Long Drive

Well, the 1,000 mile (return)drive was certainly worth it. We came back to Wisconsin to see The House on the Rock, as suggested by my cousin and his wife in Sault Ste. Marie Ont. This place was started by a Mr. Alex Jordan Sr. in the 40's. It essentially is a house built on a rock pinnacle. His son Alex Jr. completed it in 1959. The house has very low ceilings by any standards, but the builder was 6'4" tall. It has a definite Oriental theme to the house itself and has a very diverse collection(s) of items. For example, it has the world's largest carousel with 239 animal creations, 182 chandeliers, 20,000 light bulbs and no horse heads. There are also two large doll carousels, one is the largest of it's kind. There a large doll displays, doll houses, gun displays along with armour. This doesn't take into account the Oriental pieces throughout the complex. If ever in the area of Madison or more specifically Spring Green Wisc. it's worth the visit. Tomorrow, it's back to the north east direction again for our get together with friends in Mich.
www.thehouseontherock.com

Sunday Aug 29

Nothin' much to write about. We are not too far from Green Bay Wisc. Tomorrow night will see us close to our destination The House on the Rock and more details will follow after that visit. As we understand it, it's a house built into a solid rock and houses some interesting collections. The weather has been hot...in the high 80's. It is 8:30 pm now and it's 83 F., with more promised for tomorrow.

Here we are again !! 8-26-10

Yup, we're still alive a kickin (?) ! Back on the 22nd we were in Oshkosh and from there travelled up to Rapid River Mich. and stayed in a small but pretty private campground. The 24th had us arrive back in Canada ( insurance politics) and stayed in a nicely wooded campsite in Sault Ste. Marie. The rain came and the temperature dropped yesterday (25th) to about 43 overnight . Yesterday we had a great visit first with my aunt. She is the last living member of my dad's siblings. At soon to be 92, she can still hold her own being a very determined lady. After enjoying lunch with her ( Wendy's at her request), we went back to the campground to be joined later in the afternoon by her son Rick and his wife Mary. Our visit with them lasted 'til supper time, so it was off to Swiss Chalet to complete the visit. By the way....the leaves are changing colour up in the Soo. We are now back in the USA, back tracking to Wisconsin to see an attraction we missed on the way through. Nothing in the tour books about this House on the Rocks, but Mary and Rick mentioned it. As we have 12 days to put time in with before the get together with the Troy Alabama group we thought we'd do the trip.

Oshkosh by gosh

We crossed the Mississippi about 15 minutes after leaving the campground in Iowa this morning, thus entering Wisconsin. It didn't take long for the landscape to change from essentially flat, to more rolling hills. About 1/2 way to Oshkosh, we came upon these two Model A trucks driving along Hwy 151 at a pretty fair rate of speed.....nice to see 'em out. Speaking of which, we have found a 1929 Sport Coupe, the same colour and general condition of the one we parted with ( under sad conditions ). Before it can be purchased, ours must be sold. Anyone with a fast and firm 10K can be the proud owner of a 1930 Fordor. Please buy it and make Sue happy
again with the Sport Coupe. We are camping tonight outside Oshkosh, on the shore of Lake Winnebago

Corn and beans

Yup, if weren't for corn and soybeans, Iowa would just be dirt. We are enjoying our second day/night at a State Park outside Dubuque, which is the border between Iowa and Wisconsin, which is where we'll be tomorrow ( Sunday ) night. The trip int town allowed us to visit the Shot Tower which is the only such structure West of the Mississippi. These were used to produce steel shot in the late 1800's for use as bullets as well as industrial use. We also took a ride up and down the Fenlon Place 4th Street Elevator. This is a funicular railway that is claimed to be the world's shortest and steepest such device. It is 296 feet in length and raises you up ( or down ) 189 feet from Fourth Street to Fenelon Place. We also went into a park overlooking the Mississippi River where two guys were fishing...a black and a white...very Southern looking in the Mid-West.

http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A

Oh yes

We are movin' right along. Last posting had us leaving S.D., which we did and moved into Nebraska. We have rain today in Iowa ( after saying we hadn't had any for a long time) They've had too much here. A number of corn fields are flooded and we saw one road closed today because of flooding. We spent last night ( Monday ) at the Ponca State Park in Nebraska. A very nice place indeed. We are now in Jewell Iowa at a community park at the edge of a lake ( hope the rain stops). I'll try to post pics later, although the reception on the air card is weak here...again. The map on the side of the trailer is getting full. After Mich., we hope to hit the East Coast, New Hampshire, Maine etc., then head South along the coast ending up in Alabama sometime likely in November or early December. We'll likely leave the trailer there for the month of January and drive back to Ontario, then return to Alabama for the month of February.

Very interesting

Our two days/nights in Mitchell SD have been really neat. There really isn't too much to see, other than the Corn Palace. This building is used for concerts etc. but what makes it unique is the exterior covering. It is all corn or corn by products (stalk etc). Even more amazing is the fact they change it every year at an annual cost of over $100,000.00 and each year is a different design.
We move on tomorrow to Nebraska for one night then into Iowa. The weather of late has been warm, with two days of 100 + temps and the past couple of days more moderate at 75-80. We have not experienced rain for well over a month although SD has been soaked before we arrived.

August 13, 2010

We stayed in Interior SD last night ( Thur) which is just outside Badlands National Park. On the way to the Park, we stopped off at a 1909 Homestead which consisted of a sod house, cave ( which was actually a cold or root cellar built into the side of a hill )and a barn and shed. These are all original and except for maintenance are as they were in 1909. After setting up we did a tour of part of the Badlands. Quite an unusual place. To us it looked much like Scarborough Bluffs would appear from the water.
That evening we met the people next site over, from Florida and they introduced us to a card/board game called Sequence....kinda neat.
Tonite we changed time zones and now on central time, an hour behind Ontario. We are in a State Park just outside Platte SD. Tomorrow and the following night we will be in Mitchell SD, the home of the Corn Palace ( Google it ).

http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A

104

This is the 3rd attempt !!!!! We are in Wall SD after a few great days in the Black Hills at Custer, enjoying the Monuments of Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore. The scenery and roads are spectacular and the 35 MPH speed limit allows you to fully enjoy all there is to see. The 5,000 + motorcycles in the immediate Custer area are less than 1% of the bikes in Sturgis but still a sight hard to comprehend. The several tunnels carved out of solid granite are amazing and VERY narrow. We didn't retract our truck mirrors and managed to lightly scrape one on a tunnel wall. We are in Wall which is famous for handing out ice water during the western migration in the depression....people would stop or couldn't afford water so Walls gave it away as a ploy to get people to stop. Today it is really just a large ( 76,000 sft) store. At 2:00 this afternoon, it was 104F and the same is forecast for tomorrow.

http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A

for picture updates

South Dakota

The drive from Ten Sleep Wy to GILLette ( not "jill ette") was very scenic through the Big Horn Mountains, actually most of Montana and Wyoming have been. The scenery changes almost at every bend in the road. The campground in Gillette was sorta iffy, but it was only for one night. The number of Harley's on the road, both coming away from and going to Sturgis is ever increasing.....what a site They really feel 500,000+ bikes are there. We arrived in Custer, South Dakota around noon. After lunch we started off on the Wildlife Loop through Custer State Park. In order to do so, it was necessary to drive through Custer and an estimated 1,000 bikes in town plus about that many in the park roads. We shared the road with them through the park and enjoyed feeding the "wild" donkeys. We also viewed deer (actually Pronghorns) and Buffalo. The campground today and tomorrow is wonderful , set in a pine woods. Here again we have about 75-100 bikes camping out......I must say, they are very friendly and try to keep the noise level down. Tomorrow it's off to Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments.


http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A

Up but not away

Well, as mentioned earlier, we went to the gunfight and guess what....the good guys won again, Pretty head to beat Wyatt Earp, Doc Holiday and Buffalo Bill. We had also intended to watch the hot air balloons but the weather stopped that idea. We have found the afternoons in Montana and Wyoming bring very sudden weather changes. In 15 minutes it will go from sunny and warm to very high winds a drop in tempature and hard rain. This is what happened again Fri night. Saturday moring at 6:00 we up and out to the field in an effort to watch the moring launch of the balloons......they get one inflated but the wind came up and the balloon came down. We are now in Ten Sleep Wy. named by the natives way back. They used to determine days travelled by the number of "sleeps" while on their migrations. This was ten sleeps. There were a large number of Harley's here last night as we are not too far from Sturgis SD. They are expecting between 500,000 and 750,000 people there this coming week....most on bikes. A good place NOT to be. Several of the riders were coming Back from there, havin just passed through. The campgrounds are charging by the person at each tent site at a rate of over $100.00 for 1 up to 4 nights and that rate increased the closer the rally date approached. Today we head off to Gillette Wy.

The drive from Yellowstone RV Park to Cody was a beautiful 20 mile drive. We toured the Buffalo Bill Dam, completed in 1910, only after two of the original contractors went out of business. At the time, it was the highest dam in the USA at 310 feet....taller than the Capital Building in Washington. It is a concrete dam that uses no re-enforcing steel. There is a layer of concrete then a layer of rock and so on. After checking into the campground, we did a walk about in town which is a tourist town , but a nice one. At night, we went to a rodeo...they hold one each night of the week during June, July and August. It was an excellent show. They had a kids portion as well, where kids as young as 6 were taking part...boy those kids can ride. Today ( Friday ) we took trolley tour of the area and tonight we are off to a gun fight, then out of town to a hot air balloon festival.

Montana or Wyoming ????

As Yellowstone crosses both state lines, it is sometimes difficult to know where ya are......that isn't restricted to Yellowstone for us. We got an early start, as hoped, in an effort to beat some of the heavy traffic encountered yesterday...it worked. We were able to stop and enjoy many of the side venues mentioned in the tour books. It is truly amazing how many steam vents, geysers and mud pools there are here. Yellowstone is actually a cauldron of a volcano, which is generally agreed, will erupt some day. In the meantime it bubbles away, very close to the surface. One of the Rangers mentioned today that an Elk went off one of the animal trails and fell through the strata. In less than a week it was just bones because of the heat and minerals in the "soil". It took about 6 hours to travel the 150 or so miles ( almost as slow as a Model A ) because of all the natural displays we stopped to see. Old Faithful lived up to her name and blew right on schedule...very dramatic. When we left the park we drove through Shoshone National Forest which was a sight on it's own with the sandstone cliffs eroded by the weather. We are now in Wyoming about 18 miles from Cody where we will be tomorrow for 2 nights.....how about that 18 miles and it takes two days to recover. We were going to go to Sturgis SD for the Harley Rally, but alas no camping available....they book a year in advance, so it'll be on to Custer after Cody.

Hot Stuff

Yes siree Bob, this place is HOT. We have driven from Mammoth Hot Springs to West Yellowstone where we are in a private campground, just outside the park. What a drive it was. The first pic was taken at a place called Norris Geyser Basin which is full of steam vents like this. The second was at a place right on the side of the road. The crowds on the roads are quite heavy. As a result, tomorrow we will be mobile by 7:30 to head towards Old Faithful.....that's gonna hurt.

http://picasaweb.google.com/192950A

has updated pictures of day 2.

Yellowstone day 1

After a early start ( for us) we arrived at the Mammoth Spring Campground inside Yellowstone Park. We were here at about 10:30 and they figured the campground would be full within the hour......it was. Once setup and lunch was out of the way, we were off on one of the circle tours they recommend ( about 65 miles). What a diverse landscape. Everything from 9,000 ft mountain passes to sulphur springs and waterfalls. This is a "dry campground, which means no hookups. We can run the generator until 8:00 tonight. Our fridge doesn't work on anything but 110V. It will run on propane, but needs 110V to do so......go figure. Tomorrow we move to another campground just outside the park and close to another entrance. This place is huge, not as big as Algonquin, but big none the less. We have internet which was a surprise. The air card works out here.