Johns Trippin'

  I stopped in Billings, Montana to pick up some huckleberry crepes at Stella's Bakery. Michael was the only one that liked them. I also ordered donuts, Rice Krispy treats with M&Ms, GF blueberry bread and hash brown sausage balls. No one went hungry. Caleb stopped at the store and paid for cookie ingredients for a future cookie sale. I have no idea how, when, or where he will do this, but he made posters and has made this his project. We arrived at Otter Creek Fishing Access Site in Big Timber, Montana. This was our first real boondocking experience. We had no reservations. We were able to get a spot right by the Yellowstone River, which is the longest free flowing river in the United States. It has great reviews on campendium.com. Free camping sounded so good. Some of the stones by the river consisted of pretty blue and purple. The kids love to play with stones by water and that is what they did. Caleb found a hook and string in the rocks and that should have been my clue to ...

After we stopped at the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, we traveled to the Huntley Project Museum in Huntley, Montana. The museum buildings were closed by the time we arrived however we were allowed to walk around the grounds. This museum educates the public about the Huntley Irrigation Project which was an irrigation system built in a 27 mile long and 4 mile wide area located in the Yellowstone River Valley. This 10 acre property has 18 homestead buildings, a lot of farm equipment and other various objects from the past. My mom and Frank would enjoy this museum. We were very close to a train track as you can see here. There was another track farther away on the other side of the museum. We did not have a quiet night's sleep. These sugar beets in their garden look huge and supposedly they get even bigger. I woke up early to see the sunrise and have my quiet time. I loved it!

We awoke this morning and became residents of South Dakota. It was odd how easy it was. It is odd that thousands of people are residents of this very remote state. It. is. so. odd. My favorite part of getting my license was that I could smile. The DMV lady said that I could and that she could not tell me otherwise. So in rebellion, I smiled. Take that, depressing, never-have-a-cheerful-picture North Carolina DMV! It actually felt more like I was about to do some tourist attraction and I had to stand to the side and smile for my expensive tourist picture. What a wild adventure all of this is. We are getting to see "Great Faces and Great Places!" After getting our licenses we headed to a trampoline park, of course. Jordan had most lovingly planned this trip. We had a great time and no one had to go get medical treatment afterward. I call that a win win! Interesting enough, right next to this place was the mail forwarding service where we now have an address in South Dakota. Wi...

After going to Mt. Rushmore we continued on to Hidden Lake Campground and Resort. When we got there it was really late so we quickly got ready and went to bed. The next day we went to Wind Cave National park! Dad booked a cave tour so we got to go inside Wind Cave. It gets it's name from the people who discovered it. The natural entrance they found "breathed" air from the entrance. The air either blew out or got sucked in depending on the pressure difference in the cave and above ground. Also the cave is known for a formation called boxwork which is this cool formation that looks like spiderweb.  After the cave we got our junior ranger badges then went home and went to bed. The next day we swam in H idden Lake then later in the evening dad,  Asher and I went on a trail in Wind Cave National Park (the national park isn't just the cave) and saw a bison in the middle of the trail, a thousand prairie dogs, a natural salt lick which looked like a dirt pit and a bison lick...

I can't explain why, but I have always wanted to go to the badlands. This despite a complete inability to tell you what the badlands even are. I think I simply had a rough idea that the terrain was beautiful in an other-worldly sort of way. And let's be honest, calling something "badlands" just sounds cool. Therefore, this was the park I was most excited to visit on this trip. As I learned at one of our previous parks , "badlands" has come to mean land that isn't good for much of anything. That term is used all over the world, but this park claims to be the genesis of it. It's an apt term. The land, while beautiful, is rotten for anything other than looking at. But that's ok; we weren't here to farm it! I suppose the hills are technically made of rock, but up close it looks like hard-packed mud. It seems like a strong rain would just dissolve them. I guess that's technically true, though it happens slower than one would think it should wh...

We had already visited a cave on our national park journey. It was the longest cave system in the world, in fact. It had a room big enough to hold an airliner. Therefore, I admittedly went into Wind Cave a little skeptical that it would impress me. After visiting, I can report that my skepticism was well founded. While a neat cave, Wind Cave fails to impress after visiting Mammoth Cave. I told Julie that I would have enjoyed it much more had we come here first. Wind Cave is known as such because the small natural entrance that was discovered in the late 19th century had a rather strong gust of wind coming out of it. This isn't a scientific mystery; it's due to unequal pressure within the cave and on the surface. Sometimes the air flows in. The walking tour through the cave took us roughly 200 feet below ground and 3/4 of a mile horizontally. This isn't a cave with many formations (no stalactites or stalagmites here), but it does have one unique claim to fame: boxwork. The ...

When we then arrived at Medora campground in North Dakota, mom was really exited that we got a tree at our campsite because the highest temperature was forecast to be 106 degrees! It was a nice campground with close bathrooms, cheap laundry, a playground, and the national park was only thee minutes away. When we got there we put the out the slides and eventually had dinner and went to bed. The next day we went to the Theodore Roosevelt National Park visitor center and learned about the park. Then later that night we went on a scenic drive in the national park and saw bison for the first time in the wild... ... prairie dogs...  ... and a coyote. Then we came home and went to bed. The next day we went on another scenic drive. Here are some pictures from it: When we were on the scenic drive we really wanted to see a bison. Well it turns out they are not rare in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. In fact they are so common that we got in bison jams, which is exactly what it sounds like!...