and snow.  At one point Ken said I can't see.  The defrosters were not keeping up with the percipitation.  Gratefully,  it didn't last too long, and when we saw the sign for Elko, we were ready to get off the road.  We pulled into a KOA campground and waited out the storm.  It is the first time we've seen 32 degrees in a very long time.  The puddles were iced over in the morning, and there was a light dusting of snow on the grass.  The drive from Elko to Orem was pretty uneventful.  There is a lot of nothing out there.  The mountains are so beautiful and serene.   The salt flats are huge and the Great Salt Lake is even bigger than I thought.  We saw a boat launch/yacht club that surprised the heck out of me.  I didn't realize there was any activity on the great salt lake.

We had planned to take the kids camping that first weekend, but it was so cold and rainy thaf the trip had to be postponed.  How grateful we are for the flexibility that retirement offers us.  We did the next best thing when we got rained out...an afternoon at the movies.  I highly recommend Rio 2.  A good time was had by all.

It was really fun to spend time with Brenda, Naomi and Hailey.  Hailey just turned 6 months old and is a living doll.  Naomi is a great big sister, and she is a big help to her mom.  Brenda's English is pretty good, and we had no problem communicating.  She is a good little cook, and one of the highlights of our stay was making homemade tortillas with Brenda and her friend Emma.  Emma is from Chichacua and is an expert at making perfectly round, thin, smooth saucers of yumminess.   I had a little problem making my tortillas round (but seriously, what would be the problem with square tortillas???)  We bought a tortilla press, and I plan on perfecting my skills while we are on the road.

We had a chance to see our friends Maggie and Scott while we were in Utah, and the kids had a blast playing with their grandkids.  It was good to see all of the Richard kids.  We had a nice cook out with steak, chicken and pork that Scott and Maggie raised, along with the biggest baked white and sweet potatoes that I have ever seen.
The watermelon was especially delicious.  I think our little Joe ate about six slices.  The kids went home with full bellies and another great memory in their memory bank.  The highlight of our time in Orem was our campout with the kids.  We parked our RV in a beautiful park in Provo along the Provo River.  It was lush and green with big trees all around.  Joe wanted to know if we were camping in the woods.  The campground had a nice playground with a basketball court.  Dominic is good little hoop shooter.  The kids quickly made friends and had a great time running and climbing and jumping and riding bikes.  

The weather was perfect for a cookout, and our new little friends enjoyed baking cookies in the camper with me and Nicolette.  When it was too dark to see our hands in front of our face, we came in, got our jammies on, Ken converted the table and couch into two beds, and we watched a movie until after 11 p.m.  We thought we might have a problem getting the kids to go to sleep, but they were sleeping before we turned out the lights.

On Saturday morning Ken grilled pancakes and sausage and we had a picnic.  It was fun, but I'd like to think that one of the highlights of the weekend was the hours we spent making greeting cards, paper flowers,  and painted rocks.  It's always hard to say good bye to the kids, but we are always grateful for the time we have together and look forward to next time.

Another highlight was having Scott and Maggie over to our campsite for a barbecue.   It was so much fun preparing a meal for our friends, and sitting around for hours after the meal just talking about things important to each of us.  There is nothing like an old friend (who brings you lilacs!!!).

9

We are on our way to Wyoming on Monday, May 5th.  Stay tuner for more living.