Memorial Rock Greenfield Iowa

I told all my friends that I would find this Rock and send pictures, so here they are.

I can honestly say, this one a highlight on our trip. The person "Bubba" that paints was painting this years mural when some Viet Nam vets came by on their motorcycles, were on their way to Washington DC with their friend's ashes, but , asked if they could speard their friend's ashes at the base of the rock, and he said, "Iowa wind will just blow them away," So he suggested they put the ashes into his paint and he then would use it in the mural this year, so that is what they did, and they were in the green paint used in the helicopter.
We are spending some time with friend's, Jim & Dale Ford in Burlington, Iowa, and we are camped at the Geode State Park, (Beautiful) and we have seen the devastation of the Mississippi River Floods. The river is receding now so we are going East from here. At Geode State Park, we met, Ed & April Pforts, and Dale Taylor and it was very nice to meet new friends. We might stay here through the 4th of July and if so, we are going to go to Morningsun for fireworks. Hope you have a nice 4th.. Talk to you soon.

Bridges of Madison County

OOOOOOOOPPPPPPPSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!

These are a few of the bridges of Madison County.
This was a wonderful day trip, and we saw the 6 bridges that are within 12 miles on Winterset Iowa.

Iowa

We've had lots of rain, thunder and lightning for the last two days, but it didn't stop us from seeing the sights. We went to the Bridges of Madison County today and as soon as I figure how to do it, I'm going to send a photo album. We also, visited where John Wayne was born. I told Neil I thought we made a wrong turn in Missouri because we didn't find Iowa, we found the Rain Forest, and he just laughed. Hope you having an equally nice summer...

Maybe we'll have pictures, but for some reason we're having trouble with uploading them, so we'll send pictures later, we guess. Today we went to Truman Library and they also have a moving memory section on Lincoln and we saw that too. Then we went to the biggest waterfall in Mo., it's calledTrist Falls, we'll say it was very pretty. Then we went to Jesse James Farm, but didn't get to go in they were closing in minutes...That's what happens when you try to do too many things. We've had our usual thunder lightning and rain last night and again this afternoon, it's getting so we just expect it, but, I WANT IT TO STOP..... Tomorrow we move up into Iowa, where John Wayne was born and where the first of the Bridges of Madison county is located, Winterset Iowa, and then we will visit one of Susan's friends from high school, and spend her Birthday, she'll be 29 Again.....in Iowa, then hopefully on to Illinois and slowly toward with a number of stops on the way to DC.

Dodge City Kansas

Long Branch Saloon, and then, from Gunsmoke. It was neat to see, they had a shoot out in the street, and then a program inside the Saloon and, of course you know Neil, he was flirting with Miss Kitty, and it's amazing she never aged. ???

Dodge City Kansas

The Long Branch Saloon, from Gunsmoke. They had a shoot out in front of it and gthen they had a prgram inside and of course you guessed it, Neil, was flirting with Miss Kitty, and it's amazing, she never aged...LOL

North Platte

Campground, Holiday RV Park, North Platte Nebraska...

This picture was taken out of the window of our motorhome. The laundry and bathrooms are very nice. We've only stayed in one campground that I didn't think much of, and it was in Valentine Nebraska, and was called Wacky West Camp, so guess we shouldhave known.

Exciting Day

Went to Bill Cody Fort, it was cool to see the miniature display of his show. Took 12 yrs to carve all the wooden people TP's, indian bows, arrows, and part of it even has moving parts, took alot of work to make it. Then we went to the GOLDEN SPIKE, (trainyard in North Platte) the largest railroad yard in the world, and, Monday was the day the Tower opened to the public, so it was neat to know we were among the first visitors. We enjoyed looking out over the railyards and see them functioning. Well, I should say I enjoyed, Susan didn't like the height too much, but she did go up, so she's getting better about heights, A LITTLE.... Tomorrow we are moving on to Dodge City, and the Long Branch Saloon and then Boot Hill...Should be fun.

Storms

June 18, 2008.....We were in a thunder, lightning ,. hail (the size of quarters) and 65 mph winds, storm. Poor Sandy was petrified, Susan was in second place, Neil just kept busy and Bandit went to sleep. The weather was beautiful at 10 pm and warnings on the TV said it would hit at 11:15pm and it did, Off to see Bill Cody Fort today.

Pioneer Auto Museum

My friend, Betty Smith told me if you click on the pictures in the Blog they will enlarge for you. I also, am learning to fix the pictures before putting them on here, so hopefully, they will improve as we go.

The "General Lee" on display in the Pioneer Auto Museum.

We traveled a very short distance today and are just relaxing. We are now in North Platte, Ne and luck have it, they are having Wild West Days rightnow, so there is alot of things to do besides the regular sights, so this should be fun days for the next 2-3 days. More later.....gonna go see Bill Cody fort today......

Wall Drug

Resting from shopping

Rushmore & Crazy Horse

We went to Crazy Horse and Rushmore today. Crazy Horse will be amazing when completed, (in 80 or 90 or more years) and Mount Rushmore is just totally awesome, and I still want to see it again and again. We saw buffalo, donkeys with babies, deer, longhorn sheep, mountain goat, and alot of beautiful scenery. Tomorrow we travel to Murdo, SD

to the Pioneer Car Museum and then down into Nebraska. We had a picnic lunch in the forest which was very quiet and peaceful.

The Badlands

These are photos of the Badlands, I thought they were kinda pretty, but the soil looks like limestone, but the say it is silt & sand . We're glad we went there,
but we have seen them now. It goes on for miles and miles and you see nothing or nobody..

Tomorrow we are going to Rushmoore, Crazy Horse and hopefully, time allowing we are going to go to the Presidents Park too, we had never heard of it before now.

Wyoming

Yes, the population is 15

This was the PO Liquor store and General Store

This is the place we had lunch yesterday, and yes we're still alive, and the food was great and place was clean and enough to feed us dinner too .

Montana and Wyoming

View of how Low Shasta is....

There is a baby deer right behind Mom IF you have a magnifying glass

DEVIL'S TOWER

We finally saw Sunshine off and on today June 11th. We went to a program in Billings, called "Love Always, Patsy Cline" by Lisa Fox, she did a great job with Patsy's songs. Yes everyone Neil went to a "Country Western Music Program". Gonna convert him yet. NOT. We went to The Battlefield of Custer's last stand. Rained and we went on the mountain in the motorhome and the road was aboout wide enough for us, not meeting anyone which we did, Not to mention the wind about knocking us off the mountain, other than that it was good to see it, but we had sort of a sad feeling about it. Today June 13th, we had beautiful weather and we went to Devil's Tower, it was awesome.

Montana

We went to Anaconda Mt today, they have a big copper mine near the town, but that is about the only thing there to see. We went over the Continental Divide and saw the "Our Lady of the Rockies", that was something to see.

You can sort of see it, IF YOU LOOK close, (by the hill on the left.) Tomorrow we leave for Billings and hopefullyaway from the rain again.

This photo was taken in the Manito Park, Spokane

Idaho

We spent from Tues June 3-June 8th at Elsie's Camp in Rathdrum . We visited with Elsie, Janet and Greg while we were there. The weather is something we don't wanna talk about. It rained all but one day, but, the one day we went to Spokane Falls, and Manito Park in Spokane. It was worth the rainy days. We traveled today into the Big Skies of Montana and it is beautiful here, in Ananconda. We plan to sightsee for a couple days while we're here, at the speed we're going it may take us forever to get back home, but we want to live everywhere we have been, (BUT, we want to leave when it rains all the time or snows)
We've learned all the things we have forgotten and we're pretty sure we didn't pack anything.
Gas ???? We have paid $3.77- $3.89 so far. Coeur D A'lene was the cheapest place we have seen so far.
Neil was offered a job at this campground and he says we might come back here and work. Those 4 letter words he uses. If Neil has anything he would loike to add I'm going to let him post another letter. Bye for now, hope to add some beautiful pics. Susan