I'll Show You My Middle Finger!!

WHERE ARE WE? Boondocking on the "Wall" near Wall. SD. 

NEXT DESTINATION? Rapid City SD.

Well it seems like this area is getting the rain that it has needed so much this fall.   This area has fallen into a drought situation this year and the rain we received today and on into tomorrow is much appreciated.  We spent a good portion of the day inside watching TV and puttering.  

Mid afternoon we decided to go into Wall to kill some time and to pick up a few groceries.  We went back to Wall Drug to wander and just had to stop for pie and ice cream and their famous Ice Water and 5 cent coffee.  We spent over an hour in there just checking out all the things we don't need.

 Before heading home we stopped at the store for supplies.  We had to run to keep from getting wet while entering the store.  We got some steaks for supper but they were not buffalo.

Although it has rained lots, the gravel road up to our boondocking spot was in good shape.  There are a few potholes which were full of water but they had a solid bottom.  It won't be a problem getting out of here tomorrow with the MH.

Because nothing much happened today, I am going to treat you to another little story.  This one is at my expense and the only reason I am sharing it is because my friend Pat really really wants me to I'm sure.

Story starts in Brandon a week ago when we met with Harold and his wife Pat for supper before we left for Winnipeg.  We went to Boston Pizza for supper and as I was eating I got a Charlie Horse in my middle finger on my right hand.  Now my fingers are normally straight but this Charlie Horse pulled my finger way to the side and bent it and it hurt like heck.  Well it was a funny bone sort of hurt but none the less painful.   Pat and Harold and Sue were laughing like crazy while I was trying to make it go away.  When it did subside I went on eating and low and behold it did it again.  After the third time, I switched hands to eat.   I may or may not have been playing it up a bit for the camera, but here are the pictures published for all to see, just for you Pat!!!!

                                         

Lately I have been posting some travel quotes that come from the internet.  Tonight I'm posting my own travel quote and a little bit about what is important as we travel.   Lots of people travel to get away from things, but Sue and I travel to find things.  Along the way we have found a lot of good people.  You know who you are.

"Fulfillment in travel is to be touched by, or touch as many hearts in as many places as possible."

We have met so many different people in so many different places over the years, and although sometimes our encounters were sometimes brief, we speak of these people as friends.  If we had not left our place of security and travelled, we would never have been blessed to know you.  We talk more often of the people we have met than we do of the places we have been.  Our encounters with each of you are an important part of our lives.  Whenever we cross paths and spend time together, we are thankful that we chose to travel.

Our view is out the front window today.  Yes that is the type of day it was!  Hope your day was wonderful no matter the weather.

  

It's Story Time!

WHERE ARE WE? Boondocking on the Wall just south of Wall SD.

NEXT DESTINATION? South

Today we decided to move over to a favorite boondocking site at the Badlands.  It is located just outside the north gate to the park and is BLM land.  You get to park right on the edge of the badlands and it is something we wanted to do while here.  When we arrived at the Badlands the other day it was raining so that is why we went to a campground to start with.  We found a spot that is level and this is where we will be for a couple days.  We did nothing but laze today so not many pictures.

With not much happening I think it is time for a story!  (I hear all the groans!)   Susan and I went almost a year without a dog since our Charlie left us in June of 2020.  Charlie was a great dog and a good travel companion and we sure miss him. I'm glad he got to experience Mexico and I think he loved it there.  

Sue loves dogs and misses Charlie lots.  Well I do too, but had always wanted to try our road life without having to worry about where to leave the dog when we did day trips.  We always worried if he was too hot or too lonely when we left him behind, so there was always arrangement to make so we could do things.  Also we had to live in an apartment last winter and dogs were not allowed so getting one was not possible until we moved out.  Sue had been doing some research and found a rescue dog near us and talked the rescue agency into choosing us as adoptive parents.  I guess we are getting a dog!  We moved out of the apartment on March 31st and picked up Sully on April 1.  He was 3 months old and was full of energy.  We were told that he was boxer mixed with lab, but when we took him to the vet to get his shots, the vet said she was sure there was Great Dane in there as well.  So much for a medium sized dog I guess.  I think the legs should have clued us in to him being a big dog.  He was 25 lbs when we got him. 

He is a cute dog with lots of smarts.  Sue did some training with him but because we were busy with the shack all summer he didn't get fully trained.   He was a good natured dog but his size and that big head and teeth tended to scare some of our customers.  He loved to lay under the deck at the shack and would poke his head out when someone went by and if they were not dog people they would have a heart attack.  And if he got off his leash, his recall was not great so we spent some time chasing him as he followed people back to their campsites.  It soon became apparent that he was a little more dog than we had bargained for, in size!!   Sue was committed to training him now that she had the time and that is one of her talents.  She is like the dog whisperer.   He sure is a pretty dog and has the brindle colours that everyone likes.  This picture is at 7 months and he is about 90 lbs.

 Well there were some things that happened that made us re-think whether Sully was meant for the road life.  He loves the wide open spaces and likes to run.  He needs lots of exercise and is still a growing dog.  So it happened that our daughter Kaitlyn went to her other dads farm to visit him and our youngest daughter Karalee a few weeks ago.  She lives there with her dad.  Karalee is a dog lover and due to some circumstances, one of the dogs in her life that belongs to her boyfriend, moved to a different house.  Added to that her dad lost the family dog due to old age a couple months ago so Kaitlyn said to us that Karalee and her dad were feeling down, and really need a dog on the farm.  I guess they had discussed it while she was visiting, because in a couple days Karalee texted Sue about Sully.  She wondered if he was going to work out for our travels.  We were in the planning stages of moving the MH over the border and had been trying to figure out how to get Sully across, At that time it almost looked like we may have to pay to get him flown over with us.  Then we would have to arrange to have him fixed somewhere in the USA or Mexico, and were not looking forward to how we could properly exercise him.  He needs more than just a gentle walk.  We were prepared to do what had to be done, but with this new development, we thought maybe it would be better for him to start a life with the best dog person we know.  I knew in my heart that this would be good for both Karalee and Sully, and Sue quickly agreed.  So we took Sully to the farm a couple weeks ago and immediately knew that this was the right thing for him.  He loved her cats and sat on the step looking out over his kingdom.  He loves to run beside the four wheeler and will make a good companion for Ed.  He is being spoiled with New Bothwell cheese and table scraps.  Sometime things work in wonderful ways.  I think Sully will lift their spirits and keep them entertained and will be a good friend for both of them.  We will go without an animal for a while and see what happens in the future.  We have committed to a full year before even considering anything.   So that's our story!

Well the weather doesn't look great for the next couple days.  Not only is there rain in the forecast, but those little negative signs by the temperature don't turn my crank.  We will see what happens tomorrow but I think it is time to migrate farther south.  We will keep you posted.

This is the view out our window tonight.  We have enjoyed our day relaxing.  Hope yours was great too.

A little slip up in the Badlands.

WHERE ARE WE? Cedar Pass Campground, Badlands National Park SD  

NEXT DESTINATION? South

Happy Thanksgiving to all our family and friends.  Because we are in the USA there is nothing going on today because their Thanksgiving is on November 25.  By then we should be out in the desert somewhere with a few of our friends and we will probably celebrate in some fashion.

There were some mean winds and rain go through the campground last night.  We are fine but it was a horrible night for all of the tent campers here.  Lots of them have probably never tented before and there were tents flapping all over the place.  I think most of them slept in their cars and Sue and I felt sorry for every one of them.  We felt even worse as I rolled over this morning and switched the furnace on for a couple cycles before rolling out of bed.   I could see those poor people huddled around their picnic tables trying to get something to eat to warm them up.  Because of the dry conditions up to now, there are no fires allowed so that isn't even an option for them.  Ok Ok I know, they all survived to tell the story, but man oh man we felt bad for them.

After our coffee and breakfast we decided to head out to see more of the badlands.  Before we left we stopped at the visitor center to get more information.  We are now ready for todays adventure.

We drove a short ways and came to a lookout on the edge of the road.  Sue thought it would be a good place for some pictures.  

Susan headed out on a narrow ledge to get her picture taken and I told her to be careful.  She gave me the normal, yah, yah, yah!!!

Now if you look carefully you will see some wet patches of mud from last nights rain.  Sue headed back and....swish...down she went, thankfully just on the trail, not off the side.  She was ok cause she "went down easy".   

We don't think there will be any lasting injuries but we had to turn around and go get her changed.  She was covered in mud.

Well that was a good start to our day!!!  The rest of the day went much better.  We got to see some buffalo, a few Sheep, and lots and lots of prairie dogs.  

It was a great drive doing the loop seeing the badlands from a lot of different angles.  The drive was about 100 miles in total.

It was an awesome day today.  We love to tour together and see this awesome world we live in.  We look forward to every day on the road.  We hope your day was as good as ours.  Here is the view out our window tonight.  See you tomorrow!!

Checking out the Badlands SD

WHERE ARE WE? Cedar Pass Campground, Badlands National Park. 

NEXT DESTINATION? South

We had the whole boondocking spot to ourselves last night near the Missouri River, so we slept like a log.  Up and atter this morning with the intention of getting to the Badlands of SD by this afternoon.  It wasn't long and we arrived in Wall SD.  We had travelled through a long stretch of Indian Reservations today where gas was $2.69 a gallon and I thought nothing of it.  When we arrived in Wall, I realized that the Jeep was really low on fuel so I had better get some fuel.  Guess what?  We are in tourist county so the price of fuel was now $3.69!!  Just my luck.  Well that was our welcome to Wall South Dakota.  As you probably know Wall is famous for Wall Drug.  It is a complex that covers a city block and is definitely made for tourists but we had to see it once in our life.

Wall Drug was started back in the 30's and became successful after deciding to put a sign on the highway offering free "Ice Water".  Back in the day there was no AC in cars and people coming to see the badlands had to drive a long way to get there and they were thirsty by the time they got to Wall so they stopped for Ice Water and the owner would sell them ice cream as well.  They went on to attract up to 20000 people a day in the high tourist season and they sell way more than Ice Cream. They still boast free Ice Water and 5 cent coffee!!

There were lots of animated characters in the place.  We always have fun with these kind of things.

I even found an old friend and she sat with me for a picture.  The trouble with old age is that I can't remember names well so don't ask me who she was.

I also may have signed some talent for our "Music in the Park" back home at CJ's.  What do you think Dave?  Can we work them in?

From Wall we headed south a few miles into the Badlands National Park.  We were going to boondock up on the plateau just outside the park, but some nasty weather moved in and we ran into wind and rain so decided to head another 20 miles into the park to a campground in the valley.  We bought our Annual National Park and Recreation Area pass for $80 because we will use it lots here and in Utah and Las Vegas.  We more than get our money out of this pass.  It started raining when I was buying the pass and by the time we made it to the first lookout over the badlands, it was pouring.  We stopped there to wait it out for about and hour.

So we decided that as soon as it quit raining we would head to the campground and continue our tour tomorrow in the Jeep.  When the sun came out we got our first real look of the Badlands.

I went for a quick walk down to a look out and got a couple pictures of the MH and Jeep up in the parking lot.

Here is one shot from our short trip to the campground.  We will have more pictures tomorrow.

The view out our window tonight is simple.  The campground is basic and we will be here for a couple nights.

Hope you had a great day today.  We did!!  That's because I have a great travel companion.

Longer Travel Day

WHERE ARE WE? East Whitlock State Lake Use Area 45.05107665728073, -100.24783215825066 

NEXT DESTINATION? The Badlands SD

We were up and outside drinking our coffee in good time this morning.  It was a gorgeous morning and our neighbours were up too.  They (Tom and Jane) stopped by to say hi with their dog Cooper and the hi turned into a good old visit.  They are from Minnesota and are freshly retired and are travelling to Banff to see the sights.  (sorry no picture).   So it was 10:30 before we got on the road.  We want to get within striking distance of the Badlands tomorrow so did a few extra kms today.  

Not much happened on the drive other than we saw an elevator painted with a mural of a boy at a rodeo throwing his hat on the ground.  I snapped a quick photo out the window so it isn't that great.  I have no idea how anyone could paint this kind of detail, so big!!

We have a lovely spot to spend the night in a wildlife management area.  The lake is all around us because we are on a peninsula.  We are seeing lots of Sandhill cranes flying over, but none are landing just yet.  That will be later in the evening I'm sure.   

Temperatures are perfect for a quick nap in the lawn chair so that is where I will be for the next hour or so.

I used to do the view from our window and sort of liked that to end my blogs, so maybe its time to do it again.  I will post it whenever the view changes as opposed to every night.  Here is the view from our window tonight.

Hope everyone had a great day!