The End

Yesterday, I arrived back in Kerrville, TX for the winter safe and sound. This sadly brings our summer travels and this blog to an end. It certainly was a priceless trip of a lifetime for me. I managed to put 12,000 miles on my rig, seeing states and sights that I’ve never seen before. Thanks for following along with me :) Here's our updated map of the additional states visited now :)



I’m staying at the same park as my friend Karen this year and she spoiled me already with a home cooked pork roast meal :) My favorite and it was so good! Thank you Karen.

It’s time to get back to work now and make some more diesel dollars ;) Next summer, we’ll do the East coast!

Precious Moments

Today, I stopped in Carthage, MO to visit the Precious Moments Chapel. The chapel and grounds is the creation of famed artist Samuel J. Butcher as a gift of thanks to God for all his many blessings and as a testament to share his faith with others. “That the Spirit of God might touch the visitors’ hearts and bring them to the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Lord.” And he certainly does a great job of that :)

The Chapel itself has often been described as “America’s Sistine Chapel” as an artful representation of Michelangelo’s own Sistine Chapel in Rome.

The main visitor center entrance, which also houses a gift shop and cafe. There is no entrance fee. It is all kept up with donations.



Displays inside the visitor’s center







The grounds are landscaped beautifully with flowers, statues, fountains and ornate fencing. It is a short walk from the visitor’s center to the chapel.





The chapel entrance





Even the wooden doors are ornate and inscribed with Bible verses.



The inside is just amazing. Every wall is artfully decorated with paintings and stained glass, including the ceiling!









The paintings actually look 3D





What a pleasant atmosphere with Christian music playing throughout the grounds. You can’t help but be moved by it all.

South Dakota GTG

This weekend, I stopped off in South Dakota to gtg with my friend Pat/dpf as she’s known on some common RV forums we both belong to. I visited Pat the summer before last on my way home from a rally in WY. She again graciously offered me an RV site at her home complete with a 30 amp hookup this time!

On my way there, I made the requisite stop in Mitchell to see the corn palace theme for this year. Pat and the locals call it the “World’s largest birdfeeder” ;) lol This year’s theme is transportation.







I arrived Friday night to a home cooked meal including her grape salad! It was fun to visit with her, Dennis her husband and Radar her boston terrior.

Saturday, I had my own personal tour guide of the area. Pat took me to see the Fort Randall area. There is a dam with beautiful lakes for recreation.



The road to the old fort and chapel was blocked off for road construction, but Pat got permission to get there anyway since they weren’t working on it. When we arrived, we were greeted by a flock of turkeys ;)



The fort is gone now, but the foundations of the structures are marked and the chapel remains are still standing from the late 1800’s.





There is an old cemetery there too, which lists some of the causes of death. It was interesting to read some of them, like consumption and remittent fever. I had to look some of them up.



Pat gave me a tour through some of the beautiful campgrounds she frequents as well. It’s a beautiful area.

Then, we stopped for lunch at an Indian casino/restaurant and had Indian tacos on wonderful fry bread!



In the afternoon, we went a different direction and Pat showed me where she worked. We also incorporated some geocaching throughout the day. It turns out there was even one in Avon, her home town with a population of 625. It was a 2” bison tube with a magnetic plate attached to the back of the sign post. And guess who found it? Yep, Pat’s a natural at geocaching.

Here’s a photo of her find :)



We enjoyed happy hour together and had a great time visiting. Sunday morning I filled my water tank and headed towards Texas.

Pat and Radar seeing me off.



Thank you so much Pat for your kind hospitality and friendship :)

Addictive Geocaching

I have a confession to make. I have a new addiction called geocaching. My friend Laura introduced me to it. She has just reached her 300th find, and her excitement was so much fun I had to try my hand at it too. Well, she created a monster. lol

In essence, geocaching is a high tech hide and seek adventure using a GPS to find hidden treasures placed by people all over the world and managed by a common web site at www.geocaching.com. You look up their locations, go find them and then log your finds there. It’s fun to watch the totals accumulate.

It’s a great outdoor activity for travelers. The caches are typically placed in public places of interest or scenic beauty, which most people would never see unless you lived there. Everywhere you go, there are caches to find! It’s amazing.

I purchased a Motorola Droid X a couple weeks ago. Not only is it a phone, but a PDA, GPS and has a great camera. There are some great programs you can download to help you hone the GPS in on the caches. So that’s what I’m using as my GPS, and it’s sweet! You can also use an Iphone or blackberry besides a regular handheld GPS.

The caches range in the level of difficulty such as the size of the container they are in and the terrain you have to navigate to get to them. The containers used can go from tiny to large. Here’s a couple of my first finds, and I am up to 26 in one week! Lol

This was my very first. It’s a magnetic key holder that was clinging to the back of an outdoor sign. (Just learning to use my camera, so that’s why it’s in black and white ;)



Here's a magnetized altoid can that was hidden inside the end of a guardrail.



This is a film canister hidden under a rock with a rock in front of it. Can you see it under there?



The smaller ones are the most difficult for me. This one was a real challenge, but I found it! That’s a dime in that picture! Not only that, it was placed up high on a pillar to a cemetery entrance. I had to use a crate to stand on and a mirror to see on top.



Inside each cache is a log paper that you must date and sign to prove you found it, besides logging it in on the geocaching site for credit. The strip of paper to sign on was about a ¼” wide and I write big! Lol

I have also run into wildlife while out caching. I met this flock of seven turkeys at a city park in Red Lodge, MT over the weekend on my way back from my Beartooth Mountain drive.



And these elk were just strolling around Cody and grazing in the neighbors yard.



You just never know what you’ll see. It’s so much fun!

The Badlands, North Dakota

Today, I toured the Roosevelt National Park in Medora, ND. There are two loops you can drive, but the majority of sights appeared to be in the 36 mile south loop, so that’s the one I took. It is very different terrain and is called the badlands due to difficulty of traversing it and developing it.









I saw some new wildlife today. Prairie dogs! And are they ever cute. There are several “Prairie dog towns” within the park. They are fun to watch :)

See all those white areas? They are little homes for these guys.



I’m not sure what this one was doing, but I think he was basking in the sun ;)



I also saw two bison, but didn’t get a photo since they were so far away. And, I think we’ve seen enough of them now ;)

That ends our National Parks tour for the summer. I still have states that need visiting on my way back to Texas to continue filling in my map. But, the next stop is in South Dakota to visit my friend Pat! We’ll also stop by the Corn Palace to see what this year’s theme is. So stay tuned!

Scenic Byways

Yesterday, I took a ride on the Chief Joseph Scenic Byway in Wyoming,that leads to the eastern entrance of Yellowstone. It transects the Beartooth Mountain Scenic byway into Montana. Gorgeous views and wild roads to say the least! I was hoping to see some wildlife, but I didn’t.

Views along Chief Joseph





And at the end was a view of Beartooth Mountain. This is an impressive mountain at almost 11,000 ft.



The beartooth highway takes you right on top of it. Let’s go!

More gorgeous views of mountain lakes





And snow! Hard to imagine snow in August, but it’s there. And it was cold on top too.



And here we are at the top



And here we are looking down. These were the kind of 20 mph switchbacks that took to get up here! It was impressive to say the least.



Today, I left Cody enroute to Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. Sadly, this will be the last National Park on the list for this summer.

Cody Rodeo

This weekend, I went to the Cody Nite Rodeo, and it was awesome! Cody is known as the Rodeo Capital of the World.



It was two hours of wonderful entertainment. It started off with a prayer and our national anthem. The entries were all ages and the 12 and under were fun to watch.
Here’s a couple of the young ones displaying our flag during opening ceremonies.







No rodeo is complete without the clowns. This was our main clown who was hilarious. He kept us entertained and had us laughing between the events.



There were the usual events. Bronc riding, bull riding, calf roping and barrel racing. It was so action packed, that my photos didn’t turn out very well. But here are a couple of the blurry ones anyway ;)

Bull riding





Calf roping



Barrel racing



And this is Hollywood. You could get your photo taken with him. lol