Pulling out of last night's camp site this morning I knew something was not quite right.  I got out and looked around the trailer in the cold winter rain and did not see anything wrong, so we trekked on to our destination some 300 miles away.  All along I just knew there was something different.  The gas mileage was a little worse off by about 1 1/2 mpg and things just sounded and felt a little off.  I blew the poorer mileage off because of rather stiff north west headwinds and hilly countryside.  I just couldn't put my finger on it until we arrived at out destination, pulled up onto a relatively level concrete pad and Wendy says " wow, this right side really needs to come up" during our leveling process.  We looked around and indeed the left side was quite a bit higher than the right.  Then we started looking around and found one of the suspension parts was different than the other side.  We remember someone driving from Florida to last year's Oliver rally had experienced a failure of the suspension on one side and remember the effort it took to remedy the situation.  We're in Wetumka, OK and immediately thought "well, who's going to help us out here, in the middle of nowhere?"  First reach out was to Oliver via a service ticket followed by a phone call shortly afterwards to Oliver's service department.  Hannah is an Angel!!!!  We thought this problem was going to be a nightmare.  Hannah calmly told us she had seen this problem on occasion and told us that an axle part had flipped over and the fix was to lower the nose to the ground and it would flip back.  Keeping Hannah on the phone we tried the suggested action to no avail.  Rats!  She said try jacking up the nose instead.  We did.  The axle part was starting to move and Hannah warned us of a loud snap.  And the snap was loud, and the trailer shook, and the trailer was level again!!!!!!!!!  YAY HANNAH!!!!!!!!!!  We had hit a very large bump in the road on the way to our previous stop; big enough to scrape the flap under the bumper of our tow vehicle.  We are very thankful it was an easy fix.

Supposed to look like this.

"Shackle flip" they call it.  I called it something else.......

We took off from AR for OK and probably should have waited a while longer.  We canceled our visit to the ice cream shop as it snowed very hard on that part of the state.  We took  a more southern route to Harold and Tess's but didn't know what to expect there.  The roads were fine until we got to their turnoff.  We took a 1 mile trip down this snow covered gravel and muddy  road.

Yikes....should we try this next hill?  It was pretty muddy in the turn and quite a climb around the bend.  No place to turn around!  Maintained a steady speed and did not step much on the gas pedal as we made the short climb.  Success!!!

You can probably see the muddy tracks at the start of the climb.  They probably had 4 wheel drive...we didn't!  But we made it :)

Keeping our rig somewhat clean was NOT a success :(

Things were all fixed on the trailer yesterday around 2PM so we decided to stay put for the night at the Oliver campground since it was a 4 to 5 hour journey to Tunica.  We figured to just leave in the morning and shave off a day from our visit there.  Well......at 0230 I was awakened to intermittent lights around the inside of the trailer and our furnace going on and off as if we had electrical issues.  The furnace started blowing cold air and finally shut itself down a few minutes later.  Then it would not come back on...grrr!!!  Not to worry, we have an electric space heater we pulled out of the basement and survived the night.  25 degree temps are not all that bad so no ice jams this time.  Service ticket submitted right away but, of  course, it's Friday night and Oliver is closed on weekends.  So we'll wait to see them Monday and cut out our trip to Tunica and head over to friends in Oklahoma instead....of course that will take us right by the "worlds tallest ice cream" station again :)  Good plan!!!!!!
After much internet research I found the thermostat to be the culprit and will not attempt a simple fix as Oliver's service department needs to know what happened.  We are only the second retrofit for this air-conditioner and the new thermostat has a design flaw they need to be aware of for other's future retrofits.

This on/off switch moves the metal arm away from a contact to open the circuit and shut off the furnace.  The on position allows the metal arm to return and make contact with a post behind it.  The flaw is in the switch being too hard to operate and I'm not going to bust it. Period.  How it worked in the shop is beyond my comprehension and I'll let Oliver come up with the fix.  Someone on the web camphored the edge of the switch to allow contact in the on position so they won't have to put so much force on it.  A $30 thermostat is going to delay us a couple more days.  On the bright side the campsite is free to us and then there's ice cream involved!!! :)

Or something like that.  We're still in Hohenwald staying at Meriweather's Retreat, a bed and breakfast owned and operated by the best hostess this side of the Mississippi... Melissa.  We left this afternoon to pick up "Bessie" at the mother ship, but a minor problem arose with the maintenance and kind, sweet, Melissa took us back in on a moments notice...free of charge!  What a blessing!  We're scheduled to pick up Bessie sometime tomorrow morning and will leave from there bound for Tunica, MS.  More to follow....with pictures :)

Years ago Wendy's nephews were tasked by their teachers to create a flat Stanley, a hand drawn and cutout caricature, to give out or mail to friends and family.  The purpose was to have the recipients photograph and catalog places Flat Stanley visited and Thomas and John would give a report to their teachers and classmates.  That was 15 to 20 years ago.  I can't locate any pictures of Flat Stanley but I do have a picture of the home he retired to.

This past Christmas Wen's sister Connie, their mother, hosted our annual gathering and we exchanged our gifts via a white elephant exchange.  This fellow oversaw the event and we were allowed to carry him around the country with us on our adventures this year.  Connie called and suggested we carry BP (Blanco Pachyderm....get it? :) ) and take an occasional picture with him in it.  So, whenever you see BP in the corner of a picture you will know what's going on :) 

We are in Hohenwald, TN to get our annual maintenance done, yes it's been a year, to our trailer.  We happened upon this organization and learned it is a sanctuary for retired elephants from various zoos and circuses. They are sent to a 5000 acre parcel of land to "retire", away from human contact, and enjoy the rest of their lives in the wild.  Pretty cool!!!  It's a couple of miles from Hohenwald and not open to the public.  Several live cameras are running 24/7 and can be viewed at ​https://elephants.com/

Seems I made this mistake once before with the oil filler cap as noted back in my September 2021 post.  This time with the coolant tank cap...grrr!  And just minutes before we were to leave on our next 9 month adventure.  I was in luck this time when I noted a single "clunk" as it disappeared into the dark, cavernous engine pit.  A few minutes of searching produced my prized cap and we were on our way to Lake Hartwell, SC, where we holed up for the next 3 days.

Back into the cold weather...

Wendy and I are starting out tomorrow on a new and much anticipated adventure for the next 9+ months!  We'll start with the replacement of our obnoxiously loud air conditioner at the mother ship in Tennessee, then on to Tunica Mississippi, then to southern Texas and on to the Q!  Quartzsite, Arizona.  The Q hosts 10's of thousands of RV's, travel trailers, and campers of all sorts, during January and February of each year.  We've met quite a few people who plan to meet there and play a little music, burn a few burgers, and tell some "war stories" around the campfire.  We hope the weather cooperates and can enjoy the desert southwest.  It's in the middle of desert country...no amenities provided... just sand, cacti, poisonous critters, and hopefully, a ton of fun.  After that...we don't know.  To catch up on the past few weeks here are a few photos. 

This is a photo of a block of enamel about to be shaped by a machine controlled by computer, wirelessly, into a cap for Wendy's tooth.  The whole process was mesmerizing and fascinating to watch!  The end result was a great success.

On the way back to SC we stopped at a B&B in Bluefield, WV.  It was an historic building that Woodrow Wilson, JFK, a few Nobel Peace Prize recipients, and of course us, have visited :) 

We enjoyed a very tasty breakfast and sat next to friends of Wendy's cousin, Don, who used to live a couple of streets away from them on Seabrook Island.  We didn't know them before our encounter at our breakfast table.  Small world :)

Jane and Jim ( I'm relying on 3 week old memory cells...so I'm probably wrong) were very interesting and fun to be with.

Gwyn and Veston's family are such a blessing to us :) 

Just for the record, Jayce did not catch the shrimp!

Yes, that's a lot of rice...you can't go wrong with too much rice at a Japanese steak house!

I wish I'd taken a few pictures of our visit with Joseph, Robert and Vickie at a cornhole tournament we were invited to... next time, I hope.

This may have been one of the worst scoring golf outings we have experienced but one of the best times we've had on a golf course :)  Jim's thumbs up is, for sure, about the hot dog I had to buy for betting he couldn't make a virtually impossible putt.. I was wrong in my assumption!

My hard working elf has been working overtime as I've been very good this year!

A home full of good times :)

Tom is one happy camper :)

Phillip has definitely mastered the art of dice throwing!

Kay was the grand champion of the white elephant lottery ticket drawing!  Thomas was a big influence in the outcome.

We are very thankful for this gathering of family and friends!  We pray we are able to have a repeat next year...

Welcome back to the Ice Age!  46 degrees on the way back from the restaurant last night, -8 degrees this morning with a wind chill of -35 :(
Connie's supposed to be off from work today....NOT!​

A few pics from around town.

It finally warmed up to +14 today :)

We stopped at a familiar B&B in Mt Airy, NC, after dropping off "Cassie".  We stayed in the same room (posted last year).  400 miles later we arrived at Connie and Tom's home.  Our first night we went to a local restaurant, Nasties.  We like to walk there but it's too cold for us.

Connie hates to have her picture taken but we snuck in a quick blurry photo and posted it.  We won't tell her but I think she'll figure it out when she next reads the blog.  We're going with the story that we were just trying to get a picture of her new friend :)

There's a story behind the purple guy but I'll withhold the details at this time :)

We left in March and are now back at Gwyn and Veston's home for a couple of months.  Our old trailer needed cleaning up for its new owners.  And the dogs jumped in for a cleaning as well :)

It's sad to say goodbye to "Cassie" but she has moved on to a young, new family!  Its really hard to believe we had her for 5 years...

I just had a cataract removed and Veston thinks I'll benefit from these larger cards...wise guy!!!

Wendy's sister, Diane, stopped by for an overnight visit at an Air B&B on her way down to Florida Keys for a week of off-shore sailing.  We visited Folly Beach while she was here and went to the James Island State Park Christmas light display.  We really enjoyed her visit.

My brother's truck has been very well taken care of by his son, David.

From Grapeland we went on to Tunica, MS, for a 2 night stop and then on for one night stop at a Cracker Barrel in Ft Payne, Alabama.  We didn't get a picture but I will tell you we got pinned into our parking spot at the Cracker Barrel.  I saw the person park next to us but didn't take note of her appearance and the close proximity to us.  I went inside a few minutes later to try spotting her so we could leave but could not remember what she looked like.  So....we just decided to get breakfast and wait it out.  We figured the person was there to eat and would then leave.  Not so!  After we finished eating we waited, and waited, and waited.  She must have went to the nearby shopping mall after her breakfast.  We reevaluated our situation, had Wendy lift a tree branch, and escaped our parking predicament.  But as she was looking up and holding the branch, she slipped off the curb and went rolling.  We were very thankful to escape injury and left for Georgia.

We've grown quite fond of Lake Hartwell and find it to be a wonderful stop when we are returning to or leaving SC.

On the way back to SC we attended another Pineknot rally in Grapeland, Texas.  The weather was perfect and good times were had by all! 

Doug and Mary came here directly after picking their trailer up from the Casita factory.  They had a few major problems with the installation of the kitchen sink.  We worked on it for a while and made some progress.

Phil and Mary are taking notes :)  When I first met Phil at a previous rally in Bandera, Texas, we had identical issues with the toilet in our trailers.  We helped each other to come up with solutions.  Here at Pineknot we again had identical problems, this time with the furnace.  I had just fixed my problem the week before Pineknot.  So we operated on Phil's furnace and fixed it...yay!  We decided to take notes on any problems we had until the next time we meet since we seemed destined to have identical problems with our trailers.

This was Dave and Linda's last time to host Pineknot :(  They have done a wonderful job to ensure the success of this event and will be dearly missed.

Just walking around camp making new friends and reacquainting with old friends is what it's  all about for us :)

A wonderful visit with dear friends, Tess and Harold, near Wetumka.  We finished a few projects during this visit :)  We were with them for a little over a week.  Pistol (pictured on the right) is a new addition to the family...he is a rescue German Shepard.

Harold and Tess have done much work to their place since our visit in May.

They've added this large barn, regraded much of their property, moved a storage container, and have plans for putting in a pond this winter.  2 large 275 gallon containers were placed to gather water from their downspouts for future watering.  WHEW!  Our earlier chicken shelter project was blow away by a tornado...thankfully it was uninhabited.  

This fellow was quite unfriendly...I put my hand down and he went on the attack.  I figure he didn't want to be bothered on his quest to find overwintering accommodations.  Winter is fast approaching!

2 weeks at Davis Mountains SP in Ft Davis went by way too fast.  We left today for Abilene and tomorrow will be in Oklahoma for a visit with our friends, Tess and Harold :)  Here are several pictures of the last morning at the Casita rally, called the "Havelina Roundup".  We played a little music, hiked a few miles and visited with new friends, and old.

Gerald is about the nicest camp host we've come across...we hope to see him again next year!

Ed is a fantastically talented singer-songwriter.  It shouldn't be hard to spot his rig if we come across it on our future travels!  We sure hope to meet again somewhere down the road and play some more tunes :)

Our spot for the week :)

Our last morning view as we met with our daily early morning coffee group.

Wendy met this group as we traveled down an alley to get to our restaurant.

This seemed a little odd as someone poured the concrete around an old tree stump.  I'm sure a few people have stumbled over the years.

We've been looking for a Javelina every day since arriving here and finally saw this one the night before we left :)  In keeping with tradition I'll tell you that a group them is called a squadron!  They can also be referred to as families or herds.  They are from the pig family.  They are actually collared peccaries.
​

Here is a link for a video we took of one of our hikes...copy and paste in your browser.
​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3VDfk6Qm58
​

We traveled 330 or so miles to Abilene, TX.  It's a free overnight stay at a Cracker Barrel we've stopped at before.  They are undergoing a little renovation.

The bright side?  A short walk across the street for dessert :)

Our Casita rally starts tomorrow and lasts a week, at which time we head for Oklahoma.  Ft. Davis is quite the place for frustrations with package delivery from UPS and USPS!  Orders from Amazon are sent to Ft Davis and transferred to USPS, which doesn't deliver to the park unbeknownst to us until we get the notices that the packages have been sent back to their origin.  We go to the USPS and they say ok to general deliveries.   So we reorder everything and the post office rejects them again because they have no USPS labels on them.  Well, Amazon doesn't send out through USPS.  We go to Alpine, a few miles away, to visit the UPS office and they contact their driver and tell him to bring the packages back to the office, where we would pick up the next day...that has worked for one package so far, 2 more to go.  When we stopped by the post office in Ft. Davis on the way back to express our displeasure, we find that there is a special way to indicate on the UPS label to redirect the package to the park's PO Box.  Well, now we have resolved the mystery.  On the way out the post office clerk asks for our name and after giving it, she says "oh, wait a minute".  She then brings out a package for us that was identified as returned to its origin.  The previous clerk had intercepted and stored it after our first visit there.  We're thankful for that but if we had not stopped to express our displeasure, I reckon that package would had been there for quite some time.   Hopefully UPS will have our remaining 2 packages when we visit them again on Monday.  We have to go all the way to Alpine since no-one answers the phone as the one, very kind and helpful, person is by himself and is pretty busy.  WE WILL NOT ORDER ANYTHING HERE AGAIN.....here ends my rant!

On a good note, we are surrounded by beautiful views and friendly people.  There are several trails, carved out by the Civilian Conservation Corps back in the 1930's and early 40's.  I really didn't know the history surrounding the CCC until we watched a documentary on them at the campground's interpretive center.  Without getting too political, I think that documentary should be required watching at the early high school level AND by all who serve as elected officials!  The documentary we watched is from the PBS American Experience Series and is entitled The Civilian Conservation Corps.

So now back to the fun stuff...
We have hiked a lot of miles this week and met many people.  We can't wait for the rally to start and reacquaint with old friends and play a little music!  Yay!!
​Here are some of the pictures we took this week.

Wendy spotted this roadrunner, pretty cool!

Last night we had another visitor, this one was welcome.  We were cooking out late and this mule deer came strolling out and put its nose on Wendy's hand.  I suspect its used to being fed.  We couldn't give her any food...against park rules, but we did give her a bowl of water.  This was way cool!

We made it to the Javelina Roundup, a Casita rally at Davis Mountain SP, Fort Davis, TX.  We do have a very weak connection to the internet, but no phone service.  The Davis Mountains are quite beautiful.  It's hard to believe we're in Texas.  We'll get some pictures posted soon.

Aoudad Sheep are all over the cliffs here.  I thought this was large tribe of them but this evening there were twice as many trying to bed down for the night, probably 30+

The aoudad, also called Barbary sheep, is a species of caprid (goat-antelope) native to North Africa. The aoudad is a large, muscular animal with a thick coat of reddish-brown to tan wool and occasional black markings. Both sexes have horns, which are heavily ridged in males and more slender in females. Males stand about 1.2 m (4 ft) at the shoulder, while females are slightly smaller.
They are more closely related to goats.

Our next door neighbor for a night, Brian, from Canada, is touring across the country in a Jaguar and tent camping.  Of course he's in much better shape than I and a bit younger.  We enjoyed our brief visit and he has invited us to stay a night or two if ever we are in Canada.  We hope that happens!  As we were talking at the campsite a rather large and colorful tarantula joined us.  Wish I had my camera!

So, in one day we've come across Mule deer, Aoudad, tarantulas ( yes, plural, as we came across another one today), and an unwelcomed visitor last night....

We turned in around 11pm and at 11:30 we were asphyxiated by a skunk.  I mean, we had all the windows and vents open to allow the pleasant and cooling breezes pass through our trailer and suddenly things weren't so pleasant!!!  It was right outside our window and I thought we were sprayed, for sure.  The next morning revealed we were not sprayed....thank goodness!  This afternoon Wendy took this picture.  Tonight we will probably have the trailer closed up when we turn in.

This is our 3rd time here, maybe our last.  It's not what it was the other 2 times we were here.  We had to pick a reservable spot, from 3 available, and noticed 2 were occupied by someone who had no reservation.  That tells me that if we had to reserve a spot, it may or may not have an occupant.  It's ok, we'll find another place :)

We will leave tomorrow for Fort Davis State Park in Texas.

We understand there may not be cell/internet service so we may be out of touch for about 2 weeks.  So, may God bless and keep you and we will re-connect soon :)

​Bandelier National Monument is a 33,677-acre United States National Monument near Los Alamos in Sandoval and Los Alamos counties, New Mexico. The monument preserves the homes and territory of the Ancestral Puebloans of a later era in the Southwest. Most of the pueblo structures date to two eras, dating between 1150 and 1600 AD

We were here 2 nights and the time flew by.  We hiked about 7 miles around the park and the scenery was beautiful.

Wendy is carefully planning the next days hike.

She has determined I need a few more thousand miles of hiking to look like this :(

When the goin' gets tough, the tough get goin'

I was trying to get tough but this is all I could come up with.

Here's one a little more friendlier.

Mature Ponderosa Pines produce vanillin, used in the artificial vanilla.  They smell very nice.  I wonder how a forest of them would smell... probably like a big vanilla ice cream cone :)

This was a Harvest Host visit with a family we'd like to see again next time through this part of Colorado.  They are just getting started putting together their place.  They have their hands full with many projects.  We enjoyed meeting them and touring their farm. 

I used to have a few dark hairs in my beard.  Travis wins this one.  Their Irish Wolf Hound is about as friendly as he can be :)

This was the first time Wendy and I have ever tried goat's milk.  It was actually quite good.

Now that's a pair of guard dogs!

Penelope the pig has found a new friend!!!  Wendy was thrilled with this encounter :) 

Wendy had this problem with one of the turkeys nibbling her toes!

It was cloudy the night we were here but Travis says stargazing at his place is amazing and plans to start his observatory project soon.

We then traveled to Oasis State Park, NM, again and stopped along the way for some pictures of the gorgeous Colorado scenery 

The truck and trailer handled the 9400 ft. mountain pass wonderfully.  Gas mileage...not so good.

Nice winery along the Rio Grande :)

Another one night stop at a place we've been before.  It was such a quick stop we forgot to take pictures, save a few of the bunnies.

A very quick overnight stop here, allowed me to ...AGAIN... clean off the bugs!  We enjoyed a great meal at a Mexican restaurant a few blocks away.  We decided to walk so I called our hosts to ask if there were any questionable neighborhoods to avoid as we've never been here before.  The host laughed and informed me that no-one locks their doors at night and most leave their keys in the ignition.  Good enough for us! 

This was such a find for us.  We went to visit the monument as we did many years ago with Wendy's parents and decided to take a look at the campground on the way out.  We liked it and moved in for a week :)  There are quite a few trails to conquer and the scenery demanded we take hundreds of pictures; a few I'll post here.  It was a very calming and soul satisfying experience.  We plan to return next year, God permitting, and spend the maximum 2 weeks..hopefully on the same spot.  The turkeys know us by name :)

These little guys come through the campsite most every day :)

As you can see, the view is pretty awesome!

I photo-bombed this one...lol

We find the prairie dogs are too irresistible to ignore.

This one was a little too aggressive, I gave him a wide berth!

Many climbers make the climb most every day.  A couple stayed next to us.  They climbed the monument 3 times in 2 days.  Of course, they were much younger than I.

What's pretty cool is that they show "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" every night at 6pm.  BYOB :)

One very cool thing happened to us here...we met up with Alberta and Randy, a couple we met at the Oliver rally in Alabama earlier this year.  We didn't get to spend as much time with them as we would have liked.

But here goes!  We've been in and out, mostly out, of phone service for quite a while.  I'll be as brief as possible with all the stopovers followed by a few pictures.

We left River Falls, WI, and traveled to Moose Lake CG by Deer River , MN, for 1 night.  Then 3 nights at Leech Lake (didn't see any leeches :)) Recreation Area COE in Federal Dam, MN.  Next stop...Spirit Lake Casino near Devils Lake, ND for 3 nights to enjoy the cooler weather and wash vehicles.  Then on to Lake Metigoshe State Park, near Bottineau, ND, for a week.  23 and 24 Aug we were at Downstream CG COE at Lake Sakakawea, ND.  Next up was Theodore Roosevelt NP, ND for 12 days of boondocking.  Followed by 1 night at Enchanted Hwy CG, a city park in Regent, ND.  We then met Dwaine and Nancy on their return from Alaska (WOW) in Big Pine CG by Custer, SD.  Unfortunately, illness cut our visit short and they could only stay 1 night.  So, 2 nights for us there and on to Empire Lodge RV park in Pine Haven, WY.  And now we are currently at Belle Fouche River CG, WY, at Devils Tower National Monument, where we are boondocking, again, for 7 nights.  That's the road map for the past 5 weeks.

Next....here are some pictures starting with Moose Lake.  I did hear a Moose from across the Lake :)  Other than that it was pretty quiet here.

Leech Lake Rec Area COE Park at Federal Dam, MN.

This mighty, 200 year old, oak sheltered us on a quick rest during a hike. 

​ Wendy had to get a new phone here and I think it's going to take a while to train it :)  We had to go to Bemidji to get it one day and have them transfer data the next day.  That second day we traveled, truck only, another 40 miles or so to walk across the headwaters of the Mississippi. 

The sign behind us essentially says we are at 1475 ft elevation at the point the river starts its 2552 mile journey to the Gulf of Mexico.

Wendy spotted this black squirrel wandering around camp :)

Carolyn and Jim, this is the walleye meal I was telling you about.  One blackened and one fried, didn't hold a candle to the meal we shared together, a lifetime ago it seems, in Wisconsin :)

Spirit Lake Casino in St Michael, ND.  We stayed here an extra night for the cool temps :)

Another washing, for the record!

On the way to the Turtle Mountains we stopped to visit the geographical center of North America in Rugby, ND.  We visited here 25 years ago with Wendy's parents.

After stopping at the Bottineau city park we decided to just push on to Metagoshe SP, up in the Turtle Mountains.  The city park had this guy as an attraction :)  Tommy Turtle they call it.

Here at Metagoshe SP in ND we had a very relaxing time.

Believe it or not.....an ice cream truck comes through the campground on weekends, playing the music that was music to your ears as a kid.  I felt like I was back in the '50's waiting for it to come down our street!!! 

My trusty trail guide leads me along the way :)

Wen's trying to figure out which trail to take around the lake.

I did not know that a beaver would take on a tree this size!

While at Metagoshe we visited the International Peace Garden on the Canadian border.

Then, of course, we had the pleasure of going through customs.  We didn't realize we crossed into Canada as we didn't go through customs to get into the gardens.

​One bad thing about driving around the Dakotas.....

These guys just cover the road around the grain fields that haven't be harvested.  When you approach them they then jump up and get clobbered by whatever drives over them.  So only the lower half of the grill gets plastered and if you don't wash them that day they seem to turn into cement!  I saw a few vehicles that don't ever get washed and the front of them look as though they were just painted with grasshopper guts!

Close to Metagoshe we drove through Bottineau and visited an American Legion post and saw this big ball of metal next to it, so we had to investigate.  It is a grain silo that got caught up in a tornado.  You can see what it's supposed to look like in the poster.

Next up, 2 days at Downstream CG, COE, Lake Sakakewea, ND.

We used this stopover to visit Minot, ND, where I was stationed in the mid-70's.

​A new attraction has been added downtown Minot.

Scandinavian Heritage Park.​
The only outdoor museum in the world that features all five Nordic countries: Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Located in the heart of the Magic City, the Park includes a 240-year-old log house from Norway, a replica stabbur, 27-foot-tall Swedish Dala horse, the Gol Stave Church Museum, Finnish sauna, Danish windmill, statues, map plaza, picnic shelter, walking path, and gift shop. Adjacent to the Heritage House Museum.

They made the ceilings kinda low it seems :)

We visited the recently added air museum at Minot's airport.

This one's for you, Griff :)

I don't know what to say about this next picture.  The museum had a small section devoted to Minot Air Force Base and it included various relics and pictures.  As I gazed across the collection I saw this picture of a KC-135, which I worked on back in the day.  It was featuring an avionics troop working on the aircraft and I noticed the date was at a time I was stationed there.  So I closely inspected the photo and noticed my boss, Frank, standing off by the #3 engine and remarked "Hey! There's Frank!"  And then I noticed another person next to him, half cut out from the picture.  I had to squint to make him out and guess what, IT WAS ME!!!
Who would have figured I would see myself in a picture on the wall of a museum?  I left that place feeling quite a bit older than when I came in :(
​Wendy and the staff got a kick out of that!

On the way back through town I saw a familiar sign for a bowling alley I used to bowl at and wondered if it was still in existence.  It was.

The lady that owns it now is the daughter of the woman who owned it when we were there back in the 70's.  Her mom, now in her 90's, lives upstairs above the bowling alley.

Juniper CG in Theodore Roosevelt NP, ND was our next stop.  We boondocked there for 12 days and visited many buffalos.....I know, I know, they are really bison, but I grew up calling them buffalo and I'm stickin' with that!  I'll at least give in to calling a group of them a herd, which is the correct term to use for the bison :)

You'll call me what I tell you to call me!

At this point I decided to hold off cooking dinner.

You've gotta watch your step around here!

This odd vehicle is actually a firetruck converted to an RV.  The family is from The Netherlands and was granted a 1 1/2 year visa to travel here.  They've been to Canada, USA, and Mexico and want to go to South America.  They have a website at ​family_everywhere on Instagram.

As usual Wen is looking ahead, planning our next hike :)

This hike would be a bit of a problem!

What started out as a relativity benign hike...flat and dusty...the first 3 1/2 miles, to find the prairie dog town, turned nasty after making the decision to go the complete 11 1/2 mile trail.  After all, to turn back would mean another 3 1/2 miles back anyway and to continue on would merely add an additional 4 miles.  We were only 1/2 way through a water bottle and we had a full one left.  What could go wrong?  Well....at about the 4 mile point the terrain took a turn for the worse.

Now that I think about it, I believe this little guy was trying to tell us to turn back.  At the time I thought he was just trying to get us off his property :)  We continued onward......

During the first dramatic uphill slope, we stopped about 1/4 of the way up to calm our huffing and puffing.  After a sip of water we even discussed turning back, but rationalized turning back at that point would only do away with 2 miles of the 11 1/2  and we surely didn't want to do that.  So up we got and continued climbing.  This time we made it up almost to the peak of the first hill before collapsing again to rest and enjoy another sip of water.  This rest took a little longer.  Again we rose and continued upward and finally reached the summit.  It was not a particularly log ascent, just steep.  Less than 1/4 mile.  I was afraid to ask but I asked anyway..."how far have we been?"  "Oh, about 4 1/2 miles".  "Well now if we turn back we still have to go 9 miles total, so what's 2 1/2 more miles?  And after 1 more mile we will be halfway".  We trudged on and around the corner stood another hill in front of us.  We made it to the beginning of that ascent, rested up again and treated ourselves to another sip of water.  We're up pretty high at this point and feeling better.  

We knew we had to get down to road level at the bottom, we just didn't know we had to climb up and down 3 more times!  Each one taking more of a toll on us than the previous hill.  And we were on our last water bottle with 4 miles to go and 85 degree temps.

I didn't take much comfort in remembering that we brought the bear spray after seeing this!

At this point we were within 1 mile of the road and I prematurely hoisted my hand in celebration.  Turned out we had another down, up, and down trek to the road....at which point there were a mere 3 miles to go!

We crossed the road and the trail paralleled it for most of the way so if one of us collapsed the other could crawl over to the road and ask for assistance.  We were out of water at the 2 mile to go point.  I exaggerate when I say crawl, but really, we were concerned we would need help.  At the 1/2 mile to go point we just had to get ourselves onto the road and try to make it back to our truck.  One last, steep to us at this point, hill and we came across a sight we won't soon forget.

It took us the rest of the day to rehydrate and we had NO problem getting to sleep :)

This was a beautiful and relaxing stay for us!

25 years have passed since we visited here with Wendy's parents, and we feel their presence with us on our travels...

The Enchanted Highway, a 32 mile stretch of highway, features some of the world’s largest scrap metal sculptures. Seven different sculptures line the county highway, each one unique.
The sculpture “Geese in Flight”, is currently listed in the Guinness World Book of Records as the Largest Scrap Metal Sculpture in the entire world! The extremely large, metal sculptures depicting geese, deer, pheasants, grasshoppers, Teddy Roosevelt, and even a complete Tin Family. Local artist, Gary Greff, has welded, sandblasted, and painted the enormous figures.

The above picture on the right gives a good perspective on size.  That's not a stump below the deer hopping over the fence...that's ME :)

This was a push button menagerie of sorts.  A little lame but still a little cool :)

Big Pine CG in Custer, SD

We met Nancy and Dwaine here for a couple of nights but an illness cut our visit short and we didn't get to take many pictures.  They were kind enough to give us tickets to see the Jewel Cave and we enjoyed the tour very much.  They made it safely back home :)

Wen wanted to somehow fit this guy into our trailer but I had to put the kibosh on the idea!

Next up...Empire Lodge in Pine Haven, Wy.

This campground is run by a brother and sister who were very kind and helpful.

I'll wait a few days to post another next most excellent adventure at Devils Tower :)
​(my fingers are tired)

A quick test to see if I can send a video link

A very quick post to let all know we're ok.  We're in Watford City, ND to wash clothes and happened along a good internet connection, hence this post.  We're staying at Theodore Roosevelt NP where there is no electricity and very little to no phone and internet.  Bison are all around the park and the weather is very nice, albeit a little warm in the afternoon.  The nights are cool and refreshing and it is very quiet in terms of visitors and no road noise...yay!  Here are just a couple of pictures.  I don't have my glasses so please pardon the misspelling and possible blurry photos.  We'll be here until after Labor Day :) 
Blessings to all!

Jim, we switched back to Salmon :)