June 20Th through the 26th

John and Linda met us in Murdo and we caravanned to the Bad Lands. Upon arriving we quickly parked our RV's in an RV park and went exploring. The Bad Land hills are rugged and very beautiful with the laqyers of colors in the rocks. We took a lot of pictures even with the heat over 100 every day.(pictures) When we were in Murdo, Gus and Mel recommended we stop at a quaint bar in Scenic, SD. The name of the town was far from scenic but the bar had true character.(picture) An old timer was the Bartender and he told us stories for about an hour, he was so busy talking he never asked us if we wanted anything to drink. The floor was sawdust and the walls were covered with autographs of some famous people and not so famous people who had stopped there and left their autographs. Needless to say we went on our way to Hermosa without having anything to drink or leave our autograph.
We are staying in a very nice camp ground in Hermosa, SD. It is centrally located for a lot of things we want to do in the Black Hills. Our friends John and Linda have their RV parked beside us and we ride together to do our sight seeing which makes it a lot more fun with more ideas on what to see and do. There is a lot of a lot of wild life everywhere, especially in Custer State Park. We went down the Needles Highway and met some people who said we needed to see it by going up the highway, so the next day we went up the highway. At the top is a large granite pinnacle carved by nature to form a natural opening like the eye of a needle. This land mark is called "The Eye of the Needle". The road is very narrow and going through some of the stone tunnels the larger trucks folded their side mirrors in.
From there we went to Lead and Deadwood. Kevin Costner owns the neatest casino in Deadwood. It has a restaurant on the top floor and there are huge pictures of most of his movies hanging all over the restaurant, and the food is very good.
One day we rented paddle boats and paddled all over Legion Lake after we ate a lovely picnic lunch there. We played putt putt golf one day and the next day we went to Keystone and took a chair lift up the mountain and rode down on a real curvy slide on toboggans that reminded me of the Olympics. We went to Mount Rushmore twice. We went during the day and again at night to see the lighting of the mountain. We had dinner in the restaurant on Mt. Rushmore and it was beautiful. Tomorrow we are headed for home again. Kent has an appointment with his eye Dr. We are both looking forward to seeing our families and friends.

May 30 through June 18

May 30th Tuesday Sharon's kids were home from camping and we all went out for "Paddingtons Pizza". That is Kent's very favorite pizza place and he could hardly wait to go there. The next day Sharon and Bodie went to Eugene to spend the night with Kim and her family.
Thursday Sharon went to the beauty shop to see the girls and the clients in the shop. It was beautiful to see the new look the girls gave the shop. It felt good to be back in the shop with all the chatter and people I knew. I didn't get much time to talk to the girls, as they were busy and it reminded me of when I worked there and someone would stop in and I couldn't stop to talk to them.
Friday June 2nd On the road again for Idaho. The time in Salem went so fast and we didn't do half of the things we thought we would. It was real hard for Sharon to leave the kids and grandkids this time, but we will be home again for the 4th of July.
Saturday the 3rd of June. We drove as far as Coeur d'Alene and spent the night at the Elks Club. We went to see the old Cataldo Mission just outside Cour d' Alene, you can see it from the Interstate. It was built by the missionaries and the Indians with mud and straw from the river down below. It is a lovely place to pull off and have a picnic or rest. The mission has the huge old original religious pictures on the walls that were at one time stolen. The State took over and most of them have been returned. It is a State historic park now. (picture)
We went on to Deer Lodge, Montana where they have the old State prison as a museum right on main street where it has always been even when it was a operating prison. They have a ranch that is run by the National Park Service. The ranch is a working ranch and was the largest and most successful in the 19th Century. The ranch covered 4 states and part of Canada. Here Sharon practiced up on her roping skills!! LOL The National Park Service did a great job of showing what it was like to ranch in the 1800s, it was very interesting and educational.
Custer Battlefield was our next stop where the "Battle of the Little Bighorn" was fought. They have added so much more to see there since we both had seen it before. They are now marking the places the indians fell during the battle and recognizing their part and losses in the battle. Our camp ground there was so beautiful way out in the middle of no where with their property adjoining the battlefield. The Montana skies are so beautiful at night with no towns around and no lights, just the stars. We know now why they call it the "Big sky country"!
We went to the wedding and saw many friends and relatives on the 10th. Kimball, SD is the town where Sharon grew up on a beef ranch south of town and went to a country school. We are coming back here when we head for Wisconsin.
June 12th we left for Mobridge SD to visit some friends of Kents. Our friends Don and Orla had a BBQ for us to meet their friends on the reservation.
Saturday June 17 We went to the Murdo, SD Centennial celebration and out to Sharon's cousin Linda and Mel's place for a family reunion with her sisters and their families. The next day more cousin's from Kimball came and we had more fun. That evening we drove out to the country and we took some pictures of the old home place where Sharon's grand parents lived in the country, and as a child she used to go there a lot to visit.
The next morning we met some friends John and Linda, who are Full Time RV'ers. We are traveling together to the Badlands and Black Hills our next stop in our travels where we plan to stay a week or two.