This blog was delayed due to no cell phone service.

FYI...

The weather in South Dakota was spectacular. Low 50's in the morning and low 80's in the afternoon.

Wednesday August 5th

This was a travel day from South Dakota to Yellowstone, the first national park. On the way we stopped by Devils Tower, the first national monument. This was just a brief stop because we had lots miles to go and also they were expecting 40,000 motorcycles mid-morning. This is an impressive 1300' tall chunk of rock.

We saw lots of beautiful scenery with no major incidents. I did have one small confrontation with some Canadian Harley-heads. We stopped in Cody, WY to gas up before we headed into the mountains. I was patiently waiting for the pickup in front of me to finish when a herd of bikers rumbled in. They proceeded to pull in front of me and park their bikes so they could all get fuel before me. I then swung the LRT around to the other side of the pump only to have one of these guys pull his bike in front of me. I was a little cheesed off. I pulled up real close, and in my best Bob McKenzie accent, yelled something to the effect of “ You Canuckleheads are in a pretty big hurry, Aye?” Angi shushed me, and I lived to write this blog. We had a little rain in the evening.

Thursday August 6th

Weather: mid 40’s in the morning and low 70’s in the afternoon.

We got up early and did lots of this:

So we could see lots of this:

It is so beautiful, it makes you feel like yodeling!

We then made our way to Old Faithful where we had dinner reservations at the lodge, and we got to see it erupt a few times. This picture is after dinner as the sun was setting.

We were all extremely tired. Luke slept all of the 40 miles back to the Fishing Bridge RV park.

Friday August 7th

Weather upper 30’s in the morning and mid 60’s in the afternoon.
It rained quite a bit during the night, and Luke started feeling puny. We planned to hike to the top of Mt. Washburn but it became obvious Luke was not going to make it. We did get to about 9500 feet and found some snow to have an early August snowball fight. We saw some bear prints and scat in the area.

When we got back to the RV, Luke crashed for a few hours as we drove toward the north entrance. We saw lots of these guys walking down the road; they go where they want.










Luke woke up and we stopped by Mammoth Hot Springs. This area is quite a contrast to others in the park, but none the less, extremely beautiful.







We then stopped by the Park Ranger museum and Luke and Audrey got to help the ranger retire the colors and fold the flag. It began raining so we drove little more and then headed back to the RV @ 6'ish for dinner. Luke crawled in bed and slept for the next 12+ hours.




Saturday August 8th



I had to get up in the middle of the night and figure out how to turn the heater on. We awoke to overcast skies and low 30's. We broke camp and began the 1400 mile journey home. We stopped at the south visitor's center to stamp our passports and it began sleeting. This snowshoe hare with his summer coat was enjoying it.











We headed south through Grand Teton NP which adjoins the south side of Yellowstone. We did a little sight seeing but it was overcast so the Tetons were not visible. After we left the park's east entrance we got caught in an August snow storm while in the mountains.



We then drove 800 miles though WY, CO and into KS and finally found hotel room in Colby, KS. Angi was wanting to take bath. Beautiful scenery throughout WY. On Sunday we drove 600 miles through KS, OK and on into TX arriving home at 6:30. Lots of flat; not real exciting.
We were glad to be home.

Overall this was a really good vacation. The kids really enjoyed the freedom inside the RV as we drove and had a great sightseeing perch in the bed over the cab. We ended up driving a little over 3500 miles. I haven't tallied up all of the gas receipts, but they are significant at 7 MPG. The most expensive gas was $3 inside Yellowstone.


The end of the Adventures of the Little Rolling Turd.

Tuesday August 4th

Today was spent driving around the Black Hills through Custer State Park and Wind Cave NP. The kids were earning a really cool Jr. Naturalist patch by learning about the park, attending various programs like panning for gold and filling out a workbook.

We saw lots of animals throughout both parks, like Prairie Dogs, baby bison. pronghorn antelope, ans some mangy burros that may be Mexican illegals.

Lots of big storms this afternoon made us glad we weren't in a tent. After an hour we were glad it didn't rain like that every day.

Tomorrow is another big travel day. We have 520 miles to get to the Fishing Bridge camp at Yellowstone

Monday August 3rd

Yesterday (Sunday 8/2) was another travel day to Custer, SD. The number of motorcycles steadily increased through NW Nebraska and into Custer. This was an uneventful trip, no accidents. We ended up renting two more bicycles in Custer to replace Audrey and mine that were wounded in the tragic OKC mishap. Lot's of 50 - 70 year old folks who are weekend Hells Angels crowding the streets, but all are well behaved. I'm sure as you get closer to the town of Sturgis the activity picks up considerably. Here is a little fellow we met in Wind Cave NP.

Today (Monday 8/3) was our first tourist outing. The first stop was the Crazy Horse monument. The shear size of this undertaking is impressive. It was started in 1948, but is making significant progress in the past few years.

The next stop was Mt. Rushmore. The roads are narrow and and there is a major pucker factor with thousands of motorcycles and us in an RV. Although Rushmore is a much smaller carving than Crazy, it is still impressive. There are lots of people and motorcycles, but things run smoothly.

On the way back home, we went through three one-lane tunnels. There was 6-18" clearance with the LRT. My butt cheeks were clenched so tight I think I removed a couple upholstery buttons from the seat. Tomorrow will be anther LRT adventure. Here is A&L in Custer State Park.

Saturday August 1st

I successfully picked up the LRT on Thursday, drove 55 miles home and then discovered that there was a lock on the trailer hitch. This would pose a problem installing our hitch-mounted bike rack. On Friday I successfully drove the LRT back to McKinney, helped their mechanic cut the lock off with a grinder (too corroded to unlock) and drive back home. I then began the packing process which Angi completed ~2:00am after her and Audrey got back from Virginia.




Below is the LRT loaded and ready to depart Saturday morning.



Everything was progressing nicely until we hit the north side of OKC. People were pulling up along side, honking and pointing to the rear of the LRT. I pulled over and found that a pin on the bike rack had wiggled loose and we were dragging the bikes along I35 at 70 mph. Audrey's bike took the brunt of the abuse. I have some duct tape, I think I can fix it.









The rest of day one was less eventful. All we saw was hours and hours of corn through Kansas and Nebraska. We did get passed by a gaggle? of Harley's. The lead guy was pulling a trailer, had the prototypical Harley babe in tow and had his dog sitting on the gas tank wearing sunglasses.

We are staying at the KOA in Gothenberg, NE. if anyone is in the area.

Pre-trip commentary

The "Adventures of the Little Rolling Turd - 2009" actually began last year. Audrey and Luke decided that we needed to take an RV trip like the family in the movie "RV", but our destination would be Mt. Rushmore. We finally found a week where we were all free, and I finalized the reservations this past spring. A few weeks later I discovered that while in South Dakota, we would be enjoying the company of 750,000+ Harley Pilots. That's right, we are going to be smack-dab in the middle of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. This should be a very educational trip for the kids. The adventure begins today when I pick up our new home for the next 10 days.