During the last two weeks in Rocky Hill, we helped our daughter Stacy reorganize her life. Norm flew down to Savannah and drove a U-Haul truck back to Conn. with many of Stacy’s belongings. We helped Stacy find and furnish an apartment and select a day care for Alexi and celebrated with her when she got a great job at United Healthcare.

Of course, we also spent much of the time doing mundane things (doctor’s visits, income tax, etc.) and reconnecting with our wonderful friends and family. We managed to squeeze in a Gourmet Group dinner where we reminisced about meals gone by....it was a wonderful time.  Our dear friend Gail became our clothes washer woman, she took care of making sure we had clean clothes!  Shelley’s mom came up from NJ and spent a few days with us, helping out with Stacy's move.  We had a great time.

We were planning to leave CT on Sunday morning, May 15. But Shelley is not good at protracted goodbyes, so at noon on Saturday, she said "Let’s go." So off we went. There was lots of construction, and the trip was really bumpy. We arrived in Bloomsburg, Pa around dinner time and parked in a Walmart parking lot. While out walking Rags, Shelley noticed that one of the tires on the motorhome was very low. When checking it out, we noticed that the tire was actually off the rim. One of the mechanics at Walmart tried inflating the tire, but the air just came out around the rim. So we called Coach-Net (the motorhome equivalent of AAA road service). They thought that it didn’t make sense to come out to us until they could find a replacement tire, and they couldn’t find one easily. At one time they though that we would have to wait until Monday morning. So, assuming that we were going to be at Walmart’s for awhile, Shelley decided to go into the store and buy a few odds and ends. While she was there, a tremendous thunderstorm hit with gusty winds, thunder, lightening and heavy rain. After waiting awhile, I donned my foul weather gear, jumped into the car, and drove the few hundred yards to rescue my damsel in distress and return her to the motorhome.

On Sunday morning, we were happy to get a call from Coach-Net that they had found a tire dealer with the tire that we needed and he was on the way. After the new tire was mounted, we were good to go.  We drove across the rest of Pennsylvania and just into Ohio. We stopped for two nights in Kenisee Lake, the Thousand Trails campground in Jefferson, Ohio, near Ashtabula. We were both happy to be back in a regular campground, with sufficient water, power and sewer hookups. The weather was chilly, but the sites were pretty, and we settled down for a short stay here before we leave for the next leg of our trip to the Holiday Rambler factory in Elkhart, Indiana.  The area is known for its covered bridges and wineries, so on Monday we decided to find some covered bridges.  The maps were rather imprecise, so we did lots of driving around to find the bridges, and the first two bridges that we found weren't exceptionally interesting, so we made our way back to the motorhome to relax.

We got up early on Tuesday and headed west on Interstate Routes 80 and 90.  We cruised through Cleveland and Toledo and arrived in Elkhart.  We had checked our maps and it was pretty clear that Indiana was in the Eastern time zone, so we thought that we arrived at around 12:30.  We had an appointment at Camping World at 2 PM and then we were going to check in at the Holiday Rambler service facility.  All of a sudden, Shelley noticed that her cell phone said that it was 11:30.  Had we misread the maps?  We double checked and reconfirmed that Indiana was in the Eastern time zone.  We checked with the Camping World folks and discovered that Indiana was indeed in the Eastern time zone, BUT that they didn't reflect daylight savings time, and thus they were one hour earlier than Ohio and the rest of the eastern time zone.  Anyway, we had Camping World again explain to us how the satellite dish on the motorhome worked, and then we drove a few miles to the repair facility.

Although our appointment was for Wednesday morning, we checked in on Tuesday afternoon at about 2:30 PM.  We had hoped that they could write us up at that time and then the tech could start working on our coach first thing on Wednesday.  But alas, that didn't work.  So we parked behind the bays in a concrete campground with water and power at each site (and a dump station).  We were told to be ready at 6:30 AM on Wednesday morning and Kim Coleman, our service writer didn't appear until 7:15 am.   Wednesday morning, and by 9 AM.  Jason, our tech, was working through the list of things "to do".  On Thursday, once again, we all had to be ready at 6:30 AM.  All of the techs came and picked up their assigned coaches as all of the owners staggered around half awake.  There is a customer's lounge and a concierge to help keep us all busy until the coaches are returned to the sites at around 3 or 3:30 pm.  Most just hung around until their coaches were returned and then it was NAP TIME.  Carolyn, the concierge who ran the lounge, kept things going with a series of activities.  There were early morning 2 mile walks, a pot luck BBQ lunch partially catered by Monaco, a bingo game where everyone won, early morning donuts, a tech talk by a transmission expert and a movie on Friday afternoon.  We were fortunate that our coach was finished on Friday as scheduled.  Mike Miller, the service manager, had "Q" ("Q" is a person) check out our complaints about the design of the computer desk,.  Mike promised that it would be upgraded when we made our return visit in September - we have to take care of painting and repairing an area on the side of the coach where something "moved in our way" (LOLL!) and caused some minor damage.

On Friday morning we finally got to check out our route west.  It seemed as if the trip took us far north (to the tip of Michigan) and then back south to the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota.  We called Joe and Marsha and left a message that we would meet them there next week rather than in Sault Sainte Marie this Saturday.  We need to stay flexible and we'll hang out here in the Monaco Campground until Sunday afternoon and then start heading west again. Another change.  We're going to meet in western Wisconsin on Tuesday morning. 

So we bade goodbye to our friends at Monaco (both employees and customers) and left Elkhart on Sunday morning.  We headed west and got a brief glimpse of Lake Michigan and then drove through Chicago.  We thought that we were going to make it through with only slight traffic delays, but that was not to be, although the delays weren't too bad.  We drove to Lake Helton in south central Wisconsin and pulled into the Walmart parking lot, prepared to spend the night.  But when Shelley went inside to check in with the Walmart manager, she was told that we couldn't stay there due to local statutes.  She gave us directions to another Walmart in nearby Baraboo, and off we went.  On the way we passed a humungous building on our left.  As we slowed the coach to check things out, we found signs saying Ho-Chuck Casino. We made a quick u-turn in a nearby local airport and made our way to the casino parking lot.  Before we had even parked our rig, a casino bus driver pulled up next to us.  We expected to be told that we couldn't spend the night, but instead we were offered a ride to the casino.  Since we hadn't quite gotten organized, we turned down the offer, but shortly afterward we wandered in to see what was going on.  Although the casino doesn't match the spectacular buildings of the 2 casinos near our Rocky Hill, it was fun to go in and check things out.  We wandered around for a few minutes, and then noticed that the slot machines required anything from 2 cents to a dollar (and more, of course) per play.  Being big spenders from the east, we decided to get $5 worth of nickels and play until we lost it.  At one time, Shelley was up $8, but within 20 minutes, we were busted.  We went upstairs for a dinner buffet (big bucks at $11.99 less a 10% discount because we were nice guys) that was ok.  

We got up on Monday looking forward to meeting Marsha and Joe, who were going to Alaska with us (in their coach).  We agreed to meet at a rest stop in Wisconsin on Interstate 90. We got there a few minutes early and, would you believe THE REST STOP WAS BARRICADED SHUT due to construction.  We pulled over into the lane used for exiting the rest stop and waited for Joe and Marsha.  After a bit, they called to tell us that they were delayed because of traffic, so we agreed to meet at the Welcome Stop just into Minnesota.  As we left Wisconsin, we crossed over the Mississippi River.  It was interesting to note that we had crossed the big river in the southernmost and northernmost states that the river touched.  Anyway, the welcome stop was right on the banks of the river, and we ate lunch overlooking the river.  The Elowsky's rolled up soon afterward, and after a few minutes we began to follow each other in single file, a formation that we plan to keep for most of the next 10 weeks.  Not far into Minnesota, we stopped at the town of Austin and stopped to see a small museum.  It was a museum of, would you believe, SPAM.  It was cute and the whole idea of a SPAM museum really tickled my fancy.  We then took some back roads to the town called Albert Lea and spent the night in another Walmart lot.

We stopped off at the Walmart before we left, and Norm noticed signs that offered free coffee and donuts on Tuesdays for senior citizens.  So, in addition to free parking, we also got free breakfast.  Before leaving, we agreed to drive a few hundred miles and meet at the Welcome Center on I-90 just into South Dakota. On the way, we ran over a piece of a wheel rim and put quite a dent in the exhaust of our generator.  The Welcome Center folks recommended a KOA (Campgrounds of America) campground in Sioux Falls and we pulled in around 1 PM.  We found campsites and unhooked our Honda.  We had to make it to Minerva's, a place that Joe and Marsha had eaten at during one of their prior cross country jaunts - and they closed at 2:30.  The food was really good - 3 of us had an awesome great salad bar.  We went for a short walk and passed a craft shop that specialized in "stamping" - in front there was a sign offering supplies to make free Father's Day cards.  So Shelley and Marsha (who NEVER turns down an offer of something for free) went in and cut, pasted and stamped Father's Day cards.  After a short stop at a local museum and a park where the Sioux Falls was located we headed back to the campground and a relaxing afternoon.

On Wednesday, we left the campground in Sioux Falls and headed west.  (Saying that is getting to be a habit.)  Our objective was to reach Mitchell, SD not very far along the interstate.  In Mitchell, one of the sights that we visited was the Corn Palace.  This started out as a building made entirely of ears of corn (except for the framing) but it has evolved into a large building with the outside "sided" with ears of corn (the ears and the decor are changed annually - 265,000 ears of corn are needed - and murals inside made of ears of corn that are changed every 4 or 5 years.  Then we wandered across the street to a Doll Museum - Shelley, Joe and Marsha went through the museum while Norm kibbitzed with one of the staff.  We got a recommendation to go eat lunch at Jackpot Gamblin' where the bill of fare highlighted burgers.  Norm and Marsha did the cowboy bit and had buffalo burgers while Shelley and Joe were BORING (we ate regular hamburgers).  Following lunch, we drove a short distance and visited a prehistoric Indian village.  The place wasn't busy, so the four of us got a personal tour of the museum by a young girl.  Then a retired school teacher took us to a archdome, one of three in the world.  This is a building that is erected over a site that contains the remains of an ancient Indian village.  They have been digging here for 7 or 8 years, and he estimated that they will be digging for another 50 years.  The design of the building allows for moving it to another site some time in the future.  We went to our campground, arriving late in the day - BUT when we got there, we found a bonus waiting for us.  The campground was right behind a motel, and we were allowed to use the indoor hot tub and heated pool of the motel.  In addition there was a tall water slide there.  After the 4 of us sat in the hot tub for awhile, Norm watched two teen age boys climbing the steps and sliding down the waterslide into the pool.  All of a sudden, Norm is at the top of the slide and comes down the serpentine slide and into the pool.  What a kick.  The next time, Shelley also did the slide and had a ball also (I really did slide down this waterslide, screaming all the way!  It was so much fun!!)

We left the campground on Thursday morning and followed the signs for I-90 west.  At about 11:30 we decided to stop at a rest stop on the highway.  Shelley went out to walk Rags and noticed that the front of our motorhome was very low.  Before you know it, everyone was looking underneath to see what they could.  But, of course, none of us could repair the problem, so we called Coach-Net (the motorhome version of AAA) and 3 hours later, the problem was solved and off we went.  After an hour and a half of driving we came to the Badlands Petrified Garden.  Norm had never seen a petrified anything, so the two coaches pulled off to go and visit.  The parking lot was completely empty except for us, and as we walked to the entrance, we had the feeling that the cashier inside was rubbing his hands together and thinking "Aha, some more suckers."  Well, this was one of the things that was an utter disappointment.  Although there was petrified wood there, it was made up of pieces that were found elsewhere and then set up as a display.  It could have just as well been set up in Rocky Hill.  We continued on a while further and found our campground in the middle of the Badlands in western South Dakota.

Friday morning found us planning for an interesting day, but short on driving.  We stopped at the Badlands National Park Information Center briefly.  The park is about 240,000 acres and is dramatically beautiful, with areas of emerald green grassland broken up by desert like areas with formations of sandstone colored in layers of browns and yellows and reds.  These formations appeared to be from 6 feet high to a few hundred feet high and were just fascinating to observe.  I probably took at least 30 pictures, hoping that at least a few will come out good enough to really portray what the area looks like.  Anyhow, after leaving the information center, we drove a loop road of about 35-40 miles long with frequent vistas where we pulled over to just gawk at the scenery.  We could imagine this area being the site of some of the cowboy and Indian movies.  At the end of our Badlands tour, we ended up in Wall, SD.  Wall is a town of about 800 people and the town's only claim to fame is the Wall Drug Store.  This Drug Store was founded in 1931 by a young couple.  The store really struggled, and the owners decided that they might be able to attract some business by offering free drinks of ice water to anyone who stopped there.  Today, there are probably about a hundred signs advertising the drug store for 100s of miles.  This is a mid-west version of South of the Border, which is on I-95 about half way between NY and Florida.  Anyway, Wall Drugs employs 60 during off-season and 200 during the summer, and today about 5,000 glasses of ice water are given away each day during the summer, when 20,000 people might stop off to visit.  There are so many different kinds of businesses under the Wall Drug name, selling anything that tourists might want to buy.  After leaving Wall, we drove a little further west in South Dakota, and stopped off at a campground in Hermosa, near Rapid City and the tourist attractions of the Black Hills. 

Saturday found us playing tourist.  We left our campground and headed for Mount Rushmore.  We followed the road up and down mountains, and occasionally we were treated to open sights of Mount Rushmore; some were incredible views through the trees, and one in particular as we emerged from a tunnel that had been designed just so that the monument was right in front of your eyes. Anyway, the carvings on Mount Rushmore were stated in 1927 and completed in 1941.  Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln and Teddy Roosevelt stand atop the mountain, with their heads about 60 feet high.  The work cost about $1 million and was paid for mostly by the Federal government.  At the beginning, the workmen had to carry their tools up 760 steps each day, certainly a daunting task.  We all really enjoyed seeing the mountain, although Norm found the three level parking lot and the large facility designed to accommodate all of the tourists who arrive daily out of synch with the beautiful natural scenery in the area.  We left Mount Rushmore and drove a short distance to the Crazy Horse Memorial to the American Indians.  This memorial is completely funded by the private sector, and is a long way from completion.  When completed, it will include a full size statue of Crazy Horse on a horse.  (We don't think it will be completed in 100 years....the task at hand is pretty enormous)  The carving will be roughly 500 feet by 500 feet, much larger then Mount Rushmore; Crazy Horse's head is roughly 1 1/2 times the size of the faces on Mount Rushmore.  Although we will not be able to see it, they plan to do another blasting on Memorial Day.  It will be dramatic.  

On Sunday we drove about 30 miles to Rapid City, the nearest sizable shopping.  We visited Lowe's, Sam's Club and Walmart's and picked up groceries and other necessities of daily life.  The afternoon was spent doing numerous odd jobs and preparing the motorhomes for the next leg of our journey north and west. 

Monday, May 30 was Memorial Day, but for us it was just another day in paradise.  We returned to I-90 in Rapid City, SD, and before we knew it we were in Wyoming - that just sounds so funny for 2 people from NY/NJ!!  After a relatively short time we exited the interstate in Sundance, Wyoming, a town whose name sounds familiar to all....and then we started to climb.  In a short time, the GPS showed an elevation of 5380 feet.  Then we went downhill for a while, and all of a sudden, THERE IT WAS.  Devil's Tower appeared out of nowhere as we rounded a mountain.  The tower, which was featured in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind", rises 867 feet from its base...the area of the top is about 1.5 acres.  The weather was absolutely horrible, so we had lunch in our motorhome and just took some pictures from the parking area.  Despite the poor weather, and maybe because of the holiday, the regular parking lot was full, and they made us park some distance away in a camping and picnic area.  On the way out, we saw a village of prairie dogs but they were all shy, so we didn't get any pictures.  We made our way back to the interstate and exited awhile later at the town of Buffalo, WY.  The town itself seemed perfectly charming, and we followed the road signs out of town into the country.  Before we knew it, the altitude started rising, and the GPS showed 6,000 feet and then 7,000 feet.  You will never guess what happened when we got to 7,000 feet.  The miserable rain that had been falling all day turned to SNOW, and the mountain side turned into a scene of incredible beauty.  The road continued to rise, and the top reading of the GPS was 9,863 feet.  Despite the generally poor visibility, the unfolding views were absolutely unbelievable.  I was surprised to see an Alpine meadow  at about the 9,400 foot level, with reasonably level fields of green. The whole trip of 65 miles through the Big Horn Mountains was just spectacular, nothing like we've ever seen before.  On the way down, we passed a sign that said "6% grade next 10 miles"...and down we went.  At the top, the snow was so heavy that it was accumulating on our windshield, but by the 8,500 foot level the snow ended.  At about the 5,200 foot level, the road wended its way down the side of a cliff, with numerous hairpin turns, until we emerged in a U-shaped canyon that was about 800 feet wide and 800 feet high.  It was just spectacular - words can't describe the beauty and pictures can't do it justice - and unfortunately, because of the weather, we weren't able to take any pictures.  In a short distance we continued down to a level of about 4,600 feet where we found a campground in the town of Ten Sleep, Wyoming, population 308.  While getting settled in the campground, I reflected on the usual activities on Memorial Day - used to be we'd watch our kids in a parade, take our sailboat out for a cruise or have a picnic with friends or family - it was a very different Memorial Day for us.  Instead of the warmth of the East coast to snow in Big Horn Mountain - who wudda believed?   By the way, do you want to hazard a guess how Ten Sleep got its name?  It was ten sleeps (ten nights-ten days) travel from The Sioux Camps on the Platte River to the Sioux Camps near Bridger, Montana.  We got up on Tuesday morning and, again, pointed the motorhome westbound.  eventually we came to the town of Cody, Wyoming.  Of course there was a connection with Buffalo Bill Cody.  He apparently lived in the area for a time and actually mapped out the city.  We stopped at the local Visitor's Center, and Shelley decided to browse through the town, while Joe, Norm and Marsha went to visit Old Trail Town.  This is  collection of old log cabins (mostly built from 1880-1900 arranged to look like an old western town.  A number of old western characters, including Jeremiah "Liver Eating" Johnson are buried there.  Bob Edgar, who did most of the work in collecting and reassembling the buildings, was sitting around - so we shmoozed with him and his wife.  After a bit, we went back into Cody to get Shelley and our motorhome.  She spent the afternoon wandering around Cody, bought herself a latte and went to the Cody Public Library to have her last dose of internet before going up to the hills - where we knew we wouldn't have internet or cell service for 3 days!!  So, off we went, up, up, and away.  We entered the Rocky Mountains on the way to Yellowstone Park.  The pass topped off at about 8,530 feet, and then we entered Yellowstone, the first National Park.  Soon we came to a construction zone, where they were working with heavy machinery on the small area between the mountains high above and the canyons that appeared to be directly below us.  Those construction guys sure were pretty courageous.  The zone was about 8 miles long, and they held up the traffic going one way while a caravan passed going the other way.  And again we encountered a blinding blizzard as we went through the mountains.  And then we came to Yellowstone Lake and our campground in Fishing Bridge (where incidentally, you fishing is prohibited) at an altitude of 7,800 feet.  Norm had a slight headache, probably from the elevation and lack of oxygen.  After we set up and had dinner, we went looking for wildlife but saw nothing.