Epilogue

Hi everybody,
We are home!  Made it safe and sound Friday the 12th of June.  After 9,500 miles and 66 days we are comfortable looking out our windows at the St Joseph river.  It was a tremendous trip!  We packed a lot into it and we are still happily married!

There are a few places we need to tell you about to finish off our saga. We left off telling you about the Badlands.  The last day in South Dakota we drove back west about 2 hours into Wyoming to see Devil's Tower.  For those of you who remember the movie Close Encounters, this picture is for you!

Over 1,000 feet tall this National Monument was the very first to be designated by President Roosevelt.  It is massive and we spent several hours there.  Walked around the base of it. Watched some rock climbers on the face of it too.

There are two in this picture, one in blue and the other standing on that broken off chunk of rock.

On the left side of this picture, you can see what looks like a rope or long stick in the crevice. It is actually what remains of a ladder that was used by the very first people to scale Devils Tower, this group of people included Will Rogers in 1893.

Such beautiful countryside

cute prairie dogs

there must have been a 100 of them.

We were really glad we took the time to visit Devil's Tower.  We suggest you add this to your list of places to check out.

Next day we headed east again, stopped in Mitchell, South Dakota.  Now, Mitchell is not a big town and is really only known for one thing, the Corn Palace.  It's been around awhile and the town uses it as a tourist draw.  We only stayed one night, but we got there early enough to go into town and check it out.  The reason it is called the Corn Palace is because the exterior and the interior of the building are decorated with ears of corn.  They use over 750,000 bushels of corn each year to decorate the murals!

They were in the process of redecorating it, normally there are spires atop and more areas are filled in

Amazing what they can do with a corn cob

By this time we can smell Indiana, but we have one more place to visit and it is an important one!  We have friends, Craig and Anne Johnsen, that we knew when we were stationed in Denver and Sacramento. They live just outside Minneapolis, Mn.  Rog and Craig went to the same Air Force Techinical school in Denver back in 1977.  So we go way back.  However, we hadn't seen them since they visited us about 20 years ago.  We figured it was high time we saw them again.  They surprised us with a river boat ride down the Mississippi.  We had a great time, and Rog even got some shots of a bald eagle.  We are so glad we took a couple extra days to visit Craig and Anne.

Craig, Anne and Rog

Minneapolis from the Mississippi

Now we are home and we have one more picture to show you that pretty much says it all.  It's always great to travel, but, its always nice to come home too.  This trip was all about seeing Rhonda and Ivan, that's what started the planning, then we threw in stopping to see Leo and Thelma and then Craig and Anne.  The beauty of our national parks along the way were bonus and we really enjoyed that part too.

 What a great greeting from our grandsons Logan and Justis!

Until next time everyone, take care and God Bless!

Rog and Nita

Yellowstone National Park, Henry's Lake State Park, Battle of Little Bighorn National Park and Badlands National Park

We thought we would share some things we learned while in Yellowstone.  Just in case you decide to visit it.
1. The buffalo are in charge.  That's right they control all the thoroughfares. You think we are kidding?  Can't tell you how many times we came to a dead stop on the park roads because the buffalo decided to go for a walk.  These beasts are huge and can do damage, so don't take these "traffic cops" lightly.

Yep, right in front of us, we weren't going anywhere.

                                        Looking at us as if saying "come on, go ahead and make my day".



2. You need more then a few days to see this park.  It covers over 2 Million acres! We spent two 8 hour days driving and sightseeing within the park, only covered about 1/3 of it.  A full week would probably give you enough time to visit all of the locations around the park.
3. Yellowstone has it all, mountains, lakes, rivers,  hot springs, geysers, waterfalls, wildlife (we saw buffalo, black bear and pronghorn)  there is also supposed to be elk, moose, and wolves.
4. They were smart when they laid out the design for visitors.  The park has one main circle road with side roads, like spokes on a wheel, that lead to the 6 major areas.  Each area has a visitor center, lodge, gift shop, grocery and most have a gas station.  Guess they don't want any visitors running out of gas while they are waiting on a buffalo.

We highly recommend adding Yellowstone to your lists of places to visit.

Now, here are some of our favorite pictures from our two days in the park.

 Had to check out Old Faithful



Shot at least 100 ft up into the air

The color of these hot springs is such a beautiful shade of blue!

Steam just rises off of it

Can you believe these flowers blooming in the middle of it

Geysers everywhere.

We found 4 different waterfalls

Yellowstone River

I believe the tallest mountain peak was 12,000+

and then there were the animals...

buffalo everywhere

a baby elk with a homing device on his neck

Before you look at the bear pictures, we need to tell you about our search of the elusive creature.

On our second day going into the park, our main goal was to see some bears.  We had asked a ranger the day before where we might find some.  They kindly told us on the north eastern edge of the park. So the next day we took off bright and early.  Drove 2 hours, spent about 1/2 hour waiting on a buffalo herd crossing the road to this area of the park they had recommended.  No bears, only buffalo and pronghorns.  We decided to turn around and head for home, feeling quite bummed about not finding bears.  Well, about 1/3 of the way back, Boom!  There they were! Momma bear and 2 cubs, right beside the road. Not more then 20 feet from our truck.  We were very happy!  Goes to show you shouldn't give up when you are on a quest.

momma bear

baby bears

pronghorn



We really enjoyed the campground we stayed at, Henry's Lake State park, which was about 15 miles from the far west entrance of Yellowstone.

morning fog on Henry's Lake

                                        Our attempt at a panoramic picture

American white pelican

lake on one side and mountains on the other, just gorgeous

Sandhill cranes

with baby chick!

After we left Yellowstone, we stopped in Hardin, Montana.  We wanted to visit the Battle of Little Bighorn National Park.  What a true history lesson this park is.  We learned everything you see in the movies isn't always true.  The park ranger gave an hour talk on the battle and gave a true insight to the true battle between the Indian nations and the US government. Col. George Armstrong Custer and over 200 of his man lost their lives during this battle that lasted just over 2 hours.  If you are in this area, we would recommend you stopping here as well.

Monument to the 200 men who died with Col George Custer at the Battle of Little Bighorn, their names are engraved on the stone.

The markers are placed where the men fell.

Custer's marker, although he is not buried here, his body way moved to West Point

There is also a monument here dedicated to the 7 Indiana tribes that were in conflict with the American government and fought at Little Bighorn in an effort to maintain their nomadic way of life instead of being forced to move onto a reservation.

There was a driving tour of the area in which this battle was fought, just over 5 miles surrounding this hill

Also on location is a national cemetery that holds those lost from as far back as the Civil War through Vietnam.  It was a very moving, thought provoking national park.

Now we are just outside Rapid City, South Dakota.  We visited the Badlands today.  Amazing place too. Not sure what tomorrow brings. 

Beware of rattlesnake sign :)

We actually caught sight of some mountain goats too, with all their kids.

A picture of the photographer

Can't believe our journey is almost over.  By the time we get home next week we will have traveled over 9000 miles in just over 2 months!  Crazy aren't we :)