And back again.

4560+ miles, 9 days later and we are home again. No pictures today, it rained almost the entire way home from Des Moines. Tried to get some amazing lightening shots, but the windshield wipers kept getting in the way as did the raindrops. May add some misc pics later in the week that we didnt post earlier, but for tonight, it is hugs all around and time to crash! It is good to see the gang again and talk to Ross even if he isn't here (ha ha, but he was in the state!) Thanks for reading along and travelling with us!

Mt. Rushmore and more!

This is all that was left of the front brake pads after crossing Big Horn Mountains!
At Mt. Rushmore! It was windy and cold!! And BIG! The guys, Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln!
Yay! The two of us!!
Taking a shopping (!) break in Keystone!
A cool looking house along the road.
Fellow travelers who have been on the road a little too long!!

This morning began with the amazing brake repair then we were off to see Mt. Rushmore. It was cold and overcast again, but the view was still awesome. Can you name the four presidents on the carving?? Ha ha, not sure? See photos!! On our way back from the Mountain, we stopped in the little town of Keystone. It was a cute little shopping area. Then we headed out toward the East. We stopped in two malls, can you believe it? One was on the MAP in South Dakota, so we thought it had to be something special. The worker at the Caribou Coffee Stand said, no, it was just a plain ole mall in Sioux Falls South Dakota. So after a quick java purchase, we were back on the road. We are looking forward to being home and eating real food. Tonight we had Taco Bell and a trashy donut from the gas station attached to the Taco Bell. Two food violations in my book!! 1) eating in a restaurant attached to a gas station and 2) wasting calories on stale donuts. Ha ha! Enjoy the view from the road, the landsacpe is very different!! See you all later in the day on Tuesday!!! P.S. The T.B. ,coffee and donut were goooood! Mr.R.

Almost home?

Before we left Cody, Dave wanted to have a moment with the Duke.
Instead of Where's Waldo, where's the road! These are the mountains and roads we drove on in the dark and in the rain on our way in to Cody last week!
LOOK!! See the bus up on the mountain? That is the road, look at all the switch backs!
Very narrow and curvy!
It was beautiful, but not so much in the night!
The colors were so brilliant in some of the landscape!

This was the unexpected stop that had the amazing falls! Wildlife even a Big Horn sheep.
We decided that Ross would be out on this climbing it and Philip would be near by waiting to put them back together! 120 feet down!
Top of Shell Falls in long exposure.
The Full view of Shell Falls.
This was just pretty! Looks like fall!

A bit out of order, but this is on the other side of the mountain nearing Rapid City. It was stormy but beautiful.
Dave looking out from near the top of the mountain. We had to stop and let our brakes cool down. Super gusty wind.
Look closely, see that squiggly line to the left of the tree? That is the road we had yet to travel!
Yikes! Look at the road! It is a miracle we didn't slide off when we were driving in the rain!!



Today was spectacular, again. We drove back over the Big Horn Mountains. These were the ones we drove in the rain at night and met the pink-eyed albino ghost bull on our way to Cody. Oh, my heavens, we couldn't believe what we were driving through once we saw it all in the daylight! Gracious! It is simply a miracle that we didn't fall right off the mountains edge. Kudos to Dave for his driving, double Kudos after seeing the road!! We stopped at a random site called Shell Falls, they were beautiful!!! Tonight we are in Rapid City. We didn't make it to see Mt. Rushmore yet because it was raining AND lightening. So we ate at an IHop and are going to crash early. Stuffed French Toast is decadent! YUUMMMMM! In the morning we are going to look at our brakes. . . they are not happy after crossing the mountains. Kind of a nasty scratchy metalic eeeewwww sound growls from them when we stop. Dave said something about the pads getting glazed from the intense heat from driving hairpin turns with steep grades! There is a brake place across the street (isn't that amazing! God is being so good to us!) since Dave brought limited tools we may have to pause the trip for a minor repair. Then if it is not raining we will visit Mt. Rushmore, if it is, we may zip back through the Badlands on our way to Des Moines! Love you and we will be home Tuesday!

A quick update, this morning (Monday) Dave took the van over to the brake place (Tires Plus just to give them a plug!) and they worked him right in. The rotors and pads were completely worn down, metal to metal, OUCH! It was a miracle that the place could work him in and get things fixed. Its 8:00 and we are getting ready to head out to Mt. Rushmore on a bright sunny day with brakes that work! The Lord is certainly watching over us!!!

Yellowstone part 2

Driving through the park, there were steaming spots e everywhere!
We did a little side trail looking for a Solitary Geyser, never found it, but it was a nice trail!
These are Firehole Falls, another side road we took.
This is Geyser River where all the run off from the geysers ends up, Including old Faithful.
This one was called Pumping Geyser. It was like someone kicking in a pool, ker splash ker splash!
On the Trail, Bear defense, and the only blue in the sky at this point!
Literally the landscape was hot!
These were three little bubbling churning pots!

This was the color of one of the hot springs. About 50 feet deep, 167 degrees!
All those little dips are hot springs that bubble and steam!
Dave by Old Faithful in between eruptions.
Yeah, in the rain. but just enough sun to highlight the Steam and stuff from Old Faithful!
This is called Castle Geyser! Amazing!

A bubbling mud pot!
This was two different hot springs that were connected a bit, but both were such different colors!!
This is the top hot spring.

This is called Black Pool. It changed colors in 1989 after an earthquake from black to this amazing blue!

On the way in the morning, just look at that blue sky!
Here it is, the ultimate four wheel drive!! Ha ha!!
Ah, fly fishishing with your dog. I know this will look like fun to some of you!! This is a real hot spot for flyfishing! In almost every stream, river and creek was at least one fisherman!
The Bison (Buffalo) responding to all the tourists! Ha ha!
On the bluff of Yellowstone Lake. It is huge! Its Fall!!!

Yesterday we returned to Yellowstone to do the west side of the park. The morning was beautiful! Cool, crisp and very sunny! It was like walking into some pre-historic land with all the churning, bubbling steaming open places in the land. I remember being 6 and going to Disneyland in California with my cousins and seeing the Disney version of these bubbling mud pots and steaming geysers. They did a pretty good job of re-creating it (at least in the memory of a 6 year old) but these geological sites are not to be outdone! The day began to get a little overcast and just after we finished our lunch on a bench next to Old Faithful, it began to rain. Thank heavens there was no lightening, but it did rain and blow. We fortunately had an umbrella and sat for 25 min in the rain to watch the old geyser. While waiting we received a surprise phone call from Ross, who had made it back to Buffalo!! It rained the rest of the time we were in the park, but as we made our way back down the mountain, the rain stopped and we had a beautiful clear evening in Cody. Today (Sunday) we are beginning the route back home. We will be in Rapid City, SD this afternoon and hopefully drop down the road to see Mt. Rushmore. If we don't do that today, it will be our first action of the day tomorrow! Love you all and see you soon!!!

And back to Cody, WY

Leaving Missoula, Beautiful mountains!!
Rocky Mountains?? It was pretty!
In Red Lodge. There was a great old Candy Store! Baskets and baskets of stuff!
In town at Red Lodge. Lots of little shops!
Past Red Lodge, nearing Cody. Note the moon.

Today we drove from Missoula,MT to Cody, WY. We changed our plans and went through a little town called Red Lodge rather than try to do toooo much and hit Yellowstone after a 4 hour drive to even get there. It was a beautiful drive and most of the pics are from the road. Hope everyone is having a great Friday evening. We are going iniot town, which is very crowded because there is a big Buffalo Bill Arts celebration. Lots of movers and shakers in the WY art world are here. Tonight is a big auction of art and other activities. We are jusst going to try to eat Italian with reservations at 9:00 pm (11:00 local time) hopefully we won't fall asleep in our pasta!!! But we just couldn't do another lunchmeat sandwich!!! Tomorrow we will go back into Yellowstone to do the West side, see Ole Faithful and some other beautiful areas. It is just nice to NOT be driving through the mountains at night!!! Love everyone, take care of each other!!!

To Glacier and Missoula

A bit out of order, if there is an order! This is the inside of the Lake McDonald Lodge. It was built in 1914.
Dave sampling the Glacier Water from the mountain stream!

This was a huge metal sculpture we saw on our way to Glacier.
Yay, we made it all the way to Glacier! The farthest point on the trip.

It was a cold evening but the light was great for pictures!


Dave pointing to our room in the Motor Lodge.

Yup, 1950s for sure!! It was clean!!!!
Lake McDonald with the mountain in the back.

We went off the main roads and found this pine forest.
Steve and Teri in their backyard!


Dave and his Big sister!!

Flat Iron Lake on the way between Missoula and Glacier.
The snow falling on the mountains in the park.


It was really cloudy on Thursday.
The water was so blue/green and clear. Glacier Water!
Yay, I finally got a good long exposure to work!

Several water falls and the mountains.

These white berries were everywhere.
Taking in the immenseness of it all!

No, no diving into the glacier water. It was COLD!
Thought it was pretty.

We Made it from Missoula to Glacier National Park. Wow, there are some big mountains in Glacier!!! We stayed in the McDonald Lake Motor Lodge. .. circa 1950s style rooms. The air conditioner was a box fan!! Glacier was very rustic. There were only two or three main roads. One ended in dirt roads, one was closed for construction and the other ones were closed because of 8 inches of snow that fell!! So after a day and a half of exploring Glacier, we returned to Missoula and visited with Mr. R's sister Teri and her hubby. It was a great visit. Like it hadn't been 16 years since we last saw each other. Family is great. Tomorrow we head back down to do the West side of Yellowstone and end up in Cody again for the night. So, we may not have such great cell reception during the day, but try us if you want to talk, or text us and we will call you back when we get more bars!!!! Miss you ALL and love you!!! Keep up the great work, you are doing fine!!! Hugs and kisses!!