May 30 Wednesday We left Belgrade, MT and headed for Glacier Park where we had a KOA reservation for two nights at St. Mary, MT. On the way, we spotted a Lewis & Clark interpretive center in Great Falls. We decided to take a couple of hours to tour this and it was well worth it. It was a very informative and well depicted museum. We can't imagine traveling this area at that time with horses and canoes without a proper map. 

We arrived at the St. Mary KOA around 6:30pm....it was a long, slow, twisted road for the RV but what a view from our campsite! It made up for the fact that we had no cell service or internet. We will head to Canada June 1^st and will be about 12 days in Canada traveling to Alaska.

note: if you single click on the picture it will enlarge

May 28 Monday We left Mt. Rushmore, SD and headed to Wyoming to see Devil's Tower.  We pulled into a visitor's center as we entered Wyoming and found Jim & Sonia, the couple from NY that we had previously met in a Cabela's parking lot.   They were also headed to Devil's Tower.  We spent the day with them at the tower.  It is a very impressive formation. Native Americans consider it a sacred sight.  It is also a  popular climbing place for avid rock climbers from all over the world.  You can walk around the base of the tower, 1.3miles, which we did. We were also lucky enough to see a few climbers...we all decided we would not want to climb it!

Fortunately, when we left Devil's Tower, Jim & Sonia were following us.   We ran into some very high cross winds on Rt. 90 and our awning came loose on one end.   They called our cell phone to let us know so we pulled over to the nearest rest area and Jim helped Gary to secure it.   We went a few miles down the road and our small awning over the bedroom window came loose!! Once again, we were near a rest area and once again, Jim helped Gary secure it.   Thanks so much to them..their help was priceless!!

May 29 Tuesday We left the Walmart parking lot in Sheridan, WY where we had spent the night and headed to Montana.  You may have noticed in some of our posted pictures that there are 3 of us traveling.  Brooklyn, our granddaughter, sent along Mr. Skunk to see the sights with us and she has been enjoying spotting him in the blog.

 Our goal was to visit Little Big Horn, also known as Custer's last stand.  This was an amazing place.  We arrived just in time to hear a talk from a Ranger Interpreter and he captivated us for almost an hour with a vivid description of the battle from beginning to end.  He was a wonderful speaker and we felt very well prepared when we took the 5 mile drive  around the battlefield and read the sign posts.  As we have gone through our pictures tonight though, we realized that it is difficult to capture the peace and solemness of this place so we are adding only one which shows the top of the hill where Custer was killed (blackened grave marker) and the white markers of the 7th Calvary soldiers who died with Custer.  Thanks to Rick L. for recommending this stop on our trip.

May 27 Sunday

Woke up to a beautiful sunny day!  No FOG!! After a pancake breakfast at Pappa's Pancake tent here at the KOA we headed for Mt. Rushmore.   Very beautiful...we took lots of pictures.  Gary posed with his retirement gift that was planned by Arnie and drawn by Kevin and presented to him by Bill on his last day at Pall Corp.   It is an ink caricature of his head on metal filter media (Pall product) with the word "FOCUS" written on it.  Which was a key phrase used by Gary at Pall.  Sounds like him, doesn't it Angela?

After Mt. Rushmore, we headed to Sturgis where we had lunch at Easy Riders Saloon.  Town is very quiet - the population is only 6,600, but, during the Bike Rally in the first full week of August it is over 100,000!  No hotel vacancies within 100 miles.   

We drove back through Deadwood and stopped at the Red Ass  Winery a few miles from our campground.  After driving by their sign several times we had to stop.  They are famous for their rhubarb wine and it is good!   They had free wine tasting-- 5 samples-- Gary had 6.   They specialize in berry wines as opposed to grapes because of the short growing season in SD.  Our wine specialist has relatives in the Finger Lakes so she has visited many wineries there. 

May 25 Friday We finally left  the Winnebago Service Facility Friday afternoon.   We didn't waste anytime hitting the road and heading to South Dakota.  We stayed in a Cabela's parking lot in Mitchell, SD.   We pulled into the parking lot and realized that the motorhome parked next to us had a NY plate.  We met Jim and Sonia; Jim was born in Ithaca and spent his first 16 years there.  He even knew where Groton was!   They are also headed to Alaska.  Later some friends we met at Winnebago, Dale & Debbie, pulled into Cabela's to spend the night also. We were all headed to the Mt. Rushmore area so we may meet up again.

May 26 Saturday We made a pit stop at the famous Wall Drugs in Wall, SD. We are currently in a KOA at Mt. Rushmore.  The weather is drizzly, cold & foggy -- 44 degrees. We decided to pass on the lighting ceremony tonight because of the fog...supposed to be a clearer day tomorrow, so we will plan to go tomorrow night.

 We couldn't just sit still, so we unhooked the car and headed for Deadwood about 40 miles away.   One thing Deadwood is famous for is that it is the place that Wild Bill Hickok was killed in Saloon #10 in the 1876.  Of course, we had to visit this landmark and see a re-enactment of that night.  We also enjoyed a nice dinner on the top floor of the saloon and even loss $5 in Kevin Costner's gambling casino, The Midnight Star.   After our big night out, we were back in the RV by 9pm mountain time which is 2 hours behind EST.

May 24 Thursday Believe it or not, we are still in Forest City, Iowa!  Looking for more things in the area, we discovered the Hobo Museum in Britt, Iowa; again, only about 20 miles from us.  This little museum is housed in an old movie theater and includes a documentary about the hobo phenomenon that hit our country at the time of the great depression.  Many adults and  teenagers hit the rails looking for work at that time. It was a interesting side trip and the museum was very quaint.   There still is a hobo convention held each year in Britt that brings in 2,000-8,000 people.  As for us, these two hobos are hoping to hit the road today, Friday, May 25!

May 23 Wednesday   The RV was still being serviced so we looked around for another adventure...didn't have to look far, some fellow RVers, Dean & Fran, told us that the Surf Ballroom where Buddy Holly played his last concert was in Clear Lake, Iowa about 20 miles from us.  So we headed there.  They are in the process of completing the restoration of the ballroom.   They still have concerts there...many famous people still come to perform...Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Kevin Costner to name a few.  We also visited the cornfield where Buddy Holly's plane went down Feb. 3, 1959.  Drove down a couple of dirt roads, walked about 1/4 mile between two cornfields with the wind constantly blowing at about 40 miles an hour to a memorial sight.  The pictures included today are of the ballroom exterior and the path leading to the memorial sight in the field.  Notice the Buddy Holly signature glasses on the posts.

May 22 Our RV had to spend another night at Winnebago service so we spent last night at Knights Lodge again.  This meant we had another day to explore the area in the jeep so we headed back to Mason City to tour The Music Man Square.   Meredith Willson who wrote the play and music for the Music Man was born and raised in Mason City.  He based the play on the town he grew up in, but  he called the town River City, as many of you many recall the line from the song, "there's trouble in River City".  Meredith's boyhood home is open for tours, which we did, and then we toured the square  which is a replica of the streets and scenes used in the movie "The Music Man".  This was a very entertaining way to spend the afternoon and we have a whole new appreciation for the movie and music.   I had to buy a DVD of the movie in the gift shop as I have not seen it in years and this whole tour left me wanting to view it again.

May 21st, Monday: Our RV went into the Winnebago shop for scheduled maintenance.   So, we had a day to do laundry and took a tour of the Winnebago Manufacturing  Plant.  We couldn't take pictures at the factory (guess they thought we would try to build one ourselves!)  Our RV was not finished by the end of the day so we decided to leave it in the shop and get a room for the night at The Knights Inn Lodge Resort.  See picture...it's a pretty place; lots of trees and located on a golf course which we took a nice walk around and saw geese and their babies--couldn't resist taking a picture of them! 

May 19 we arrived in Forest City, Iowa at the Winnebago Factory for some RV service.  May 20, Sunday, we drove the jeep to Mason City, Iowa to see some Frank Lloyd Wright architecture.  The Stockman House is the Prairie School Design (economy model) built in  1895 .  We also toured the hotel that FLW designed and built in 1910--he built 5 in his lifetime, but this is the only one left in the world.  This has been completely restored ($20million) and just reopened in September, 2011. The pictures included are of the exterior of the Stockman House and the wine cellar of the hotel -- my favorite place!  The other picture is of  I-35...we noticed that most crossroads are dirt out here and with the winds blowing over the prairie -gusts of 30-40mph-- dust everywhere!

 May 17th we stayed at a KOA in Southbend, Indiana .  There we visited the RV/Motorhome Museum. The two bottom pictures are from the museum.  Then we headed to Davenport, Iowa and spent Friday night, May 18th, in a Cracker Barrel parking lot and enjoyed dinner and breakfast the next morning in their restaurant.  May 19th as we started out for Forest City we made a pit stop at the World's Largest Truckstop, Iowa 80. HUGE!! Big enough for several tractor trailers to be parked inside the store.  Note one in the picture that we have included.

We are in Indiana.   We averaged 9.2 miles per gal today and believe it or not, we consider that good gas mileage!!  Diesel fuel was only $3.92/gal today...$.39 cheaper than yesterday.  We hope this trend continues.

We have encountered quite a bit of road work, but, fortunately, no delays.  All is good...the joy is in the ride.

May 16, 2012 --9:50 AM finally our journey to Alaska begins!  After many months (years?) of planning we hit the road!  We are at  our first stop in Erie, PA.  We made it here with no major problems,  just a broken glass shelf in the refrigerator that was easily cleaned up. 

Depending on the availability of WIFI, we will post something everyday, although some days will be more interesting than others, but it is just our way of checking in.  We would love to hear from you via comments, but I have yet to figure out how to set that up.  If you really want to connect with us, just send your comments to glrightmire@gmail.com until I learn how to navigate a blog.

Thanks to all of our well wishers - those who we have seen in the last few weeks and those who stopped by last night and this morning before our departure.  And, a special thanks to Brooklyn for the fun visit with her last night!  The joy is in the ride!