September 4th to 20th

September 4th - Max and Robert thought they could sleep in this morning but we get them up, time to check out the largest shopping centre between Denver and Minneapolis. First stop I-Hop for breakfast, then to the mall! Target, Macy's and a few in between, even found a Starbucks. Also decide to take in a movie, "Switch" with Jennifer Anniston. Just an ordinary day! Was fun, bought lots of goodies.

September 5th - Heading for Rapid City or as far as we can get today. Drive through a big black cloud but no rain, rolling hills beautiful country. Stop at the Missouri River and take some photos. Beautiful wide river valley. Decide to take the 35 mile drive through the Badlands that ends in Wall, South Dakota. Must see Wall Drug Store after passing all their signs and billboards for two days. $15 to drive through the Badlands but it is worth it. It is hot and sunny and the landscape is like a mini grand canyon. Beautiful colours, amazing. Find an RV Park in Wall and get settled, time for Pina Coladas then walk into town, do the drug store all 7500 sq ft of it, has everything! Over to the Cactus Cafe for a Buffalo Burger! Good!

September 6th - About 1:30 am it started to blow, the rv is rockin' then it starts to rain! Not a very nice morning but the sun is supposed to come out this afternoon but will be windy until tonight. We're away by 10:00 and drive on through Rapid City, bronze statues on every corner uptown, I'll have to google that! Arrive Keystone and find an RV Park, it is their last day they are closing tomorrow! Nice spot in a valley so not so windy, but we are higher up and it is cool. Have some lunch then off to Mount Rushmore, take some of the circle route, part of Custer State Park $25 for that one! Narrow road through forest and great rock formations, lots of tunnels through the mountains not wide or high enough for an rv. Also pigtail bridges! very cool. Saw sheep, deer and buffalo and of course Mount Rushmore - my goodness what a set-up very different than when I was a kid and we stopped here! Oh $10 to park. Walked up to the view platform, great view, great sunshine and blue skys but the wind is freezing cold! Head back to Keystone to look around and have some dinner (bad real bad!)

September 7th - Sunny this morning, the wild turkey's are wandering through the park, they are a bit too big for Skipper. We are away to Cody or Sheridan, not sure which. Beautiful day, drive through Deadwood, Wild Bill Hickock's burial place, and on to Hwy 90. Lots of coal in Gillette, open pit mine, train loads of coal, a black smudge in an otherwise rolling landscape. At Buffalo we decide to take Hwy 16 over to Worland and then up to Cody. Off over the Bighorn Mtns, elevation 9666 ft. lots of signs along the way telling the type of rock and how many billion years old it is! Absolutely gorgeous, the west side of the Bighorns is very rugged and apparently contains lots of caves (maybe another time!). Arrive in Cody and park at the KOA, have a quick dinner then drive uptown to check things out, tomorrow Buffalo Bill's Museum.

September 8th - Sunny and warm, a beautiful day. Head uptown for breakfast then on to Buffalo Bill Historical Centre and Museum. (Buffalo Bill is an ancestor of Max and mine) We arrive at 10 am and the front parking lot is already packed with cars! Soon see why, this is an amazing place. There is a section on Buffalo Bill but there is also: a huge Plains Indian exhibit, the largest gun collection in the world, Western Art exhibit, and Yellowstone exhibit. We only have time for Buffalo Bill, Art and the guys do half of the gun exhibit while we girls go shopping in the gift shop. Back to the KOA and check out. Head for Yellowstone but on the way stop at the Buffalo Bill damn on the Shoshone River, there is a great story about this damn but no time to tell it here (google?). Another beautiful drive to Yellowstone but when we enter the Park it is obvious they've had fires, leaving the countryside very ugly! Drive around the south side of the lake to Old Faithful, set to blow in 15 minutes or so, we wait and are not disappointed. Do an abbreviated walk and see a couple of smaller geysers blow. Back to the visitor's centre then for dinner and watch Old Faithful blow again. Getting dark as we leave and when we arrive at Madison Camp Ground we find that it is full so we drive on in the dark to West Yellowstone in Montana finally ending up at another KOA, it's very late so off to bed. So much more here we could see but again no time.

September 9th - Cool and cloudy this morning stop in West Yellowstone for fuel and propane and we head north along the Gallatin River, narrow, winding road, lots of fly fisherman. Past Big Sky and see river rafting in the river! Haven't done that yet. At Helena we stop at Walmart for a few supplies and hit the Burger King for lunch, stop at Wolf Creek for fuel and follow along the Missouri for a few miles, this is absolutely the most beautiful area I've seen (I'll try and put a photo on). Come down on to the flat prairie and pass through Great Falls, push on to Shelby and stop at the Shelby City Park, excellent spot! Only $18.

September 10th - Sunny and cool, take Skippy for a walk and end up with good sticky mud on my shoes! Only 34 miles to the Canadian Border. Stop for fuel and the duty free store and pass through the border with no problem. On up to Drumheller by early afternoon. Get settled just past the museum and get a call from my sister-in-law (Lin) that my brother (Doug) will drive down tonight and join us for the weekend! Yippee (only wish Lin could come with him). Have dinner and Doug arrives around 11:00, sit up and visit till 12:30.

September 11th - Bacon and eggs for breakfast then head for the Tyrell Museum. Excellent display of Dinosaurs. Spend a few hours taking in all the excellent exhibits. Back to the rv park for the farmer's market and purchase some fresh veggies from the Hutterites. Have dinner in town.

September 12th - After pancakes say our goodbyes and Doug heads north while we head west. Run into some road construction before Beseker the roughest 10k of road yet! Past Airdrie and Cochrane and into the foothills, too bad it's cloudy and most of the mountains are covered again. More road construction in the park, they are doing a beautiful job, the animal overpasses are excellent! We are impressed. After Golden it starts to rain, the traffic heading east is bumper to bumper! This is the Trans Canada Hwy and it is the worst piece we've seen in all our travels! Reach Canyon Hot Springs just after 5:00 and before 8 we are in the pools!

September 13th - Cloudy but some sun peeking out, very nice this morning. Stop in Vernon at the Swan Lake Fruit stand to have a look around, buy a few goodies. Stop in Oyama at Okanagan Sausage for some Kolbasa. Arrive at Max and Robert's around 2:00, the trip is over for them, we still have a few miles to go!

September 14th to 20th - Spent in Kelowna, visiting Jenny, Trevor and Caden, Mom and Steven and Dallace. Celebrate Trevor's birthday and find out I have an ear infection! On Sunday stop in Keremeos to visit friends, Doug and Sandy, catch the 5:20 ferry on Monday and are home after 7. The trip is over and I have to say I am sad!