Super 8 Motel - Columbus

After spending the night in Rapid City and enjoying all of its strip mall glory, we woke up and took a hike up to Little Devil's Tower in Black Hills National Forest. This was a short but steep and rewarding hike. After scrambling up some rocks, we reached the top and could see the beautiful Cathedral Spires and straight out beyond the hills to the prairie a couple thousand feet below. After our hike we took our a tour at Jewel Caves, which is a ...

... of the Third Kind movie. There was an entry fee to go into the monument park area so I decided to give it a miss, especially after paying to see the Crazy Horse monument!

I stopped in Buffalo for lunch at a Cowboy Saloon and had a good old cheeseburger and root beer!! The drive from Buffalow to Thermopolis was quite nice as it went through the Bighorn mountains area.

Thermoplis claims to be the home of the worlds largest mineral ...

... JAH hiked a little further. The trail was amazing! The water was rushing from the snow melt up in the Beartooth Mountains that we were in the foot of. When we were done climbing we hiked about 2 more miles and tripp and JAh jumped into the water, which was freezing cold. I wish I could have taken a picture of tripp's face when he came shooting back out of the water. I got some good climbing pics and one of tripp when he was fresh out of the water. THe land out here is ...

... we are up here she gave us some good advice, ideas, guidelines, and some good words of wisdom. She also kept us laughing with her stories and jokes. After leaving we went to the community pool and got some A&W cream sodas(sparkling vanilla flavor)...one of the most amazing human inventions of of the 21st century. We then went to our barn that my parents own and checked out their ...

Monday we left Deadwood and headed for Yellowstone.  On the way we made a swung off I-90 to see Devils Tower.  At 13 miles from the Tower we rounded a curve and could easily see it from that distance.  We spent some time at the base of the tower and watched three people climbing the face which is straight up.  Two were coming down and one person was going up.  Not my idea of fun but different strokes for different folks!!!   We stopped on the way out to have ...

... they ran over something. I turn around and continue to read the sign and snack on my protein bar. Then I turn around to get back in the car, but it's farther away then I remember parking it. Can you hear the wheels start turning now? Yup, then it dawns on me, I forgot to put the break on and the Little Guy silently rolled back down the turn off area and, luckily, hit a parking curb.

Walking down to the ...

... meow. Loud!!!! So I just keep chatting back as I opened a can of food I have in the closet near the door, but the bowls were in the truck. I went to get them and this little guy just keeps on howling but doesn't run away. Got him set up with wet and dry, and sat fairly close as he chowed down on the wet. He wasn't skinny, but he was eating as if he hadn't eaten in awhile. I gave him a second can, which he made it halfway through before he ...

... timeline: 10/21 Big Timber, MT 10/22 Interior, SD (Badlands) 10/23 Kansas City, MO 10/24 St. Louis, MO 10/27 Indianapolis, IN 10/29 Home FOOD REVIEW Mountain House Chili Mac with Beef 9 out of 10 Satisfying, exactly what you'd expect if you made it from scratch. Spicy, lots of beef chunks. I think putting beans in any camping food is a mistake, but hey, what do I know? Alpine Aire Mountain Blackberry Cheesecake 5 out of 10 Labor intensive and not a "no-cook" dessert ...

We make a short trip to see Devil's Tower. It is worth the extra side trip.It is a very strange rock formation that just appears in the middle of nowhere,cool! We hike around the tower. We watch some of the rock climbers, then cook breakfast and head to Mt. Rushmore.

... warned us that it was the same week as the Sturgis Harley Rally, the largest global gathering of gang members, auto body repair experts, ex-strippers, investment bankers and anyone else who can afford a tricked-out chopper. Approximately 300,000 bikers descended on western South Dakota, and it seemed many of them were heading west with us on I-90. We decided to hit the Badlands on the way to Keystone, and took a quick tour through the scenic loop for some good pictures ...