May 28th & 29th Stops in Crawfordville Iowa to Dayton Ohio

Just travel days, no pics.  Carol wanted a few things from Camping World, outside of Indianapolis, for the RV.  I wanted a Class "A" RV.  We spent 4 hours looking at various Class A's, agreed to a price but Carol did not feel she could drive it ......she did drive it in the parking lot, but said she couldn't see the road as in our current RV, so didn't close the deal, and what a deal it was!!!!! But guess, what???? There's a Camping World in Bath, NY hahahahaha......guess she'll have to go back to work at least part-time - I'll mind the house and the RV.....sounds good to me

Tomorrow we will visit the Air Force Museum, and then on to Columbus, Ohio to stay a few days with my brother Larry, and sister-in-law Jean

May 27th Wall South Dakota

I talked with this guy for 30 minutes, and had a more intelligent conversation then I've had with

 Ken & Mike in the last 5 years.

May 27th Badlands of South Dakota

These pictures are of the Badlands.

In this barron place, these flowers were growing all over the rocky ground.

We came upon this snake that was 6' (really just over 2') and it looked like a rattle snake,

 although it didn't have a rattle.

May 27th Wall, South Dakota

Guess what??  Frank and I are moving to Wall, S. Dakota.  He said this Post Office is paying for his miniscule retirement, so we may get jobs to pay for the RV trip.  He'll be a clerk and I can be the custodian, and fix anyone that gets hurt haha!!.

The above pictures are of the Wall shopping area.  The Wall Drug store started out in 1931- purchased by Ted Hustead and his wife.  It's in the middle of nowhere, so he decided to give it 5 yrs to prosper & if it didn't they would leave.  After 5 yrs, still hardly any business, but his wife Dorothy had an idea - she made signs advertising free cold water, like the old Burma Shave signs. Travelers started coming for water, then purchasing items, and the store flourished.  The next summer they had to hire 8 girls to help run the business.  Today it's a huge complex of trinkets, ice cream parlor, cafe, jewelry, clothing, hardware, toys, etc.  It even has a little chapel for travelers. The business is still managed by family.  Across the street are more merchants, restaurants, etc.  It was just something nice to do today, and then rest in our RV.

Again, we are blessed with this trip. We were to leave for our trip 1 week later, but thankfully we didn't because there were many tornadoe's in Oklahoma City after we left, leaving much damage.  When we were in West Yellowstone Park, a storm was to come leaving 8-12 inches of snow, but it passed us and hit the south entrance and closed that entrance.  That morning we were leaving for Buffalo, Wyoming thru the East entrance.  Our trip has not had any problems - Praise the Lord.  Tomorrow we will be heading East to Sioux Falls, S. Dakota.

May 26th - Mount Rushmore

Mt. Rushmore was so impressive - they had a historial display of the artist and how the work was done.  It's truly amazing how it was sculptured, not having present day technology.  While taking pictures, Frank noticed that there was a worker at the very top, probably doing maintenance work, as the weather extremes does damage each year.  After visiting Mt. Rushmore, we began our trip to Wall, South Dakota to rest for the night at the Sleepy Hollow Campground.

Yellowstone Hotel 104 years old

Above the front entrance to the hotel and below the back entrance which are both very impressive.  This hotel is built out of solid wood beams which are so beautiful.  The hotel faces "Old Faithful"

This is the fireplace which is very high to the 3rd level.  Below is the view from the fireplace area

This is the entrnce to the dining room.  The far wall has to entry ways to another all glass dining room

Frank and I after a wonderful meal at the hotel - behind the frosted glass windows is a bar area with clear glass windows that overlook the back entry.  What a wonderful way to end the day.  We stayed in an RV park the night and then left in the morning for Buffalo, Wyoming!!!

Yellowstone continued ...Mammoth Hot Springs

This spring ceased to exist

Unbelievable formations - picture above and below - travertine terraces - form of calcium carbonate that is dissolved from limestone beneath the ground, and is then carried to the surface by hot water.  The colors represent a variety of bacterial algae that survive at various water temperatures.

Picture above and below are above the pictures of the travertine terraces - apparently these waters flow down the other side that form those steps of different rock formations - again, you can only walk on the wooden pathways

Yellowstone continued

Pictures of the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone

This is the lower falls

Left picture is white rock formation and the right picture is the upper falls surrounded by snow - you get a queezy feeling when you look down this gorge

Water flowing from the falls - pictures can't even give you the feeling of the magnitude of this canyon

Another view of the canyon waters and colorful rocks - these pictures don't even look real - looks like oil paintings - just breathtaking!!!!!

Yellowstone continued

Beautiful hot springs - you can see these all over the park - many sizes, depths and colors.  Some are mounds of mud just bubbling like boiling water - you cannot walk directly in these areas, only on wooden walkways or view them from bridges or just higher landings.  The steam is created by the cold air meeting the warm spring - in the summer there is very little steam and you can gaze into the clear pools of beautiful colors.

This is Old Faithful gushing about 120 feet in the air, usually for about 4 minutes every few hours

May 22 thur May 25 Yellowstone

You can see the wooden walkways above the buffalo that you had to walk on

We saw a few elk and tons of buffalo.  At one point during a traffic slow down, we had to pass a slow walking buffalo in the road - too close for comfort!!!  Even this crow, was walking by cars while in a traffic slow down - guess he was looking for a handout!!  Those bird are big as chickens!!!  Also saw a black bear which I captured on the movie camera.

May 22, 2010 from Jackson Hole to Yellowstone National Park until 5-25-10

The park had these sulphur pools in many places.  In the 2nd picture you can see at some places you had to walk on wooden walkways because the earth was hot and toxic.  There were also bubbling mud pools of all different sizes - what an awesome sight

May 22, 2010 Jackson Hole & Grand Teton Mountains Wyoming

This is Jackson Hole - a cute little town like Ellicottville at home, but 10 times better and many more shops.  I'm sitting under an arch of elk antlers - each end of the little park has an arch. Frank is enjoying a rest at this unusual restaurant/bar.  This town is just before the Grand Teton Mountains - as you can see below, there are very majestic and the Lake Frank and I are standing by is Jenny Lake with the Grand Teton Mountains in the background.  The panoramic view of the mountains are as we were approaching and the close ups were on the road that would eventually lead us to Yellowstone National Park.  The little river, Snake River,  was just before we approached the mountain and Jenny Lake.

May 22nd - Leaving Salt Lake City to Jackson, WY

The above is called Bear Lake. It has a brightest blue hue that looks like you are in the Carribean.  I asked a guy who was launching his boat what caused the bright blue.  He said that it was high in Calcium  something.

Another group of mountains

A tabernacle in a small town.

Todays drive included snow, it reminded us of Christmas, it is also very cold - high 30s.  Tomorrow, we will go thru Grand Teton National Park and then a night in Yellowstone camp site.