It's a long way to Illinois

June 24, 2012

Now it's time to start the long trek back to Illinois from Hardin, Montana.  We are now heading east on I90 and plan to stop in Wall, and Yankton, South Dakota before leaving this state.  But, as you know, the best plans are often subject to change.

The drive from Hardin, Montana to Wall, South Dakota will cover about 335 miles and will take nearly 7 hours with stops for fuel and food.  Along the way, we have a great view of the Big Horn Mountains.  Here's a couple of shots of the Big Horn Mountains.  Cloud Peak is the highest peak in the Big Horns and is 13,167 feet above sea level.

At last, we made it to Wall, South Dakota and checked into the Sleepy Hollow Campground.  Once we got set up, we walked up town and you'll never guess where we were headed.  Oh..you guessed it... Wall Drug store, the store that has everything under the sun.  OK, here's the real surprise, you'll never guess what we bought....give up...OK, we bought some hats.  I am telling you, this store has it all!

Here's Sean and Craig with our new hats.

I started to do my hat dance, but everyone was laughing so hard, no one took a picture.  So, you'll have to take my word for it, it was really something to behold.  Ha!

June 25, 2012

We departed Wall, South Dakota heading for Yankton, South Dakota.  We had reservations at Chief White Crane State Park, our site was right next to beautiful Lake Yankton.  This leg of the trip would cover about 312 miles.  Well...almost until I came to my senses.

Wait a minute, Our reservations didn't start until June 26th.  Darn, we are a day early.  So, we found a nice little campground called Camp America located just off I90 near Salem, South Dakota.  Unfortunately, we didn't get any pictures of this campground.  But it was nice and clean and well kept.  They had a miniature golf course and horse shoes.  We played several rounds of miniature golf.  I won't tell you who won all the rounds, but his initials are Craig Simmons.  I hate to brag, but I also beat Sean in a close game of horse shoes.  This may be the last time I beat Sean at anything.  He's 15 years old and over 6 feet tall.  I used to be 6' 3" but lost a couple inches over the last few years.  Hey, if anybody finds 'em, please give 'em back to me!

June 26, 2012

We left Camp America and arrived at Chief White Crane State Park in Yankton.  Well..actually, it wasn't quite that easy.  My new GPS, made just for RV's, led us down the wrong street and into a dead end.  So, here we are at the end of the street with no sight of the state park and no place to turn our 38 foot 5th wheel around.  Boy, is this GPS maker going to get an ear full when I tell them what I think of their navigation! 

I carefully (I might also add skillfully) backed up the RV about 1/4 mile to an intersection that allowed us to turn around.  We headed back to where we saw a sign pointing to Chief White Crane State Park.

Yankton is a historic town.  Lewis and Clark stopped here in 1804 and met the first resident of the area, Pierre Dorlan.  They convinced Dorlan to accompany them on their expedition and to serve as an Indian interpreter.  Dorlan later returned to Yankton and stayed there until his death.

Here we are all set up at Chief White Crane State Park.

Check out this view of Lake Yankton from our campsite.

Sean said it was the perfect day for a swim, and so he did.

Does he look like a movie star or what?

I think Kallie wants to show Sean her favorite tree!

Lake Yankton use to be the old Missouri River path.  But, when they built the Gavins Point Dam, they rerouted the river and created the lake in the old river bed.  Now the Missouri River runs adjacent to Lake Yankton.

Here's a couple of shots of Craig and Sean at the Gavin Point Dam overlook.

Here's Sean and Kitty at the dam thing!

We fished Lake Yankton one evening but the only bites we got were from the bugs.  So, the next day Sean scouted out a spot on the Missouri River that was loaded with fish.  But, catching the ones you were after was easier said than done because the Gar kept getting in the way.

Sean was brave enough to get this Gar off the hook.

Sean is going after a really big one in the river!  Darn! It got away!

I can't tell you how many fish we caught, but I will say we did not have fish for supper.

That's it for South Dakota.  The next blog take us back to Illinois using a different route than I90 for a change.