And on we go to Dickinson

And on we go to Dickinson N. Dakota.  We arrived just after lunch.  Myria and Shawn came over for dinner.  It was great to see them again.  I last saw Myria when Leo and I came out a few years ago.

Saturday Glen played tour guide and took us out to see Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  It was pretty quiet with very few cars on the park roads but it still was beautiful.

Just the guys and the scenery.

The buffalo were roaming.

The deer were out too.

I guess I got carried away with the buffalo pictures.

Glen and me outside the little cabin.

Saturday evening Amy and her boyfriend came over for dinner.  It was great to see her too and catch up with what is going on in her life.

NOW for the new house pictures.

This is the downstairs family/TV room.  After checking out Glen's large TV with surround sound, Bud may be in the market for a new TV.

This is the downstairs bathroom.  This polar bear theme is a favorite of either Cody or Caleb.  I can't remember.  It sure is cute though.

This is the office downstairs, it is right outside the downstairs bedroom.

Kitchen and dining room.  I am standing in the living room so it is a real open floor plan.  Penny is cooking Sunday dinner for us.  She cooked some great meals for us while we were visiting.

Now the other end of that space is the living room.  I am sorry for the glare of the window but this is the best I could do.  The big open space is very nice.

This is the upstairs guest bath.  It has a silver tree with leaves painted on the wall on the left side. I didn't do a very good job of catching the nice paint job that Penny did.  She did such a wonderful job of matching the walls, shower curtain and the linens.   Having a new house was fun to decorate.

This is the upstairs guest bedroom.  I made the quilt that they have on this bed.

Here is the master bedroom.  Are you seeing the 'leaf' theme???   It all looks very nice together.

Another bedroom view.

The new walk in closet.  Very well organized.

And the master  bath.  The colors are really nice and again the leaf theme shines through.

Here we have another view of the living room and the entrance behind the chairs and the hallway to the bedrooms and bath,

Yet another view of the kitchen and Penny cooking.

The view from the top of the stairs going down to the entrance and then you turn the corner to the laundry room and the door to the garage.  You go around the corner and down to the lower level where the family room is located.

I forgot to take a picture of the downstairs bedroom so here it is.  When you go out the door you walk into the office space.  
That is all of the inside pictures now for the out side.

Here we have the street view with two of the garage doors.  It is a three car garage.  The curved window is the living room window.

The view from the corner of the lot.  They just finished spraying lawn and planting trees.  I love this rock divider space.

Back yard view with the deck off the dining room/kitchen space,

Two more back yard views.  They have planted a few trees and the landscaping is looking good.

The back yard and the edge of the third car space.

Finally the view from the other corner of the lot.  They put up this nice fence too.

WELL, that is the tour of Glen and Penny's new house. It is very nice.  I did my best with the pictures to give you a little view but they wanted to let family know that they have lots of room so you could come out and see it for yourself.  There is nothing like a new house to get you excited about decorating.  They have done a wonderful job making this house look very nice and are excited about their new home.
We had a terrific time visiting.  It was nice to see them and to be able to see their new home. We left after Sunday dinner and headed west a few miles to Bismark for the night.  Today we drove to St.Paul and are staying here for the night.  We just came back from dinner with one of Bud's cousins but that is another post and I need to go to bed.

And on we go, the vacation is full of great wonders

Wednesday we had a very full day.  We started out by going to the Crazy Horse monument that is under construction.  It is quite an impressive undertaking.

 This is how it will look when it is finished.

 This is how it looks so far.  It is interesting to see how this large rock carving with dynamite and drilling in the right place.

 We were on to a scenic drive that included this beautiful lake, Lake Sylvan.  We stopped and decided to do the little walk around the lake.  It didn't look too far and as you may remember, we had ice cream for dinner the night before so a long walk was a good idea.

 It really was only a mile walk but it was up and down and around some large rocks.  It was very worthwhile though.  It felt good to get some exercise, the weather was  perfect and we just enjoyed the beauty of the moment.

 We had some beautiful views on our little walk.

 Next we drove along Needles Highway.  It is famous for its rock formations that stick up in the air and the passages cut through the rocks on the road.

 That little square between the two rocks is the hole cut in the rocks.  It was a winding road but it was a beautiful drive.  We drive slow and enjoy the beauty of the nature around us.  Isn't that what vacation is all about?

 While driving through Custer State Park we came across some bison and some pronghorn deer.  We have been seeing a lot of wildlife.  So far we saw a mountain goat, bison, pronghorn deer, turkeys,white tail deer and prairie dogs.  We haven't come across any rattle snakes so we are thankful for that.

 Then we visited Wind Cave.  It is noted for the wind that blows through it and the 'box' formations in the rocks in the ceiling,  The pictures really don't do this formation justice but it was great to visit the cave.  Neither of us have ever been in a cave before so a great new experience.  There was another cave further west that was a bit more traditional but we thought one cave was enough.

 Our tour was about an hour and 15 minutes.  We were a little 'bummed' because we thought that we were missing the big debate between the presidential candidates but we made it back to the hotel in time to have a quick dinner and still catch the debates.  I'm not sure it was worthwhile but we wanted to keep informed.

 This morning we work up to snow in the mountains.  We were heading north and kept seeing cars with lots of snow on them.  We headed north to Sturgis where Bud wanted to check out the town where they hold the famous motorcycle rally every year.  We had a great lunch and then visited the Harley Davidson shop.  I took a picture but I must have messed up the numbers when I was uploading them.  

 The last scenic drive we took was from Sturgis to Spearfish along a beautiful canyon road.  The lady at the information center told us about the waterfalls that we would see along the route.  We managed to find one of them and I am sure that it is the most beautiful one As you can see, there is a lot of snow on the trees around this waterfalls.  We had warm enough clothes so we just did a little walking around on the trail to see all of the falls.

 Bud is that little blue speck along the path.  It was quite a sight with the snow on the evergreens, the gold colors of the aspen trees, the gray rocks of the canyons and the waterfalls.  Not your typical view for this time of year but still very spectacular.

OK, so I messed up with the pictures again but this is a picture of the 'box' formations that we saw in the cave.  It is a better picture.

We are marveling today at how much we managed to see in the few short days we have been traveling.  It seems like it was longer than 6 days ago that we left Michigan.  We have packed a lot of activities into this short time but have enjoyed all of it.  I did some research on the Internet before coming so we had kind of a plan but really didn't know how it would turn out.  We are having a great time.  We are not having to fight summer time crowds, the roads are fairly quiet so we can go slow and enjoy the drive.  Some places  have closed for the season but we have managed to always find some place to sleep and places to eat.  We hadn't counted on the snow but it hasn't been a problem for us.  Tomorrow we head north again to Dickinson to visit Glen and Penny and the girls.  We are looking forward to seeing Amy and Myria.  I haven't seen them since I came out here with Leo a couple of years ago.  We will stay through the weekend and take off Sunday evening.  We may visit Door County, Wisconsin on the way home, depending on the weather and timing
I will keep you posted on our travels.  I hope the snow doesn't make it to Michigan just yet.

Sweet women, Badlands and Mt. Rushmore

Monday we headed out a little late but just in time for lunch with Ruth Schoon.  She was very happy to hear from us and invited us to share lunch with her at the apartments where she lives.  We arrived a little after 11:00 and chatted until lunch time.  She tells great stories and I could listen to her voice a long time.  

 After lunch we talked a little longer and then got back on the road.  The goal was to go through the Badlands but we decided that we really wouldn't be able to enjoy them before it got too dark so we drove on to Wall, N.D. and spent the night there.

 In the morning we went for a walk and headed downtown for breakfast.  Bud was kind of looking for a new traveling companion but he didn't think she was really properly dressed for his type of traveling.

 I was looking for a new way to travel but decided that this might be too slow and I wouldn't be able to bring along very many things.

 So we left Wall and headed south through the Badlands.  It was a bit of a backtrack  but we managed to enjoy the whole scenery and then head north again through a grassland area so it was interesting.

 The geology of the Badlands is very interesting.  Around every corner we saw beautiful scenes.  It kind of reminded us of a small version of the Grand Canyon. We took our time and enjoyed the sights along the road. I now have a Senior Pass for all National Parks so we were even able to get in free.  If any of you want to take me along, I am good for a free entrance to any National Park.

 We drove on to Keystone, bypassing Rapid City thinking it would just be another city.  Mt. Rushmore was calling us.  We arrived in time for a very late lunch and then headed up to the monument.  It is a spectacular sight.  We walked around some and then decided that we had time for one more activity in our day.

 We took a drive through Iron Mountain and the 'Pigstail' bridges.  The road circled up the mountain with some bridges that twisted the road around while changing elevation.  It was a beautiful drive.  The colors are changing here.  The trees are mostly yellow, probably aspen and birch with the pine trees to set them off.  It was a very pretty drive.
After that drive we came back to Keystone for dinner.  Since we ate lunch so late we really weren't interested in much of a dinner and settled on ice cream.  You really know that you are on vacation when you get to eat ice cream for dinner.

By the time we finished 'dinner' it was getting dark.  Since we are staying in Keystone which is only 2 miles from Mt. Rushmore, we were able to drive back up and enjoy the view by night.  It is just as spectacular at night.

Tomorrow we will continue our exploring of scenic drives around this area.  We are really interested in the outdoor sights on this trip.  The weather has been terrific.  It has been cool in the morning and then warming up in the afternoon.  The towns and sights are not crowded and it is perfect time of year to see everything.  I like this traveling in 'off season' when we aren't fighting crowds and the heat.

I will keep you posted as we continue to travel.  I hope your days are full of beautiful sights and wonderful weather even if you are sticking close to home.

Iowa, Corn, family and Spirit Lake

We are having a great time on the road.  Our first day started off a little slow, we had trouble making it out of town very quickly but it really didn't matter since we weren't on a schedule.  We made up for it on the road and made it as far as Des Moines, Iowa before stopping.   

 LOTS and LOTS of cornfields were being harvested along the highway.  It was an interesting sight.  I have not been through this part of the U.S. in the fall so seeing the harvesting instead of the tall green stalks was different.

 On our way over to see Uncle Eldon we stopped in Renwick, where he lived before moving into assisted living in Humboldt.  I remember visiting this town when I was a little girl.  I think the last time I was here was when I was about 12 or 13.  It was always a fun trip to visit them on their farm.  The farmhouse where they lived is not there anymore and Bud and I looked for the house in town but my memories of that far away time were a little cloudy, even with Eva's help of trying to direct me over the phone.

 We made it to the nursing home where Uncle Eldon is now staying about 1:00.  He was expecting someone because I had called to inform the staff that I was coming but they got the name mixed up and/or he did and he heard Verdella which he knew wasn't the correct name since that is my mom (his sister) and she is no longer here on this earth.  Anyway, we had a nice visit.  His lady friend came over later in the afternoon and joined us for a while.  Uncle Eldon is 92 years old.  We figured out that we both have August birthdays and he is 30 years older than me.  He is looking pretty good and has a sound mind.  He has always been a kind and wonderful man.  He is living out his final years as gracefully as possible.  He was thrilled to have family visiting him since he rarely has any family to visit him.  All the family from his side live in Michigan and Iowa really isn't on the way to many places.  Eva does stop to see him about once a year though and he is thankful for her visits.

 After leaving Uncle Eldon we set off for Spirit Lake.  We have heard about this beautiful place from all the Schoon family and wanted to check it out. It was a challenge to get an address for the GPS since everyone just seems to drive there by 'auto pilot'.  Sue, David's sister, did manage to give us some pretty good directions though and we did find it.  It is a beautiful place.

 We arrived in time for the sunset in this quiet place of Iowa.

 I can't even imagine the stories that have been told around this campfire.

We did take this little picture for 'history' in the event that someone else wants to find the cabin and the family doesn't know the address.  It all worked out for us though.

We continued north and today we will stop in Souix Falls for a short visit with Ruth, David's mother, and continue on to Mount Rushmore.  More adventures to meet these next few days.
I hope all is well with you and thanks to all of you that tried to help me find the cabin.