Jacqueline’s Jaunts

09-18-21 Saturday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 18 Berthaud Brewing Loveland, CO Harvest Host Return: Yes We decided next time we take a long trip we will spend one night in a hotel. It was nice to take a long shower this morning and be able to go downstairs for breakfast. About 10:30 Barry got a text from Art and our RV was ready. We quickly packed everything, checked out and headed out to the country to pick up the RV.  When we got there, paid our bill and hooked up the jeep. We got ready to pull out of the yard but the running lights and cameras didn't work. Barry grabbed Art before he and his family headed out to lunch. Art checked all the fuses and found a few either in the wrong place or blown. Weird! An hour later, Art got everything working and we were off. Thank goodness we caught him before he and his family left for lunch. The drive today was another windy one. We went through the plains of Nebraska, the Southeast corner of Wyoming, and into Colorado (see map below). We stopped

09-17-21 Friday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 17 Hampton Inn Scottsbluff, NE Return: Yes                                                          We both slept well last night. We were totally exhausted when we hit the bed.  This morning's cool air smelled so fresh. It was a quite morning except for the occasional moooo.                                                                                                         Well...today turned out to be another stressful day.  Barry called a few places to see about taking the RV in. One place couldn't take us but he gave us the name of another place and we were successful. The owner of the place was so nice and wanted to get us in. He said he didn't like travelers to be stuck. We got the RV ready so nothing falls once we get on that B U M PY gravel road again. We took the Jeep off the back to help with the RV on the road and I would follow Barry. We were worried the RV would die before we made the 5 mile drive to the mechanics. Abou

09-16-21 Thursday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 16 Papa Moon Winery & Cider House Scottsbluff, NE 69361 Harvest Host  Return: Yes Well.....Today started out good, turned not so good, then ended pretty good. We left Badlands at 11:00 AM and headed toward Rapid City then south.  Our next stop was to be Crawford, NE...150 miles for about a 3 hour drive. The scenery was not much to look at so I didn't take any photos worth sharing.  For whatever reason our GPS sent us to Crawford, NE but not to Fort Robinson State Park. It was very weird where we ended up, in the middle of a residential area. We found the local visitor center and called the Park. The women on the other end told us to turn right on Highway 20 so we did. There was also a huge fire in the hills west of us. She told us to drive about 3 miles and the park is on the right. Well, we did that but at 3 miles the only thing we saw was a group of local police, sheriff, and firefighters. This was the place they were all gathering to h

09-15-21 Sunday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 15 Badlands, White River KOA Badlands, SD Site 60 Return: Yes Today was an awesome day. We did so much, saw incredible sights, beautiful animals in the hills and roaming the grassy plains. So much more than I expected but then I wasn’t sure what to expect.      We started our day at the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. Before entering the center there was a ranger outside with fossils on a table. I asked what she was showing, and she went through each of the fossils. All were found by visitors in the park. Very fascinating. Inside was the gift shop and I purchased my NP Passport stickers, and a few other things. I then found the stamps to stamp my passport book so I’m happy.  The VC has a great museum. This area does not have dinosaur fossils. The fossils from this area are after dinosaurs went extinct and a lot of this area was under water. The coolest thing about this visitor center is it has a working fossil preparation lab. Two paleontologists were w

09/14/21 Tuesday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 14 White River KOA Holiday Badlands Site 60 Well, it was the day to say goodbye to Beaver Lake Campground. Seems a little sad but we are ready to move on. We pulled out of our campground and went to the area in the park to fill up our propane tank. Mishap-Our electric water heater isn't working so our water heater is heating with propane. Something Barry will have to look at when we get home.  The drive to the Badlands was only about 2 hours. This is the farthest East we go. After 2 nights here we head west.  When we arrived at the park we saved the $30 entrance fee because we had our Senior Car pass for the National Parks so it was free. We like free. We drove through the Badlands on the way to our campground. AMAZING and indescribable.      We made it to our campground without getting lost. Checked in, parked, settled in for a bit, took a walk and found 5 jeeps but didn't finish our walk. We ended up meeting some people from Tennessee wh

09/13/21 Monday Mt. Rushmore Trip Day 13 Beaver Lake Campground  Custer, SD Site I Wind Cave National Park was our destination today. It's about a 30 minute drive southeast of Custer. It was a nice drive and beautiful country.  Right before we turned off to the visitor center, we saw a buffalo sitting about 75 yards off the road. We stopped and took photos. He was huge and I would not want that guy moving toward me. They can jump 6’ high and run 35 mph. Too fast for me. He was a handsome fellow.  We arrived at the visitor center and the parking lot was packed. I worried we would not get tickets. Their website states they sell out for each tour about 2 hours prior or sooner. They only sell 40 tickets per tour. We quickly got in line and there were about 20 people ahead of us. When it was our turn, we were able to get the 1:00PM tour for the Natural Entrance Tour. We had about 2 hours to kill so we walked the museum and had a “very tasty” lunch out of the vending machines! We didn’t