Wyoming

Wyoming has been a quiet state! There are less than 500,000 people in the WHOLE state! We stayed in Casper for a few days. We had some strong winds while we were there and the RV was a rockin!

Pronghorn are everywhere!

In Casper, we visited the National Historic Trails Interpretive Center, yes I know it is a long name, but it was so interesting! Casper was a major stop on the move to the west in the 1800s.  People traveling to the west for gold and fur trading; the Mormons traveling to Salt Lake City; the Pony Express all came through here! The interpretive center really was fascinating and they have some really great interactive exhibits that the kids really enjoyed too! If you ever make it to Casper, WY, this place is well worth your visit! We learned so many things about our history…things that I am sure I should already have known, but…

This wagon moved around like you were really riding through a river

We are now in Laramie, WY, just south of Casper. Even though we moved south, we are at a higher elevation and it got cold!  Bill is in heaven!

Yesterday, we went to the Wyoming Territorial Prison.  Does that sound familiar?  When I saw the name, I just had to go to it after living in Yuma and visiting the Yuma Territorial Prison!  This one was a lot nicer and the prisoners definitely didn’t have it as bad as in Yuma, except for the cold in winter.  No cells built into rock like Yuma…this looked like a real prison!  Butch Cassidy was the most famous prisoner to be incarcerated here.

   

Today, we planned on visiting a children’s museum and nature center in Laramie that everyone told us was great…but of course, as soon as we drove up to it we found out that it was now closed down…bummer!  So we took the kids to a park here and then they got haircuts… woohoo fun day!

We’ve enjoyed Wyoming, but tomorrow we move on…Estes Park, Colorado here we come!

South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana

On our last day in Rapid City, Anna, Noah and I went to Old MacDonald’s Farm. It was so cute! Anna and Noah got to play with goats, ponies, cows, chicks, rabbits and other farm animals.

The place was really neat, most of the animals just wandered around and you could pet them and feed them. Then they had other areas with activities. We watched a pig race, and the kids rode ponies and a little train. It was a nice ending to a fun visit in South Dakota!

Goats on a bridge!

Baby goats!  Sooo cute!!

Pig races!

 

CANAM Highway

We left South Dakota and drove to North Dakota on the CANAM International Highway. The CANAM Highway runs from Mexico to Canada!

Notice - not one single tree...just grass!  Weird huh!

In Bowman, ND, we checked out the Pioneer Trails Regional Museum. It was surprisingly interesting! North Dakota has dinosaur archeological sites and you can even go on fossil digs in the area! How cool!

Yellowstone River

We moved on to Montana and “Big Sky Country”.  The sky does seem very big…but I think the Texas skies look just as big!!  ;-)

We learned there is a connection between Montana and Texas, because back in the late 1800s there were big cattle drives that would travel from Texas all the way to Montana! Pretty wild huh?! We think driving in an RV from Texas to Montana is long…can you imagine riding it on a horse and herding cattle?!

Headstones for soldiers that died at Custer's Last Stand.

In Montana, we went to Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument. It’s very sad to think of all the people that died during the fight over land between the Native Americans and the white man.

When you look out over the hills, you really can envision the soldiers and Native Americans battling and then seeing them die on the battlefield.

The guide told us that the Little Bighorn Battle is second only to the battle at Gettysburg for being the most studied battle in the US.

Mount Rushmore

Yesterday, we went to Mount Rushmore and it was amazing!!  The day was absolutely gorgeous, with temps in the 70s, and beautiful billowy clouds in the blue sky!  As we looked up at the presidents it was so impressive!  When you think about the engineering and effort to create it, you realize how awesome it is! I have always wanted to see Mount Rushmore and it didn’t disappoint!  Even the kids enjoyed it!  There was a hiking trail that was just the right length, not too long for the kids.  I am so glad we were able to go!

 

 

After Mount Rushmore, we went and had a nice picnic at Custer State Park, which is right next door. It was a lovely day!!

Arctic wolf - Looks a little like Pearl?

Today, we went to Bear Country USA, which is a drive-through wild animal park, where the animals come right up to your car! They had bears, lots of bears, huge elk, big horn sheep, arctic and timber wolves, and other animals I can’t even remember. This was great since Bill injured his calf running and now he is having a hard time walking, wawa!

This bear is crossing the road right in front of our car!

Bears

Elk

Rocky Mt Goat

Buffalo

Three little bears!

   

I have to say, I think Rapid City, SD has been the most interesting place we have visited so far, with so many different and neat things to do!  It definitely helps that the weather is absolutely fabulous too!  I’ll be sad to leave.

South Dakota

Hooray, we made it! We finally (4 months after our journey began) made it to South Dakota!! It is beautiful here too! The landscape is different, not many trees on the rolling hills around Rapid City, but it is beautiful. The mountains around Mount Rushmore have a lot more trees.

Our first day here, we took it slow and made it to the Dinosaur Park, which we thought was pretty cool! It was built in the 30’s, the 1930’s, and it is still pretty cool, so that says a lot!

We also took the kids to Storybook Island, which is a big park with lots of different things to do all with themes from children’s stories. The kids loved it! Noah wanted to go through everything again.  This was definitely worth the time to visit with small kids!

  

  

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From there it got interesting, imagine Bill and me, with 3 kids, in the little Suzuki, and a fishing kayak on top, driving down the middle of the 70th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally!! We looked pretty ridiculous I’m sure! But it was so awesome!

All the bikes were so cool! Thousands of bikes lined up everywhere and traveling down the main strip at 5 mph with motorcycles all around us was wild! One guy on a bike asked us if we were upset with our travel agent for recommending Sturgis during the rally. We told him yes, but we were having a great time anyway! You could tell everyone was having a blast, except for our kids who were done in mere minutes because they were bored! Can you imagine?! It was awesome! I would love to go back and really hang out…but without kids!