Deadwood, SD through to Glacier National Park in Montana

July 11
Deadwood was a mining town leftover from the days of the gold rush - it was the place to go back then to gamble and drink...perfect place for us with the girls?? It was fun just to walk the main street and imagine all the characters that had walked the same road - Calamity Jane, Wild Bill Hickock... The place was filled with little casinos so aside from a stroll and some lunch, that was about all for us here with the kids.

Oh, there was also a movie artifact museum that had tons of costumes, props etc that had been signed by the musicians/actors. We saw Magnum PI’s red Ferrari (Karen LOVED that show!), James Bonds car and Herbie the Love Bug (anyone else see that Disney movie?).

On our way back to the good ol’ KOA, we stopped in for a tour of a gold mine - very cool! Established in 1878, it was called the Broken Boot Gold Mine after they found an old miners boot when they reopened the mine to restore it. Incredible how they would work in these mines in pitch black with only a candle for light.

The girls were clutching our hands for dear life through the tour but enjoyed it. Oh, then they turned out the lights to demonstrate the darkness... actually it was OK. Megan kept saying to me afterward as we walked along (in her ultra-loud stage whisper) “if we need light, I can just stomp my feet” - she was wearing her light-up Strawberry Shortcake sandals. Ahhh, if only those poor miners had been wearing some Strawberry Shortcake sandals, how different their workday could have been...
One other important accomplishment today of note - AJ managed to pull his first U-turn with the trailer...on the highway. Good god.

July 12
Into town to get the water pump fixed on the trailer - luckily AJ could get the parts and do it himself, as they cheerily advised him the service guy at the dealership was on holiday for the month. Drive through Sturgis - site of the GIANT motorcycle rally each year - have I mentioned we have seen more Harleys (and others) than I can even count. It was a constant stream of them through Deadwood when we were there. Apparently during the Sturgis bike week, their population goes from thousands to hundreds of thousands. Gee - too bad we’ll miss it.

Drove through Wyoming and into Montana - WOW and WOW.

Scenery like we can’t believe - though it’s starting to get a wee bit tougher pulling the trailer up these hills. Yup, chugging right along at about 40miles an hour up some of those babies (speed limit was 70) - I think I can, I think I can. And one further note - doing all this driving with a child who is still potty-training? Not always fun.


July 13
Today, after a day of driving, we saw our first glimpse of the snow capped mountains - WHHHOOOOOEEE!

That’s what we came for! It’s incredible to see the landscape keep changing as you drive. We are in ranch country for sure - every tiny gas station store we stop in sells everything for you and your horse. The wind today has been incredible - the forecast just said “wind”. No mention of sun, rain or anything else - just “wind”. And yes, it was WINDY.

Some of these ramshackle “towns” we drove through are just rundown trailer homes and I don’t know how they haven’t completely blown away. One actually had a sign in the window saying “Not For Sale”. Good thing, ‘cause we were thinking of making an offer... Arrived at the KOA to find they had a little water park with mini water slides! The girls (and AJ) had a ball! Then went to the banjo/guitar sing-along of a local couple and rocked the house. Who says there’s no action at the KOA?

July 14
Stopped for some supplies at the local ranch supply store before hitting the road today - winter hats, long underwear, warmer jammies for the girls - as we are heading into the mountains to camp and apparently it has been below freezing at night. Yipes! We are now into the Rockies and they are spectacular - heading for Glacier National Park to camp for a few days. We lucked out and got a site at the 2nd campground we tried inside the park. No hook-ups so this is our first stretch where we have to keep track of our usage for battery power and water. We even have this amazing mountain view from our site!