Mt. Rushmore and more.....Badlands and Corn Palace

July 31, 2014
    Sadly, we say farewell to the beautiful Black Hills as we begin our journey home.  Time for a little "atta boy" as Rob has become quite proficient at hooking up the camper!  We skirted the Badlands as we drove across South Dakota.

We arrived at our destination, Mitchell, early enough to take a little field trip to the Corn Palace.  It truly is a "can't not" place to visit while in the Dakotas.  All of the pictures are made from ears of corn!

Upon entering the palace, the first thing you'll notice is that is smells like popcorn!  

Again, we're grateful for a beautiful, sunny day in America's heartland!

Mt. Rushmore and more.....evening of July 30, 2014

Everyone in the local area kept insisting that we should attend the evening illumination ceremony of Mt. Rushmore, so we decided to make this our final outing before we left the Black Hills.   Because the famous "Sturgis" motorcycle ride begins in a couple of days, there were LOTS of bikers in this evening's crowd.  We settled into the outdoor arena on a "chamber of commerce weather" evening.

 The ceremony began with a Park Ranger going through all of the significant events in our country's history on July 30th.  Next, we sang the National Anthem and watched an informative video about the four presidents of Mt. Rushmore.

 Finally, as the colors were to be retired, the Park Ranger asked that all veterans come down to the stage to help.  It was amazing to watch so many, many veterans walk to the stage, but what was even more impressive was the reaction of the crowd.  The crowd continued an enthusiastic applause until every veteran (probably close to 100) was on the stage.  Afterwards, the Park Ranger had each veteran say his/her name and branch of service.

To think that this ceremony is repeated night after night is another example of the fine folks located in America's heartland.  It was definitely an evening to remember!

Mt. Rushmore and more.....July 30, 2014

Today, we began our day by visiting the Crazy Horse Monument.  This impressive carving is still a work in progress.  It began in 1948 by the sculptor Korczak Kiolkowski and is continued by his family.  It is funded solely by donations from visitors.  Eventually, it will be home to the Indian Museum of North America, the Native American Educational  & Cultural Center and the Indian University of North America.  It honors all Native Americans.  "My lands are where my dead lie buried" - Crazy Horse.

Next, we drove over to Custer State Park, which turned into one of our favorite excursions.  As we rounded the bend of "Wildlife Loop" here's what we saw:

Then, we encountered a traffic jam, as the "begging burros" stopped car after car in hopes of snacks!

While on our drive we saw deer, elk, bighorn sheep, LOTS of buffalo, goats and antelopes.

We enjoyed a delicious lunch at the State Game Lodge Resort before heading into the little town of Custer for an afternoon stroll.

Mt. Rushmore and more......MT. RUSHMORE, AT LAST!!!!

As we rounded the entrance, this is what we saw:

 And later, as we entered the park:

This was worth every mile of our 2,000 mile journey!!!!!

Just a note:  We are truly "primitive camping" as we have no cell or Internet services, so we had to come into the darling little town of Hall to borrow the local library's technology!  It's almost closing time, so the next update will probably be in a few days when we are out of "them, thar hills" and reconnected with society.  Meanwhile, we're off to Crazy Horse and Custer tomorrow.

Mt. Rushmore and more.....we've finally arrived!

July 28, 2014
As we left Bismarck this morning, it was a chilly 45, but sunny!  Driving through the Dakota states seemed like a good place for me to learn how to drive our camper, so I drove for two hours.  It was an easy drive, and I must have done okay because MeMe and Rob slept!

We drove past North Dakota's highest elevation - White Butte!

And we also drove by the Geographic Center of the United States!

 We also stumbled upon an awesome little restaurant in Buffalo, SD called Blossoms and Brew where we enjoyed an amazing lunch.  BTW, just prior to entering Buffalo, we saw a buffalo!  Unfortunately, the camera wasn't ready.
We drove through neat towns like Spearfish, Sturgis (more about that later) and Deadwood.  Entering the Black Hills was like driving into a postcard stand because around every corner, a breathtaking scene appeared!

Even the scenery from our camper is spectacular!

We're going to enjoy staying here!

Mt. Rushmore and more....Bismarck, North Dakota

As we continued our travels, I couldn't help but hum, "This Land is Your Land"....as we passed the wild rice plants swaying, beautiful lakes, puffy clouds, and even Paul Bunyan's home, Akeley, MN.  It was quite thrilling to enter North Dakota, an unexplored state for the Kleimon family.

While the weather wasn't sunny, it was actually perfect driving weather, and because it Sunday, traffic was light.  We made a helpful discovery when we stopped at a truck stop for diesel.  The attendant suggested eating at the truck stop, which we did.  Now, we'll be looking for truck stops whenever we're hungry.

We're spending the night in Bismarck, North Dakota at an extremely patriotic KOA.  The entrance is lined with every state's flag, as well as a separate area honoring all the branches of our military.

As mom and I were walking, we discovered that the KOA is located on the Lewis and Clark Trail.

Tomorrow, we're on to a Bucket List destination.....Mt. Rushmore!

Mt. Rushmore and more.....Family Reunion

Our last full day of our Family Reunion was yet another amazing one!  We had an early start as we ventured to Itasca State Park to see the source of the Mississippi River.  Actually, we waded across the beginning of the Mighty Mississippi!

While putting our shoes back on from our wading, a gentleman next to me remarked that this had been on his wife's "Bucket List" for twenty years, and here we didn't even know to put it on ours!

We decided to stop back in Walker for lunch, and Jane had read about this great restaurant, The 502, located in Chase on the Lake, a lovely inn on Leech Lake.  We enjoyed a fabulous lunch, with a spectacular view of the lake.  

Back at the campground, folks were relaxing, fishing, and so......Robin and I decided we needed to get in one more round of golf.  We hesitated for just a moment, since we could hear thunder, but decided that since the golf course was across the street from the campground, if it looked threatening, we'd run home.  Luckily, the golf gods were with us, and we enjoyed our fifth round of golf in one week!

Dinner tonight is a traditional Family Reunion last supper event - eat all the week's leftovers.  I was particularly happy that the delicious cupcakes from last night were still available, especially my favorite, bacon topped maple!

As we were chatting after dinner, two loons swam by.  This captivating creature is Minnesota's state bird. 

Finally, as we returned to our camper for the evening, we noticed a glorious double rainbow.  Couldn't have asked for a better ending!

   

Mt. Rushmore and more....Family Reunion

Words of the day.....Lake Superior......fish fry.....cupcakes!!!
We started our day at 8:00 AM traveling to Duluth, MN located on Lake Superior.  The ride was easy and the two hour plus drive passed quickly.  Duluth is a distinctive, gorgeous city.

We arrived just in time to see a ferry cross under the bridge.  It was such a fascinating process to watch the lower part of the bridge rise to the upper to allow the ferry to pass.  We then enjoyed a walk to the lighthouse, a climb on the rocks leading down to Lake Superior, and then a short walk over to Grandma's for lunch.

Afterwards, we enjoyed some strolling and shopping on Canal Street.  The flowers were AMAZING!

On our drive home, we stopped in Proctor, where we picked up cupcakes (more about those later) from a college friend of Robin's.  The ride through the Chippewa National Forest home was so relaxing that all of the passengers took a little snooze.

      Tonight, we enjoyed our traditional fish fry.  We enjoyed visiting with Bernice (Nancy's sister), Jill (Bernice's daughter-in-law) and Nicole (Bernice's granddaughter).  David really enjoyed his time with Jill!

Nancy and Jim, with the usual help of Robin, and a new helper, Lily, battered and fried the plentiful catch from Peter and Jim!

As usual, the dinner was beyond delicious! And now for the cupcakes mentioned above.....Oh....my....gosh!!!!!!!!!  The Cupcake Lady, AKA Annie Sitek, created   THE BEST CUPCAKES EVER!!!!!!   My personal favorite was the bacon maple cupcakes, but everyone claimed that his/her cupcake was the best, whether it was the peanut butter/chocolate, lemon raspberry, Boston creme, etc.

Our grand finale was the campfire created by Jim.

We understand that s'mores were next on the menu, but we were so full that we simply waddled back up the hill to our camper, and to all a good night!