Tag: nomads

2025 Spring Road Trip – An Unplanned Side Trip

Sunday, May 25, 2025

Sunday, May 18 was an important and somewhat sad day.  Sunday morning Max and Anne buttoned up BB to move on from Custer.  Sadly, Randy and Debra would not be traveling with us.  They would begin their trek back across the country with various fun stops along the way to return to SC.  We have had such a fun trip and feel so very, very blessed to have had this time with them. Thank you, God!!!  We pray traveling mercies on them and for the two of us as we travel further west alone.  Thank you to all of you who have continued to pray for Randy.  We cherish your prayers. 

As we left Custer and Randy and Debra behind, we had very few fixed plans.  We knew generally the direction and some of the places we wanted to visit.  We did not have reservations or fixed stops. We drove from South Dakota into Wyoming and noticed a “brown sign” (park service sign) mentioning Devils Tower.  A few miles further was the turn and since we had not had time to stop at Devils Tower when we were returning from Alaska, we decided this should be the day. We remembered hearing some news about some storms in the area but no details.  Wow!  There was a lot of damage.  The ranger said they had an EF-3 tornado and straight-line winds up to 150mph last year.  There were over 300 mature trees damaged.  But Devils Tower still stands! And we enjoyed our quick hike around the bottom.

We are glad we made the detour, but it added about an hour driving time and two hours at the Tower and fifty miles to our travel day. We traveled on from Devils Tower determined to make our intended destination in Big Timber, Montana.  Unfortunately, it rained – hard!  But we made it to the Exxon Station in Big Timber just before dark and the sweet lady there told us to “just park out front and spend the night here.”  So we did. 

2025 Spring Road Trip – Custer, SD

Saturday, May 24, 2025

After a stormy night of sleep on Wednesday night, Thursday night May 15th we all slept well and awoke ready to move on down the road to Custer, SD.  Our campground, Big Pine, was just a short distance away from Custer State Park.  After we got both RVs set up, we went to a recommended Mexican Restaurant in town, for a late lunch, early dinner.  By then the sun had finally come out and it was a beautiful afternoon so we decided to do a trip around the Custer wildlife loop before dark.  Max and Anne had been looking forward to this park since the visit in 2014 was so good.  We began this trip by seeing lots of prairie dogs that we had not been able to see at Roosevelt due to the rain.  Custer just does not disappoint.  If you are ever anywhere in the area it is definitely worth your time.  The badger we saw this trip was just icing on the cake.

Saturday we first went to breakfast at a local diner and bakery.  We had eaten their sticky buns in 2014 and knew we had to visit them again.  Next, we had to do some of the mundane stuff you do when you travel in an RV.  Anne and Debra did laundry while Max and Randy looked for some parts needed for a repair on Lizzy, Randy and Debra’s travel trailer. Now for more fun, we went to Mt Rushmore to take in the sculptures on the mountain and do some hiking around the park. Mt Rushmore was still on shoulder season schedule so there were no Rangers to give talks or share their knowledge of the park.  We had to walk around and read the various informational boards. That’s one of the drawbacks of the shoulder season but the advantage is that we didn’t have near the crowds that will be there after Memorial Day. We all made a trip back to Rapid City to get the last needed part for Lizzy later in the day. It was a good visit to the Custer area.

2025 Spring Road Trip – Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Friday, May 23, 2025

Wednesday morning May 14, we packed up and headed the RVs to Medora, ND.  Almost immediately the winds whipped up to 30 mph with gusts higher.  We also had intermittent rain.  It was going to be a hard 328 mile day.  Max and Randy were our drivers and did an excellent job handling the wind.  We broke things up a bit with a stop in Jamestown, ND to see the “World’s Largest Buffalo” known as Dakota Thunder.  Dakota is a concrete sculpture of an American bison that is 26 feet tall, 14 feet wide, and 46 feet long.  He weighs approximately 60 tons and is visible from I-94.  Dakota gets over 100,000 visitors each year.

An hour or two later we took another break to visit Salem Sue, also just off I-94 and visible for five miles.  Salem Sue is a giant fiberglass Holstein cow sculpture in New Salem, ND.  She was built in 1974 for approximately $40,000.00. Her dimensions are:  50 feet long x 38 feet high and she weighs 6 tons.  Sue was sponsored by the New Salem Lions Club to honor the local dairymen in the area.

Next stop was the Theodore Roosevelt National Park Painted Canyon Visitors Center just outside of Medora. Max and Anne had fond memories of this stop from 2014 when they were on the way home from Alaska. It’s the first great look at the Bad Lands and makes such an impression.  Beautiful scenery.

Finally, we drove on to Medora, ND where the South Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park is located.  We arrived at our campground just after it began raining again.  We were able to get set up before the storm really kicked in.  It was a long sleepless night for us all between thunder, lightning, and wind shaking the RVs.

Thursday morning, May 15, we slept in a little after the hard travel day and little sleep.  However, there was lots to see so we began our visit to the national park about 9:00.  We drove the wildlife loops, first in the south unit and then after lunch, the north unit.  The scenery and wildlife were great.  We were concerned the rain would keep the animals in, but the only shy ones were the prairie dogs. Otherwise, the two drives were a wonderful way to spend a gloomy, rainy day.

2025 Spring Road Trip – A Day In Fargo

Thursday, May 22, 2025

Debra and Anne are good planners.  They had fully planned Tuesday, May 13th.   We would begin the day with an Agricultural Equipment and Manufacturing tour. We like manufacturing tours.  After God got through laughing, we realized that it was going to be too hot Tuesday afternoon for our planned visit to the Red River Zoo and for some reason the Agricultural tour couldn’t be done Tuesday so, Gumby visited, and we went to the zoo first thing Tuesday morning.  In the cool of the morning the animals were active and so fun to watch.  The two river otters were the most active of any we have ever seen.  So darn cute.  The Fargo Zoo is relatively new – opened in 1999.   The collection plan of the Red River Zoo primarily focuses on species from around the world with climates similar to North Dakota’s. We think they were so smart to do this because it allows them to have animals that thrive in the bitter winters of Fargo.  The zoo can have their animals on display year-round because they are cool/cold loving animals.

After lunch when it was hot outside, we visited a close by air conditioned air museum.  It was well done and displayed many restored planes from previous wars as well as some that are a work in progress.  Most of the planes are being restored by veterans.

Since it was such a warm day (one of just a few since leaving SC) after the air museum, we found some ice cream.  Who needs a healthy supper?  We had a good lunch.  So… ice cream it was.  It was a good day.