DAY 5 - BEARTOOTH MOUNTAINS

Our tour guide du jour, Marta, took us to nearby Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness. We hiked the Woodbine trail along the Stillwater River, near Stillwater Mine. Pronounced "ab-sor-kee" the rapids, rocks, cliffs and trail held something for everyone to enjoy. The wilderness is actually almost 1,000,000 acres in size and many of the mountain peaks are still covered with snow. During our hike there was much discussion about the Cascade Fire, which raged about 15 miles from where we were. The Beartooth Highway, Red Lodge Ski Resort and homes near the fire line were being evacuated as we hiked peacefully under the blue skies.

And, A River Runs Through It.

This is my favorite picture of the day. Away from the roar of the falls, where the river runs more calm, he casts his line.

DAY 4 - ON THE ROAD AGAIN

After 10 hours of car repairs and a missed day of sightseeing we were on the road to Montana. Thanks to the folks at Rapid Chevrolet in Rapid City, SD, especially Bill Sumners. Not only were they dealing with us, but also juggling the emergencies of many other families passing through on vacation. (In addition to their regular customers.) They made all of us feel like we were their priority. What great customer service! Some of us got out later than others, but all of us eventually got back on the road to our destinations.

It was a disappointing day for sightseeing for the kids, so even though it was late in the day and my best buddy Marta was waiting on us, we seized the opportunity to stray off course slightly through Wyoming and catch a view of Devil's Tower at sunset. The setting sun added an even deeper red shade to the mountain. There is a path that goes all the way around the Tower, so you can take in it's beauty 360 degrees. Along the way we met people from all over, a group of ladies from Minnesota headed to Glacier National Park, mountain climbers from New Mexico who were just coming down the mountain from a two-hour climb, and other folks jokingly asking where they landed the space crafts (Close Encounters).

While this delayed us for an additional three hours, it did put a smile on everyones' faces as we didn't feel the whole day was wasted. We arrived late, late at Marta's (about 3:30 am)...and now with about 3 hours sleep we are headed out to explore some of Montana's wilderness.

We'll post pictures later when the wireless signal is stronger.

dear MOM,

mom i just wanted to say im doing good seeing cool stuff and have'nt spent a dollar yet,so i just wanted to say hello so hi mom.

ps:from D.J. to my beatiful mother

DAY 3 - RUSHMORE CAVE

One of the casualties of today's plan was our visit to Wind Cave National Park. Being 50 miles and many mountain roads, we had to cancel the trip (along with Custer National Park and Crazy Horse Monument). We substituted for a closer cave to Keystone, Rushmore Cave. And none of us were disappointed.

This cave was discovered back in the days of the gold rush in South Dakota. When no gold could be found in the cave, the miners abandoned it.

Years later, local children stumbled upon the ladder to the cave, and made it their playground. They were the original "spelunkers". These kids explored and navigated the first portion of the cave and the "post office" area. The post office was where the kids, actually the whole town, challenged themselves to climb into and sign their name on the walls of the larger room. You can still see their names on the stone of the chamber. This is the stuff of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.

Overall, it was a great experience for us first time spelunkers. The passageways were easy to navigate, there was some steep stairs, a ladder, and a few low overhangs (I only hit my head once, luckily the boys weren't around to laugh at me). An hour tour, well worth the admission.

Visiting the Mountain!

This morning we dealt with lingering car problems from our arrival last night. So, we were off to a late start on our major destination point of this trip. Unfortunately, it also meant changing some of our other stops for the day, which was probably more disappointing for me than the kids.

They were great. We all whispered words of encouragement to our Envoy, we all now call her Bessie, as she struggled up the 1,000 foot climb from Keystone to Mount Rushmore National Park. We knew we might risking further damage to her transmission, but we were on a mission. She didn't fail us.

I can't tell you the rush of coming around the bend on the last incline and see those stunning faces carved into the side of the mountain. I've seen hundreds of pictures of the park but to see them in person was incredible. The imagination of one man and the vision of many others, and the hard work of 400+ workers to bring it to life is inspiring.

DAY 2 - THE BADLANDS

After catching up on lost sleep, everyone was out by 7pm, we were ready to hit the road and head to the Badlands. We pulled out of Mitchell, South Dakota at 8:30 am (after grabbing reshoots of the Corn Palace-see below)

The skies to the west were dark and as we hit I-90 it was starting to rain. The weather remained threatening until we crossed the Missouri River. There wasn't a cloud in the sky as we entered the Badlands. And the heat was starting to crank up.

No one was disappointed in what we saw. As a matter of fact, if it wasn't for the heat, we would have spent the entire day exploring every peak and gully. We were all so impressed, that we changed our plans for our return and are skipping the Oregon Trail for a second trip back into the park. (The $15 pass is good for 7 days...such a small price for so much beauty).

As the architect Frank Lloyd Wright wrote, "I've been about the world a lot, and pretty much over our own country, but I was totally unprepared for that revelation called the Dakota Bad Lands...what I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere-a distant architecture, ethereal.., and endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it."

I can truly understand why an architect would be so inspired by the beauty of colors and the sculpture of the land. As Jacob said, "This is tight."

Links to all the pictures are to the left.

The Loser User Day 1

So, yes, as DJ has noted below my perfect plans to chronicle our adventures has already gone awry. After discovering no internet access aboard the SSBadger, I was not deterred. I photographed our arrival, departure and various stops along the way for the first 12 hours of our journey. This included a group shot of us before we boarded in Ludington, pictures of our Envoy being loaded, people eager to waive goodbye to us along the way, seagulls following the ship, and our arrival in Manitowac, Wisconsin.

We decided to take shifts driving through the night, and made a breakfast stop at a beautiful little town, Blue Earth, Minnesota. This tidy, petite town is home to a huge statue of the Jolly Green Giant, greeting you at the entrance to the fairgrounds. His side kick "Lil Sprout'' greets you at a gas station as you enter off the highway. Great photo op...made sure to get some good pictures there.

So onward we go to our final destination, determined to finish our marathon to Mitchell, South Dakota. We arrived at 10 am today, Mitchell time. Our room wasn't ready, so we decided to visit the infamous Mitchell Corn Palace. After carefully photographing the place, including group pictures of my reluctant travel companions, we headed to the local park for some down time while we waited for our room.

This seemed to be the perfect time to download the 100+ pictures I had taken along the way...since we still couldn't find a wireless signal, I could at least get this out of the way. After plugging in my card reader, I opened I- Photo to download the pics from my camera. Nothing. Impatiently I pulled the card out of the reader. WARNING!!!! WARNING!!! I felt like Will Robinson (only us 40+ somethings will get that). Clearly something wasn't right, the card reader wasn't reading the disk after that, and when I loaded the card back into the camera, I discovered everything I shot was GONE!

The photo below was an expression of that moment, as anyone who knows me would understand. Lost photos are like losing a limb! My carefully planned documentary of our event is now missing its first chapter! I am a sore loser user, but I have trained my companion DJ enough to recognize a good photo op!

So, we'll go back and reshoot the Corn Palace before we leave...but the departure shots are gone! We'll have to relive those in our memories! And so far...those memories are great!

_KRS

Here is a re-shoot of the Corn Palace:

DAY 1

the first day the journey has started ok.....
we went on the ss badger but, we lost the pictures because of aunt kathy but she is still a good aunt.so thats wat we did on the first day the whole ride across lake michigan was 4 hours it was smooth and took for ever to fall asleep so thats the first day.
=DJ