Part 1 – Part 2 – Part 3 – Part 4 – Part 5
Then we were suddenly in Iowa. We were only there for a few days before we left for Forest City.
This is where we were thinking we would finally bite the bullet and get a new – yes, new – RV. When we had passed through there in the spring, they had 41 of them.
Well, things were different by September. The Winnebago dealer there had just a couple, and neither were exactly what we thought we wanted.
We did have a pleasant stay at Pilot Knob again.
The following day, we drove to Mitchell, South Dakota. We made, of course, the mandatory stop at the Corn Palace.
We also visited the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village, where I found myself in a quest for the perfect sunflower photo. It was close-by, so we easily saw both in a day.
It’s a long drive across South Dakota. On September 8, we were at the Badlands.
We used Custer State Park area as a base camp for awhile. We did take the RV up to Devil’s Tower for a couple of days.
It was such an eerie foggy, rainified day when we drove up to Devil’s Tower and walked the trail around its base. We did see a guy scaling the monolith. <shudder> I like the moodiness of these pics.
Two days later, the 13th, we were back at our Custer area camp. From there, we jaunted out in our little car and had some fun day trips. These were from Jewel Cave. The only tour they had running was the Lantern Tour. It was great!
Later that day, we went to Bear Country. Animals are loose; you’re the one enclosed in your car.
In Custer State Park, we hiked up to Lover’s Leap. We did not opt to leap.
Miners abandoned their burros when they left the mines. Some of their ancestors remain. They are considered harmful to the native plants and animals. Otherwise, they seem pretty tame. People feed them carrots.
That was 9/16. On the 17th, we drove our rig to Nebraska, staying at Robidoux RV Park outside Scott’s Bluff. Along the way, we stopped at Alliance to visit Carhenge.
The 18th was a big day. I know. I know. Scott’s Bluff? How could we possibly have a big day in Scott’s Bluff? There’s a National Monument here!
In 2018, we made an attempt to get up Pike’s Peak, but it was closed due to excessive wind. (They informed us of this only AFTER we had paid the $30 to get in.)
Well, 9/21/19 was different! We stayed in our favorite RV camp in Colorado Springs, the Garden of the Gods RV Resort and headed out to see the sights.
I don’t know how they used to do it, or how they do it now, but in the fall of 2019, they were doing some rebuilding at the lodge at the top. Because of the limited parking, after we drove up most of the way, we were shuttled up to the top.
Manitou Cliff Dwellings just outside Colorado Springs was a fun afternoon.
And on 9/24 we were in Santa Fe, New Mexico. This is the capital of New Mexico, and I have a collection of capitol photos at this link.
We had reserved a tour of Canyon de Chelly (pronounced Canyon de Shay) in the NE corner of Arizona. The closest camp we could find that looked fun at all was in Gallup NM, just across the border. It turned out that it was about 100 miles each way.
The park was great, and we were so happy to have taken the advice of our friends and gotten the Navaho-guided tour. We rode atop a truck bed on benches and, thank goodness, rods with which we could hang on!
After the ride, we went on our own to drive the loop around the top side of the park. It’s a very different view from up here!
The next day, we drove to Show Low, AZ, where we met up with Melanie and Don at the Fool’s Hollow State Park. It’s really beautiful and we had a good visit with them.
So what a fabulous trip it was! We are hopeful that we can do an epic journey like this again. 2020 it didn’t quite happen for us, but maybe in 2021?
