Our trip east has started in earnest. These are becoming travel days where we are just putting in the miles to work our way home. We are traveling routes we have traveled in the past so are making the push homeward a time of longer days and more miles. We left the campground in Cody early, filled the tank and made our way toward Greybull on route 14. Greybull is an interesting town with a huge field of old airplanes on the west side of town.

Greybull marks the change in terrain, where the flatlands begin to change into a rolling landscape that soon changes to the most fantastic rollercoaster ride through the Bighorn Mountains. After Greybull comes Shell, a little town with a pretty creek running through it, and its here the scenery really starts to change as you begin to enter a chasm of red rock.

After Greybull the scenery starts to change

The scenery is beyond description, just amazing. We stopped at a turnout overlook where we had stopped once before on another trip, just to take it all in. Another stop at Shell Falls, a spectacular cleft in the rock with a spectacular rushing falls and roaring river. Switchback after switchback we climbed through the Bighorns and it was breathtaking at every turn.

The roadway is marked with signs stating the geological era. One sign may say Ordovician Period 430-500 Million years ago, the next may say Pre-Cambrian 2.5 billion years ago - needless to say it is an impressive drive that takes you through the long history of the planet before man.

Carol, with her dislike of heights, did well, even-though she wanted to hide her eyes, she couldn't, and she took in the spectacular views. We crested and things began to level out, Carol recomposed herself and Harper snuggled down on her lap. We thought we were done. After a few minutes of relative flattish calm, we climbed a bit and crested at Granite Pass (9045 feet) and began our descent.

Looking east after cresting the Bighorns. lots of prairie out there

The eastern side of the Bighorns is completely different the the climb to the crest. Long gentle switchbacks take you down to the flatlands to the east. The views are so unexpected. The view has to be across hundreds of miles of flatlands from an incredible height. The driving was fine, the switchbacks were slow and the grade was gentle but the views are some of the most memorable of the trip and yet the cannot be captured with a camera easily.

After a while we made our way to Sheridan, in need of groceries and fuel. We also made a quick stop at the 'Pack and Mail' to send a package off to Jason. Our goal for the day was Rapid City, South Dakota. There is a chapel there that Carol wanted to see, and it closes at 5:00, we pressed on. We made it to the Chapel In The Hills at 4:45...just in time but then they had stuff going on so it was to be open until 8:00 or so. Carol was in heaven.

It is a Scandinavian chapel and the woodwork was very impressive indeed. Scandinavian woodcarvers always impress me. Our plan was to 'camp' in a Cabelas parking lot but since there was still daylight we pressed eastward for another hour and parked at Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota.

We saw signs for Wall Drug for hundreds of miles.

If you are unfamiliar with Wall Drug, here's the scoop. Sometime in the 1930s a guy wanted to settle in a town where he could go to church everyday. He was a pharmacist. He settled in Wall, SD and opened a pharmacy. Wall was on a main east-west highway so he advertised, with roadside signs, Free Ice Water to attract travelers. Today Wall Drug takes up all of main street and still offers free ice water, 5 cent coffee and donuts - free coffee and donuts if you are a veteran. They sell every kind of souvenir, have a chapel, stuffed buffalo and just about every imaginable thing to attract tourists. We had supper there and bought useless stuff.

Camped in the parking lot of Wall Drug, next to the trains.

The following morning we were off again early, heading eastward. The landscape had changed to rolling prairie. We spotted lots of Pronghorn and cattle, sometime even mixed in together. We crossed the Missouri at Chamberlain and visited a museum there. The Akta Lakota Museum Cultural Center at the St. Joseph's Indian School.

This was a great stop, a good rest from driving and they had a very good display of Lakota Sioux artifacts. We spent about an hour touring this museum, chatting with the docent and we did do a bit of shopping in the gift shop...there is always a gift shop. Eastward we went on I-90 with the notorious winds of South Dakota buffeting us around. We turned south onto route 29 at Sioux Falls and the wind got a bit better, at least it was on the nose rather than from the side.

I think this guy used to work as a mannequin . . .

We jumped off of 29 and onto some small roads through the farmland and somewhere we crossed into Iowa. We were headed to Le Mars, home of the Blue Bunny Creamery, another roadside attraction. And we love ice cream. Le Mars is a typical midwestern town the I find very comforting as I grew up in Illinois and these places make me feel at home.

We found a great place to park the Doodle and walked across the street to the Blue Bunny Creamery, poor Harper had to stay in the Doodle. We shopped both the gift shop and the ice cream parlor. Harper was happy to see that we had brought ice cream for her as well and we all enjoyed the different flavors.

An hour later, in the town of Onawa we were pull into the On-Ur-Wa RV park. I think this wins for the best RV park name. It was an unexpectedly beautiful little campground, and being in the midwest we had lots of conversations with the several campers there. We even met another couple who had a Leisure travel van similar to ours.

We made a good supper, played cribbage and turned in to get a good night's sleep before another early start. The next morning was another beautiful day of sunshine and comfortable temps. We took a circuitous route through the rolling hills down to Elkhorn Iowa, the home of yet another roadside attraction, a working Danish Windmill.

Here we watched the history of the windmill, which was a working windmill in Denmark built in 1848. It was disassembled and brought over to Elkhorn in 1976 where it was reassembled and is now operational. They were out of flour so they were not milling when we were there. Apparently grain shipments have been difficult for them because of covid. We had great access to the mill, we climbed through the upper workings and were fascinated by the ingenuity and craftsmanship. We bought some Danish pastry and a few other things in the gift shop. I was put on the mailing list so when they get some grain I can sample their flour and make some rye bread or a Danish or something.

Back on the road we were heading for a vineyard in Colona, Illinois. We arrived at the Lavender Crest Vineyard around four in the afternoon, got all set up in the parking lot and ended up on the patio of the vineyard with a nice Sauvignon Blanc wine chatting with other travelers who were also camping in the parking lot. It was a great way to end the day.

But the day didn't really end there... Another rig pulled in and a lady was asking if anyone knew anything about generators. Of course I said I would take a look. She was driving a pickup truck pulling a very old and tired travel trailer, likely from the 80's. She had just purchased a portable generator and wasn't too sure about how to use it. She had two dogs and a cat and two traveling companions who may or may not have been a couple. She was likely around 45 years old, and the couple was late twenties or early thirties and clearly had never seen a generator before. As we were talking I was constantly thinking what have I gotten myself into..I should have just kept my mouth shut. The generator was a small generator form Harbor Freight, and she wanted to run her air conditioner. I was not hopeful that this would work. After running through the operation and telling her that it needed to be grounded she pushed on and tried it without grounding. She said she didn't have any wire. I suggested she go to a hardware store and get some or strip an old extension cord and use that. She was from New Jersey and had all her possessions in the truck and trailer, she is moving to California, near the Oregon border by way of Nevada. I tried to convince her that the desert this time of year would not be a good choice. As we walked the dog later that evening she said she got it grounded and the air conditioner just overloaded the circuits.. I wish her well, hopefully she will make it to California intact with her pets and her friends. You just never know who you might meet along the way. Anyway, we had a great time at the vineyard and made some new friends, and had good wine, what more could you ask for.

Looking at grapes and corn… must be in Illinois

Below is a rather large gallery of things over the past three days or so…

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