The Badlands of South Dakota

I'm not sure what I was expecting, but I wasn't expecting this. My words can't begin to touch the beauty so I'll just let the photographs speak to you!

If you want to view them in a larger size, just click onto the image.  Enjoy!

It had rained the night before, this made the colors even more intense!

The roads go on forever!

Of course we had to have pictures taken in front of the famous Wall Drug dinosaur! The Badlands loop road takes a short run on the Interstate 90 and past the town of Wall, where the now famous Wall Drug Store put this town on the map! We had so much fun looking here and we even got our Wall Drug Store bumper sticker! Great art galleries and just fun place to walk around!

When Chuck was in the Air Force, he and the crew he worked with, delivered 3 of these minute man missles to Langley AFB in South Dakota. Interesting side trip from Interstate 90!

Hope you enjoyed the trip through the Badlands National Park! Also wanted you to know that the restaurant there, Cedar Breaks is wonderful. I had an Indian Taco made with bison meat and Chuck had a bison burger! Hope you enjoyed the tour through the Badlands National Park!

Entering South Dakota

Coming into South Dakota was such a treat!  It is very green, it has hills and curves (unlike Kansas and Nebraska) and it is eye candy everywhere you look!

As we were getting closer to the badlands area, we started seeing ranches like this on the highway.

We camped at the Badlands RV resort, a great little campground that offered everything from horseback riding to archery! Chuck wanted to do the trail ride the first night we were there.

Chuck knows how to ride, so he didn't want some plodding trail horse, he wanted one that had some sass to him. So he requested one that hadn't been ridden for a few days and might be a bit "feisty".

The trail ride had 12 folks in the group that night. It was a 90 minute ride thru some of the badlands. Note: Taking photos from the back of a "feisty" horse ain't easy! Chuck tried, but a lot of them came back blurry. But he got this one to give you an idea.

That "feisty" horse Chuck requested, bucked him off and gave him a beautiful black eye! He has had it almost a week now and it's still very black! Poor baby!

Lake Ogallala Recreation Area, Nebraska

We left Oakley Kansas and Emily behind... (thanks for everything Em!) and traveled up highway 25 to 61 into Nebraska! Wow! Two new states for me, have never been to Kansas or Nebraska before this trip! I will remember Kansas for the wind! I will remember both for the almost empty roads. Beautiful countryside, very flat in Kansas and then it starts rolling in Nebraska. The back roads were pretty darned good too! I bet we met less than 30 cars in the 5 hour distance between Oakley and Ogallala! Saw lots of beautiful horses and ranches though!

This was the view out the back window of the Mothership when we camped at Lake Ogallala Recreation Area campground. Beautiful park but jeeeeze louise! NO SIGNS! Very hard to find once you turn off the highway! It's worth it once you drive around lost for 30 minutes or so!

The dam is right behind us and the lake between us and the dam. Very nice camp areas! Electric only, no water or sewer but there are water stations and a dump station in the park. Very nice and clean restrooms/shower areas.

Woke up to a misty, foggy morning! Good view of the dam in the background. That was a scary (for me at least) dam to cross. The road was VERY narrow! And VERY steep on both sides. Yikes!

In both Kansas and Nebraska the cottonwood trees were bloomong. All of that white on either side of the road isn't snow, it's a cotton like fluff from the cottonwood trees and it gets into everything!

We spent two days here. This is a very fine campground IF you can find it! I am getting stronger everyday and my shoulder/arm is slowly recovering.

        My Sleeping Beauty and his Two Dwarfs!

Ellis and Oakley Kansas

Emily Ogle (aka NomadWoman) and Chuck in Oakley Kansas. She workamps at a great little campground, High Plains Camping.

After Emily was finished with her workamping week, Mon, Tues, and Wed each week in Oakley KS we followed her to her hometown of Ellis KS, about 70 miles east of Oakley.  What a pretty little town! I didn't get out much as I was still very uncomfortable with my arm and shoulder from the fall.I stayed with the pain pills and read books! Chuck took these photos so we could show you Ellis from his eyes.

We were in Ellis Kansas over the Memorial Day weekend. We proudly displayed our flag!

This was once a roundhouse. Here you could turn trains around and send them back to where they just came from or they would be sent here for repairs. Ellis has a long train history.

Chuck loves trains and there were box cars for him to explore and trains passing throughout the night with comforting whistles.

This is a great little train ride for the kids! As I mentioned, Ellis was once a train town. This ride starts from the train museum and passes near the campground. Finding the train museum open was a bit challenging. It was never open when Chuck tried to visit!

This is just one of the beautiful churches in Ellis. It was across the the river from the campground.

The campground is city owned, water and electric with huge trees for shade for $15 a night in downtown Ellis. It is right on this river which is dammed up at the end of the campground. The river runs through most of downtown.

We have decided to come back here when I am feeling better so we can really check out the town!

Since we left Lake Greeson Arkansas.....

After bidding a fond farewell to Lake Greeson, we headed west to Oklahoma. Within an hour, I was already tired and the wind was strong, making driving tough on Chuck.  We decided to drive on to Queen Wilhelmenia State Park in Mena Arkansas, about 2+ hours north of Lake Greeson.  It is beautiful there! It is perched on top of Arkansas's second tallest mountain!  The 12 mile climb up from Mena was a bit challenging but Chuck handled it like a pro! He is really doing a great job leading the MotherShip to all these pretty campgrounds!

At the entrance to Queen W's State Park sat this train engine. I don't know why and I could find no information on the train at all, but it made for a couple of pretty pictures! :-)

At the top of the mountain sat this beautiful hotel built of rocks!  Very nice and the rooms were very modestly priced! They also have an outstanding restaurant too!  I still wasn't into cooking much as I still was recovering from my time in Hot Springs!

We didn't need to stay in a fancy hotel, after all, we had the MotherShip which is better than all the fancy hotels anywhere!  The campground at Queen W SP was great and Chuck decided to stay 2 days to give me a bit more recovery time.  I was in full agreement! Not many trails to hike here, the Reservoir Trail and Lover's Leap Trail. I didn't really feel much like hiking anyway, so Chuck and I sat around reading books for 2 days! Pete had convinced me how much he enjoyed his Kindle Reader so I got online and ordered one and had it sent to 

Emily in Kansas!

 

We finally left Queen W's State Park and headed down the mountain.  Once we arrived at the main
Highway 88, we found this neat old country store! Turns out the owners also know Larry and Betty Harmon and they serve a great breakfast besides! We ate breakfast, had great conversation with the owners (forgive me! I can't remember names now!) and I went outside to get a photo of their country store. Before I could get it in focus, the local law comes rolling in and Chuck gets in a conversation with him about the wind conditions west of us. WINDY! Well. we had several days of windy driving ahead of us!

By sticking to the back roads, you get to see all the fun things. I loved these water towers labeled Hot Warm and Cold!   I wish I could remember the name of the town! It's in Oklahoma on Route 59N ! 

The next night found us camped in Grove OK. Nice campground, called Cedar Oaks Campground.  But if you go there, take a back in site because all the pull thru sites are very narrow. So tight that when we put out our awning, it almost touched our neighbor's pull out! We were packed in like sardines there! When we left the next morning, we noticed that the area where they had back in sites had plenty of room, easily twice what we had! 

Then Sunday night May23rd, we spent at Alabaster Caverns State Park in Freedom OK. As you can see from the above shot, we had the whole campground to ourselves! Chuck got to see the bats come out of the caverns just after dusk! We were going to tour the caverns the next day, but after finding out it was a 45 minute tour up and down lots of stairs... I decided not to do this tour this year. I was still to tender and still not much energy since the surgery in Hot Springs! We will very definitely be  back to this campground. Even though we were the only ones there on this night, the campsites were huge and beautiful with trees and grass everywhere. We both enjoyed sitting outside listening to the sounds of nature there! (We love our anti-gravity recliners!)

On the advice of our friend Sherry Cavannaugh, our next stop was in Beaver OK. Chuck posed in front of the town's mascot Beaver holding of all things....
A Cow Chip! Seems like Beaver hosts the Cow Chip Throwing Championship of the world!  Every year, they get bored and go throw cow chips to see who can throw them the furtherest! Think I'm lying? Click onto the photo and read the sign! HaHa! 
We left Beaver OK and headed north into Kansas on highway 83N. I'm told that 83 goes from Canada to Brownsville TX.  It is mostly a 2 lane road we travelled but the majority of the road is very good. But it did tell the story of how flat Kansas really is and of how windy it is here!  We arrived in Oakley Kansas on Monday May 24th.  Our friend Emily Ogle workamps there at High Plains Campground.  Well, before we even got unhooked from the camper the wind showed me who was boss! I was trying to close the door against the wind when a sudden gust (weather said wind was gusting 65mph and I believe it!) grabbed the door and pulled me outside and threw me on the ground like a rag doll! I felt like I had dislocated my shoulder so off we went to visit the Oakley ER!  Turns out, no breaks, no dislocations, I was very lucky! I have a bit of whiplash and scraped up back and bruised arm and shoulder but I am fine. All of this explains why there are no photos of Emily or of High Plains Campground.  If you are ever in Oakley, it's a great campground with hot tubs, big pull thru sites and a great restaurant next door. Be sure if you go to the campground to tell Mary hi from us!  We are now in Ellis Kansas,where Emily lives. The wind has died down and the campground here is beautiful. More about that on our next post! Just wanted ya'll to know what's going on in our corner of the world!  Keep in touch!  Geri, Chuck, Scotty and Doogie-Bowser.

Just a quick note....

We went to visit Dr. Kaler in Hot Springs on Monday.  He seems ok with my progress and told us happy trails! So yesterday, Tuesday we caught up on our laundry and today we start re-packing the MotherShip. After almost a month here at Lake Greeson Arkansas, things kinda got comfey and homey!  DoogieBowser has even taken to defending our campground space like it's home! It is beautiful here and it's been a great place to be! But we are ready and anxious to be heading west again so tomorrow 5-20-2010 we head out for Ellis Kansas to visit our friend Emily Ogle.  Since I have zero energy level and a still tender tummy, we only plan to travel 4-5 hours a day. It may take us 2-3 days to get there, but we are in no hurry, however it would be nice to spend time with Em when she's not working! We will try to get there on Saturday. Just wanted ya'll to know what's up in our corner of the world. Keep in touch and know we love you! Geri, Chuck  Scotty-Boy and DoogieBowser

Lake Greeson Days winding down!

I just want everybody to know I am ok! To those of you that don't know, I had to go to the hosp 4-30-2010 with internal bleeding. Had to have lapband removed! Feeling much better!  Go to Dr. Kaler on Monday to get checked. We are paid up here at Lake Greeson until May 20. If all is ok, we should leave the 21st headed to Kansas to see Emily Ogle! Then on to Spearfish SD to see Paul and Diane Thibodeaux! I'll keep ya'll posted!

Thanks to Glenda for this fun photo of me with Betty and Tali on the ladies boat ride!

Oscar even comes over to visit with me, leaving Pete at home!! Chuck and I got these great anti-gravity lounge chairs the other day at SAM's Club and they are great! Wow!  Comfey!

Chuck has been taking very good care of me! Here I am resting with my feet up just to prove it! Meanwhile, Chuck is in town doing laundry!

Scotty-Boy takes good care of me too! I get lots of lovin' from my guys!

Tucked away in the beautiful wooded campsite overlooking Lake Greeson is our MotherShip! We have had such a good time here!  Unexpected hospital 8 day stay for me, but I'm doing better! (Thanks to Tali and Steve who recognised there was something very wrong and urged Chuck to take me to ER asap!)
The only ones left from the JugFest 2010 are Pete and Oscar and they leave tomorrow.....  We had such a wonderful time here with everybody! It was so much fun seeing old friends and making new ones! Ya'll keep in touch, ya hear? (Grin!)  Geri, Chuck, Scotty-Boy and Doogie-Bowser, we love all of you!