Lewis and Clark at the Great Falls

Missouri River wandering through Montana

2019-09-09 Monday

It rained all night, but this morning when I woke up, it had finally stopped. With hope that the day would stay relatively dry, we drove from Helena to Great Falls, Montana. Our destination was the Lewis & Clark Interpretive Center at Great Falls.

The scenery was pretty at first, and then suddenly we entered a deep alley between mountains. We’d been following a river almost the entire time, but it took us until then to figure out that it was the Missouri River, which was our companion all day. We also didn’t realize, but found out at the Interpretive Center, that Lewis and Clark encountered these same mountains. What struck us was the gorgous colors in the striations of the layers, especially the contrast between pinks and greens. We discussed it, and realized the green must be copper, which of course was the primary metal mined in Butte, which made that city so prosperous. There was a LOT of it-- our mountains certainly are worth a lot of pennies!

Colors in the rocks along the highway--green copper!

We came through the mountain area, and encountered the farmland with the river meandering through it. I still just love that kind of landscape, and once again was looking for the “perfect” combination of river and fields. In the distance we saw low mountains and lots of layers of clouds, but other than a brief sprinkle, the rain stayed away.

Missouri River

 We got to Great Falls and the Interpretive Center at about 12:45, so we had some lunch and walked Cassie along the river. We passed one “falls” on our way, which was dammed up and not hugely impressive. I couldn’t decide if that was the falls that the city was named for. The plaques on the path outside didn’t enlighten us very much either.

However, once we were inside, all questions were answered. This center was terrific! Perched on the edge of the Missouri River, this site was especially important because there was not one, but FIVE waterfalls within a few miles. As the Corps of Discovery came up the river, the Indians had told Lewis about this very large falls, but had not mentioned there were actually five of them! He was looking for one, which would reassure him that he had chosen the correct branch of the river further down and was still following the Missouri. But when he discovered there were five, there was great dismay. It was necessary for the Corps to portage around the five falls, an incredibly strenuous and difficult procedure which took them 18 days. Inside the building, there is a huge diorama two stories high, showing the process of hauling tons of equipment up steep inclines covered with sharp earth and prickly pear cactus with spines which could puncture even double-soled moccasins.

Portaging pas Great Falls (Diorama)

 I didn’t truly appreciate the diorama until I’d gone through the whole museum, though. It was extremely detailed, and by the end (I was there for over 3 hours-- Joey went back to the RV before I was done) I felt I’d been through the entire 3 years myself! The displays began with the politics and decision of the actual purchase of the Louisiana territory which doubled the size of the U.S., and with the commissioning of Lewis and then Clark to lead the expedition. We read about how they planned, decided what to take with them, and the special boat which was built for them. We learned details of all the different Indian tribes they encountered (all but one were friendly, until an unfortunate clash on their way back home.) We learned what they ate, the clothes they wore, and the details of the exploration as they moved on.

Clark was the cartographer of the group, and he created maps throughout the journey. Lewis described the animals and plants which they found, detailing over 150 each of new species previous undescribed by Europeans. All together there were 33 members of the corps plus the two leaders. Only one of them died on the trip-- historians think he may have had a burst appendix, judging by the description of his symptoms. Both leaders took copious notes, as directed by Jefferson, and several other members of the Corps also kept journals, so there is a great repository of the original observations and experiences which historians can draw on to understand the experiences they had, as well as the tribal cultures they encountered.

One of the most incredible details of the experience for me was the information about Sacagawea, the Indian wife of their French-Canadian guide. She was a Shoshone who was kidnapped as a child by the Hidatsa tribe, so she was bilingual, and became a very important member of the Corps. The Corps needed horses to get over the mountains once the river was no longer navigable, and the Shoshone were the tribe with horses. They hoped that Sacagawea could help them get horses. The Corps often split into two groups, and when Clark finally encountered the Shoshone, the chief did not trust him, and refused to sell him horses. A few days later, Lewis’s group (including Sacagawea) joined them. Sacagawea began to interpret for them, when suddenly, she realized that the chief was her brother! The entire tenor of the relationship between the tribe and the Corps changed at that moment, and the horses were acquired. Without them, the expedition most probably would have failed. In fact, as I said to Joe afterwards, if you ask me NOW, I’d have to say that the expedition couldn’t possibly succeed. And yet, they did.

View of Missouri River from Interpretive Center at Great Falls

 As I said, I spent a long time in the museum, and really learned a lot--there’s plenty about the Corps of Discovery online, so I don’t have to retell the whole story here. At about 5:30 when I rejoined Joe, we decided to continue to drive down the park road to the overlooks at the other falls. We’d learned that only one of the five is undammed, and one has disappeared (it was covered with water in the reservoir formed by the damming of the one further downriver from it.) However, to our disappointment, the dams do not let much water through. The spectacular (and difficult to pass) water which was encountered by Lewis & Clark looked sadly tamed to us. Even the Great Falls, which must have been spectacular, was very hard to access, and in the end, we settled for glimpsing it through the trees. By that time it was already 7:30ish, and we really were getting worn out. I’d have to say that after coming up here to see the Great Falls themselves, they were quite under-whelming. Whereas the Interpretive Center was fantastic and much more worthwhile than I could have guessed.

So we headed back to Great Falls (the town... the Great Falls themselves are about 15 miles downstream from the town and the State Park with the Interpretive Center.) Our choices for tonight were, one expensive private campground and two Walmarts. So for the third night (which is unusual for us!), we ended up at Walmart. We did discover a KOA just next to the Walmart, which we knew nothing about, but we still have everything we need to dry camp, although we are getting low on water, I think. Tomorrow we plan to drive up to Glacier National Park, and will definitely find a “real” campground.

No Longer According to Plan

Joe and Cassie at the Headwaters of the Missouri River

2019-09-08 Sunday

Today was one of those days when everything seemed a little bit “off.” I woke up at 8:00 and never really seemed to wake up. We took our time having breakfast, getting ready to leave, etc., and pulled out around 11:00. I have had a general itinerary made up for this trip, and according to that, we were supposed to drive about 45 minutes to a place (Norris Hot Springs) which had a small (10 slot) campground and a hot springs pool, and stay there overnight. But I wasn’t really in the mood to soak again in a hot spring. We also decided not to go back to the Museum of the Rockies for more dinosaurs and Ghengis Khan. So instead we jumped ahead a day in the itinerary, and headed for Butte, Montana. I had two potential places for us to visit-- the World Mining Museum, which was highly rated but did not excite either of us that much, and the Mai Wah Museum, a very small place which was in the Mai Wah Historical Society building. The latter preserves the history of the Chinese immigrants who were very involved in the mining industry (as well as the town itself). This was what most interested Joey and me, so that was our destination.

Unfortunately, it seemed that the only way to travel this direction was I-90, although we really hate the interstate. The more I looked at the map, the more I wondered why I’d ever planned to go to Norris and Butte at all, since my main destination was north, and these places were west! But since it didn’t occur to me to correct my original itinerary for a new idea completely, we followed along on the interstate.

On the drive, I saw that we were passing a state park on the site of the headwaters of the Missouri River. This was the convergence of the Jefferson, Madison, and Gallatin rivers, which flowed together and became the Missouri.  The Lewis and Clark Expedition of Discovery arrived at this point and rested for three days.  L&C decided that none of these three rivers was the Missouri (which they were following), recognizing that the three together formed a new river. So they named the three rivers as they are called today, after President Jefferson, James Madison, and Albert Gallatin, the Secretary of the Treasury at the time of the Expedition.  Then they continued exploring up each branch until deciding to continue their journey following the Jefferson River. 

For about 30 minutes or so, Joey, Cassie and I were the only people visiting the river convergence. It was really beautiful, and we were feeling a bit awed by the hisorical siginficance of the site, and the realization that the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers together are truly responsible for the “bread basket” of the interior of America, which exports so much grain to the rest of the world as well.

 Explanation of the photo at the top of the blog: Joe and Cassie at the confluence of the headwaters of the Missouri River. The river on the left is the Madison River (the same Madison River I was ooh-ing over in Yellowstone.) The river directly behind them is the Jefferson River. And the newly-formed Missouri River is flowing off to the right of the photo. The Gallatin River (which Joey and I drove along last Thursday on our way up US 191) joins the other rivers about a mile away from this point.

Joe and Cassie next to the newly-formed Missouri River

Joe and Cassie at the confluence of the rivers

 In addition to the rivers, we looked at the remains of the original settlement at the site. In the mid-19th century, some entrepreneurs hoped that the site of these rivers would be a good place for boat traffic, as well as passenger travels. But the river rapids did not prove to be very navigable, and the town moved to where the town of Three Forks is now (we did not stop there, despite the many advertisements and inducements of the “historic town”.) The buildings we saw at the park were in extremely decrepit condition, and it’s surprising they are still standing at all!

Joe and Cassie in front of 150 year old hotel--or what is left of it!

After eating lunch just where Lewis & Clark camped, we continued on toward Butte. This is where our day really started going askew. Butte is a small city, but other than some kind of large gathering of “trekkers” (people walking in a long line as if they were on a group hike) that we saw along the highway just as we exited the interstate, we saw almost no one. The exit said we were going to “Historic Butte”, and indeed, we could tell the buildings were all quite old, but the main street was virtually deserted. This is what we’ve learned about cities in other parts of the US-- unlike on the east coast (or the north-east, anyway), where no matter when you drive through a city, you are bound to encounter crowds, if not traffic jams, in the mid-west, the cities do not have people in them downtown during the weekends! We drove through these streets with an RV and Jeep in tow, with absolutely no worries about other traffic.

Montana Roadside Scenery

Roadside Scenery--the colors of the mountains were softly washed--like a water color painting!

We noticed that all the streets we passed were named after metals-- gold, silver, aluminum, copper, etc. We turned on Mercury Street, went two blocks, and found our destination. But despite a large “Open” sign on the door, it was most definitely closed. The streets all around it were most definitely deserted. There was not a SOUL. It looked like the most run-down corner of a city you’d ever find yourself in. With trepidation, we crossed the street (we parked along the curb--the only vehicles in sight!) and knocked, but no one answered. The inside was dark, although I could see Chinese artifacts, a sign-in book, brochures for the museum, and the entry fees posted on the counter. We were REALLY disappointed, because this was just the kind of place we love to discover and learn from. Upstairs we could see paper dragon fans hanging in the window, and in the window at street level, there were some history books, and signs telling us about the town when it was still a small place, and a little bit about the Chinese activity there, but it was scanty info. (I should add that in reading about it later on Wikipedia, I learned that Mercury Street was the center of the red-light district in old mining-town Butte!)

We finally gave up hope, but before we left, I walked around the corner to a post office (thanks, Google Maps!) to mail a card. I noticed there WAS one place open-- a bar/casino on the next block. We drove into the heart of downtown from there, and still saw very few cars or anything else, although the banners on the street lights proclaimed this the “Heart of Historic Butte.” The buildings were definitely interesting, and I was just sorry that apparently everything is closed on Sunday.

Building in Downtown Butte

We decided to continue driving a couple of  blocks further up the hill. I forgot to mention, all of Butte is literally built on the side of a mountain, which is known as the “richest city in the world.” Apparently it was all copper, as well as other metals, and the history of Butte is the history of mining. There are still huge towers related to mining, and lots of buildings that were part of the mining industry and supporting businesses. The Museum of Mining is a “gem attraction”, according to AAA’s guidebook! But even though it was only 3:30 and the museum closed at 6pm, Joey wasn’t that interested, and I was feeling depressed by not planning better. We sat in the RV in the middle of downtown Butte, discussing what to do next, when all I really wanted was a nap! (Main Street, so named, did NOT seem the ideal place for that!) In the end, we decided to continue toward Great Falls, our next real destination. Sadly, this meant getting onto the interstate again. So we decided to go as far as Helena, an hour away, and continue tomorrow.

Leftover mining equipment

And that’s what we did. We followed I-15 up to Helena, got off at exit 126, I think, and pulled right into the Walmart (where else?) We were actually laughing--the parking lot looked like an RV park, there were about a dozen RVs there already. We had just enough time to walk the dog and set up before the rain started. And I threw myself into bed, while Joe made us some Chinese food for dinner (hanging around the Mai Wah building, with its historic marquee proclaiming “Noodles”, had made me hungry for Chinese food!)  I napped soundly while he cooked, and now he’s asleep while I type.

Looking down Montana Street, downtown. Butte is on the side of a mountain.

Musical Morning, and Drive Drive Drive

Inlay and carved interior of guitar soundhole

Wednesday, Aug. 8, 2018

We had a very long day yesterday, and for the first time on this trip, I was just too tired to write before I went to bed. Luckily, today was scheduled to be a non-traveling day. I had reservations for last night and tonight at Angostura State Recreation Area, just south of Hot Springs, South Dakota. So now it’s just about 1pm, and I am sitting under a tree looking at the Angostura Reservoir to type this. It’s in the 80s, I think, with a lovely breeze blowing and only 30% humidity, so I am quite comfortable!

Indonesian Gamelan

Lutes, c.1600

Yesterday we left our campground after both taking EXCELLENT showers. The campground was very strange-- it was a county park campground, and was quite pretty, with well spaced out sites, most with electricity. It had a VERY clean and up to date bath house with, as I said, excellent showers. But many of the sites were taken by unoccupied trailers-- they had no vehicles (and no people), just the trailers on the sites. A number of sites had reserved tags on them for dates more than a week in advance. There was a campground host who I never laid eyes on-- in fact, i never laid eyes on ONE SINGLE PERSON while we were there. It was completely bizarre. It’s a good thing the showers were so wonderful, because we found out after we left that there was a small park in Vermillion, right on the main drag, which looked fine (although probably had no showers) and was FREE (including electric in some of the sites!) for TWO nights, and only $5 thereafter. That is a great deal, if you don’t want a shower. Which we did .

Stradivarius Viola da Gamba, violin, choral mandolino, and guitar

Anyway, our destination was the National Music Museum, which turns out to be on the University of South Dakota campus. The museum was absolutely amazing-- definitely a “Gem attraction,” as AAA books would (and do) say. It is an old stone building which contains about 9 or 10 separate galleries of musical instruments. The entry fee includes a an ipod-type thing which includes guided information about each room, and about many of the individual instruments to be found in them. It is a fantastic thing to use, because it allows you to hear many of the instruments being played (some of them are quite unusual.) It also includes a lot of videos, so you can SEE them being played. It greatly enhanced our visit.

Bass on left made from a barrel, on right from a stovepipe

The first room we walked into contained a set-up of a gamelan, the traditional percussive instruments of Indonesia. This was the first instance where seeing them played and hearing them was SO important-- we had no idea otherwise, although they were certainly impressive to look at. Already, we were in love with the museum. But the next room sealed it-- it was entirely filled with stringed instruments, beginning with lutes from the 17th century, and including the entire range of violins, violas, and related types of instruments), . Many of them were from the 17th and 18th centuries, including examples made for kings (Henry IV, for example) and by famous luthiers (Stradivarius and Amati, well represented.) Again we were able to hear many of them, and learn a lot about them as well.

Korn Kobblers homemade band

From there, we went to a room filled with examples of acoustic guitars, starting with some of the earliest, and with explanations of the different styles and some modern well-known guitar builders, including a “workshop” set up. There was another room with organs (everything from a an early American pipe organ to a box organ operated by hand bellows), harpshichords, and early pianos. That was the first floor.

On the second floor, we saw everything from early brass instruments (and unusual ones, such as trumpets with two bells), and woodwinds, to more “folk” oriented instruments like the balalaika, Bohemian
bagpipes, harmonicas, and accordions. There was a room with lots of varieties of modern electric organs of various sizes and types, and displays representing the golden age of bands, which I think would be typified by the band from “The Music Man"-- people in a community playing mostly brass instruments on a bandstand is what came to my mind. That section included things like home-made instruments, such as a string bass made from a barrel, and one made with only one string, from a stovepipe. There was also a “one-man-band” set-up from a group called the Korn Kobblers, sort of a cross between vaudevillians and street buskers, I guess, with a customized set up which included things like a spittoon, and a trombone rigged to squirt water!

Bohemian bagpipe with top like a goat (enlarge to see)

There was also a display involved with the amplification of the electric guitars, and some unique examples of those (such as one shaped like a crutch, which was made for Barbara Mandrell after she was in a very bad auto accident.) There was a fantastic nickelodeon machine which was more rightly called an “orchestron”, because although it looked on the outside like just a player piano, inside the top it had a snare drum, cymbals, and a triangle, and there were a few other percussion instruments somewhere in there. We were very lucky, because one of the museum docents came up with two other people and opened it up and turned it on, so we could see it playing. I took a short video of it, I will try to upload that if I can to the blog.

Gibson harp-guitar

We were disappointed that two of the galleries were already closed and packed up, because the museum is actually closing in October to be given a big renovation. It won’t be open again until 2021! So we are so glad we didn’t put off seeing it now. The galleries we missed had instruments from other cultures, and I saw in the digital guide that one was a shofar! I’m sure it would have been an interesting gallery, so we will now plan to come back here in a few more years. But spanning the universe of music from a Stradivarius violin to Bob Dylan’s harmonica is really QUITE an amazing experience, and each individual collection was excellent. I see that on the Internet, the museum’s holdings can be experienced to some degree, and I recommend it!

We spent about 3 hours there, at which point it was time for lunch and to get underway. And that is pretty much what we did for the rest of the day-- drive. We crossed the Missouri River (for the second time, because the day before we crossed from Iowa into SD) at the Fort Randall Damn. We stopped for the scenic overlook, and I took photos while Joey and Cassie lay in the grass. Then back on the road. We were not using the Interstate (we were mostly on US 18) and it was some of the

Early pianos w/decorative inlay

most empty roads we’ve ever driven. There was corn in the eastern end of the state, but after the dam the scenery became more like open range, and then finally we started to see buttes and other more rugged landscape. It was a VERY long drive for one afternoon, and we were both quite tired. Within an hour of our destination, we had to stop on the side of the road just to clean the windshield--the combination of setting sun and intense bug activity had rendered it too shmeary to see through safely. Cleaning it helped, and we finally turned off Route 18 to the local road leading to Angostura.

Missouri River dammed into Lewis and Clark Lake

I am now trying to decide the route to take from here, because there is no question, the fires make it

Two tired puppies relaxing

very unappealing to go to northern California. I am having a craving to revisit some of the things we saw on our first time RVing out west in 2007, so I think we will stick to the original plan for now-- toward Cody, WY with a stop in Thermopolis so we can go in the hot springs there, and then up into Idaho as expected. But from there, we may go north before we turn south again. I’m leaving it up to chance and a little serendipity.

Meet Me In St. Louis

Day 26 and 27: Sept. 21-22, 2011

For lack of time and for the fact that yesterday, we drove all day without stopping, I am going to combine two days in one blog. Yesterday we woke up with a lovely lakeside view. Joey walked Roxy and saw a fish jump in the lake!


We decided we were not in the mood to sight-see, however, and would rather get back on the highway. This would give us more time today, and we decided we wanted to get as close to St. Louis as possible yesterday so we could go to the St. Louis Zoo today. Plus, I think we were both starting to get a little antsy as the end of our trip draws nearer.

So that’s what we did. We drove about 500 miles yesterday. I was rather upset when we entered Missouri, however. Kansas had a wonderful Welcome Center; Missouri had nothing. Nada. No welcome whatsoever. Since I didn’t have a map of the state, other than in my atlas, this was disappointing; and since we had no AAA book for the state, it was worse. We had no idea what attractions we might want to see--which was one reason we settled on the zoo. We are lucky that the AAA Tourbooks are loaded into our GPS, and that helped a lot in finding a campground in the St. Louis area. I think Missouri is making a big mistake not having tourist info readily available... is there nothing about Mark Twain here? What about Lewis and Clark? And any number of things we don't know about already? I know I'd like to come back through Kansas with some more time someday, but Missouri is kind of a big gap in my knowledge as of now.

We managed to find a state park just outside of the city of St. Louis, using the one map I did have, and the GPS. It was a nice park, but not on a par with many of the others we’ve stayed in. We did cross the Missouri River for the 2nd time just as we were approaching the park, near sunset.
This morning we woke up and it was drizzly. We went to thezoo; when we got there it was still drizzly. The zoo, btw, is free--but I should let you know, if you ever come in an RV, the cost to park an RV is $24. Hah! Anyway, we spent a few wet hours at the St. Louis Zoo today. A number of exhibits were closed; most disappointing I suppose was the elephants--as usual, our timing was bad. TOMORROW is the debut of the new baby elephant; today, the whole exhibit was closed off. So we didn’t get to meet the new baby girl. We did love some of the other exhibits, however. My favorite today was the giant anteaters. They are so exotic and I think their markings are beautiful.
And here are a few other animals we met today.

Around 1:30 or so we went back to Mo, put on dry clothes, and had soup and sandwiches for lunch. At that point I realized, I needed to lie down and take a nap. So Joe read a book and I took a nap for an hour. At 3pm, we finally packed ourselves up and started driving. Wouldn’t you know, at that point the rain had stopped? As we left St. Louis and Missouri, I managed to snap some quick photos of the St. Louis Arch and the Mississippi River. It was cloudy and dark-ish, and we caught up with the rain on the Illinois side of the river. So it was kind of a tiring drive today.
We drove until we were just past Indianapolis, and stopped at a KOA here. I wanted the wifi, and I want a hot shower tomorrow (I could have had one at the state park this morning but I overslept after not sleeping well during the night.) It is pouring rain, and I just would like it to be done by tomorrow, but the rain forecast is for more showers. Not that we can complain--we had NO rain at all except for an occasional nighttime sprinkle, until we got to Kansas.

Tomorrow we hope to meet some friends for lunch in the Columbus area, and then drive into Pennsylvania for the night. And we hope to be home on Saturday night. So this will most likely be my last blog from "on the road." It's been another amazing trip, and it almost seems like a dream already. That's why I write these blogs--so I can remind myself of everything we've done and seen. I know all too soon I'll be back in the usual "stuff", and dreaming of our next vacation.

Another long driving day

Day 4: August 30, 2011

Yesterday continued uneventfully after my blog's ending point. We had a lovely drive through Wisconsin, on some windy hilly roads through gorgeous green farms and countryside. I am just in love with that state--so lush and relaxing. It speaks to me.

We crossed the Mississippi River at La Crosse, and followed the river on the Minnesota side up to I-90. And then we were back on the superslab, driving as fast as we could. We were hungry but didn't want to take the time to make dinner, so we had some fast food, not a very exciting anniversary dinner, but oh well. And then we drove until about 10:30pm when we voted to stop and spend the night at a rest stop. I have to say, I have stayed in many places noisier and more crowded. The highway itself seemed very untravelled and the rest stop had 3 cars when we pulled in. It was dark and even quiet.

We set the alarm for 6:30, hoping to get an early start today. We knew we had to make a stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for our new air conditioner cover, and Joe would have to replace it on the roof. So we were up and out early. It began to rain overnight (luckily Joe decided that would NOT make a difference to our naked AC) and it was lightly raining while we had breakfast. It was cool, too--we dressed in jeans and sweatshirts, and I was cool all morning. We turned on the radio during breakfast, and were entertained by the lead-in story of the news, that the harvest was now 60% in, and by the flat midwestern accents of the announcers. The local news was also interesting--evidently volleyball is a big deal in Minnesota, at least in the southernmost part of the state. Then we started driving and again the road was fairly empty--I don't know where everyone is this year--relatively few RVs and campers compared to the past, I think, and even fewer cars. Perhaps I-90 is just less travelled than I-80...it seemed so empty to us.

So we zoomed through Minnesota and arrived in Sioux Falls around 11 a.m. We spent about an hour at the RV dealer. They were very nice--they had the exact right AC cover, and Joe went up on the roof and had no trouble replacing it--he is just great at this stuff! I, meanwhile, purchased a few other items and made myself generally useless. We left Sioux Falls around noon and headed west again.

The rest of the day was basically about driving. At some point, it got really hot, and we changed from jeans to shorts--I think we went through a 35-degree temperature change today. South Dakota is also a beautiful state--rolling farms, mostly, and the road stretching out endlessly. We stopped for lunch--Joe made me an awesome salad!--and at a beautiful visitor's center in the center of the state near the city of Chamberlain overlooking the Missouri River. (it IS "wide" at that point!) There was also a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center there.
Then back to the road until 4:30pm Mountain Time (we crossed another time zone--they put them out in the middle of nowhere, amid the corn) when we stopped at Wall Drug. We skipped this stop back in 2007 and I must say, we were smarter then . What a horrific collection of every kind of tchatchka in the entire world! I walked in and walked around but the entire place gave me a headache. Joe and Roxy waited outside on a shady bench and watched the people go by.

Less than an hour later, we were leaving Wall and continuing on. At this point, I started to fall apart--the heat was too much for me and I was stressing because I didn't know where we would stay tonight. I really did not want to spend a lot of money, and a lot of the campgrounds in the area of the Black Hills are ridiculously expensive. The KOA at Rapid City was listed as $25-$80. I mean, who PAYS that for a campground! But we did want internet and Joey pointed out that it would be good to have AC tonight to cool me down.

So I finally found this place called No Name City Campground. It is in Sturgis, which means we are now only about 30 miles "behind" my original day-to-day plan for this trip (obviously the mechanical problems yesterday set us behind; now we're virtually caught up.) It's small and seemed noisy to me, because it is very near the Interstate with no trees or anything as a buffer. But in that it's no different from most of the campgrounds we passed along the highway--they are all sitting out in bare fields without any charm whatsoever. I guess it's because we are on the edge of the Black Hills and not really IN them. The good news though is it only cost us $18.99, a downright steal, and we do have Internet. Today we drove 512 miles.

So now we've had our dinner, I've written this blog, and all I have to do now is wrestle with the photos from yesterday and today. Tomorrow we are on schedule to drive into Montana for the first time, stop at Little Big Horn, and then continue on to Red Lodge for the night. And then, into Yellowstone.