Visiting Relatives in the St Louis, Missouri area

During the past week we have been in the St Louis area visiting relatives. We will be heading north to attend a wedding in Illinois and then we will start our last leg of our trip back to Virginia.

Heading to St Louis via Kansas, 05 August 2009

Well, the kid's trip to the west is almost over. Just a couple of more stops in a small town in Kansas to visit their departed relatives at the Nortonville cemetery and then off to Topeka to see their great aunts and uncle. We're all be back in St Louis on Thursday, 06 August, just in time for Brian and Amber to register for school.

Wall Drug & the Badlands NP, 04 August 2009

It was time to start heading "back east" from the Black Hills, South Dakota, on Tuesday, 04 August; but we had time to stop at the famous Wall Drug Store (it's really a mall now) and then we drove east through the Badlands National Park. Once again Brian and Amber showed they were fearless as they walked out on narrow ridges that went down 100s of feet...we figured that if they fell, we would just have to jump in after them (we wouldn't be able to face their parents)! After that it was hard interstate driving east and then south to Iowa.

Black Hills, Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, 03 August 2009

We arrived at Mount Rushmore National Monument at 0801 on Monday, 03 Aug, to beat all the 2009 Surgis Motorcycle Rally bikers. We hiked a new park path built since we last visited here in 1998. The hiking path runs just at the foot of Mt. Rushmore...awesome sights. We then sped off to the Crazy Horse Monument to see what progress they have made in the last 11 years; it was hard to see at first, but once we compared pictures from 98 we could see how they had cut off the front of the mountain. We then took a vintage 1880 train ride through the Black Hills from Hill City to Keystone and then back.

Devils Tower, Wyoming & Bikers Rally, 02 AUG 2009

On Sunday, 02 Aug, we had a great hiking day at Devil's Tower National Monument in Wyoming. It also happened to be the first day of the Sturgis Rally Devil's Tower Ride, so many bikes and bikers! Actually really fun. We all loved the hike around Devil's Tower, every few feet we were amazed how the look of Devil's Tower changed. A truly awesome work of nature.

Travel Day & Little Bighorn Battlefield, 01 AUG 2009

Saturday, 01 August, was mostly a travel day via I-90 East to the Black Hills of South Dakota. Along the way we stopped by the Little Bighorn Battlefield, which is right off I-90 near Crow Agency, Montana. It was very educational for Brian and Amber since they have had very little exposure to the history of the West. A National Park Ranger gave us a very engaging talk on "Custer's last stand" before we walked up to the battlefield summit. By the way, I have been meaning to mention that one of the travel phrases that has been burned into our memory is..."I have bars here!" or "I don't have any bars here!" Brian and Amber have kept a close watch on when and where they have cellphone coverage and went they don't...it came as a great shock to them at the whole country does have four bars! We stopped for the night in Buffalo, Wyoming, and Amber insisted that we wash the Ford Flex (it was about half covered in white mud from Yellowstone, Tetons, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Texas). So, we went to a self service car wash and now Amber is happy again.

Grand Tetons & Yellowstone, 31 July 2009

We departed Jackson Hole and the Tetons heading north to Yellowstone NP. Once again traffic volume was light, but road construction within the parks delayed us. However, once we reached Yellowstone the sights were worth the wait! And we finally saw some wildlife up close. Old Faithful was very impressive and we only had to wait 10 minutes for the geyser to blow! The thermal pools, mountain rivers and lakes were also very impressive. We arrived at Big Sky, Montana, around 9:30 pm and were in bed by 10:00 pm, the end of a long and wonderful day; and yes the kids now rate Yellowstone as their favorite national park so far.