I can't believe that we have been gone 3 months! We counted the campsites we have stayed in and we have camped in 53 different places, and put on over 18,000 kms. It has been everything we have hoped it would be. plus much more. But as we get closer to home we are getting excited to get home.
We camped at a interstate park, which was right on the boarder of Wisconsin and Minn. where they have these glacier rock formations from the Ice Age. So off we went to check them out.
They were pretty cool, and interesting.
We were also told to make sure we went to "Mount Tom"
as they were pretty proud of this. So of course we went, and really???? it should be called
"Mount Hill".....nothing to see really, but we do what the locals tell us to do LOL It is the highest peak for 50 miles we have been told. So you can tell how flat the area was, they grow mostly corn and soy.
We climbed high up to the tower to get the full effect of Mount Tom
This is the view from atop of the tower - bush and more bush!
Doug enjoying the view
I am sure most of you have heard of "Little House of the Prairie". Well, we found out that Charles Ingalls brought his wife and family to build his homestead in South Dakota. We went and saw it, even though it was + 30 C that day, but it was worth it. They did a great job in preserving the history
This homestead was located in De Smet South Dakota in case anyone wants to visit. They had people dressed up and playing their parts, and told us the story of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
This is the picture of the real "happy" family of the Ingalls. They just do not smile in those days, and always dressed in black!
This is the homestead. What brought Charles Ingalls to bring his family to South Dakota in 1880, was a promise of free land from the government.
If you farmed a 1/4 section of land for 5 years, build a homestead, paid $16.00 to the country, then the land was yours. This is what he did to get his free land.
This is the hay roof barn that Charles build.
This house is called Ma's little house, as this is what Ma called it. This was the first homestead he built
An old organ that was in the house, it does not work anymore as the mice have eaten away on the bellows. Pity!
We went on this covered wagon ride to the one room school, where Laura went to school and where she taught.
Here at the school house they had a character dressed up to explain all the ins and outs of going to school in those days. They did a great job, and we both found it very interesting.
Inside the school
This is the church that the Ingalls family went to.
This little guy was just born in June and has one blue eye and one brown eye. Friendly little one!
Like I said earlier, we have camped in a lot of different sites, but besides the site where we put our chairs out with drinks on them (French Lake), this has to be one of the prettiest places we camped at. It was just about empty, and we backed right on to the lake, where there were people fishing. Quite, clean and just about perfect. It was a State Park in South Dakota.
That is Lake Thompson right behind the trailer.
And we had a beautiful sunset also!
Worlds Largest Pheasant, in some small town in South Dakota "Who Knew?"
We then continued west to the badlands of South Dakota, where they have a scenic drive that you go on with a lot of pull offs to view the badlands. The day we went, the temp reached +37 C, thank goodness for Air Conditioning!!!
They are similar to the badlands of Alberta. A lot of Hoodoos and you can see different colours thru out each hoodoo. They just sort of appeared, and when you left, much like Alberta, they are gone!
The whole scenic loop takes about 20 minutes, but they charge you $15.00 to go into the National Park, a bit pricey we thought.
Today we are off to "Kool Deadwood Nites" at Deadwood, South Dakota. This is a Classic car show with cars from the 50's and 60's along with the music from that time. Should be a lot of fun, we have been here before with Sandy and Brian - 10 years ago. It is also the place where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed playing poker.
Play safe everyone and until next week, have fun.
Doug and Judy
No comments:
Post a Comment