Greenwood, NE

Today we went into Omaha. Got our tire fixed and poked around the mall while we waited. Found a great candy store, all the old fashioned stuff we grew up with. Of course we had to buy some :-) It also had hundreds of PEZ dispensers. Carole, it wasn't as good as "our" five and dime but it had to do. From there we went to Omaha Steaks and bought a few things there were a lot of bargains. Couldn't get too much because the freezer is so small. Then off to Wal Mart to buy groceries. Not a very exciting day but a productive one.

Greenwood, Nebraska

Huge field of corn right along the road of the campground. Tree that is on our lot, not sure what it is.

Well we just followed our noses today and ended up in Nebraska. A long and very boring drive, 8 hours worth of farm pasture and acres upon acres of corn. We are back in civilization and with that comes the crazy traffic. Lots of highway construction everywhere we went. The speed limit, even with construction was at least 55 sometimes 65 so there wasn't a slow down involved. We are staying at the Pine Grove RV Park & Campground. Beautiful place with lots of grass and trees. It has a pool, picnic tables and large pull through lots. We will be here for a two nights. Hope to get the tire fixed so we will have a spare.

Chamberlain, SD

Just a tad breezy today.

We're still in South Dakota, can't seem to leave :-) Today we went to the Akta Lakota Museum & Cultural Center. It is on the campus of the St Joseph's Indian School, a boarding school for Indian children. There is a whole admission application that the parents have to make out. The kids get a mainstream education as well as vocational training and classes/clubs related to their heritage. The art work in the museum is stunning. Couldn't take any pictures inside but we spent a great deal of time there. We then went to one of the nearby reservations. Carole, we knew immediately when we came to the Rez housing and we saw the total Rez cars, of course we thought of you because you would understand exactly what we are talking about. We had lunch at the casino and sucked a bit of money into the slots. The Lakota are the largest growers of corn for pop corn in the nation. They even have their own brand of pop corn in the grocery store, (we saw it there but didn't buy any). It has been very windy here. There is nothing to stop the wind, rolling hills (the humpy, bumpy mountains) and acres of pasture or farm land. It blew around 30 mph most of the day. Teeming rain one minute then sunshine, very strange weather. We are heading off tomorrow, not sure where we will end up. Maybe Iowa or close to the border we'll let you know when we get there.

Chamberlain, SD

It was decided to spend another couple of days in S Dakota. We took a little "hop" to Chamberlain. We are at the American Creek Campground. We arrived with a gale force wind blowing down along the river (Missouri). I didn't let up until supper time when we had a huge thunder storm with torrents of rain. I cleared up and turned quite nice, we were able to take a walk and snap some pictures. This campground is close to a park with picnic area, beach and pier (last pic). We actually get a couple TV stations but had to pay for Internet. Very pretty park, trees, grass and the river is a bonus. Fire pits and picnic tables make this one of the best places we have been at in quite some time. Trip was uneventful, lots of pasture land but more farm land. Still lots of bales of hay. I did find out that the yellow plants of Alberta were yellow clover. Might be in for another thunder storm as the sky is getting rather dark. View of the river out of our window with the bumpy kind of mountains. We are also one more time zone closer to home. We passed into the Central time zone this afternoon, only an hour difference, getting closer.

Badlands, SD

I loved the Badlands and could spend many more hours here just looking out over the fields and mountains.

This was some sort of storm in the area, not sure if it was rain or sand. It was way off in the distance.

Juniper forest that is a habitat for many birds and other wild life.

We ended the day at Wall Drug which is in Wall, SD. It is an entire block of shops which does include a drug store and cafe.

Badlands, SD

A few more pics from the park. The ground is very dry and looks like this all over. There is plenty of living things in this desolate country including cacti.

Prairie dogs for Sara, they were everywhere. When we stopped they were chattering up a storm ;-)

The colors in these were just amazing. This was once a shallow sea. When the sea dried out it became a lush forest and this is some of the remnants of that forest.

Badlands, SD

The badlands are beautiful. It might be stark mountains on one side but grass and trees on the other. Of course, Owen wasn't happy with the rattlesnake signs that were posted everywhere, we never saw any.

We took a couple of hikes along the way and we literally ran into three deer. This one just stopped and stared at us staring at her. Tepees were at the visitors center.

Interior, SD

Drat they went in backwards. Oh well it doesn't really matter.

We arrived at Circle 10 Campground yesterday. WiFi is available but not at the campsites. It was very windy so decided not to blog at the office. This is a run of the mill campground with trees, grass, picnic tables and a pool. TV stations are pretty non existent. You can get a couple of public broadcasting stations but nothing else. Uneventful trip here. Left the mountains and drove into miles of pasture land. Saw a couple of deer/antelope. Acres of grassland with hundreds of bales of hay (is it still a bale if it is the round things?) There are also hundreds of grasshoppers, they actually litter the side of the road. As with every place we stay at this one had its faults, like the kids that were screaming at the top of their lungs (with oblivious parents) around 7 this morning. Other than that it is pretty good.

Custer, SD

This young man was revealing rib bones.

We drove through a park that had herds of buffalo had to stop a couple of times to let them cross. Also saw antelope and deer and huge fields of prairie dogs.

Model of what is supposed to have happened.

We went to The Mammoth Site today. It is an actual archaeological dig. It began in 1975 and they are still excavating the site. It is all enclosed so work is continuous. Due to geological reasons a sink hole developed and filled with warm water. The mammoths went into the pole to soak and found that the walls were to slippery to get out, so they died from starvation or drowning. There are many layers of skeletal remains which haven't been excavated. A bore hole goes down 65 more feet. Most of the 58 mammoths that have been found were adolescent males. They were inexperienced and probably had just left the herd. A few other bones have been found. Most have not been identified. Supposition is that it might be a giant short faced bear or an American lion. Carole you would love it there!

Mt Rushmore

These were the stairs that went down, we still had the ones that went up.

We also went to Mt Rushmore this afternoon. It too is quite impressive but we would have been more impressed if we had gone here first. The four heads of Mt Rushmore will fit on the face of Crazy Horse. It is still a beautiful place. The walkway is lined with state flags and each state has a facet of the post with their entrance to the Union date and what number they were when they entered. The snack shop has pictures of every president to date. There is a nice walk to viewing areas. A thunder storm decided to come through while we were on the boardwalk so we did the end rather aerobically :-) Of course it had to be the strenuous part of the hike. We were rather gasping for air when we reached the end of all the stairs, so sad.