Montana_Wyoming_South Dakota_Minnesota_Wisconsin_Chicago.....whew

5/17 - 5/19/2015 – Chicago – We next traveled to Leisure Lake Resort in Joliet IL, a nice park with a lake for some R&R, about 45 miles outside of Chicago for the next three days.  We toured the streets and parks of Chicago one day, but don’t have too many pictures to share since it seems the whole city is under renovation and most of the pictures are marred with cement trucks and cranes.  Also visited a Polish supermarket to pick up some fresh kielbasa requested by Mom, and everything in the market was in Polish including the language spoken by everyone there, should be the real deal. Tomorrow will be a golf day for me and housecleaning/ laundry day for Chippy; I know I am so considerate to get out of her way LOL.   

 

 

5/8 – 5/16/2015 – Minnesota_Wisconsin – We left the snow behind and headed to Big River RV Resort in Wabasha MN, which happens to be the town in the movie “Grumpy Old Men” as well as the oldest town in MN.  This little town is also the site of the “The National Eagle Center”, an educational facility on Bald and Golden Eagles.  They have 6 resident eagles that are no longer able to fly due to assorted injuries and you get a really up close introduction to these amazing predators.  You are literally within five feet of the eagles as they sit on their perches in an open viewing room often squawking loudly whenever they see another eagle souring outside above their territory.  The instructors give a wonderful forty-five minute presentation on eagles which also includes a demonstration on an eagle luncheon with a different menu daily from fish, venison, and rodents.  Today’s entrée was a half pound of fresh bass, and the eagle feasted veraciously.  We really learned a great deal on our visit and were also able to observe several eagles soaring above in the wild as well as an active web cam of a nest with baby eagles as there are some 700 active nests in this very popular eagle nesting area near Lake Pepin which also happens to be the largest lake in the Mississippi River.  We enjoyed visiting several of the small and medium size towns along the river trails of Minnesota as well as Wisconsin which was just a short ride over the bridge in Wabasha including Lake City MN which is the birthplace of waterskiing and Red Wing MN which is home to the Red Wing work boots.  The view of the Mississippi River from the bluffs in this area is really fantastic but it was very overcast during our visit so we didn’t get many good pictures outside.  We enjoyed a wonderful Mother’s Day Brunch at “The Jewel Country Club” where I played golf on the day before.  The course was really fantastic so I was pretty sure we would not be disappointed for Mothers Day.  Hope all the Mother’s our there had a wonderful day as well.  Then it was off to the Wisconsin Dells for the next four days were we stayed at Arrowhead RV Resort and Christmas Mountain Campground.   This town hails as the “Waterpark Capital of the World” and I must say they live up to their reputation.  Today, the Dells has more configurations of indoor and outdoor waterparks per capita than anywhere else on the planet. Here are the numbers: 16+ million gallons of water ; More than 200 waterslides America’s Largest Outdoor Waterpark - Noah's Ark, spanning 70 acres with five million gallons of water and three miles of waterslides. America’s Largest Indoor/Outdoor Combination Waterpark - Wilderness Hotel and Golf Resort's indoor and outdoor waterpark space combined is 500,000 square feet or equal to twelve football fields. Wisconsin’s Largest Indoor Waterpark - Kalahari Waterpark Resort Convention Center is the largest indoor waterpark in Wisconsin at 125,000 square feet. Rides includes extreme plunge slides, tube rides, racing speed slides, bowl drops, water roller coasters, indoor surf machine, massive wave pools, and lazy rivers.  The town is such an attraction there are 72 hotels and another 17 B&B’s to accommodate the throngs of visitors in season.  Then there are the famous Dells boat tours to see the limestone rock formations that tower above the Wisconsin river as well as “Duck” tours of the areas lakes and forests.  There truly is something for everyone in the area including golf courses, wineries, casinos, amusement parks and all kinds of entertainment.

Wabasha MN

 

 

Wisconsin Dells

 

Witches Gulch

 

Standing Rock

 

Duck Tours

Baby Grand Piano

Falcon

 5/3 – 5/7/2015 – Montana_Wyoming_South Dakota – Traveled from Yellowstone north through Montana, what a beautiful ride through mountains and valleys.  Stopped at Billings MT KOA for two nights, what a great campground.  One of the connectors on the hot water heater cracked while we were in West Yellowstone and we had to wait to get back to civilization to get parts to repair, which was the first order of business.  Found all we needed at the local Ace hardware in Billings and we were back in business.  Day two we enjoyed touring the sights in Billings and Pictograph State Park.  Unfortunately there was a big rock slide in the main cave in Pictograph State Park so that was closed but the rest of the park was very interesting.  After Billings we headed to Mountain View RV Resort in Sundance WY for two nights and it lived up to its name as we had some great views from our campsite of the surrounding mountains.  After we set up camp it was off to Devils Tower which is really an awesome sight.  We hiked the trails for a couple miles around the mountain and watched several climbers scaling the vertical walls.  The following day we headed to Hermosa SD where we planned to stay for three days to visit Mt Rushmore, Custer State Park, Sturgis and Deadwood SD.  We took the scenic drive to Mt Rushmore and were fascinated by the grandeur of this amazing monument.  Can’t imagine the precision and planning it took to complete such a project in over 14 years.  Then we were off to see the sights in Sturgis, Deadwood and Custer State Park.  Sturgis of course is the motorcycle capital of the west with several famous bars tossed in.  Deadwood is an authentic western town with loads of saloons, gambling halls, hotels and shopping.  The area in and around Custer State Park is really scenic with winding mountain roads and waterfalls.  Our plan to spend a day in the park had to be cancelled because we left town a day early due to a predicted foot of snow, as us snowmads  want no part of the white stuff.  Hope you enjoy our pics!!

Pictograph State Park MT

 



Moss Mansion MT

 

Devils Tower WY

 


Sturgis SD

 

Deadwood SD

 

Mt Rushmore SD

 

 

Yellowstone National Park

4/28 – 5/2/2015 – We traveled from Salem Oregon to West Yellowstone MT by way of Idaho over the course of a couple days and stayed at Camp Walmart on the journey.  Always a great host with anything you might need to eat, drink or wear.  We did make one scenic stop in Idaho at “Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve” and it was an amazing sight.  The Monument and Preserve encompass three major lava fields and about 400 square miles of sagebrush steppe grasslands to cover a total area of 1,117 square miles. All three lava fields lie along the Great Rift of Idaho, with some of the best examples of open rift cracks in the world, including the deepest known on Earth at 800 feet.  We arrived in West Yellowstone which is the little town just outside the West Entrance to Yellowstone National Park around noon on 4/30 which gave us plenty of time to begin exploring the park.   Our first stop of course was Old Faithful, the only geyser that the eruptions can be predicted within 10 minutes every 90 minutes or so.  It really is a sight to behold, but it is only one of three hundred geysers,  and the park contains more than 10,000 thermal features, including the world's greatest concentration of geysers as well as hot springs, mudpots, and steam vents..  Some have many colors, others are colorless, some look like paint bubbling, some like mud, others smell like sulfur and many spill into the nearby rivers and streams.  There are an average of 1000 to 3000 earthquakes a year in Yellowstone which enable the continued eruptions of the many geysers, steam vents and hot springs as the quakes open new crevices to enable the heated water and steam to reach the surface, but most of the quakes are not even felt at the surface.  The park sits on an underground super-volcano covering an area 35 x 45 miles but scientist don’t expect any type of major eruptions for more than 10,000 years.  The 3 days spent at Yellowstone were the most amazing three days of our lives, and if this place is not on your bucket list you are CRAZY!  It is surely the greatest National Park in the continental US and there is so much to see, but I would not advise visiting in the summer as the traffic has to be horrendous.  Spring and Fall are certainly the best times as we had the park to ourselves and had no problem driving around and parking or seeing everything that was open with no delays. Here are just a sampling of the hundreds of cherished photos we took over the three days at Yellowstone.