Pictures From The Passenger Seat: September 2016

Things to know about traveling north after Labor Day:

The foliage is starting to change and is very pretty
Daytime temps are usually pretty good, and temps start dropping after dark
Some of the RV parks for larger rigs CLOSE as of October 1 (we didn't know that)
There are LOTS of travel groups AFTER Labor Day and before October 1 so parks fill up FAST!

It was our intention to drive from the Badlands area over to Mount Rushmore area and stay in a different RV park, but because of reason #4 listed above, the parks we were considering were FULL! :(

When driving a big rig, you can't just go anywhere - you have to do research on your parks, stops, highways you'll be traveling down, etc. Once we were traveling a highway in California that had a sign 250 on to the road stating that we shouldn't bring our rig down this road. There wasn't a turn around so we had no choice but to carefully drive the road though steep inclines and declines and hairpin turns. Thankfully, nothing happened to us, but we definitely learned to watch the routes better.

After some research on roads and parks, we confirmed the park we were already in had availability for a couple more days so we stayed put and drove to see Mount Rushmore. We were going to go through Custer State Park too, and I think we went through part of it, but we missed the entrance somehow and ended up just driving through Custer, SD.

Custer, SD is a really cool little town with lots of rustic hunting, trapping, mining type of stuff. We stopped at a trapper shack and saw some awesome pelts, rocks, knives, skulls (if you like skulls =\) and stuff. It was really cool and I wish I would have taken pictures here, but I didn't. D got a couple cool things and I got some rocks and geodes for my sister, the science teacher. As I was heading up front, I saw a couple elk antlers and talked to the shop keeper about if dogs really like them. He said they were a big hit so I got our girls a couple. He was right! They loved them!

Ok, so I titled this Mount Rushmore but have yet to say much about it. Let me get started now.

This is actually a pretty nice monument. Our National Parks pass didn't work here :( because they have you pay for parking. That being said, they have a really nice multi-level parking garage, which I bet comes in handy when the crowds are heavier.

The weather was pretty cool and windy that day. We went in the morning and it was supposed to storm that afternoon. The Presidents monument was great, but the path around the monument is beautiful as well. We read that there were two paths, one was more strenuous than the other, and I'm not sure which one we took, but it was quite a hike. We really enjoyed the scenery both at the monument and the area around it.

Here's some of my favorite photos

Who's taller is always a competition!

cutest little chipmunk and only wildlife we saw!

So, as with most of my life, there's a story that goes with this photo. Remember a ways back when we were stuck in Tallahassee? Well, the first night we stayed in the trailer, the electricity was out which meant the park was DARK and the only noise you could hear outside was generators running. We were about to head off to bed and Jeff went out to put fuel in the generator to keep it running all night. I went with him to hold the flashlight << read that as one of those long heavy mag light flashlights. Anyway, I'm trying to hold the flashlight in the best location possible so Jeff can see, its about 11 pm at night, in the dark when suddenly I feel a man's hand on my shoulder.

Just a side note, I will NEVER be one of those people who walk away from a blast all cool like. Nope, I'm a freaker-outer.

So anyway, man's hand on my shoulder, 11 pm, pitch black dark. I reach up with my left hand and grab two of the man's fingers and start bending them to the side to break them, I drop the light part of the mag light down to my hand to turn around and start to bust this man in the ribs because anyone who sneaks up on a freaker-outer woman in the dark at 11 pm is due a whoopin, for sure! As I am about to break his fingers, and literally am raring back to swing the flashlight, I look up at the man and realize it is my SON! It was D!!!

It took me a good 30 seconds before I could tell him how close he was to having broken ribs and fingers. I totally wanted to whoop him even more after I realized it was him!

So, as you can see in this photo, he's messing with me, telling me "Mom, I'm behind you, don't freak out!" So yeah, I should have whooped him.

I don't know about you, but I never know what to expect from a new place I'm going to visit.

Sure, I do research. I use Google, TripAdvisor.com, wikipedia, pretty much everything I can get my hands on, I read over it and see what sounds like fun.

Then sometimes you get there and it's still not what you were thinking it would be. I guess that's using your mind's eye.

When we went to the Badlands in Badlands, SD, I'm not really sure what I expected it to be. A desert? A small Grand Canyon? I really wasn't sure, but from what I read, it was a sight to behold and oh so pretty!

On a side note, when you have the opportunity to visit National Parks, there generally is a gate fee. It's not too much per day and it's generally per car or per person if you're on foot. We looked it up, I think the Badlands was around $20-30 per car for a few day pass, not too bad. We already knew we were going to be visiting several national parks, and we could get an annual pass to all national parks and something something something for $80. That proved to be well worth it, you'll see by the time you finish reading about all the great sites we've seen in the American NorthWest!

Ok, lets get started!

The badlands are located in Badlands, SD. Not a lot around there, but Wall, SD. Wall is a cute little town right on the interstate. Home of Wall Drug! You'll see hundreds of billboard signs about Wall Drug on the way there. It's a fun place with a great cafe! Be sure to check it out while you're there! We were particularly fond of their breakfast and I'm not a big donut eater, but their donuts are pretty good.

J & D ventured down the path to get a better view.

J's parents were enjoying the view much higher

The view was pretty spectacular!

We drove throughout the park. We saw buffalo (or bison - whichever you want to call them), prairie dogs, prong horn sheep and a white fox! It was about to cross the road as we were coming around a corner! The prairie dogs were very social and were great at posing for the camera. The buffalo looked HUGE and we used our zoom lenses to get pictures of them. The prong horned sheep took care of that for us -- They were WAAAAYYYYY down in a valley area on some mountain areas. We could see them with zoom, but no way to get close, which was fine.

Here is where we saw the prong horn sheep. They look more like goats to me, but the flyer said they were sheep.

Here, let me zoom in a little so you can see them better.

Here's a couple closer looks

It's no mystery why we wouldn't be at risk of them hurting us - it'd be an all day hike for them to get TO us!

Here's some more of the pretty scenery

Next up was Prairie Dog Town! They were sure chatterboxes the day we were there! The fact that they're super cute and they'll pose for you are a bonus!

I'm not sure who this last guy is, but he thinks this little guy will let him pet him. You can see the other little friend off to the side telling him to RRUUUNNNNN!!

This area is the buffalo grass area. It's beautiful prairie.

you can see these buffalo are just HUGE! How people can try to get right there next to them is beyond me. They're beautiful, majestical creatures!

We were driving out through the countryside enjoying the view when we happened around a corner and saw this guy about to run across the dusty, dirt road.