Petrified Forest of the Black Hills & Sturgis, South Dakota

Our ultimate destination today was Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

Along the way, we detoured to The Petrified Forest of the Black Hills.

The tour is a self-guided walking tour through centuries-old trees.

Here are two old stumps. One weighs 9,000 pounds, while the other weighs 175 pounds. Can you guess which is which?

This log got broke.

Sitting on an old petrified log is not recommended for long periods of time.

This is the longest log in the forest. It also got broke.

This "Winter Wood Pile" contains over 900 pieces of petrified wood.

Next up was the location of the annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally.

Sturgis is extremely quiet in late April.

The infamous Full Throttle Saloon waits for this year's rally.

Tru TV films daily during the 9 day celebration when 70,000 bikers converge on the city.

For more pictures, click here pictures 1-41.

To be continued...

Custer State Park, South Dakota

We made our way to Custer State Park, just a short distance from Mount Rushmore. It is South Dakota's largest and 1st state park and wildlife reserve, as well as the 2nd largest state park in the United States.

In 1927, President Calvin Coolidge named it his summer White House and popularity of the park grew. The park spans over 71,000 acres and boasts over 1,500 free-roaming bison.

As you can see, winter was not quite over.

Watch out for falling rock!!!!!!

Bambi greets you as you drive along.

Kind of a tight squeeze!!

Doug thinks I don't have eyes in the back of my head.

Is it safe to come out? Or are they going to take another picture?

Buffaloes Roam

You can see who has the right of way here.

I wonder when this grass is going to start growing.

We weren't sure what this animal was until we looked it up and discovered it was a pronghorn antelope.

Sometimes when you live in an RV, you find yourself a long way from the grocery store. You have to make the most of it when you are close to one.

This is how we finished our day. As you can see, never go to the store when you are hungry.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...

Mt. Rushmore

Oh no !!!!! More tourists taking pictures!

No, this is not Mount Rushmore, but an advertisement for Presidents' Park, which was closed while we were here.

Doug stands in for Bonzo.

Two cold tourists pose in front of Mount Rushmore.

Mount Rushmore construction was started in 1937 by Gutzon Burglum. In March 1941, Burglum died and his son Lincoln Burglum took over. Construction stopped due to lack of funding in October 1941.

Originally the plan was to carve the presidents from head to waist. The presidents are from left to right: George Washingon, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln.

The closest Marlon will ever come to being the President of the United States...

Doug stands in front of the entrance to Mount Rushmore where flags of all 50 states fly.

Doug shows us the meaning of Mount Rushmore in the museum.

Many views of Mount Rushmore...

It was time to say goodbye; we were cold and hungry.

These guys had found something to eat next to the road at Mount Rushmore.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...

Hart Ranch at Rapid City, South Dakota

We made it to Hart Ranch just outside of Rapid City where we would be staying for the next two weeks.

Originally, we were only going to stay a week but we found out near the end of the week that there was a big snowstorm in Yellowstone so we decided to stay longer.

We had a nice site and, as you can see, this was not the peak season.

We saw many neat clouds. Unfortunately, they packed heavy winds with them...sometimes gusting to over 50 miles an hour.

We were a couple of weeks too early for the pool or hot tub.

They also have miniature golf and tennis courts.

This is the clubhouse and convenience store.

These creatures were everywhere you looked, sometimes just a little too close to the road for Marlon's comfort.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...

North Mankato, Minnesota

On our way to Rapid City we stopped in North Mankato, Minnesota to visit with Marlon's friend, Dave, and his dog, Sandy.

Dave gave us a tour of the town and showed us where he works.

Here is Dave, Sandy and Marlon in front of Dave's house.
In front of our campsite for the night at the Flying J Truck Stop in Souix City, Iowa, we saw a wind turbine blade being transported on this truck.

After filling the RV with diesel, we thought we might trade for this economical model.

Our campsite for the night.

For more pictures, click here .

To be continued...