Day 83 Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Scott AFB, Ill to Nashville, TN – 301 Miles
This morning we got up early and headed out southeast to Nashville, Tn. We arrived at a Corps of Engineers campground (Seven Points Public Use Area) shortly after 2:30pm today; we set up the RV and then took a nap after another long day of driving. Later this evening we took Lucy for a long walk.
Tomorrow we’ll decide if we’ll drive on or spend a day in and around Nashville. We’re trying to get to Columbia, SC for the Memorial Day week-end; my sister and brother-in-law have a small place on Lake Murray just outside Columbia.
Day 81 & 82 Monday, May 21 and Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Scott AFB, Il FamCamp
This morning we noticed that we had voice mail from yesterday. After checking we found that one of the calls was from one of the bikers who called to tell us that they looked all over for Lucy and even stopped a “blue van” to check to see if Lucy was on board. They just wanted to follow up to tell us of their search and hoped we had found her. The other call was from the BP Gas Station clerk who noted that Lucy had wandered into the store and that they had served her some ice water and just wanted us to know where she was. Both calls reminded us that people do care for others and this made us feel good and thankful.
We spent the last couple days at Scott AFB resting and re stocking for the continued trip. Sylvia made several calls to tire dealers including Sams and Costco to check on tire availability and found that in all cases we would have to wait 3–5 business days for delivery; this meant we were dead in the water since we did not want to take the chance of driving without a spare. Someone suggested I check with the base exchange to see what they could do; I did and I found they could get us the tire the next day. Hooray for the base exchange! We think we’ve had our quota of tire incidents….
Day 80 Sunday, May 20, 2007
Platte City, Missouri to Scott AFB, Ill – 300+ Miles (via a Maifest in Hermann, Missouri)
Today we headed out for Scott AFB just east of St Louis, Missouri. However, we did make a slight detour to stop by a Maifest in Hermann, Missouri. This detour proved to be stressful initially and then interesting later.
En route to Hermann we came to a very narrow bridge that crossed the Missouri River into Hermann. I took the call and went to scout the bridge and determined that it would be very tight driving the RV over it with the very narrow lanes and the on coming traffic to be concerned about. So, rather than risk an incident, we decided to park the RV at a gas station, unhook the car and just drive the Honda over the bridge to the Maifest. This is when the stress really kicked into high gear… We had just rearranged things in the Honda putting down a blanket in the back seat for Lucy when we discovered that Lucy was missing and no where to be found!!!!!!!! Sylvia was in a frantic state of mind now… she told me that she had noticed a blue van that stopped in the parking lot near the RV; a man got out and opened the sliding rear door and a short time later drove off! After whistling and looking frantically for Lucy we quickly came to the conclusion that this guy in the blue van had dog napped Lucy and we were in a major panic to say the least! There was a motorcycle club group leaving the gas station… Sylvia quickly stopped them explaining the situation and they said they would look for the “blue van” along the route they were traveling and if they found it would check to see if Lucy could be found; so, off they went.
Sylvia and I continued to look all over for Lucy…. Finally after us almost giving up, Lucy came out from behind the gas station with her head down and tail between her legs! She knew she was in trouble; however, we were so glad to see her that we totally did not want to scold her for her wandering off. It just drove home the point that we have to be more careful when we let Lucy out of the RV…. There are a lot of strange people out there who would think nothing of stealing our sweet Lucy dog.
After we calmed down, Sylvia and I and Lucy drove over that narrow bridge and went to the Maifest in Hermann. We walked the town and had some wine and ate dinner at one of the Wineries. This was very enjoyable and reminded us of our times in Germany going to winefests.
Later we drove on to Scott AFB, another 100 miles or so, set up in the camp ground and made it an early night.
Day 79 Saturday, May 19, 2007
Council Bluffs, Iowa to Platte City, Missouri -156 Miles
Wow, what an exciting day today. We had intended to drive a bit over 250 miles and stay at a campground somewhere east of Kansas City, Mo; however, about 80 miles south of Council Bluffs we experienced our first BLOWOUT! As I was driving down I-29 I came down a hill and at the bottom of the dip the left rear inside dual tire blew!!!!! I was able to maintain control pulling to the side of the road at the top of the hill. I called our friendly road service and then we proceeded to wait for the next 2 hours for them to arrive to change our tire! Sylvia and I just got our camping chairs out and our artificial carpet out and set them up in the grass and watch the cars and trucks roll by.
A good samaritan stopped to see if we were OK and if they could help. Johnny and his 2–year old son Cash hung out with us and kept us company as we waited for the service to arrive.
The Service did finally get a truck out and the nice fellow changed out our tire. You might recall that early on in our trip we had a flat tire with we had apparently run over a nail. This was quite different and very dangerous with the tire just blowing out. It did do a little damage to the wheel well but nothing that will keep us from moving on down the road; we repair this minor damage once we complete our trip.
You can see in the photo above the big hole in the tire the blew!
After the repair/tire change we drove on to find the nearest campground to camp for the night and decompress after this stressful incident!
Oh, tomorrow’s another day in our adventure.
Day 78 Friday, May 18, 2007
Mitchell, SD to Lake Manawa, Council Bluffs, Iowa – 256 Miles
Today we drove south and east to outside Omaha, Nebraska and Council Bluffs, Iowa. We found a Iowa State Park campground at Lake Manawa and stayed there for the night.
Day 77 Thursday, May 17
Ellsworth AFB, SD to Mitchell, SD via Wall Drug and the Badlands National Park – Miles
Today we started our trip south and east by drive I-90 to Wall SD where were stopped by the famous Wall Drug Store. Wall Drug was bought by the Husteads in December 1931. Just after the depression they were trying to make a go of it but it was very difficult. They came upon a idea several years later to put up signs along the interstate advertising free ice water and since then everything else is history. Mr. Hustead has said: “Free Ice Water. It brought us Husteads a long way and it taught me my greatest lesson, and that's that there's absolutely no place on God's earth that's Godforsaken. No matter where you live, you can succeed, because wherever you are, you can reach out to other people with something that they need!”
You can visit their web site at: http://www.walldrug.com
How do you like Sylvia’s new hat?
From Wall Drug we drove the loop through the Badlands National Park.
The Badlands National Park was created to preserve the scenic and scientific value of a portion of the White River Badlands for the benefit and enjoyment of the people. Here natural processes have uncovered and displayed a concentrated collection of rutted ravines, serrated towers, pinnacles, and precipitous gulches. The park contains world renowned paleontological features and geological formations of the Eocene and Oligocene epochs with recognized scientific and educational value. This spectacular setting contains a fine example of a vast mixed grass prairie ecosystem. The landscape encompasses an 11,000 year legacy of human use and occupancy. Located in southwestern South Dakota, Badlands National Park consists of nearly 244,000 acres of sharply eroded buttes, pinnacles and spires blended with the largest, protected mixed grass prairie in the United States. Sixty-four thousand acres are designated official wilderness. Established as Badlands National Monument in 1939, the area was redesignated as a National Park in 1978. Over 11,000 years of human history pales to the eons old paleontological resources. Badlands National Park contains the world's richest Oligocene epoch fossil beds, dating 23 to 35 million years old. The evolution of mammal species such as the horse, sheep, rhinoceros and pig can be studied in the Badlands formations.
As we started our drive through the park we notice a few of the “locals” sitting up on the hill watching the tourists drive by… We could just hear them saying to each other: “Well Myrtle here’s a couple more and they’re taking pictures like the rest. Check me out, do I have grass in my teeth? Smile for the tourists!”
Here’s a panoramic photo made up from 10 photos as I panned and took pictures of the barren wasteland.
From the Badlands National Park we drove on to Mitchell, SD where we stopped for the night. Before bedding down for the night we went to the Cabella’s Sporting Goods store.
There they had an incredible selection of sporting goods, clothing, etc. We especially like the live fish in the fish tanks and the stuff animals display.
Here we finally got to see a Moose… but unfortunately he was not alive…. someday we’ll see a live one!!
Days 74-76 Monday, May 14 to Wednesday, May 16
Monday, May 14 – Ellsworth AFB, SD
Today we did much of nothing except relax and did a little maintenance on the RV. I went over to the auto hobby shop on base and changed the oil in the RV, it was due. It was really windy and really cool to cold today, so, much of the day we spent inside. Later in the day I took the Honda down to the dealer in Rapid City to have the 50K service done on it as well. Our friends and traveling partners, Andy and Emily, went on down to see Mt Rushmore.
Tuesday, May 15 – Sight seeing to Mt Rushmore and Crazy Horse
Today we drove the 34 miles south to see the Mt Rushmore National Memorial. It we really quite impressive indeed.
Here’s the entrance and the “hall of flags” leading to the memorial.
While walking the path through the memorial we ran in to the German couple that we had seen in Yellowstone when we stopped beside the road to see the animals. What a small world for us to have run into this couple again a couple states away and a week or so later!!
After visiting Mt Rushmore we drove about 14 miles further south to see the Crazy Horse Memorial.
Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski and Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear officially started Crazy Horse Memorial June 3, 1948. The Memorial's mission is to honor the culture, tradition and living heritage of North American Indians. When completed, this will be the largest mountain sculpture in the world. Because of several factors, such as the uncertainty of the weather, the availability of financing and the challenges of the mountain engineering, there is no way to predict a completion date for the mountain carving. When Korczak died on October 20, 1982, his parting words to his wife were, "You must work on the mountain -- but go slowly so you do it right." Crazy Horse Memorial is a project that will never end, even after the mountain carving is complete. The Ziolkowski family and the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation are dedicated to making careful and steady progress on all of the Memorial's humanitarian goals as well as on the mountain carving. His wife and 7 of his children and their families continue to work on the sculpture today.
I hope you can see from this picture the magnitude of this work in process. It is already taller than the Washington Monument. When completed the Crazy Horse mountain carving will be 641 feet long by 563 feet high. Crazy Horse's completed head is 87 feet 6 inches high. The horse's head, currently the focus of work on the mountain, is 219 feet or 22 stories high.
The photo on the left shows a model of what the carving will look like when completed. Korczak depicted Crazy Horse with his left hand pointing in answer to the derisive question asked by a white man, "Where are your lands now?" Crazy Horse replied, "My lands are where my dead lie buried. "
The official web site can be visited at:
http://www.crazyhorse.org/
The Web Cam is at:
http://www.crazyhorse.org/webcam.shtml
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Today we rested and re-stocked the RV for our trip south.
