On to West Bend, Iowa

We left the Badlands on Sept. 10 and travelled across South Dakota and Minnesota on I-90 until we got to our exit to go south into West Bend, Iowa.

Not much excitement as we were traveling, as the road was pretty straight so the entertainment was the change in fields and road signs.  There was fields of grass, cattle, corn and once in awhile we would see fields of sunflowers.  Quite a variety of road signs:  Prehistoric sites, Elvis sighting - one of his motorcycles in a museum, American Pickers in Murdo, SD, old 1880 towns, Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD, etc.  Quite different than the highway signs at home.

We stayed one night in Plankinton, SD and then arrived into West Bend, Iowa on Friday and stayed 3 nights at the Grotto campground.   The campground was quite accommodating as there was only one other camper who stayed in the park with us, so they let us take up two sites to be able to fit.  We have a beautiful view from the motorhome, lots of green grass, a railroad track (not used very often) on one side and the back of this beautiful church on the other.

So what's in West Bend, Iowa?  It's a little farming town with about 800-1,000 people.  It's best known for what some people call the eighth wonder of the world - Grotto of the Redemption.  It's the largest grotto in the world.  Father Paul Dobberstein, Catholic priest, started construction of the grotto in 1912 and they are still adding statutes and updating the grotto.  There are actually 9 separate grottos, each depicting a scene in the life of Jesus of Nazareth.  

We took most of the pictures during our tour but then went back and took some night shots.

Father Dobberstein - built the Grotto and the Catholic Church

Inside shots of the Sts. Peter & Paul Church:

Christmas Chapel in the Church

Badlands

On our way out of Belle Fourche, SD I stopped to take pictures of the "Center of the Nation".

On Sept 8. we arrived into the Badlands, staying at a very nice KOA park right outside of the entrance to the Badlands National Park.  It started getting a little cold and we had some rain but were still able to get out and see the park and surrounding sites.  As we were sitting in the park, we had no cell service but we could connect to the parks WIFI, so that helped with connectivity.  Also, we were getting weather reports of snow and colder temperatures to the West of us and high winds, tornado warnings and heavy rain to the East, so this was a perfect place to park for three nights.

Some of our favorite pictures of the Badlands:

Lots and lots of Prairie Dogs

We made it to Wall Drug Store.  What a story, you'll have to look it up on the web, but we saw the signs for miles and since I had heard about it from a gal I worked with who had made it a family stop on one of their road trips, I knew we had to stop and check it out.





















We also made it to the Minuteman Missile visitor center and went on a tour of the Delta 01 Launch control facility.  In 1999 Congress made the decision to preserve two of the 1960 missile sites, both in the South Dakota area off of I-90.  We did not make it to the Delta 09 missile silo which is off Exit 116 but since this site is a self tour, we will stop next time in the area.

On our way East

On August 23, Craig and I celebrated our Anniversary with his parents and brother and sister-in-law.  We have been married 29 years and together for 39.  Had a great time in Olympia at Anthony's HomePort.

On August 24, we headed south and stopped to spend Sunday afternoon with my nephew and family celebrating the three kids' summer birthdays.  Then we headed south to Eugene.  We needed to have a couple of things checked out in the motorhome and we decided that while we were there, that we would have the tapestry couch reupholstered along with redoing our storable ottomans.  So glad we took the time to finally get this done as we had been wanting to get it done since we bought the coach.

Before:

After:

Then onto Estacada on Saturday morning to enjoy the Labor Day weekend with friends.  We were hoping it would be nice, but experienced downpours, but still enjoyed our visit.  On Monday, we went to the Portland zoo with Mathew and family and then he barbecued trout for dinner -- what a treat!!!































Tuesday, Sept. 2 we took off on our 9 month trip, heading east. Traveling everyday until we got to Hardin, Mt, where we stopped for two nights.  More traveling than we are use too, but wanted to get east before we hit any bad weather.  We stopped in Kennewick, Coeur d'Alene, Anaconda, and then Hardin.

We enjoyed seeing the Little Bighorn museums and National Monument around Hardin.  We visited the Custer Museum, that has the second federally recognized Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.   So far we've had really great weather.  Highs in the 70/80s, and lowest temperature was about 35.  (The first picture is of the Tomb and then the rest were taken at Little Bighorn Battlefield, to include the National Cemetery, the Last Stand Monument and the newer Indian memorial monument.

Today we arrived in Belle Fourche, SD and then tomorrow we will travel to the Badlands in South Dakota for 3 nights.  Once we arrived, there was a beautiful  cloud formation, see picture below.  We had to stop today to watch the SF and Dallas football game - let's just say that I enjoy watching the SeaHawk games a lot better!!!   I was hoping that Dallas could hand SF their first loss - oh well!!