Author: Mary-Ann Knight

We missed the hot tub so…..

Allan tackled the refill   

     Getting there!

Before and “almost” after in this area

Water at temperature, our first hot tub.  October 11 @ 551a.  Yes, AM, it is normal for me to be up at this hour but it sure isn’t for Allan 🙂

Beautiful sunrise   

October 12th:  The first time in months I’m wearing pants & running shoes.  Miss my shorts and sandles already. We’re walking to No Frills cause we have no groceries. First a stop at “Knight’s Pond”Back home for a much wanted fire

It’s been a busy week; doctor, dentist, eye appointments.  Buying groceries, Costco, hair cut  and much more.  Today we have been back for a week, time sure does fly.

Got another pond walk in this time with a reward.   Our first in quite some time

Today, Covid & flu shots, done!  Tomorrow we take Bailey to be winterized, not too fond of that.

Allan found these helpful work tips

After a great summer of bucket list fulfillment ie attending 8 races, time to go home

Our last US sunrise for awhileThis little guy came to see us off and wish us safe travels

Sweet Grass, MT 927a 

Coutts, AB

  Our turn 930a

Through customs 932a 

This was the easiest border crossing, even easier than when we crossed during the height of Covid.  All the guard asked is how long we’ve been gone, how much liquor we have or any drugs.  No questions about meat, vegetables, fruit, (made sure we didn’t have any) a dog, how many people in the vehicle.  None of the regular stuff.

The border guard did point out that “you’re going the wrong way, you should be heading South!”  The US border guard when we crossed into the States in May, pointed out the same thing.

We breeze through, North to South side was very backed up and will get worse as more head South for the Winter.

Alberta sign 934a   

Bailey  has a new Winter storage home, the last one was so muddy and we didn’t have a reserved spot.  This base is gravel and we have a designated spot. We’re hoping for the best outdoor storage experience yet.

Want to start a business?  Indoor RV storage is the one to have, there are very few and those in the area are booked with waiting lists.  We even tried Great Falls MT, same all booked.  Indoor charge $300+ a month, {which we’d pay to have Bailey all warm and cozy); we’re paing $360/year.

We unload stuff from Bailey can’t winter in her, we did open a slide to make it easier.  There is more to go but Bob is full   

Summary of our trip

May 14th:  Start Mileage             86,545km/53,777m

October 10th: End Mileage         97,535km/60,605m

Total km/miles driven                  10,990km/ 6,828m

35 Stops!!

Our itinerary, click the photo to enlarge

The before and after map of the States we’ve been to in Bailey​

Take aways:

• We were gone 5 month with no power failure at home
• It’s easier to go away in the Winter, yard wise.  Although we did have someone cutting the lawn we didn’t have a weeder.  Hired one of those quickly!
• Not one State we travelled through required reuseable bags.  I now have enough plastic bags to perhaps, last a lifetime
• Illinois was our least favourite state. It has Chicago, the worst most construction  highways ever even using the by-pass
• Wisconsin was our favourite state 

Looking forward already to our next adventure

Sunrise

“Downtown” Shelby.   Most of the shops are shuttered, Covid?  It’s very sad, even the State run liquor store is gone.

Weather is still warm but oh that wind, don’t think I’ll ever get used to it.  16mph converts to 26km.  Bailey is rocking!

Not a big town but managed to get 12.297 steps.  Wonder what we’ll be up to tomorrow.

Billings to Shelby   

On the road again  Like the scenery   

Is that the dreaded “s”?Rocky Mountains or just a mountains of rocks

On to more flat lands

Some think this is pretty, I think it’s just pretty sad

More flat

What are we seeing up ahead, vehicles in our lane of a 2 lane highway.  As we get closer we determine it’s a lane painting unit.  We stop at a Rest Area, hey we’ve been here before.  When?  When we returned from Yuma.  That time, there was no one else here either, except for a snow plow.  There was snow then.

Not the nicest of parks and fairly deserted

This will be fun, what will be.  Not sure yet but it will be!!

Was its snow?No, just the Saline Depression Wetland

I was expecting Billings to be a cool Western town, I’m a little disappointed.  Perhaps we didn’t find the right places to explore. Tripadvisor wasn’t much help so we’ve had a relatively quiet week.  We still got our 10+k steps a day (except for Sep 30 our travel day)

Walked to town and back one day, that was 16,277 steps and just to town and around the last farmers market getting me 16,154 steps.  We Ubered back with the worse driver, zero personality but at least we got home safely!

Thursday we walked to pick up Amazon items from a UPS store.  We didn’t realize it was down a major street so not the most pleasant walk but we got it done and ended up with 19,441 steps.  Our reward was a “Street Fight” beer, even me had a beer.On one of our walks we spot these dueling planesSame walk, different sight

First we saw a Trump firetruck now a Tim Sheeny one. Those Republicans seem to like their trucks

So ends our Billings week.

755a we’re off, bye bye Sturgis     

No clue what this plane is about, no signs and in the middle of nowhere

It’s super dry here with a fire ban in place

There is much smoke in the air

Smoke does make for interesting skies

As seen at the Sheridan Rest Stop.  We all have different ideas about what a RV should look like 🙂

Active fires 

My darling battling the heavy winds for most of the trip 

Made it, Billings Village RV Park

Today Spearfish & Belle Fourche, South Dakota There is one thing in common of small-town USA; almost nothing is open on a Sunday!  We go and explore anyways.

This is a “Make the world spin”.  There is a crank you turn, spin, spin.  It’s not that easy Allan decided he was done before I could do a video  🙂

The weather is so wacked! Winds are crazy from Helene, just fortunate we are not in the middle of the storm.   

Wind gusts up to 50+mph

Next stop!  Center of the Nation

Allan has been the centre of my universe for almost ever.  Now he is also the center of the nation’s universe We need to buy some produce stuff, back to Sturgis and a quick stop for a brewsky,  Their logo and mascot

Back at Bailey super hot and oh so windy2nd day we have our slides pulled in to protect our toppers. It is cozy! Pass the time  playing King Cribbage 🙂 Our favourite game, still.

My chef!  Always stepping up!!

2nd night I had to wake my Sweetie who sleeps through everything to close the bedroom slide.

We are sleeping sideways again tonight!  Meaning our bed slide is closed, Hopefully our nex stop will be less windy.

Because of Brenda’s recommendation today we head to Deadwood.

Lunch at Mustang Sally’s  They claim to have the best burgers, spoiler alert-they don’t.  At least the drinks were good.More sight seeing.  Saloon 10: Where Wild Bill Hickok met his demise

What’s that on top of the house?

A stage coach!

  Well it’s not really on top but behind

Buddies!

And don’t forget to take care of your honey!

Next stop – Downtown Sturgis, it’s a quiet little town this time of year with a population of 7,067; hard to believe they annually host the motorcycle rally

The Sturgis Motorcycle Rally is sponsored by Harley-Davidson, and it’s one of the biggest rallies in the world. It’s held annually in Sturgis, South Dakota and the Black Hills region, and the event takes place over 10 days.+

Crazy amount of people

Part 2:     Mount Rushmore!

There they are yonder way taken from the drive in!   

Getting closer

We’re here

Hey!  Where’s the 5th president??  I thought there were 5!

Is there a fifth face on Mount Rushmore?

There is no secret fifth face carved into Mount Rushmore. However, for over 20 years, visitors were greeted by Ben Black Elk, unofficially called the fifth face of Mount Rushmore. Ben Black Elk “was a successful rancher, traveled extensively, and testified before Congress on the importance of teaching Indian history to Indians.” Historians estimate that 5,000 photos were taken of him a day for his 27 years at Mount Rushmore.

7 things you didn’t know about Rushmore. Click here

Happy we were able to make it here 🙂

Part 1:     Let’s go see some bears, we hope.    Bear Country USA

   Waiting for us at the entrance

The park is drive though to see some animals then walk to see more animals

Rocky Mountain Elk

          That tongue!                                                  That yawn!

Drive part done, on to the walk section

Next up these guys

The gift store is calling, we didn’t get the spice as we’re spice rich but thought it was cute  We got Allan this mug; Allan loves bears.  I got a T-Shirt 🙂

Stay tuned for part 2…