Flying, Diving, Cruising, and RVing!

After leaving Wall, SD we traveled to Creekside Mountain Campground just south of Hill City, SD. From the campground it was easy access to Mount Rushmore Memorial and the Crazy Horse Memorial along with beautiful scenic drives on Iron Mountain Rd, Needles Hwy, through Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park and the Black Hills National Park. One of the highlights in the area included driving to Hot Springs, SD to tour Mammoth Site, which is the world’s largest Mammoth research facilty where you can tour an active paleontological dig site to view Ice Age fossils, including North American Columbian mammoths, Wolly mammoths, a short-faced bear and several more non-petrified fossils.

After leaving St Ignace, Wall SD was our next destination so we headed west via the southern shore of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. We arrived in Wall four later.

While staying in Wall, we toured Badlands National Park.

While in the area we also toured a Minuteman Missile silo site.

After leaving Charlotte we headed north to St Ignace where we stayed six nights at Lakeshore RV Park next to our friends, Don and Donna Beck. Don, Donna, Joe and I took a ferry to Mackinac Island and toured the island by horse-drawn carriage and on foot. No vehicles are allowed on the island except two fire trucks. The only other mode of transportation on the island is by bicycle. It’s possible to get a DUI by drinking and riding a bike or even a speeding ticket if you go too fast. We toured Fort Mackinac along with the historic downtown, the harbor and a butterfly conservatory. More info on the island is available at the following link: Mackinac Island Info

While at the Newmar factory in Nappanee, IN getting work done on the bus, I received a call that my mother was being admitted to hospice, so we headed south to Arkansas. I couldn’t get us a site at Maumelle Park where both our satellite dishes would work on such short notice, so we stayed at North Little Rock’s Riverfront Park, which is right on the Arkansas River. We had a view of the River Market area in downtown Little Rock. The park is more or less a parking lot with utility pedestals, but was great for satellite dishes, but noisy from planes, trains, autos, trucks and boat traffic. My mother passed away a week after receiving the call. After the funeral we stayed a while longer to take care of some issues and headed back to Nappanee on June 20. Gene Miller completed our woodworking projects we had ordered and then we headed to Charlotte, MI for the annual maintenance on the bus.