Helena, MT

We got up to a temperature of 34 degrees this morning! Frost on the ground and snow on the mountaintops!! The snow actually fell yesterday afternoon. We have a gorgeous view of these mountains out the window of our 5er. Needless to say, it was a little chilly but so nice after all the heat back home!!

After having a very large breakfast at a local restaurant in Deer Lodge this morning, we decided to take a ride to Helena, MT which was a drive of about 60 miles. Saw some beautiful mountains along with ranches and farms on the drive there. Did a little shopping, mostly for Cheyenne. Had to get her a winter coat and some new chew toys since she had torn up all the others we had gotten her. She has been having a blast with them since we got back.

We took some pictures today but none are very good so will not share those……

Tomorrow we are planning to do some chores and cleanup in preparation for leaving Thursday morning for Idaho Falls. It’s actually quite a long list but mostly very quick simple things we need to do. So, since there will be no excitement tomorrow, I may not update again until after we get to our next destination.

Stay tuned!!

Deer Lodge, Montana

We traveled to Deer Lodge yesterday. It was a short travel day from Bozeman and we arrived around 12:30. This is a very small town with not much to offer for sight seeing. We are talking about going into Helena or Butte to see what is available there but mostly planning a lot of R & R. We are staying at Indian Creek Campground which is right on I90 in Deer Lodge. It is a nice park with nice, level campsites.



The landscape did change quite a bit on the way here. We saw some crops growing other than hay, which is a BIG change from Wyoming. And lots of trees are back. They look like fir trees but we are not sure. There are a lot of rolling hills and mountains and lots of sky, even though it was rainy and cloudy yesterday. The low this morning was 41 and it is still cloudy. Charley retrieved our winter clothing from the basement yesterday (good timing). Looks like we are definitely going to need it.

May not be a lot of news for the next couple of days. We are here until the morning of 9/2 and then will be headed to Idaho Falls for a week’s stay. Idaho Falls is a much larger city and we should have a lot to do there. We will be there until time for the kids to join us on 9/11 and then we will be at the Grizzly RV Park at the west entrance to Yellowstone.

A few pictures from the drive here

Busy Couple of Days

We visited Sheridan, Wyoming yesterday and it is really a very nice place. Much larger than we realized at first. We saw the Sheridan Inn that was built by Buffalo Bill. It has recently been renovated and is a gorgeous place. We were told that they would soon be opening it back up to the public. We walked around downtown and visited the Don King Museum (world famous saddle maker). The King Saddlery had some for sale and wow!! We did not realize how expensive they could be. Some were over $3000!! But they were beautiful. We also visited a few of the shops and they were nice. Went to a jeans store too that claimed to have over 100 sizes of jeans but they still didn’t have any to fit my skinny little behind…. I will keep looking.

We also got a couple of good pictures of some elk that were grazing in a park in the outskirts of Sheridan. Take a look at those horns!!

Today we left Sheridan at about 9:00 and arrived at Bear Canyon Campground in Bozeman, MT at around 2:30. We are only stopping here for the night and then will be heading for Deer Lodge, MT. We are planning to stay there for a few days. We took one side trip on the way here to see the Little Big Horn Battlefield and the site of Custer’s Last Stand.

It is currently 56 degrees here and we have the heat on. Quite a change from 100 degrees that one day in Custer, SD!! The weather bug tells us that we are in for some very cool (to us anyway) temperatures.

The Sheridan Inn

The Elk Family in the Park

Check out the saddles and ropes!

Little Big Horn

Yesterday

To the followers who posted comments related to our mail situation…. fortunately I have taken care of getting all of our bills handled online so not getting the snail mail is not a big concern. I still like to see what comes in periodically just in case though. You never know….

On Thursday, 8/26, we left Broken Arrow Campground about 8:30 on our way to Sheridan, Wyoming with a side trip to see Devil’s Tower. We arrived in Sheridan around 3:30. It was a hot one yesterday! It reached 99 degrees in the afternoon so the 5er was a little warm when we arrived and got set up at Peter D’s RV Park in Sheridan. Took it a while to cool down.
Devil’s Tower is a must see, at least once. As I have said about so many other things, it is amazing what mother nature can do!! We only drove up to the entrance to the park, took pictures and then we were back on the road again.

Charley and Cheyenne had a little excitement last night, got chased by a loose dog in the area! They made it back okay although both were a little flustered….. Charley has his protection ready today should it be needed.

We were pretty beat by the time we were finally able to relax so we called it a night early. Planning to get the oil changed in the F450 and get out and see Sheridan for a while today. Also planning to try out a local restaurant for dinner based on recommendations from Peter D.

As you will see in the pictures from yesterday the landscape changed on our trip here. The trees gradually disappeared and it became prairie grassland with very few trees scattered here and there. Quite a change from all the ponderosa pines in the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.

Devil’s Tower – Trees still present, they disappear later. Charley got a close-up of the markings on the Tower. They really do look like claw marks.

The landscape on our drive after Devil’s Tower

 

A Lazy Day Today

Well, we stuck around Broken Arrow for one more day, hoping that our mail would arrive but it didn’t. We are moving on tomorrow anyway and have asked the campground to refuse it and have it returned. We will hope that it will get back to Texas in time for the next mail request we submit. Cannot imagine why it is taking so long, it was mailed Friday and here it is Wednesday and still no mail. Guess that is why it is referred to as snail mail, huh?

We just hung around the campground today and did a few little things, plus cooked two meals. So we ate good and rested mostly!!

We will be heading out in the morning for Sheridan, Wyoming and will be staying at Peter D’s campground on the way to Montana.

A Day at the Campground

We spent the day today doing some chores in preparation for leaving tomorrow.

Charley went to check on our mail delivery from the Escapees Mail Service and to our surprise found that our mail had not arrived!! So we are staying one more day and hopefully it will come….. just a result of snail mail I guess…. We don’t really get that much mail on paper anymore but there is one thing we are watching for. Once that is all taken care of we can get these shipments a lot less frequently.

So, tomorrow will be another R&R day of sorts. Doing some additional chores that we had sort of ignored and resting up for some more travel!!

Wyoming here we come!!

Crazy Horse Memorial and Custer State Park

Another day of sightseeing today. Returned to the scenic drives through Custer State Park and mostly looked today. We took so many pictures on our first trip through there that we felt we had missed some things. And we were right!! Beautiful scenery and lots of wildlife!!

Cheyenne did get up close and personal with the burros on our drive through Custer State Park today.

The Crazy Horse Memorial is something. It is actually a work in progress with only the face of Crazy Horse completed so far. We saw workers up on the monument today and they looked like little ants. Makes me appreciate Mount Rushmore even more after seeing this. You will see a picture below that will show the current monument with a sculpture that depicts what it will look like when completed.

We watched a film when we first arrived and then toured all of the facilities at the memorial. It was very interesting seeing the folks actually working on some of the Native American arts and crafts that were for sale.

Tomorrow is a work day. Have to get 5er cleaned up and ready to travel on Wednesday. Still working on what our next stop will turn out to be. Should be finalizing that tomorrow. We do know that we will be stopping by Devil’s Tower on our way.

Keep those comments coming please!! It helps us to get your input and feedback since we are so new to full-timing.

Crazy Horse Memorial

And last ‘but not least’ Cheyenne resting in the sun after our long day!!

Day Off

As we mentioned yesterday, we took today off from sightseeing. Charley did make a Walmart  run but the rest of the day was pretty uneventful.

We did enjoy seeing the stagecoach that one of the horse campers brought to the campground. It was paraded around the campground today pulled by a team of horses. Pretty neat!! I will post a picture of the stagecoach with our update tomorrow.

We will have a better update tomorrow. Planning to go to the Crazy Horse monument and go back to Custer State Park for another visit. It is only supposed to get up to 78 degrees tomorrow!!

Keep smiling!!

Lots of Places Today!!

We really went on a road trip in South Dakota today. We visited Hill City, Lead, Deadwood, Sturgis, Spearfish and also drove down the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway on our way back to the campground. Charley took the long steep walk uphill to the Moriah Cemetery and saw the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane in Deadwood. The main streets of each of these towns was very western and very well maintained. Our only regret is that our timing didn’t include any of the festivals, rodeos and things like that but we will try to take care of that the next time we come here, and we probably will.

For those interested in the Broken Arrow Horse Camp and Campground, this is a very nice, quiet campground that is off the beaten path (about 4 miles outside of Custer). It is small but very nice, especially if you like horses!! And I do…. There must have been about 25-30 horses here when we checked in. We would recommend this campground to anyone traveling in this area.

Tomorrow is going to be a quiet day for us. Charley is going to the Ellsworth AFB Commissary tomorrow to pick up a few things and also will be making a Walmart run. Outside of that we are planning to rest and relax the rest of the day while our roast cooks in the crock-pot.

We hope you enjoy the pictures!

Wild Bill Hickok’s grave in Deadwood

Main Street in Deadwood

Where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed

Main Street in Hill City

Gold Mine in Lead

Main Street in Lead

Main Street in Spearfish

Main Street and hillside in Sturgis

All of the pictures below are from the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway

Hot Springs, SD

We took a scenic drive to Hot Springs today. Although it was not as gorgeous as Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore it was a very pretty drive. And we saw more wildlife today!! More pronghorns and buffalo and a new one, prairie dogs!! They are so cute!

We are planning to go out to dinner at a local restaurant tonight and going to the campground ice cream social for a little while. Have to get back to Skype with the grandkids tonight!!  Haven’t talked to them for three days and we are having withdrawal symptoms!!

Hope you like the pictures!!

This waterfall is in downtown Hot Springs

A lot of the storefronts are covered in sandstone.

Some beautiful clouds today!!

Animal sightings!!