Going to South Dakota

August 14, 2025

We’ve been at Malmstrom AFB for two weeks. This has been a great spot, dry camping next to a huge field. Not to brag but we are paying $60 a week. There’s another huge field they let go to seed and then mowed a couple of walking paths. There are holes everywhere in both made by Prairie dogs. Zoe loves the freedom she has here.

Us in the field

We are going to Rapid City, SD, next. We plan to register our truck in SD and get new licenses so we will be official residents. SD is nomad RV friendly. They accept a mailing address as an “address”. We’ll have to change our mailing address as part of this process.

We went to a farmers market on Saturday. The fresh produce, eggs and baked goods were impressive. This area has Hutterites, a group that farms and sells their crops and baked goods. The women wear white on black polka dot head scarves. Those ladies can make banana bread that melts in your mouth.

Repurposed metal stuff

We always have one eye on the weather. It will be 5-10 degrees cooler this week in Red Lodge MT than here in Great Falls MT so we are moving to Red Lodge tomorrow then on to Rapid City SD.

Stay safe everyone. XO

The road to Malmstrom AFB

We left Horse Thief fishing access last Friday after being there for two weeks. We got on the road at 7 am with 4 potential places to stop. None of them panned out. Unbelievable. By now it’s almost 4 pm. We decided to pull into the nearest rest stop. Not the most wonderful but it wasn’t terrible.

The next morning, Saturday, we headed to Malmstrom and realized we were going past the RV resort (Shyrock Resort) where our friends Tim and Renee are staying so we decided to surprise them.

The GPS said take exit 55. Down the ramp and around the bend is this:

Decrepit bridge over Clark Fork river

No way to turn around. We crossed our fingers the bridge would hold. We found out later we should have taken the next exit. Ugh.

They were excited to see us and told us they have guest pads for $45/night. They have been subletting a space for two weeks, fell in love with the place, and bought a lot! The park is set in the tall pines, beautifully laid out sites ranging from 1/4 to 3/4 acre. People either park their RV or put a tiny home on the lot with plenty of room to landscape and have whatever extras you want like a pavilion, garden etc. There’s a lot to love here, we can see why they bought.

We found this driving around in the town of Superior, MT

This morning we set out for Malmstrom AFB in Great Falls, MT. No issues, just a very long day. We are boondocking for $100/week. We plan to stay a few weeks.

Stay safe XO

Farewell Red Lodge

July 31, 2025

The Ranger finally caught up to us. He came by this afternoon and told us we have to leave. Vic asked for 24 hours and he said OK. We’ve had a great 2 weeks here with new friends, a farmers market and an Amish market plus a good walking area and a beautiful park for Zoe in town.

We wanted to replenish our water supply yesterday so we filled up our bladder and filled up Tina and David’s water tank and then ours. The other couple we’ve been friendly with wanted to try it out so they got some water too. I’m pretty sure both couples will get water bladders now they’ve seen how easy it is. It’s fun to share information and ideas with other campers.

Last night was a thunderstorm with hail that went on for at least 10 minutes. It was deafening but no damage.

We made a last trip to the Amish market and stocked up on their Cajun red beans and rice since it was so tasty.

We are leaving in the morning and going to a fishing access spot on Lake George, MT.

Stay safe everyone! XO

Red Lodge, MT

We’ve had a really nice time here. We met a newly retired couple from Gainesville, FL traveling in a Casita (a small camper).

David and Tina

We have spent many enjoyable hours chatting with them. They travel 5 months of the year and stay in their house during the winter. We went to the farmers market on Saturday with them and was that ever fun. Baked goods, flowers, fruit and vegetables. Even a booth with thrifted clothing that was embellished with fabric, ink stamped, or changed in some other way to make the piece different and cute.

Babies and families with dogs. Just a really fun morning.

Mountain Girl – two cousins grow these flowers

David and Tina told us they seek out Amish or Mennonite markets where ever they go and now we will do that. What a great idea. There is an Amish market 8 miles from here.

The Chuck Wagon, Amish market
I went a little crazy 😎

We’ve been thinking about going to Washington where it’s cooler. Vic has worked out a travel route through Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.

There’s a 7 day stay limit here. We are waiting for the Ranger to tell us time to move on which could be any day now. We’ve been here ten days. We’ll linger here a day or three longer.

Stay safe everyone. XO

Red Lodge, MT

We came here from Cody for the cooler temps. We are staying in a place called Horse Thief Fishing Access. In truth, there is no such access but it’s close to free and there’s a creek. We had to get a conservancy license for $10 and we can stay for 7 days.

Red Lodge is a ski town in the winter. Currently there is a weekend motorcycle gathering. The riding around here is great for them including Beartooth Highway.

Motorcycles lining the Main Street.

Every motel, hotel, and bed and breakfast is full. Broadway, the Main Street is one interesting shop or restaurant after another so these people are out looking around and shopping. Of course there are vendors set up just for this event. One place had racks of leather vests and jackets.

We met a sweet little Yorkie named Cricket. Zoe was friends with her until they went home yesterday.

She had one blue eye and one brown eye and weighed 4 pounds.

We took a walk through town yesterday and enjoyed the flowers.

Many of the shops all had baskets of flowers outside their entrances.

We are planning to return to Cody in a few days.

Stay cool everyone. XO

Touring Cody WY

July 11, 2025

Vic’s daughter Dawn has been visiting and we’ve been showing her the area. We drove through Yellowstone one day and visited most of the tourist attractions.

Sunrise the morning we got up at 5 am to visit Yellowstone

We saw some beautiful/impressive waterfalls.

Dawn wanted to see Old Faithful. She and I left Vic and Zoe in the parking lot and walked to where the display would be. We walked around it on the boardwalk and saw several geothermal features.

Blue star geyser

The sign said the next eruption of Old Faithful was 11:16 plus or minus ten minutes. We sat on these benches with the rest of the crowd and waited.

The crowd

We waited until 12:45 in the heat and saw this.

When or if it actually went off we don’t know. It was too hot to wait any longer.

A different day we went to the Buffalo Bill museum.

William F. Cody “Buffalo Bill” 1854 – 1917

The admission ticket is good for two days and the place is so big you need two days. We saw some interesting stuff. There were sections on the Wild West, popular culture, Indian tribes, animals and guns.

Bill Cody’s coat and hat along with some of his weapons
Bow and arrow holder and an infant carrier
Saddle
Annie Oakley
Bill Cody, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull
Crocheted deer
Snowy Owl

We didn’t go into the gun part.

Dawn will be here until Sunday. We have more activities planned like going to the visitor center in Cody and eating a meal at the steakhouse we enjoyed so much.

My daughter Holly’s birthday is today and I’m wishing her a very happy birthday ❤️.

Stay safe everyone! XO

Buffalo Bill State Park

Cody Wyoming

We are going back and forth between here and Homestead Campground. We love both places but BBSP has a two week limit so…

We’ve had a few camp fires and invited James and Olivia and Riley. We also invited our campground neighbors Renee and Tim. For the most recent camp fire we cooked potatoes, corn and chicken in the fire pit. Oh boy was that delicious.

Tim, Bella and Renee
Olivia, Riley, Jasper and Zoe
James and Riley

Riley is very engaging and smiles a lot but doesn’t let people hold her besides her parents. However, twice now she has sat in Vic’s lap.

Most of the time she studied his face while he made different funny noises.
She finally smiled at him

We went into Yellowstone a few days ago. It’s several thousand feet higher in elevation inside the park and it had snowed overnight.

Zoe and me in the snow
Flowers in the snow.

Other sights in Yellowstone:

Great Blue Heron
Gadwall duck

Also saw an eagle while in Yellowstone.

Eagle
Jam
Jam’s beau

One afternoon we were sitting outside at our site watching swallows flying and swooping back and forth catching bugs after the sprinklers had been turned off. They were flying so fast I gave up trying to get a shot. Vic tried for a while and got this.

Barn Swallow

There’s plenty of wildlife around here.

Pelicans are frequently seen on the Yellowstone River.
Red tail hawk
Violet Green Swallow

From the red tail hawk nest:

Three chicks

And if you are curious about houses out here you’ll want to see this posh place. On the Yellowstone River. Zoom in so you can see the carved wooden bear on the porch.

Posh house

This sure is a wonderful and beautiful place.

Stay safe everyone. XO

Yellowstone

June 10, 2025

We saw one of our favorite bears yesterday. This is Jam feeding on plants on a hillside.

Jam, in for a closeup
Better start doing some sit-ups haha.
Just looking pretty
Eh what? I have a mouthful
Can’t you see I’m busy!

We also saw a baby bison. This little guy is too cute!!

Baby bison

There are tons of deer around.

Deer
Marmot

Is it funny to anyone besides me that I recently got a new jacket and the brand name is marmot ?

One other thing I wanted to share. Couple of days ago there was so much whitish/grayish stuff floating around it looked like snow. We guessed it was pollen as in dandelions when they become puffs and fly around. Turns out it is called “cottoning”. Every year the cottonwoods shed and sometimes it’s so thick it looks like snow. Lots of cottonwoods in this area.

That’s all for now. Stay safe XO

Yellowstone

June 8, 2025

We had a day!! We were up at 4 am and entered the park at 5:30 am well before the entrance booths are manned.

First I want to share Vic’s shot of a wolf. That’s right a wolf!!!

Wolf

We’ve never seen wolves in Yellowstone before this. The animal was up on a ridge not close to us at all. It was early morning as you can tell by the lighting. What a stunning shot.

Then we came upon a group of big horn sheep, there were about 20 so I’m calling it a herd. They were on my right on a steep hill that came down right to the road. Some of them were fussing at the others kicking up dirt and rocks with some of the rocks falling down to the road. It was quite dramatic.

Here is the sequence.

Assessing each other
See the dirt being kicked up?
Fight is on!

Meanwhile this is our home for the summer.

We love this place

So, after the excitement of seeing the big horns fighting we went further into the park and drove around looking for bears or elk or really anything. We didn’t see anything so turned around to go home. By now several hours had gone by.

Our path took us back to where we saw the big horns. Amazingly they were still there! They had all crossed the 2 lane road and jumped over the metal railing. They were milling around on a narrow strip of land with a steep drop off. If you tried to see the bottom of the chasm you would feel woozy it is so far down. I couldn’t help but wonder if a ranger should be there to stop traffic and help them get back across the road.

Here are some pics Vic took.

Hey good lookin
Is he thinking about charging us?

An exciting morning for sure.

Stay safe everyone XO

More Wildlife!

We visit the Red tail Hawk nest every couple of days. It’s fun to watch the babies growing.

Red tail Hawk

Hawk and babies

Hawk and babies

There are actually three babies

One parent landing while a baby watches the other parent leaving.

Northern Flicker. Look at the colors!
Meadowlark
Meadowlark singing
Meadowlark in flight (finally got it!)

We plan to go into Yellowstone tomorrow. Yay!!!