Rapid City S.D.

August 28 – 30, 2009 The sights of western South Dakota
Friday finds us heading south with a stop in at the Bear Country U.S.A. This was a very unique and interesting drive-through park featuring North American wildlife. We enjoyed seeing up close: bears, wolves, elk, bison, and reindeer, they were very unimpressed with us and went about their activities as if we weren’t even there... We also spent quite awhile watching the antics of about 20 little bear cubs born in January. They were like toddlers, all playing, romping around in their enclosure, playing follow-the-leader, one would go to pond, they all headed there; one climbed up the tree and they all attempted it. This was a great attraction and surprisingly not very crowded. Our next item on the itinerary was to re-visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. We had first visited it in 1992 when we made our cross country blitz with Marq and Kris. It has continued to make slow progress, during the last 17 years. It is an amazing structure all funded with private monies, no government funding is allowed. The Ziolkowski family has continued the quest started by Korzack in 1948, 7 of the 10 children and his wife currently run the organization. The surrounding amenities – museum, interpretive center, gift shop and restaurants have really been upgraded. Mike contributed $50. to their efforts by buying 3 chances on a special Crazy Horse Memorial Harley to be raffled off early in September. What will we do if he wins???  After a couple hours of R & R back at the MoHo we went back out to see the 4 presidents of Mount Rushmore. There was a very inspiring evening presentation by a Park Ranger and then the mountain was lit up. Wow – this indeed is a beautiful Shrine to Democracy. We saw a lot of changes here too; a nice new parking structure, amphitheatre, and beautiful paved walk-ways that were not here on our last visit.
Saturday took us north of Rapid City to the town of Sturgis, home of the “Bad Boy” Motorcycle Rally held each August. We went through the little museum and ogled the beautiful old and new bikes on display. Nigel and Bubba rode with us, and Nigel did not like all the bikes he heard riding into and out of the city. The 4 of us took a short walk up and down the main street of town, pretty quite today. Karen thought about getting a tattoo, but changed her mind. In the afternoon we took the city tour of old down town Rapid City – walking along the historic old buildings and seeing the ”City of Presidents”, a six block area of life size bronze sculptures of the presidents up to the senior Bush. Enjoyed a nice evening at Camp J&J barbequing and enjoying the balmy evening --- more s’mores.
Sunday was another day of sight-seeing. Karen really wanted to see Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse from a helicopter, so we sprung for the 30 minute adventure over both of those amazing landmarks. Wonderful flight, calm ride, we quickly buzzed over the sculptures and then had a chance to see the Pinnacles, the Black Hills, Harney Peak (at 7,400 feet it is the tallest point east of the Rocky Mountains until you reach the Alps), Sylvan Lake and an amazing view of some beautiful landscapes. Once again a marvelous experience, must keep in our minds because our pictures really don’t do it justice. We then drove back up to Mount Rushmore for a daytime view of this magnificent sight. Our afternoon activities included a stop at the Stavkirke Chapel an exact copy of an 830 year old church in Norway. The intricate wood carvings including some strange dragon heads and interesting pegged construction were worth the stop. Found a post card of the chapel in the winter, covered in snow – fairy tale looking. We then took a bit of drive out to Deadwood – 1870’s frontier gold rush town. We strolled through the turn of the century streets enjoying some entertainment by actors portraying a bar-room fight scene right in the middle of the street. Karen became deputized and was on call to if the need arose. We saw the bar where Wild Bill was shot and enjoyed a prime-rib dinner before heading back to camp.

August 25-27, 2009 -- Rapid City, South Dakota
Sorry it’s been a while since we last posted. Finding wi-fi was a little tricky.
Tuesday we drove from North Dakota to South Dakota, putting 260+ miles under our wheels today. After a nice morning walk around the cute little tow of Medora, we hit the road, driving through the rolling hills and hills and hills of rural S.D.Along the way we passed through the geographical center of the USA in Belle Fourche, SD. We arrived in Rapid City late in the afternoon calling a KOA campground home for the evening.
Wednesday morning we were at J & J’s Truck and Auto Body. Jeff the owner helped us get a quote and started the process of getting Allstate Insurance to agree to allow the work to be done to fix the MoHo. While waiting for the insurance company to respond, we did our laundry and made a run to the grocery store. Felt good to get caught up on the basics. We had a very nice evening sitting out on the slab where we were parked at the body shop (Camp J&J) – made a camp fire in our little portable fire pit, cooked some very good salmon, had a nice bottle of wine, fixed some s’mores and listened to the band Styx playing at the local fairgrounds about a half mile away. Crazy, but it was a very enjoyable evening. Surprising where we can find happiness.
Thursday we are still at J & J’s – Jeff tells us that indeed they will be able to repair the MoHo and that they will be removing the skins of the damaged bay doors this afternoon. The new covers will be made at a local fabricator; now we will just have to wait for them to be made and then reinstalled. Luckily we are finding our way around Rapid City, finding the necessary supplies and enjoying some of the local sights. We went through a very interesting museum called The Journey -- featuring exhibits of fossils and bones of some of the dinosaurs found in this region, to displays of the Lakota Sioux Indians who are native to this area, and to stories of the early gold miners. We spent a couple hours enjoying the museum and staying in the air-conditioning; it is fairly warm outside.

Theadore Rosevelt National Park

August 23 – 24, 2009 The Road across Montana to North Dakota
Our journey across the northern plains continues. Mike was very concerned that we get the MoHo doctored up a bit, so we cut our Glacier itinerary by a day and headed east. We crossed the continental divide and quickly went from the mountainous/valley concept to a lot of nothing, but beautiful nothing it is. We had a long drive (typically have been going less than 200 miles a day or less) on Sunday of just over 300 miles, but fairly easy to do on the well maintained and straight Highway 2. Montana has an amazing number of highway miles where it is possible not to see any other vehicle coming or going. It is really an interesting drive seeing so many very small communities and their respective grain silos, water towers and some incredibly large farm equipment. This is rural America; it has a real charm of its own. We settled in for the night, boon docking in Malta – the mosquito capital of Montana?? We have old window screens that need some work, so we had a few uninvited pests in getting their transfusions as we slept. About 3:00am this morning we were awoken by a pick-up truck driving through the park spraying for the critters making this high pitched sound that must have been calling them to their execution. They don’t spray DDT anymore do they??

Monday morning we got up and headed east again – Montana was soon to be history. We made it to North Dakota mid day and secured a nice camping sight in Medora. What a cute little town with many things to do and see, might be worth another visit at some time. We took the little “Toad” and drove the 36 miles into the southern unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park. What a terrific tour. The scenery was incredible with such varied landscapes resembling a shallow Grand Canyon. We saw at least 2 dozen plains Bison grazing along side of the road; they are such big beasts. We also enjoyed watching the prairie dogs scampering around in their respective little towns. Several groups of wild horses, as well as, few mule deer all made for a picture taking frenzy by both of us.
Well day number 11 finds the “Boys” and both of us doing well and having a great adventure.
P.S. don’t believe Mike when he tells you how badly he beat me at dominoes.
P.P.S. It’s true, but probably one of my few wins ever!

Glacier National Park

August 22, 2009 the Day after…

We took the historic Red Bus Tour of Glacier Park today. It was spectacular, to say the least. The 10 hour, Crown of Continent Tour on the Going to Sun Road was time and money well spent. What a fantastic experience riding in the old 1930’s coach, roof off, 10,000’ peaks overhead, cuddling under woolen Pendleton blankets, and the most breath- taking scenery imaginable? Today is a great day! We saw Lake McDonald and several other amazing crystal clear blue mountain lakes. Waterfalls were still everywhere to be seen. The ride up on Logan’s Pass, a 6, 680 foot saddle, straddling the continental divide was incredible. We saw many glacially formed valleys green with a huge variety of pines, cedars, and cottonwood trees; unimaginable views of the “Big Sky” country, and wild life. There were black bears, grizzly bears (a long ways away), mountain goats, big horned sheep and even a deer. It was a day to be remembered.
This is definitely a place to be visited again. Maybe in the spring, when there are more waterfalls and wild flowers, although one shouldn’t expect anything much more perfect than what we witnessed today.
Glacier National Park is definitely on the Wraights’ Top List of things to see and do.

August 20-21, 2009 Travel on Highway 2 in Northern Montana
We left Spokane and started our trip east. We only had about 150 miles or so to cover, but would go through a small section of Idaho and into Montana. It was a very nice drive, beautiful landscape, more mountainous, pine/cedar trees, beginning to feel different. We stopped for the night in the small town of Troy, Montana – population 957 or so; a nice neat small community, probably not as exciting as it must have been many years ago when our friend Marianne Robison grew up there. We drove the length of the town taking in Troy High School and a few other assorted businesses. We drank, dined and gambled – as the menu said we would, at the Silver Spurs Restaurant, this was followed with Karen getting bitten by her ever favorite yellow jacket buddies (OUCH! 3rd sting this summer) and a nice drive and walk through the Ross Creek Cedar area. This was a very cool and shady trail in amongst many very big and tall red cedars upwards of 500 years and older. We returned to camp ready for tomorrows drive into Glacier.
Friday morning we arose and headed east. We stopped and walked the beautiful trail down to Kootenai Falls and then hiked over to the 100’ long Swinging Bridge on the Kootenai River. It was a beautiful beginning to a not so wonderful day.
Can you say “RV HELL!” ? What happens next is not to be repeated or told to any impressionable youngsters. We started by having an electricity problem fixed in Kalispell, Montana, no cost, so far so good, But wait it does not last. We drive on into Glacier, struggle a bit to find a campground and finally decide on a KOA just outside of West Glacier. They assigning us a site, we dropped our “little toad – the Prius” and head off the dreaded space #62. Let’s just say that there are trees that bare us some evil, jumping out and smacking us twice, crunching in two of our stainless steel bay doors. Oh the air was blue with language not often heard by the calm mild manned MoHo driver. We finally wiggle out of our fix and go back to the office asking for a site that would actually fit our 37’ coach. Off to sit #32. We struggle in and get set up, appraise the damage and feel quite awful. Of course we felt awful, we just dented our MoHo and the “DAMNED A.C.” won’t stay on. The electricity was not working. What the hell? We had just gotten it fixed and it still isn’t working. It is hot, and we are cranky…….
You get the picture I am sure. Long story short (long night) we finally figured out that the outlet in the space wasn’t working and fried up our extension cord and with a new cord stretched over to another sight we had air!!! O.M.G. What a day.

Well it feels like we have finally started our “Safari”. We left our home state of Oregon this morning and ventured into our neighboring state of Washington. The roadside landscapes were golden rolling hills, for miles and miles, and miles. Wheat, maybe? The intrepid travelers arrived in Spokane Valley in early afternoon. Camp was set up and we went into see what there was to see. Spokane literature bills it as the largest city between Seattle and Minneapolis, the gateway to the Rocky Mountains – “near nature, near perfect”. It is a beautiful little city, with an abundance of beautifully preserved old buildings, cool tree lined Riverside Park (complete with our 1st “biggie icon” a red flyer wagon), great walk ability, many interesting looking restaurants, and much to be explored. We took a nice walk, seeing much of downtown and having a nice afternoon break at the beautiful old Davenport Hotel.
The Wraight family of Spokane had a department store. It has been spoken of and even seen is some old family photos, but where was it? We started our search at the visitors’ center. They recommended that we try the library for more info. There we found some old phone directories that we scoured, starting in 1915 – finding Walt’s family and at least 2 other family members, uncles? The directories gave names, address, phone #s and a short description of the individuals’ occupation. After several minutes we concluded that Edward Wraight purchased the Culbertson’s Department Store (he had been the manager) and in approximately 1930, it became the Wraight’s Department Store. Off we went to see the old store at 600 Main Street. Not surprisingly it was not there; but Macy’s is – could we be part of the Macy’s empire? We continued our town tour with a visit to Aunties Book Store, a beautiful old book store, where we found a book with an actual picture of the old Wraight‘s Department Store. Feeling quite accomplished in our task to seek out some family history we had a nice dinner at the Steam Plant Grill. This is an interesting old building, built in 1915, still outfitted with a majority of its workings: pipes, stacks, and many interesting looking gauges. The ribs were very good, but the dessert a Vanilla bourbon stout ice cream float was amazing.
Lest you think that our Spokane visit was all fun and games, Mike also played plumber, complete with cussing, swearing and a couple of scuffed knuckles. We went to Home Depot and bought a new kitchen faucet, we had been battling a leak, with no success. Long story short, we had to have an expert come and help us extricate the old faucet out, so we could install the new one. Project accomplished. The “Old Bucket of Bolts”, A.K.A. the MoHo is ready to get back on the road.
Adventures to be continued.

John Day Fossil Beds – Eastern Oregon August 16-17, 2009

We have spent the last two days traveling amongst some of the most varied and interesting landscape in central Oregon. We entered the John Day Fossil Beds viewing an almost continuous 40 million year fossil record of plant and animal life. We drove through the 3 distinct sections seeing the Clarno Unit, the Painted Hills Unit and the Sheep Rock Unit. The 14,000 acres reveal an amazing amount of diversity and the incredible changes that have occurred in the landscape, climate, and the kinds of plants and animals.
It has been a great way to start our adventure. All has been going well, the MoHo has been behaving well, as have the “Boys” and Mike too. We have dry camped the last two nights with no problems. Tonight we are in Hermiston at a full hook-up campground, welcomed as the day has warmed up to 95 degrees, love the air conditioning.
Tomorrow we head to Spokane Washington.

Stay tuned; your intrepid travelers.
Mike & Karen

August 15, 2009
Our American Safari is officially underway. We left Ashland, Oregon at 7:30am – Mike in MoHO and Karen in the Prius at about 9:00am. We rendezvous ed in Grants Pass where the MoHo got her final check-up before heading out on the “Big Trip”. With our bays, cupboards, and closets full to the brim the 4 or us (Mike, Karen, Nigel and Bubba) excitedly headed north about 80 miles to Canyonville. We stopped early to catch our collective breaths and rest-up. We relaxed, napped and treated ourselves to a very up-scale dinner at the Seven Feathers Casino - Resort. An excellent filet mignon and a nice bottle of Australian Shiraz finished with a delicious piece of chocolate cheese cake.
The last 2 weeks have very BUSY with preparations to both the MoHo (there have been more than a few problems that have arisen and we hope are solved) and readying the Clay St. residence for possible renters. We received notice on Thursday that indeed we had gotten some long-term renters to hold down the fort while we travel. We had notified our neighbors of our plans and had put a disclaimer at the bottom that “No moving vans had been scheduled in our absence” This morning we got a call from our neighbor saying that indeed there was moving van out front. Of course we hadn’t gotten a hold of her to tell of the above mentioned renters. The electrical panel still shows a fault, but everything appears to be working. So off we go, heading east, our destination is open.

Off again. We are heading out on another adventure on Aug. 14, 2009. This time we will be traveling in our motor home, a Safari-Ivory, 1994 37' diesel pusher. We are taking both dogs on this trip, Nigel, a 100lb. rescued pound puppy of mixed race, and Bubba a rescued Bassett Hound. We have a loose itinerary, and will not be posting it because it is "loose". Our only fixed date is Long Beach, California for Thanksgiving.

We mostly do this blog for ourselves because we can't remember diddley. If you stumble upon this blog you are welcome to follow us as little or as much as you care too. Maybe it will help someone plan an American Safari for themselves.