Author: livingthedreamwithsallyandvic

We decided not to stay at the Wall because of the heat (high 90’s today) and it’s very dusty. Instead we took pictures of it and visited Wall Drug, a full block broken up into small browser friendly shops and all connected under cover and air conditioned. A lot of it touristy but Vic found me a turquoise ring that I love.

Then we went through Tidal Wave Auto Spa and got a car wash for $30 which is a little pricey but they include a ceramic finish at the end that makes it worthwhile. Truck looks like it just rolled off the showroom (almost).

That’s as close as we got to the Badlands. Oh well, there’s always next year. This is a crummy phone picture. In real time it’s spectacular. There are no designated spaces – it’s a free for all and available areas are along the edge a long long ways.

Tomorrow we will go 220 miles and stay in the parking lot of a farm implements museum. In other words a tractor museum haha can’t wait to see that.

In all our travels we have never met or even seen a camper with solar and lithium batteries and a mini split and a Starlink. Plenty of people have solar but usually it’s just enough to recharge their phones and other devices. So far we are one of a kind. Just find that interesting.

We will leave on Monday and head to “the Wall “. It’s a boondocking spot also called little Grand Canyon. Wait til you see the breathtaking views. Wall is also a town, home to Wall Drug. We drove past Wall Drug today during our scouting trip. It’s a huge block long building with everything under the sun for sale.

Meanwhile we had dinner Friday night at the Grille, the restaurant run by the Elks Lodge. We enjoyed outdoor seating and watched the golfers. The special that night was prime rib which of course I had. Yum!! Excellent dinner – tender and delicious meat with Yukon gold mashed and veg. I had to share my prime rib with Zoe, there was no way around it, she was obsessed. 😊

I have to admit I am looking forward to ordering from Panera again, I do love their bowls.

We are staying at Elks Lodge 1187, the nicest Elks we have stayed at. They have a ton of property including a Grille, an RV park with full hook ups and a golf course with a driving range and everything else you’d expect to find. We are in their very roomy parking lot with a huge grassy area next to us. $25 a night for us. $55 for the people at the hook ups. Accommodations in this area are pricey being so close to Mt Rushmore and other attractions. Other RV parks are $125/night.

Today we saw Mt. Rushmore. We did a drive by and avoided the tourist scene near the monument. I’ve been wanting to see this for quite a while and it is very impressive.

Then we stopped at a dog park for Zoe.

Then we went on Needles Highway with narrow tunnels.

We walked around the town of Keystone and had lunch. Not sure if it’s really a town, it was a street of shops and restaurants on both sides of the street.

Here is Zoe and me sitting next to a statue of Lincoln.

Then we went to see Crazy Horse. Again, we did a drive by. This attraction was a real money grab starting with $30 parking fee. So we got a photo, all we really wanted.

Yesterday on a (foolish) whim I decided to hike up to the Tower from the campground and then hike the loop around the Tower. It was uphill for the first 2 miles but a nice walk overall. My pictures are all on my phone, apologies.

Today we are going to Rapid City, SD. Yay, a new State!

First stop was Mikesell-Potts Recreation Area for 2 nights. There was nothing special about the place but it was a long day of driving to get there so we needed a day to rest.

Second stop is to see Devil’s Tower, the first national monument, established in 1924 by Theodore Roosevelt. Since it’s part of the National Park Service we got in for free and paid $20 to camp for one night. Every available spot is taken, many of them by people with tents. Many of these “tenters” are older people, old as in after they lay down in a sleeping bag will they be able to get back up? Lol.

The Tower is ignaceous rock and quite impressive. The literature says the top is the size of an American football field and is covered with plants.

We left the park to gas up the truck and found out the nearest gas station is 9 miles away, in the town of Hulett, WY. strange, right?

Pictures from today.

On our way back into the park we noticed a colony of Prairie dogs. People were pulling over to take pictures and giggle over how adorable they are. Zoe watched from inside the car. She was mesmerized!

Tomorrow we will go to Rapid City, SD. We heard tonight that Trump will be there. Wish us luck we don’t get caught up in his fiasco.

First, we are still here in Montana enjoying mid 70’s daytime temps. We will stay another week, waiting for cooler temps on our route back to FL.

Second, our plans have changed regarding painting the camper. Vic found another place in Plant City, FL where it will be a LOT cheaper and we can stay in the camper while they do the work. Instead of spending $16 K for the paint job and another $2,500 for a hotel ($75/night for 3 weeks) it will be $6K !!!!! Hurray!!!! Work is scheduled to begin October 30.

Meanwhile we worry about friends and family in Florida with Idalia getting ready to slam the coast as a hurricane with wind and rain continuing across the state.

We are leaving Carbella tomorrow (Monday) morning, headed to Iowa. I would list the itinerary but it’s likely to change.

We found a company in Iowa (CDI) that repaints campers. We’ve been talking about doing this for quite a while. We’ve watched videos on how to do it ourselves and found where we could order decals to exactly replace what we have. It seems like one of those projects that would take a lot of elbow grease and time and yuck! Sally does not want to do it. The decal kit just by itself is almost $3K.

A woman we became friends with, Vivian, at the Malmstrom AFB campground went to a rally where this company CDI has flyers and reps. We’ve talked to the company a couple of times and decided this is the best way to get it done.

We will drop the camper off in Iowa Sept 5. It takes 3 weeks. While we wait we will stay at Ft. McCoy in Wisconsin. We can get a room with a microwave, etc for $75 a night. The paint job will be about $16 K. This is a substantial sum but remember this is our home and it’s looking a little shabby. We are very excited and looking forward to having this done.

We’ve loved being here outside Gardiner, Montana. We’ve seen some wildlife, mostly outside Yellowstone weirdly enough. One day we spent hours driving around in Yellowstone – the only wildlife we saw besides bison were dragonflies and butterflies.

Here’s one you won’t see often.

We heard from another camper there are bears, lots of them, in the area across the river. There are houses and ranches accessible only by a rough gravel road. It took about 40 minutes to drive up there. We brought snacks and water. People gathered, the area is well known to the locals. There was even a woman gathering info on how bears showed up, how many people showed up – I’m not kidding. Vic talked to her and found out she has a masters in grizzlies. The bears showed up all right. At least 7 of them including a Sow with two cubs. There is a non-native plant called caraway the bears love to eat so that’s the draw. Problem was they were so far out you needed binoculars and even then they were difficult to see. Even with our lens we couldn’t get a good shot. There’s a u-tube video showing 15 bears right in the field where we were.

Disregard the blank image that follows – just a glitch.

We are still here at Carbella (in Montana) and will probably stay another week. We had 3 hot days – highs in the high 90’s – but mostly we’ve enjoyed high 70’s low 80’s with cool nights. We’ve met many interesting people – sometimes it’s just a little morning chat while we are walking Zoe. Sometimes we get to know them better. Teresa and John “Hawk” were here for several days. Hawk is a retired Marine. Teresa is an artist. We had coffee/breakfast with them a couple of times and a campfire one night. They cooked burgers, I cooked a steak and Vic ate his plant based something. It was fun, their boxer (Chloe) got along with Zoe. When they went home we doused the fire and went inside. I went back out 10 minutes later to bring in something we forgot and found the fire had come back to life in a very big way. All I could figure is it’s very dry here and can be pretty windy. The water must have evaporated. Good grief. I had to pour a gallon plus of water to make it totally go out.

This morning we decided to check out another camping spot with good fishing called Dailey Lake. It’s at the end of a road called Six Mile Road. It’s more like 12 miles of gravel with muddy spots and pot holes! As tempting as it would be for the fishing the road was awful.

We met a young family of five with a dog, the parents run float trips and back packing trips for teens. Their summer schedule is over, they are here for one last float. They have a house in western Mass. Zoe tried to play with their dog.

We are camping a few miles from the north entrance of Yellowstone National Park in a gorgeous location, on the Y River, watching kayakers and rafters float by all day. This area is very popular with fishermen, lots of trout fishing. Across the river from our site is a waterfall that we are enjoying the heck out of.

I thought I left my heart in Wyoming but this is my new favorite place. It’s so relaxing and peaceful and then there’s the waterfall. 😊. It seems like all the properties are ranches, huge wide open spaces and beautiful scenery.

There are only about 15 campsites, spaced apart enough we can’t hear other people’s generators. Most people are roughing it. Not us. Since we got Starlink we have every convenience all the time just like we were in a house. Internet, wi-fi calling, the works. It’s $600 for the unit and also a monthly subscription fee (service can be paused) but totally worth it.

We’ve been into YNP a couple of times and seen mostly buffalo. We did see a couple of eagles and a partridge but in places on the approach to the wildlife viewing areas where there was no pull outs to stop and take a picture. We went to Lamar Valley know for wolves and bears, didn’t see any. The herds of buffalo were spectacular though.

There are a couple of construction zones in that area which put a damper on things. Next time into the park we have a different route planned.

This homemade camper is the only one we’ve seen with solar and a minisplit ( the white square thing you see on the bumper). We haven’t seen the people at all.

One day we drove up to Cooke City to scout the area for possibly camping. Loved the area and found a great place we could camp but the road up and back was way too “snaky” and steep to pull our camper up there. We stopped at a turn out and saw these guys.

The view from the pull out was amazing.

Typical views north of Yellowstone NP:

And my favorite shot of all …

Hope you enjoyed this post. Not sure how much longer we’ll stay here but we’ll enjoy every minute of it.

We don’t usually stay in campgrounds but those in a military base are always clean, well maintained and reasonably priced. They let us stay in a boondock space for $15 a night. Sweet! The reason for coming here was first cooler weather and second for Vic to get a rx that would otherwise be $500. It was zero $ here. Ridiculous.

There’s a large field they mowed a walking path around that many of the campers use to walk their dog. Zoe loves going there.

Here is last night’s sunset.

We are waiting for a predicted rainstorm to pass through and then we will head east.