Mount Rushmore

In one of our travel books it said that the black hills were a wonderful place to visit but Mount Rushmore could be viewed from the parking lot in 5 min's and move on, we disagree.

The historical significance of the four men is only a portion of this place. This gave us the opportunity to better understand the relationship the Indian's had with the black hills and how the federal government betrayed them after gold was discovered. The landscape as you can see is granite walls and black cedar forests (the reason it is referred to as the black hills) as far as you can see. The presidental trail (about a mile) gave some really unique and dizzing views of the national landmark.

It is easy to see why this area draws 500,000 bikers every year for the Sturgis rally.

Much more to see here in the next few days, we will post Crazy horse and Custers park tomorrow.

Badlands ND

The North Dakota badlands within Theodore Roosevelt national park is without question one of the most spectacular areas we have ever seen. We hope this is a preview of what we are getting ready to see moving west. The park is separated by a north and a south area, the first is a 14 mile drive around the little Missouri river through forests up mountains and ending at oxbow overlook which was occupied by a heard of wild buffalo when we were there. The south is a 36 mile loop drive that took us 4.5 hours and was by far our favorite. While in the south we saw thousands of prairie dogs (we understand they live in tight family units and are as Missy says “cuter than crap”) a huge mule deer (pictured) Buffalo within 6 inches of the truck and some white tail.

The ability to see the layers within the mountains that are as old as 60 million years is humbling and the colors that are glistening in the sunlight are breathtaking. We hope you like the pictures.

For Cheryl… Theodore Roosevelt came to ND in the early 1880’s to hunt Buffalo and because of this trip became a conversationalist, the first to become president. He was known to have said that he would have never become president hadn’t it been for his experiences in ND. He as you pointed out he resided in NY, but came to the Dakota’s often. Another neat fact is that he went bear hunting while President in Ashville NC and after days empty handed his aides were said to have located an injured and sick bear that they captured and brought to camp tied up. Theodore refused to kill the animal and the result was the term “Teddy bear”

Off to SD tomorrow for what looks to be a weeklong stop.

MI, WI, MN & ND road trip

Well, we spent the last three days traveling from Marquette to Dickinson ND. We took scenic routes through MI, MN and WI although the interstate in ND was also magnificent. We hope the pictures give you all some idea of the beautiful landscape. Some cool sights include lakeshores, cedar lots (4 stories tall and a half a mile long) more eagles, national forests through WI and MN, miles and miles of corn, sunflower and wheat fields before starting to see some hills in our current location. The smallest town we passed through had a population of 53 and although that seems low it was rare to see towns with populations approaching 1000. The fruit stands farmers markets and friendly nature of folks has been a real pleasure to experience.

The picture of the cow and the metal sculpture are both on the interstate in ND. Salem Sue is the largest Holstein in the country (I know weird but we took the picture for Kay) and the sculpture is the largest metal sculpture in the US.

We plan to spend some time in this location visiting Theodore Roosevelt’s national park and the national grasslands, both better known as the Badlands of ND.

P.S. this is what Amy looks like while I am driving...very calm

Ishpeming MI ok Marquette

Not much to post we have been a couple of lazy bums for a few days. Originally we thought this was Kim G's home town but later found out we were way off. They have a hot tub at this campground so I was able to talk with some locals and when I asked them "what must we see while in Ishpeming" and they looked around the pool area and said I have covered it. Great people here and the weather is spring like 44 in the am and 78 in the afternoon.

Still no bears but I am so happy to report that we have seen our first bald eagle in the wild... how amazing. In all honesty we have worked on planning our next few months and we are planning to travel the next several days to get in the western side of the US so as not to miss some important spots before it get to cold.

We love all of you guys, thanks for all your posting.

More later

Mackinaw Island

Normally when we go to the island we don’t spend very much time in town. This time we walked it and had a blast. Some of the houses and Bed and Breakfast’s are just stunning. We did an official taste test of two of the fudge shops; Ryba’s and Joann’s (somebody had to do it!) and we picked our favorite. Joann’s makes a double dark chocolate to die for! We had lunch at the Pink Pony and visited the marina. We also spent some time with butterflies from all over the world. Our favorite was the Blue Morpho from Central and South America. It was so vibrant and beautiful. It was amazing how different it looked on the upper side than the under side. The setting the butterflies live in was also wonderful. All the flowers! We walked by Fort Mackinaw but didn’t stop. Of course no visit to the island would be complete without a visit to the Grand Hotel. I am so glad it hasn’t changed much. They still require appropriate dress after 6:00 PM. No slacks for the ladies and a jacket and tie for the men. The gardens, as always were stunning. We have taken so many pictures so we don’t forget this unbelievable adventure, it’s hard to pick just a few!