Tues and Wed August 16th and 17th End of Trip

Tuesday August 16th: Left Rock Creek this morning and drove 100 miles to Boulder Creek RV Resort in Lone Pine. Spent the night there enjoying the sunset and getting the motorhome cleaned and ready to retire from the trip.

Hooked up and hit the road early Wednesday Aug 17th morning for the last leg of our trip. Arrived at home in Hemet around 12:30PM.

Miles traveled in the motorhome: 8,500

Miles of additional travel in the car: 2,850

States visited: 28 plus Niagara Falls, Canada

Official end of our 2010 Road Trip.

Thanks to all of you for following us on our journey.

Sunday August 15th Last Day at Rock Creek

Nothing exciting today, fishing in the morning, drive to Rock Creek lake in the early afternoon and dinner at sunset. Enjoyed our last campfire and the stars. If you haven't been in the High Sierra's and viewed the stars at night you are missing a great sight. Tomorrow we head to Lone Pine and home on Tuesday.

Thurs, Fri, Sat Aug 12th, 13th &14th Rock Creek CA

Nothing much has happened the past 3 days. We are enjoying Rock Creek and just winding down from our 4 month trip. Fishing has been slow although I did catch enough for a nice dinner. Will have them our last night in Lone Pine. After spending the best part of 4 months with Ivan and Randi we miss not having them camped next to us, but will see them in a few days.

Wednesday August 11th

Left Winnemucca early this morning and arrived at Tuff Campground near Bishop CA around 1:00 PM. This campground is a favorate of ours, and Yvonne and I have been camping here together for 36 years. We took our boys here on many camping vacations over the years and have some great memories. We were able to get site #1, which is at the beggining of the campground, close to the creek and quite. After dinner we sat around the campfire and enjoyed the stars. We are now only 330 miles from home. Will spend a 5 or 6 days here enjoying the quite and winding down from our trip.

Tuesday August 10th Winnemucca Again

Decided to spend another night in Winnemucca to rest up after two days of long drives and winds. A good day to just relax, hit the Wal-Mart and do laundry. Not much to see or do in Winnecumma and the casino's here are not much to see. Weather has been cool, but we expect to get into hotter weather in California.

Sunday and Monday August 8th and 9th

Left Kalispell early Sunday morning and drove to Idaho Falls ID, 435 miles. Nice drive but had about an hour of head and side winds toward the end of the drive. Spent the night in a nice campground. Yvonne had cooked a chicken dinner in the slow cooker while we were on the road.
Early start on Monday toward Nevada. We ended up driving 455 miles and stopped in Winnemucca for the night. After two days of driving almost 900 miles we were both beat. Visited one of the local casino's and the bartender gave us a great reference for a local pizza parlor. We both agreed that it was one of the best pizzas we have had and the best one the past 4 months. We may stay here for a couple of nights to rest up.

Saturday August 7th Kalispell MT

After two days of sightseeing today is a day of rest. Slept in late, had a nice breakfast then spent a few hours at the local Farmers Market. Tomorrow we head toward Idaho.

Friday August 6th Glacier National Park

Today we spent the whole day in Glacier National Park. The first lodge on the "Going-T0-The-Sun-Road was the Lake McDonald Lodge build in 1914.

The "Going-To-The-Sun-Road" is listed as one of the best scenic drives in America and we were not disappointed. Yvonne was not too thrilled since there were numerous drop offs and the road was very narrow, but she survived. It was a 50 mile trip over the mountains from West Glacier to East Glacier. We saw numerous glaciers, only about 50 left today. In 1830 there were over 250 and they were much bigger.

The weather was cool today and at the top of Logan Pass it was in the low 40's. The sky was a bit too cloudy to get any great pictures, but hopefully you get the picture. Glacier was well worth going out of our way to visit.

This lodge is the Glacier Park Lodge. It was build in 1912 by the Great Northern Railroad. If fact Amtrac still brings passengers to the hotel on a daily basis.

Thursday August 5th Vist to Glacier NP

Slept in late and decided to drive into Glacier National Park and get information so we could plan out full day trip into the park on Friday. After visiting the Visitor Center at the West Entrance we drove around the west side of Lake. McDonald. This is a huge lake with crystal clear water. After leaving the park we drove into the city of Kalispell. Stopped by Costco and picked up some fresh tuna for the barbecue.

Wednesday August 4th More Montana

Left Bozeman early this morning and drove to Kalispell Mt where we will spend 4 nights. On the way we had problems with the car and had to stop at the Wall-Mart (thank God for Wal-Mart) in Missuola Mt to get a new battery. They were great and got us back on the road in 30 minutes. From Missoula we traveled through some great scenic areas including Flathead Lake. This lake is the largest natural lake west of the Mississippi River. Its 30 miles long and 15 miles wide with a 160 mile shoreline. We traveled up the eastern side of the lake. Arrived in Kalispell late afternoon and were really impressed with this area. They have all of the shopping you would expect anywhere including Wal-Mart, Costco and Best Buy located close by. Our campsite was large and the views of the mountains were great. Looking forward to visiting Glacier National Park only 20 miles away tomorrow and Friday.

Tuesday August 3rd Bozeman MT

We decided to spend another day in Bozeman to check out the area and do some shopping. Downtown Bozeman was a busy place with lots of restaurant's and shops. Ivan and Randi took off early this morning for Yellowstone National Park. We decided to skip Yellowstone (we visited it in 2004) and instead head to Glacier National Park. We heard the glaciers are disappearing so wanted to see them while we can. Also, Glacier is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

Monday August 2nd Traveling in Montana

Continued our journey through Montana today as we drove from Little Bighorn to Bozeman. Nice scenic drive on Interstate 90. Today is our 36th Wedding Anniversary so Ivan and Randi are taking us out to dinner this evening. Bozeman is a stopping off point for Yellowstone National Park. Yvonne and I passed through here in 2004 on our way to Yellowstone.

Sunday August 1st On the Road Again

Today we drove from the Mt Rushmore area through Wyoming into Montana. We arrived at our campground just a few miles from the Little Bighorn Memorial (Custers Last Stand).

The Battlefield is lined with markers which represent where soldiers of the 7th Calvery died in battle on June 25th 1876. We attended a ranger presentation which presents the facts for both the indian side and the whites side. Very interesting. There is an indian memorial as well as a memorial for Custers troops. Custer was later reburied at West Point.

When they say Montana is "Big Sky" country they are right. The sunsets and views are truly amazing.

Saturday July 31st Wind Cave National Park

Decided to visit Wind Cave National Park this morning. We drove through part of Custer State Park again and continued to see more wildlife. We saw buffalo also in Wind Cave NP. This area has some unique scenery and the caves. The lines were too long for us to get a tour of the caves but we did see a movie about the history and video of the caves. Wind Cave is the fourth longest cave in the world with 132 miles of passageways with boxwork, frostwork and popcorn crystals. This is out 7th National Park.

Friday July 30th Grazy Horse Memorial

Today we left the campsite early AM and drove through the Custer State Park (check the blogs Custer State Park Scenic and Custer State Park Wildlife) and visited Crazy Horse Memorial. What a great day, great scenery, lots of wildlife and the amazing Crazy Horse Memorial. Yvonne and I visited this area back in 2004 and were impressed at that time with this area of South Dakota. The marble statute of Crazy Horse on his horse is what the mountain will look like once completed. We noticed little change in 6 years and it won't be completed in our lifetime. Its a slow process and receives not Federal or State funds to support the project. The family of the original sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski are continuing his efforts which he stated in 1948 at the request of the Native American Indian tribes of the Black Hills.

Friday July 30th Custer State Park Scenic Drive

The drive through the scenic portion of Custer State Park was great. The rock formations were something to see and we had to pass through 9 tunnels along the route. The tunnel pictured was the the most interesting. As you can see the small motorhome didn't have much space to spare. In fact Ivan and I had to guide him through with only inches to spare.

Friday July 30th Custer State Park Wildlife

Custer State Park is known for its wildlife and today we were lucky to see lots of it. The buffalo were everywhere along with lots of other wildlife. The drive through the wildlife loop part of the park was amazing.