Same River, Different State - September 12, 2010

Deals In Heyburn, ID

today we are in Huntington, Oregon...just 7 miles from Weiser ID. We drove in from Heyburn yesterday and much to our delight, discovered that we were going to be parked along the same Snake River - just 238 miles southwest from our last night in ID.  (Picture above taken on the bridge next to our RV Park - so basically we are standing on the Snake and the one below is our view from the bridge towards where we are parked. If not for the trees, we could see our site.)

Boat ramp just beyond where we are parked

This is what much of our driving on the interstate in Idaho looked like....no traffic other than a few autos and some really big semi-tracker trailer rigs as we traveled towards Oregon from Twin Falls...a person could get use to this, for sure.

  Welcome to Oregon - this is on I-84, that's a covered wagon (not a cow)....yippee!

Today, Monday, was a down day...we slept late, meditated, did our exercises outside on the green grass, read a while, took a walk up the road to visit a pack of horses that were grazing in a field not far from our site, read some more...the cats appear to have adapted well...no more freak outs when the slides move in or out...frankly, I was getting concerned about the decision to include them (even knowing I had no choice but to bring them along - they are family)

Kindle ,Cat and  Needlepoint...life on the road is good

caught reading!

Ciao friends....be safe where ever you might be on your journey.

Just outside our windshield

We drove south from Dillon, MT today -  on I-15 which developed into a very open 2 lane freeway with few automobiles for miles on end .  Mike noted that we noticed how little traffic there was on the road -  was only an indicator of how much congestion we have at home...big difference. The weather was definitely better today, we are currently in Heyburn, ID (about 40 miles east of Twin Falls) and will be here until Sunday. Temperatures 76 hi/40 lo - still a burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr. Mike says we bumped into Fall, frankly I believe we drove right into it.

Snow in Rockies

Empty I-15, snow in Rockies beyond

Clark Canyon Reservoir

Leaving Montana

Crossing over the Continental Divide

Woohoo, Idaho we are so happy to see you.....................yippee, sunshine and an still an open highway and it's pass noon on a Friday.

Idaho Welcomes us....

Welcome to Burley ID...Mike fashion - by aircraft

Out our back window

The RV park we are using here is next to the Snake River, a city park is across the road and across the river on the Burley side is a public golf course. Tomorrow the park will, no doubt, be swarming with the participants of the Viking Man Triathlon which is currently being laid out in the park behind our back window. Mike is going to participate once he gets the waivers...you know, the one that lets him swim the 2.5 mi in the river because he can and doesn't need to show them. Then that "you do need a bike" for the cycling portion of the triathlon and since he doesn't have one of those, heck they will waive that requirement too....and the fact that he doesn't have the proper shoes to run a marathon, why of course they'll waive that one too....you are good to go Mike. I'll wait at the Finish line for you sweetie.

Staging Area - Viking Man Triathlon

Dinner in Heyburn

  We are settled for the night...Ciao!

Ghost town - our visit to Virginia City, MT

Today we braved the adverse weather to visit Virginia City, MT - about an hour's drive east of Dillon, where we are currently parked. We learned a lot about the historical makings of the area along the way too.

The weather looks a bit daunting, but we persevere and continue, stopping along the way to read the historic placards that mark the highway, some of which is the Lewis & Clark Expedition route.

Along the way we drove through Laurin, a town about 2 blocks long and which has a beautiful Catholic Church dating 1901 and on the National Historic Registry...but not much else, well they do have a steakhouse that serves dinner Friday through Sunday tho. Then Alder  and  what was once a creek/gulch, but is now a road-side filled with the remains of gold dredging -  row after row of the tailings. (Alder Gulch was known for the 10,000 souls in the mining camps...with a string of camps along the Road Agent Trail that connected Bannack and Virginia City along the Montana Road)

Mount Vernon Dredge

Tailings (basically the creek bed) left behind

Mike is never happy when he sees this evidence of corporate greed, no matter when it occurs. This particular
area financed the building of  Harvard University with the gold that was dredged here.

Virginia City:

Main Street

Virginia City is a National Historic Landmark District, one of the nations' largest. Store fronts have been preserved where possible, with some of the original goods, furnishings and tools, with tours by stagecoach each day, with commentary on the history provided, weekend re-enactments taking place during daylight hours. Trail rides are also available for hire, and there is a nightly "Ghost Walk" tour to enjoy as well.

Local villain and bandit-hung for murder

Mercantile store goods

Mercantile Tea and Herb bins

Clothing/shoe store

Buggy in blacksmith shop

Parts of town - off Main Street

Deals in Virginia City, MT 2010

After a long afternoon we returned to our RV, dinner, bonding times with Lola and Lucy and arrived just in time to beat the downpour of rain .... are we really that close to home?

Mike and Lucy decided to spend some quality time together.

Go West, and we shall....

Badlands

Deals @ Badlands

You are probably wondering "Where in the world are the Deals?"  I am here to tell you that we have been to the Badlands and are thrilled to be living in 2010 not the early 1800's when wagons filled with one's meager belongings endured the heat, dust and climbing elevation to reach greener valleys and gold below and beyond this vista.

Mike -inside Wall Drug

We also dragged ourselves to, wait for it: Wall Drug, SD....yes, and we did not endure the very long line for .05 cent cup of joe....no, no! And I resisted the Fudge Shop (left)....by merely watching the customers load up on what appeared to be a never ending display of fudge and other "homemade" goodies. (AKA, "TurboTouristTrap x10" - for the uninitiated....this place consumes a full block under one roof").

We also drove through Sturgis, SD....just to say we had. It was a week after the 700,000 visitors for 70th Sturgis Harley Rally, and only 1 day after the Mustang Rally....




In addition to the normal prairie dogs that we have encountered in
South Dakota, we also saw white prairie dogs (specifically bred in 1966) on the land
of one of South Dakota's early homesteader's land (1854) and now on the

White Prairie Dogs

National Historic Register....the sod hill home is intact along with
some outbuildings left and is now a museum. We did not pay
the $8./ea fee to walk amongst the buildings, but viewed them from
the visitor center - aka: gift shop.   There are now areas of SD that
have land posted with signs: No shooting! Prairie Dog Study Area
...acres and acres of prairie dog land  (towns and tunnels)
saving them from gun slingers.

 

This herd of bison in Custer State Park as we drove the scenic route to tour the Wind Cave. This small herd was just 1 of the 3 that we viewed on our drive. The park manages about 1500 of them and each October there is a round-up, followed by branding of the calves, and auctioning off of 450 of the more mature ones to wholesalers or small ranchers. Your next bison burger just may be one of these fascinating creatures. They literally stopped traffic for a good 30 min. before allowing traffic to continue....meantime the humans were capturing as many photos as possible....us included.

A bit later in the drive we nearly drove into this

group of burros, which were totally unafraid of the humans and would walk

right up to the car window....of course there are always people who live outside of the requests and signs that ask us "please do not feed the wildlife" and so these cuties expect to be fed, from each and every driver that slows down. One white burro we passed walked right into the oncoming traffic, stood in the middle of the road as if to say to that car "you will feed me or not pass GO". It was hilarious.

We pushed on, as we were merely taking the historic and the more scenic route to Wind Cave National Monument....the Indians actually named this cave, the 7th largest cave in the US, because of the natural hole that wind emerged from and continues to so today, as I experienced while posing for this photo...inside the visitor center it was listed as a 60mph wind (they have a digital display that provides ongoing information about the gusts, and whether it is outgoing or incoming - we were lucky this day for is was coming out of the cave)

Deals in Wind Cave

Yep that's us, inside the cave. It sure was pretty inside...very different from other caves we have been in...different with Boxwork, a unique feature of this cave and very fragile. No touching....looks like honeycomb and is thought to be shattered levels of limestone, spaces filled with gysum and that was then submerged with water (during the earth formation) and replaced by calcite leaving this 'boxwork' formation.

Deadwood, South Dakota - extreme Western gold mine town....noted for

where Wild Bill Hickok was murdered...they have hourly Main Street shootouts....

and is now a town built around tourists spending every dollar they might have on

every conceivable trinket .... we have learned the art of not shopping and are richer for it.

We also drove through Lead, SD which has one of the largest open pit mines

(non-operational now - but under 'scholarly study) for iron and silver. 

Originally, gold was the ore mined in the area.

We had a great time in the Rapid City area of South Dakota...our RV spot was off the freeway, we met some really wonderful and down to earth travelers who like us are enjoying the many venues and natural attractions that are available for the price of a tank of gas and good eyes. Just outside our parking spot was a gateway of sorts for the nightly trek of deer and wild turkeys...both captured by Mike and his ever present camera.

                                                        

Hi everyone! It's Thursday, September 2nd and we have been on the road now for 13 days.Currently we are just outside Rapid City, SD....

We've covered some territory since my last posting. Let's see if I can get you all caught up.We traveled East from Deer Lodge and had a much needed down day in Columbus, MT. ...and a much needed trek to the nearest Wal-Mart for an extra blanket as the temperature plummeted to 40 degrees.


 US National Park - Last Stand Hill (formerly known as Custer's Last Stand at Little Bighorn)....renamed to honor the Native Americans who actually won this battle.

Part of the Indian Memorial

US 7th Calvary graves - Custer's is the stone w/black

Last Stand Hill Park

Onto Hardin, MT and two days of visiting Custer's Last Battle @ Big Horn and Pomprey's Pillar, the sight of the only known existence of Wm. Clark - Lewis & Clark's Expedition....he left his signature in the pillar, now protected behind a brass and glass case. Originally the railroad placed a iron grill over it (1880's)

 

 

Both Wyoming & Montana are roughedly beautiful, but Wyoming takes the cake for weird...although being the Big Sky country that is Montana....look at these tires? And where in the world is the piece of machinery that they belong to? This was the second of two trucks passing us on I-94

Once in Wyoming we stopped to buy groceries and found in the beverage aisle....who thinks of this stuff...is it a bunch of tasters sitting around and one scratches his head and says "I know, I know...this tastes just like a pig's ass! Let's call this batch that"....I mean really? And this informative piece of information was located on the Women's Restroom entry at Devil's Tower....seriously, are the people of this state carrying weapons?

We spent most of the 1st at Mount Rushmore....amazing is all I can say... then we went to Custer State Park so as to drive "Needles Highway"...glorious and a bit unnerving as they had 4 one way tunnels and 3 corkscrew roads....

 Above: Eye of the Needle and on the right....happy Deals in front of the Presidents.

We've seen a lot of wildlife, from pronghorns (antelope), to ground squirrels, llamas, deer, and of course horses and cows...so far our favorites have been:

 

Daryl, and Darold and my other brother Darryl

Prairie Dog Love

 

 Prairie dogs  that live on the grounds of Devil's Tower proper and are NOT afraid of the humans

 

....and of course your average Bison herd walking down the wrong side of the road..! There were 3 of them, albeit a bit spaced out so I couldn't get them all in the photo...

King of the Road

I'll post some more of our photos in the next few days....we're having fun-are you?