Today we started at a hearty breakfast and then headed out on a loop around South Dakota's Custer State Park. Our first stop was at Bear country, a drive through safari of North American animals. We saw elk, mule deer, bears, bighorn sheep, mountain goats, bears, arctic wolves, turkeys, bears, buffalo, donkeys, bears, mountain lions, timber wolves, bears, reindeer and bears. Race decided he is no longer afraid of bears, but he still panicked when I told him I was going to roll down the window.
Next stop, Mt Rushmore. Now that we have been there we have to say that this is a must see. We are actually discussing coming back some time. I can't even begin to describe the awe inspiring majesty of the carvings. The visitors center is also quite stunning. We got to meet the last surviving member of the carving crew. We got him to autograph his book a copy of his book for us.
Next stop, the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was a bit disappointing. It cost nearly thirty dollars to get in to see the front of Crazy Horses face, this is the only part of the carving that is complete. Still it is an amazing vision and we hope it is completed someday.
We then made our way to Jewel Cave, the second longest cave complex in the US. Unfortunately, without a reservation, you can't get in. Oh well, off to Custer State Park.
Custer State Park: WOW, this place is gorgeous. At the park entrance we passed Lake Sylvan. It's not the biggest lake, but it is the prettiest lake we can remember seeing. We then headed out on the drive around the park. The drive features a half dozen tunnels blasted through the same hard rock that forms Rushmore. The really cool part, they're only one lane. You honk your horn going in and hope to heck that they hear you coming. One of the tunnels was only 8' 4" wide. That;' a little tight for a Superduty Ford, but we made it with only inches to spare. The best series of tunnels on the NW side of the loop around the park are all designed to frame Rushmore in their bore. Yes, when you drive through, Rushmore is centered in your vision at the tunnel exit. there are also a series of pigtail bridges wear you alternate between curved bridges and land and actually make a decreasing radius spiral going down the mountain, sweet. We made a number of quick stops to see the sights. At the Hole In The Wall picnic grounds we explored the hole in the wall, a cave going about ten feet into a granite wall. There's a lovely little stream you have to cross to get there and Race was really fascinated by the Waterbugs (Elizabeth called them Skaters). Race has decided that that they were his favorite part of the day.
Tomorrow we head for Devil's Tower. We'll see how far we make it and how much we get to see and experience. Good night for now. -Dean
The Elizabeth Era
Friday: Race and Dean had one more day of freedom and made the most of it. We spent the night next to the Heartland Military Museum and got up to the sight of Bradley fighting vehicles, Sherman tanks and numerous other armored vehicles parked on thegrass between our hotel and the freeway. We spent a few hours touring the museum and even got to get into some of the fighting vehicles. We then hit the road and found our next stop, The Arch Bridge in Eastern Nebraska. This is a set of towers with a bridge stretching across the freeway. We stopped and bought some fish food and fed catfish in the Platte river, toured a newly built Pawnee Hogan (awesome), and then went for a tour of the Arch. It's actually and enclosed pedestrian bridge with two levels of interactive museum. You wear a headset and tour exhibits starting with the early settlers and ending with the creation of the Interstate system. We had lunch at the Arch buffet and headed to Omaha.
Well Race and Dean's free roaming travels have come to a screeching halt. Elizabeth has joined the expedition. We picked her up in Omaha, Nebraska after finishing our jaunt across the state. We got a move on early the next morning since we had to make it across Iowa and into Wisconsin in one day. We had a whirlwind trip through Iowa and finally came to a stop late in the evening. Sunday morning we got up and went to the Jelly Belly Factory. Yes there are two Jelly Belly Factory's in the world and the Cofer's have been to both of them. This is the one thing Race really wanted to do on the trip. The tour wasn't as exciting as in California, you ride a train around the warehouse and watch a series of videos on wall monitors, but the train was fun and free samples of Jelly Belly's are always welcome. We hit to the road to Oshkosh and arrived there in the early afternoon. we were immediately thrilled by the variety of aircraft overhead, both warbird and civilian aircraft made a constant drone over us. Unfortunately, our sleeping quarters for the night weren't ready. Grandpa and Pete had been rained out of the campground, along with hundreds of other RV's, and we had no place to pitch our tent. They were content to sleep along the side of an access road. We tried to get out into the field and find a place to camp, but we ended up stuck int eh mud and had to enlist the help of some good Samaritans to push us back on to dry land. Elizabeth and her cell phone came to our rescue and she found a hotel in Ripon, only 20 miles away. We spent a pleasant night there and the hotel manager even helped find us a room at another Ripon hotel for the next night.
Oshkosh, Monday and Tuesday: OMG, if you like aircraft this is the greatest place in the whole world. We are particularly found of WWII warbirds and Oshkosh had the most amazing gathering we have ever seen. There was a B-17 doing flybys almost all day long, we saw 30+, WWII training aircraft doing formation flying, P-51 Mustangs complete with wingman doing high speed passes, 21 DC-3's coming over in formation and peeling off one by one to land...amazing. This leaves out the incredible variety of stunt, civilian, ultralight, experimental, rotorcraft and everything else you can imaging making it's way overhead. Dean counted over 40 warbirds in the air and in sight of the airport at one point. We took Grandpa Don to dinner every night, Pete doesn't eat dinner, and went to a Sonex reception with him one evening. We had a great time, but with the rain threatening to return we decided to head out Tuesday night and see some more country.
Tuesday: We headed out of northwest out of Oshkosh to see shat we could see. Holy navigation errors, batman. We shouldn't have have headed due west. We ended up driving into the worst thunderstorms we have ever experienced. The radio said we were in the heart of supercells and was broadcasting dire warnings of flooding and tornado's. It was actually raining so hard that we pulled onto an off-ramp and just sat with a number of other vehicles until the rain slackened off to a level that he wipers could handle. We finally made it into Chippewa Falls and found a hotel.
Wednesday: We headed back southwest the next morning with Sioux Falls as our goal. We actually drove through an army base past signs that ominously warned, "Caution: Live artillery firing over road." Well that's not something you see every day. We made it to Sioux Falls, found a hotel and did some overdue laundry. Race and Dean were out of underwear. Then the first real disaster of the trip struck, the truck would not start. We got the hotel shuttle to pick us up and resolved to deal with the truck in the morning.
Thursday: Elizabeth was the first one up and snuck out to get AAA to tow the truck to Sioux Falls Ford. The tow truck driver gave her a ride back to the truck and, dang/yeah, it started, she drove it over to Ford and they went to work. In the rental Toyota she picked up, we went to the USS South Dakota memorial and museum, the Butterfly house (Race is scared of Butterfly's) and toured downtown and the falls (beautiful). The truck was done in time to check out of the hotel and get out of town before lunch. It turned out to be a faulty wire leading to the fuel pump and we got out of it for less than $300. thank you Sioux Falls Ford. We headed out of Sioux Falls on our way to Rapid City. We made it to Rapid City after a long day of driving that included a driving tour of the badlands, a stop at the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD, and a trip through 1880's town where we saw a bawdy floor in the local saloon and found out that Race is deathly afraid of grasshoppers.
Friday: Dean got up to post to the blog and everyone else is asleep, so, more adventures to follow.
Well Race and Dean's free roaming travels have come to a screeching halt. Elizabeth has joined the expedition. We picked her up in Omaha, Nebraska after finishing our jaunt across the state. We got a move on early the next morning since we had to make it across Iowa and into Wisconsin in one day. We had a whirlwind trip through Iowa and finally came to a stop late in the evening. Sunday morning we got up and went to the Jelly Belly Factory. Yes there are two Jelly Belly Factory's in the world and the Cofer's have been to both of them. This is the one thing Race really wanted to do on the trip. The tour wasn't as exciting as in California, you ride a train around the warehouse and watch a series of videos on wall monitors, but the train was fun and free samples of Jelly Belly's are always welcome. We hit to the road to Oshkosh and arrived there in the early afternoon. we were immediately thrilled by the variety of aircraft overhead, both warbird and civilian aircraft made a constant drone over us. Unfortunately, our sleeping quarters for the night weren't ready. Grandpa and Pete had been rained out of the campground, along with hundreds of other RV's, and we had no place to pitch our tent. They were content to sleep along the side of an access road. We tried to get out into the field and find a place to camp, but we ended up stuck int eh mud and had to enlist the help of some good Samaritans to push us back on to dry land. Elizabeth and her cell phone came to our rescue and she found a hotel in Ripon, only 20 miles away. We spent a pleasant night there and the hotel manager even helped find us a room at another Ripon hotel for the next night.
Oshkosh, Monday and Tuesday: OMG, if you like aircraft this is the greatest place in the whole world. We are particularly found of WWII warbirds and Oshkosh had the most amazing gathering we have ever seen. There was a B-17 doing flybys almost all day long, we saw 30+, WWII training aircraft doing formation flying, P-51 Mustangs complete with wingman doing high speed passes, 21 DC-3's coming over in formation and peeling off one by one to land...amazing. This leaves out the incredible variety of stunt, civilian, ultralight, experimental, rotorcraft and everything else you can imaging making it's way overhead. Dean counted over 40 warbirds in the air and in sight of the airport at one point. We took Grandpa Don to dinner every night, Pete doesn't eat dinner, and went to a Sonex reception with him one evening. We had a great time, but with the rain threatening to return we decided to head out Tuesday night and see some more country.
Tuesday: We headed out of northwest out of Oshkosh to see shat we could see. Holy navigation errors, batman. We shouldn't have have headed due west. We ended up driving into the worst thunderstorms we have ever experienced. The radio said we were in the heart of supercells and was broadcasting dire warnings of flooding and tornado's. It was actually raining so hard that we pulled onto an off-ramp and just sat with a number of other vehicles until the rain slackened off to a level that he wipers could handle. We finally made it into Chippewa Falls and found a hotel.
Wednesday: We headed back southwest the next morning with Sioux Falls as our goal. We actually drove through an army base past signs that ominously warned, "Caution: Live artillery firing over road." Well that's not something you see every day. We made it to Sioux Falls, found a hotel and did some overdue laundry. Race and Dean were out of underwear. Then the first real disaster of the trip struck, the truck would not start. We got the hotel shuttle to pick us up and resolved to deal with the truck in the morning.
Thursday: Elizabeth was the first one up and snuck out to get AAA to tow the truck to Sioux Falls Ford. The tow truck driver gave her a ride back to the truck and, dang/yeah, it started, she drove it over to Ford and they went to work. In the rental Toyota she picked up, we went to the USS South Dakota memorial and museum, the Butterfly house (Race is scared of Butterfly's) and toured downtown and the falls (beautiful). The truck was done in time to check out of the hotel and get out of town before lunch. It turned out to be a faulty wire leading to the fuel pump and we got out of it for less than $300. thank you Sioux Falls Ford. We headed out of Sioux Falls on our way to Rapid City. We made it to Rapid City after a long day of driving that included a driving tour of the badlands, a stop at the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD, and a trip through 1880's town where we saw a bawdy floor in the local saloon and found out that Race is deathly afraid of grasshoppers.
Friday: Dean got up to post to the blog and everyone else is asleep, so, more adventures to follow.
Pictures
Top to Bottom:Race with Buffalo Bill Cody, the old sign from North Platte's Main St., Raceon a Union Pacific caboose, and 2 views of Jim Bridger's Trading Post, a welcome site for travelers on the Oregon/California trail.
We're in Nebraska
Since our last update Race and Dean have survived Highway 50, made it through Utah and Wyoming and are currently in Lexington, Nebraska.
Highway 50 really is pretty lonely. We made it through all 5 towns in Nevada and got our passport stamped in everyone. We had planned on camping, but the only tent camping we found Race decided he was scared of because it was in some really scary looking desert mountains. We made it into Wendover just before dark. Wendover is the last town in Nevada on I-80 before you enter Utah and it's dirty, seedy little gambling town. We stayed at a Quality Inn that was so nasty we went out and bought a can of Lysol to disinfect everything we had to touch. The next morning we drove over to the Bonneville Salt flats which is just over the Utah border and Race got to see where the land speed cars that he is so enamored with race.
We made it through Salt Lake and stopped at the Burger Bar in Roy,Utah. Burger Bar was featured on Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. It pretty much wasn't worth going out of our way for, but we did see an Air Force Museum on the way and stopped off. It was definitely worth the trip and featured the best exhibit of Air Force planes and Helicopters Race and I have ever seen. We made it past Park City and camped at a beautiful State Park, Rockpoint, for a really lousy night's sleep. It wasn't the parks fault. Our air mattress had a leak in it and we ended up sleeping on the ground and we were subjected to an all night rain and thunder storm that made sleep almost impossible. We ended up turning on or DS's and playing games until after midnight and then got some restless sleep until dawn.
We made our way into Wyoming on Wednesday and stopped at Fort Bridger. This is a restored Army post that features a preserved Motor Inn from the '20's. The Inn was cool, the Army post, abandoned in 1890, was incredible, but the real proze was the log stockade trading post that had been reconstructed on it's original site next to the Black's Fork river. The weather still looked bad so we stayed at a Best Western in Laramie. Laramie is a really pretty town.
Thursday: into Nebraska and a stop for lunch at Ogalalla with a friend who relocated there from California via New Jersey... We than made our way to Buffalo Bill State Park in North Platte and saw Buffalo Bil's Scout's Rest Ranch and went to the Lincoln County Museum and learned about the North Platte Canteen that meant som much to servicemen traveling by train across country in WWII. I'm done for now. I'll try to post some pictures int eh morning.
-Dean
Highway 50 really is pretty lonely. We made it through all 5 towns in Nevada and got our passport stamped in everyone. We had planned on camping, but the only tent camping we found Race decided he was scared of because it was in some really scary looking desert mountains. We made it into Wendover just before dark. Wendover is the last town in Nevada on I-80 before you enter Utah and it's dirty, seedy little gambling town. We stayed at a Quality Inn that was so nasty we went out and bought a can of Lysol to disinfect everything we had to touch. The next morning we drove over to the Bonneville Salt flats which is just over the Utah border and Race got to see where the land speed cars that he is so enamored with race.
We made it through Salt Lake and stopped at the Burger Bar in Roy,Utah. Burger Bar was featured on Diners, Drive Inns and Dives. It pretty much wasn't worth going out of our way for, but we did see an Air Force Museum on the way and stopped off. It was definitely worth the trip and featured the best exhibit of Air Force planes and Helicopters Race and I have ever seen. We made it past Park City and camped at a beautiful State Park, Rockpoint, for a really lousy night's sleep. It wasn't the parks fault. Our air mattress had a leak in it and we ended up sleeping on the ground and we were subjected to an all night rain and thunder storm that made sleep almost impossible. We ended up turning on or DS's and playing games until after midnight and then got some restless sleep until dawn.
We made our way into Wyoming on Wednesday and stopped at Fort Bridger. This is a restored Army post that features a preserved Motor Inn from the '20's. The Inn was cool, the Army post, abandoned in 1890, was incredible, but the real proze was the log stockade trading post that had been reconstructed on it's original site next to the Black's Fork river. The weather still looked bad so we stayed at a Best Western in Laramie. Laramie is a really pretty town.
Thursday: into Nebraska and a stop for lunch at Ogalalla with a friend who relocated there from California via New Jersey... We than made our way to Buffalo Bill State Park in North Platte and saw Buffalo Bil's Scout's Rest Ranch and went to the Lincoln County Museum and learned about the North Platte Canteen that meant som much to servicemen traveling by train across country in WWII. I'm done for now. I'll try to post some pictures int eh morning.
-Dean
Fallon Nevada
Well, we couldn't get our passports stamped in Fernley, but the nice lady at the Fallon Convention Center stamped our passports for Fallon and Fernley. Not only that, she gave us real passports instead of the internet printed versions we had. Now we're off to Austin, Eureka and Ely on The Loneliest Highway. Wish us luck.
So far we're averaging 19.5 mpg in the F-350
and we got diesel in Fernley for only 2.98. Elizabeth should tell our neighbor, Dennis, about the mileage. He thought he did good in his diesel Dodge when he averaged 16 mpg. Race says, "We're having a great time on the trip."
So far we're averaging 19.5 mpg in the F-350
and we got diesel in Fernley for only 2.98. Elizabeth should tell our neighbor, Dennis, about the mileage. He thought he did good in his diesel Dodge when he averaged 16 mpg. Race says, "We're having a great time on the trip."
Race and Dean are in Fernley Nevada
It took us 6.5 hours to make a 4 hour trip, thanks to a stop at Cabela's and extensive road work on a Sunday, but we're here. We gave up on camping last night and stayed at a Best Western. We had a nice pizza at the Pizza Factory and then, the best ice cream we've ever had at Steve's Homemade Ice Cream. We're getting ready to get our Highway 50 passport stamped at the Fernley Chamber of Commerce and then we start out on our journey America's Loneliest Higway. We'll get our passport stamped in all 5 towns on Nevada Higway 50 and Nevada will send us a I survived Higway 50 certificate. We have all the fun!!! Race was excitred to see the parking lot filled with NHRA Safety Safari trucks when we woke up this morning. It actually was pretty cool...
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