Independence Day 2008

Today, Jim and I are appreciating our freedom and independence in this country. We have the freedom to live this incredible lifestyle. We are thinking of the friends we've made and where they are today.

Some are enjoying the beauty of Alaksa. Some are working hard on a ranch in Colorado (and enjoying The Pie). Some are here in South Dakota, enjoying the cool air and beauty of this land.
Some are workamping in New England, Massachusetts, Maine and other places. Some are in Canada, Montana, Wyoming, Missouri, North Carolina, Washington, Oregon. We've made friends from all over. Some aren't on the road yet, some don't plan to be.

We're thinking of our family and friends in Texas and Colorado today. We love and appreciate all of you!

Here are some scenes around Broken Arrow Campground.

Lovely facilities:



One of the views out our front window:


Another view from the front window, zoomed in to show the mountains in the distance:
And another view:

No, you're not seeing double, we're parked next to an Allegro Bus:


The evening sun shinging on the Castle:

Karon and Jazz:
South Dakota sunset:


A distant view of the Crazy Horse monument:

Happy Birthday, America!!

Day of Exploring

Karon came by just after 10:00 this morning to drive us around the area today. First, she took us to the property of their friends, where they are parked. The morning skies were gray and the temperature was in the 50's. We all had on long pants!

The turn-off to the Crazy Horse monument is on the way to the property, so we got a distant view of it. Since it was so gray and foggy, we didn't get any good pictures, but we'll be going back at some point while we're here.

After we toured the property and met the friends, Karon, Jim and I took off in Karon's car. She was our tour guide for the day. We headed to Hill City where we stopped at the Slate Creek Grill for lunch.

Karon and I both had the Philly cheese steak sandwich. It was the best one I've had since we were in Philadelphia several years ago.



After lunch, we stopped at a Christmas Store on the outskirts of Hill City and spent quite a while just wandering around looking at things. I bought myself a crystal heart necklace as an early Christmas present!

We then headed to the little town of Keystone, where everyone else in South Dakota gathered today. Even though it's a couple of miles or more from Keystone, up a twisty hill to Mt. Rushmore, there were cars parked along the road in Keystone. Those are the cars of the people who waited too long to get to Mt. Rushmore today and had to walk up to get a spot for the fireworks tonight. I'm sure they're either still walking now, or standing around in a crowd, waiting. From now, as I'm writing this, they have another 4 hour wait until the fireworks.

We walked around town, taking in the sights and the shops.




We went through this tunnel on the way into and out of Keystone.



We took the long, scenic route around the area so we could miss the worst of the traffic close to Mt. Rushmore.

I'm not sure we could find these tee-pees again, but they're somewhere on one of the area county highways:

We were trying to find our way back to the road that would take us through Custer State Park. It took us a couple of wrong or missed turns, but we finally got on the right road.

Getting back to the highway:

We saw scenery like this most of the day:

In Custer State Park, we saw these big horn sheep:

And back home again! We've had a great adventure today. Thanks, Karon!

Long Drive to Custer, South Dakota - 100 Miles

We were awakened at 3:17 a.m. this morning with the blast of a gust of wind and the rolling rumble of thunder. The rain followed shortly. Thankfully, it didn't last long and we were able to get another hour or so of sleep. We took our time getting ready to travel today. We got underway at 10:45 for our 100 mile drive from Chadron State Park to Broken Arrow RV Park just south east of Custer.

The first half of the trip, once we left the park, was rolling hills and meadows. The weather was foggy, but at least it wasn't raining.

The South Dakota state line. This is "life state" for Jim, as he's never been in South Dakota before. I was here once as a child, but that was a long, long time ago!

We saw buffalo:

Hills and rocks:

And more rocks:

And picturesque old buildings:

We got here around 1:00 and got set up. Karon and her family are parked at a friend's property about 10 miles from here. She doesn't have cell service here, so I called her friend to ask her to pass along the message to Karon that we're here. About 40 minutes later, there was a knock at our door. Karon came in person instead of using her friend's phone.

We visited for a long time, and ended up deciding to run around with her tomorrow instead of fighting the crowds and rain showers at the Independence Day celebration at Mt. Rushmore. They have the big celebration with fireworks on the 3rd at Mt. Rushmore, with crowds estimated to be around 25,000 people. We would have to get there before 10 a.m. and plan to be there until after 10 p.m. We decided to forego that and take in a local celebration in Custer on the 4th.

The campground we're staying at for the next couple of weeks is Broken Arrow. It's fairly new, and the owners are absolutely the best we've encountered in our travels. The park is very basic, but quite adequate. The owners are very friendly and helpful without being pushy. The sites are roomy and the property backs up to national forest. It's out in the country, and has a nice feel to it. I'll post pictures in the next few days.

Another great day!

Laid Back Day - Chadron State Park, Nebraska

Karon and her family stopped in to say "See Ya" before they pulled out around 9 or so yesterday morning. (I hardly ever know what time it is!) We'll get together again in Custer in a few days.

After they'd gone, we finished sorting our laundry and Jim piled it in the car and headed to town. The small town of Chadron is only about 8 or 10 miles from the park, so it's easy to run to town. There is a small Super-Walmart, so life is good! While he was getting the laundry done, I made a feeble attempt to clean, although my heart just wasn't in it! I used the central vac and just went over things lightly.

After Jim got back with clean clothes, he invited me to go back to town for lunch. Ok, then, that's a plan. We ended up at the local Chinese restaurant which wasn't bad at all. We took a short drive around town and out the direction we'll be heading when we leave, then came back home.

A few more windows to add to my collection:

Time to check out the swimming pool! We got our suits and sunscreen on, and headed over to the pool here at the park. There were a few kids in the pool, but it's a huge pool, so no problem with dodging the kids. We just floated around, cooling ourselves and doing our "strategic planning" session. When we wintered in Apache Junction, Arizona year before last, we spent hours in the pool, planning our house sale and official launch into fulltiming. Now, any time we get in a pool, it seems to turn into a planning session. The only thing is, now, I'm not so much into planning anymore! Ah, that feels good.

We were refreshed, so we sat out in the sun for awhile to dry off. Back at the motor home, we just relaxed the rest of the day.

I took a few more pictures of the area right around us. I can't seem to get enough of the beauty here!