Rapid City - Keystone & Mt Rushmore

Rapid City has been an interesting place to visit. After living on the Great Plains of Nebraska you would have thought that in the five short years that I have been away I wouldn't forget how the wind can blow and weather can change without any warning.

For the last two and one half days I have been living in my Roadtrek at Cabela's RV parking area.

Domus Dulcis Domus

Cabela's conveniently located off I-90 at exit 61 is close to all the National Parks and services needed.

There has been an observation made of the people I see in Rapid City and especially the hill country known as the Badlands of South Dakota. Is it me or are the men wanting to look like Buffalo Bill Cody?

In the Badlands of South Dakota the men wear their hair long and beards to match.

Some of the women, not all of them mind you, are more likely to have a horse named Maybelline than to have Maybelline in their purse.

Mt Rushmore has been an interesting drive up into the hill country with the wind gusting up to 50 mph.

 

The foothills of Mt Rushmore

 Mt Rushmore features 60 foot sculptures of Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.

The carved granite face of Mt Rushmore is near Keystone, a village just below the monument.

Gutzon Borglum is the sculptor who dedicated his life to Mt Rushmore.

The sculpting began in 1927 and was completed between 1934 and 1939.

Another prominent feature of Mt Rushmore are the 1,000 stairs there are to climb to the top.

Big Horn Sheep along a walking trail.

A docile bear walking by.

Rapid City has been an interesting place to visit but my next stop is Devil's Tower National Park Wyoming.

Devil's Tower has been known as the Badlands of Wyoming and is about an hour and 30 minutes from Rapid City.

The Journey Begins

Preparing for the trip to Alaska has been a three month long process of anticipating what will be needed when off the grid camping in the backwoods. This brings up the question "Why do we travel"?

Before leaving on a long road trip restlessness begins to set in. Anticipating the road away that is broad, straight and sweet, the desire to travel is good and sufficient reason for going.

Planning a trip in time and space, choosing a direction and destination is a work of joy. At last I must implement the journey, how to get there, what to take and how long to stay.

Once the journey is designed, equipped and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, an exploration is an entity, different from all other journeys. Each journey is unique into itself, no two are alike. There is an anticipation of what a journey will be. Traveling is a companion into itself.

I have learned while traveling that we do not take a trip: a trip takes us. Like marriage, the certain way to be wrong is to think you control it.

May 15th starts an eleven week trip beginning at coastal Carolina in the mid-Atlantic passing thru the Midwest to Great Falls, Montana and entering the Canadian Rockies at Banff, AB. On to Alaska in the third week of travel in Alberta, British Columbia and Yukon Canada. While in Alaska there will be a myriad of stops along the way, mostly boondocking in the backwoods and small town parks. A group of 14 Roadtrek RVs will be in the area that our "Walkabout" is registered . We have all shared our contact information and will gather together ocassionally at designated locales.

Later in July begins a southbound 2,000 mile inside passage ferry boat trip with the Roadtrek securely stowed in the lower level of the Columbia, a 200+ foot ferry. The week long cruise will provide needed rest from driving and living in a small motorhome. The Columbia provides a private stateroom to live in with port of call each day to disembark in villages along the way. At weeks end is the destination of Bellingham, Washington where I will immediately re-enter British Columbia, Vancouver for a couple of weeks.
The island of Vancouver has the capitol of BC in Victoria with Butchart Gardens and the Fairmont Empress Hotel with the British custom of high tea in the afternoon along the promenade in Stanley Park.

Vancouver Island offers a nice variety of Provincial Parks to boondock.

By late July I will begin the long trek back to the East coast but stopping along the way in Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming  until I arrive home in August.


View Larger Map

First day of travel was from North Carolina to Louisville, Kentucky where we stayed at the Cabella's for the night.

The second day of travel was to Nebraska where we found ourselves in a severe thunderstorm with tornadoes in the three state area. After staying at a family farm with Roadtrek securely put away from harm in a quonset and us in the basement waiting out the storm. At least many hands of cards were played and family time was caught up.

 

The Roadtrek at Pioneer's Park in Lincoln, Nebraska

Other stops on the way to Alaska will be Rapid City, SD where Cabella's offers a good place to boondock for the night then on to Devil's Tower Wyoming, Great Falls, MT and Alberta, Canada.

Next week will be photos from Custer State Park, SD, Devil's Tower National Park, WY and Glacier National Park  in Montana before entering Canada.

January 12, 2013
Quartzsite, Arizona

 RV Rally of 150,000, made of small groups known as the "Tribe".

Desert Camping on Bureau of Land management land. Temperatures were down in the 30's at night. Most people came to the desert expecting warmer temperatures.

January 25, 2013
Las Vegas, Nevada

Time to recover some of my losses. Maybe not. It is not only cold outside but cards were cold inside.
Better luck next time.



January 27th, 2013
Mohave Desert,  Tehachapi, California
The highway between Las Vegas and Tehachapi, California looks all the same, five hours of sand and very little else.

Tehachapi, the land of the Wind Mill farms. Thousands of wind mills as far as the eye could see. Watts Up with that?

Many of the homes on top of the mountain are off the grid so private solar and wind mills used.
Visiting my brother and his wife in Bear Valley Springs, California on top of a mountain for a week. There were snow banks outside my door of the camper. The humidity was 5% or less everyday.


February 3, 2013
Time to go home to coastal Carolina. It is a long way home, 2,785 miles. 

Day 1 Savannah, Georgia

Tuesday, November 27th, 2012

Arrived in Savannah, Ga early afternoon. Savannah has an old South look and feel with the historic antebellum homes. The drive downtown has oak trees with Spanish moss hanging from trees.

This is Wormsloe St in historic downtown Savannah.

Cathedral of St John the Baptist is the most popular visitor spot in Savannah. Dash Cam photo.

 

Tybee Island is just Southeast of downtown Savannah and since Paula Deen's restaurant was filming a TV production, I chose to go to Uncle Bubba's (Paula's brother) that has similar menu                  .

Day 2  Pooler, Georgia

Wednesday, 28th, November 2012

Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum

Mighty Eighth Air Force Museum- garden side entrance.

 Upon arrival visitors step into the awesome expanse of the rotunda, with it's soaring ceiling.
 The imposing bronze statues with flags of all Bomber Groups of Mighty Eighth Air Force on display

The B-17 "Flying Fortress" and the B-24 are exhibited with many of the Bomber Group's personal clothing and gear on display.

TSgt Matthew P. Gewain, Jr., Flight Engineer and Top Turret Gunner
Group/Squadron: 453rd Bomb Group, 732nd Bomb Squadron, 389th BG and 265th BS. AAF 114
Flew 26 lead crew missions. Shot down twice to forced landings in Belgium.

December 28, 1944  Battle of the Bulge, Bastogne Capt Love and his crew (including Matt Gewain) lead the entire 8th Air Force with 2,300 B-24 bombers of the 453rd BG on a mission to Germany.
As a typical mission, 700 planes ( 7,000 crew) were lost in the battle.  Presidential Unit Citation was awarded to Captain Love and his crew.

Day 3  Savannah

Thursday, 29th November 2012

Savannah Wildlife Refuge

Two Ibis feeding along a pool of water in Savannah Wildlife Refuge

A bashful Heron did not want his picture taken.

 Dash Cam in the motorhome showing a horse and wagon giving tours.

Wisteria Vines in full bloom late November in downtown Savannah. Ga.

This concludes my three days of touring Savannah, Ga. Now I have a six hour drive home.

Next- January 2013 Quartsite, Arizona

Day 1 Atlantic Coast Tour- Friday November 2nd - Charleston, SC

Arrived in Charleston, SC (about a four hour drive) staying at James Island County RVPark in Charleston, SC. A very nice 700 acre park used by residents of the city for ball games, boating and family get togethers.  84 degrees Sunny and little wind.

First stop, downtown Charleston to see waterfront and layout of the city.

In Charleston, what I would call a porch is called a Piazza, looks like a porch to me.

Next stop was the Magnolia Plantation with it's Natural landscape and bridges.

Beautiful waterscapes with all of natures beauty.. including ........

Alligator, 15 foot long, sunning itself along the path we walk on. We were six feet away from him.

 

Next we went downtown to the French Quarters district of Charleston to have a nice lunch.

We walked on the Battery along Ashley River overlooking Fort Sumter in the distance.
Many battles have been fought here from Revolutionary War to Civil War and even German submarines have been seen here during WWII in the 1940's.

 In Battery Park, Charleston, overlooking Fort Sumter, a statue to Confederate Defenders

William Moultrie was a general in Civil War and later 35th governor of South Carolina.

Three days in Charleston and I drove South to Kissimmee, Florida for the Roadtrek Rally.