Idaho

When we came out west in 2013, we blasted through Idaho without stopping, on our way from Glacier National Park in Montana to the coast of Washington State.  This time, we dropped south from Missoula on US 93 to cross the Bitterroot Mountains and down into the Salmon River Valley.  Gorgeous, remote, rugged, sparsely populated, all the things we look for.  We stayed at a small park on the river just north of the town of Salmon and took in the local flavor.  The next day we continued south to Arco, ID to see Craters of the Moon National Monument.  It's a large lava flow area that I'd never heard of.  Very well named though, as the plants haven't been able to convert much of the lava to soil in the 2000 years since the eruption.  They only get 7 inches of rain a year out here.  From here, it's out to Oregon, so I'm glad we slowed down and spent a couple days in Idaho.  You could spend all summer in this state and not see everything, really beautiful.  On to the pictures.

Craters of the Moon.  Those are people walking up this cinder cone.  I saved my legs for the lava tube caves.

"Scenic" view.  This place has a rugged beauty all its own.

Coolest picture I was able to take.  There's a collapsed lava tube cave that goes on for about 800 feet.  In a couple places, the roof had caved in letting in just enough light to see.  That's Laurie in the foreground.  No trails through this thing, we were almost spelunking!

The Mighty Endeavor windshield to the Salmon River. 

Downstream from our campground.

Walking Charlie in the early AM, I looked up river and saw a large herd of elk moving across the river.  I was able to grab the Nikon in time to catch the end of the herd.  There were dozens of them.  The haze isn't early morning fog, it's smoke from all the fires.  It was clear when we got there, but the wind shifted out of the north and we got a lot of smoke late in the day.

Click on this to expand it.  Arco, ID (pop. 995) is one of those towns where apparently the school kids are proud enough to scale the cliff overlooking the town and paint the year of their graduation on the side.  Private land, so no laws were broken during the commission of these shenanigans.  Also, check out the clear skies.  The wind came up out of the southwest and pushed what little smoke we had out of the area.

Montana

Well, I didn't take a single picture.  We stopped in Bozeman to see old friends Paul and Jan again.  We stayed in their driveway in 2013 too.  Thanks guys!  We hung out, worked on one of Paul's motorcycles, sat on the deck, smoked elk and antelope, all the outstanding outdoorsy things Mountain Folk do so well.  As soon as we left North Dakota, the haze set in.  It's a record setting wildfire year out here, and Montana is being hit really hard.  After we left Bozeman, we stopped in Missoula for a couple days.  We toured some downtown historic places and the Smoke Jumper Visitor's center.  Those young folks do an amazing job keeping these western forest fires from doing more damage than they already do.  Leaving Missoula headed south, it looked worse than LA on its worse smog days.  When I rolled up the window awnings, ash fell on my head.  Ash.  Smoke was everywhere, but ash?  That's an air quality issue.  I hope they have a nice wet winter.  No pictures to share this time, as all the scenery was totally obscured.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park, North Dakota

Wow.  After we left the Black Hills, northern South Dakota and southern North Dakota were pretty much flat farmland without much to look out.  I'm so glad Laurie noticed this park on the map.  I'd never heard of it.  Come to find out, Teddy R had fallen in love with the area long before stumbled into the Presidency and developed a couple ranch properties.  The scenery is really cool, similar to the South Dakota badlands you see east of the Black Hills.  We took the 30 mile scenic drive through the park as well as a nice 1 mile hike.  Very nice.  Here are some pictures:

Panoramic view of the Painted Canyon.  We took a nice 1 mile loop hike down into it.

Just a nice shot through some trees

On the scenic loop drive, we came across a herd of 200-300 buffalo crossing the road to get down to a stream to the left.  We turned off the engine and watched them for half an hour.

We finished out the Lower 48 states on the sticker map by coming to see North Dakota.  I thought we'd just cross the state line to fill the square, but Laurie found this really cool National Park.

Prairie dog towns were everywhere

North Dakota badlands

A cool looking dome that somehow managed to avoid getting eroded into the valley floor

Another view of the herd

It was really encouraging to see so many calves in the herd.  I bet we saw a couple dozen youngsters, usually trying to nurse while their mother was trying to walk to the next hunk of green grass.

The park has like 150 "feral" horses.  We saw a couple different groups.  The ranger stopped short of calling them "wild."  I don't know the difference.

Black Hills, SD

The Black Hills rise up out of the prairie like an oasis.  We stayed at a very nice park outside of Hill City and spent 4 wonderful, cool days in mid August touring the sites of the Black Hills.  It really is amazing seeing all the flat, featureless farmland that surround the area.  No wonder the Lakota considered the area sacred.  Here are some pictures:

The view from our windshield at the Rafter J Bar Ranch campground

We saw several herds of dozens of bison in the Custer State Park.  Nothing like the old days, but still nice to see

Roughlock Falls

Intrepid travelers in Spearfish Canyon

The saloon where Wild Bill Hickok got shot in the back of the head holding Aces and Eights--the Dead Man's Hand.  Deadwood, SD.

Right beside the road, a bison scratching on a tree in the woods.  Cool

Okay, full disclosure, this was from the last time we were here about ten years ago.  Look at me, then look at the Crazy Horse Monument in the background.  Same profile!

Mount Rushmore.  Probably why most people come to the Black Hills.  Definitely not the only thing to see.  You could spend weeks here.

Ogallala Nebraska

We spent a couple nights in a town in southern Nebraska due north of Dodge City.  Ogallala is one of those towns you blow past on the interstate without even thinking about it, but had fun.  There was a neat little petrified wood art gallery (the wood is not from the National Park).  We drove around a bit and saw the dam on the Platte River.  This must have been a wet summer out this way, because all the crops look in great shape and the lakes are all pretty high.  We drove down I-80 a few miles and had dinner at Ole's Big Game Restaurant.  We didn't see a stuffed lion, but Ole must have shot everything else on the planet and put it in his restaurant.  I guess his wife didn't want to stare at beast heads in the house.  Anyway, we put the Nebraska sticker on the map and moved on to the Black Hills, SD.  Here are some pictures from Ogallala.

The spillway for the Kingsley Dam, which forms Lake McConaughy

A little outhouse made from tiny chips of petrified wood.  These two old fellas made all kinds of cool weathered looking little model buildings out of petrified wood.

Panorama of Kingsley Dam.  Taken with the built in capability of my LG G4.  I had to download an app for my last phone.

Just a really pretty sunset over the Walmart parking lot.

Dodge City, KS

We left North Little Rock on Sunday morning and took 2 days getting to Dodge.  We overnighted in a forgettable combo RV/Mobile Home park in Enid, OK on our way.  I have to say, the driving scenery in this part of the country leaves a lot to be desired.  That's why we're just now finally, begrudgingly, getting around to finishing off these last 4 stickers on the map.  I put the Kansas sticker on yesterday when we checked in to the GunSmoke travel park.  Dodge City has a couple claims to fame, and that TV show is one of them.  The other is Boot Hill and the old cow town glory days, where Wyatt Earp was assistant Marshall before moving out to Tombstone.  Today, I learned he was never more than an assistant anything, but for some reason he's very revered.  I think it's the killer mustache.  We stopped here to tour the recreated old Dodge City and museum.  Check.  We also played penny slots at the casino and had a great steak dinner down by the tracks.  Dodge is now a nice little working class agricultural town with a rich history.  Time to move on to our next sticker: Nebraska.  Here are a couple pictures from Dodge City.

Longhorn cattle were driven up from Texas to Dodge to be rail transported back East.  Head'em up Rawhide!

Hundreds of thousands of Buffalo hides were shipped East from Dodge.  Probably not a lot like this rare White Buffalo.

An untimely death, normally from violence, was often marked by being buried with your boots on.  Hence the name...

Headed Northwest

We are headed generally North and West.  The first stop was a couple relaxing nights at the Ho Hum RV Park in Carabelle, FL.  We stopped here for a week on our way south last fall, and it was splendid.  Sitting windshield to the Gulf with palm trees in your front yard is a great way to break up the drive to Arkansas, our next stop.  We're currently parked on the Arkansas River at the City of North Little Rock's Riverfront RV park, about a half mile from the Clinton Presidential Library.  I wonder if Hillary will open up her own wing, or create a completely new facility.  We've spent the past week visiting with Laurie's family and are headed out in the morning.  Since we got a late start this summer after getting Brad settled, we decided to finish out our USA sticker map.  Only 4 states to go!

Our mission for the summer.  Finish off those final 4, lovely, flat, featureless states in the Great Plains

Our spot at the Ho Hum

Panoramic view from the roof of my motorhome.  To the left is the Clinton Library, behind the railroad bridge that's not been converted to a pedestrian/bike path.  The Little Rock skyline is to the right.

MacDill Winter 2014-2015

We settled back in at MacDill in October, coincidentally spending our 3rd winter in the same camp spot we had for our 1st winter.  Felt like home.  We ended up hosting karaoke virtually every Saturday night at Seascapes.  Good buddy Larry kicked off "do it yourself" trivia on Thursday nights because we couldn't get the base to fund any entertainment for us.  Good times.  You want to see people get riled up, ask a bad question as a trivia host.  We made a side trip to Norfolk to greet Brad when he returned after 9 MONTHS on the USS George H. W. Bush.  Even being on an aircraft carrier, with room to move around, gets really old after that long.  He took us on a tour and it is no cruise ship.  It would be like living in a greasy, loud welding shop for 9 months straight.  Of course, on the way home from Norfolk we had to stop in Raleigh and see John and Phyllis.  My best man Dave and his wife Michelle visited from Northern Illinois, staying at one of the rental campers at the FAMCAMP.  It was great to see them again.  Two other side trips to Key West, one over New Year's and the other for the entire month of April, rounded out the winter's activities.  We got really lucky and were able to visit with the Curley clan when they vacationed in Marathon while we were camped at Key West.  Keith and Abbey also came down to see us from Miami.  Here are some pictures.

Home safe from the sea, Stephanie, Brad and Laurie

Sunset at Mallory Square with one of the traditional gaff rigged sailboats entering the frame as if on cue

New Years Eve on Duval Street

Dave and Michelle

A few of the many members of the Curley family

We finally made it out to the Dry Tortugas.  60 miles beyond Key West, it's the least visited of all National Parks and you can only get there by boat or seaplane