Going Home starting today 8/23/11

We had planned to head across the US to Chicago and around to Niagara Falls.  This would be our last stop before heading home.  Excited about our next destination and feeling anxious, we began to watch the news and weather.  Then we started the phone calls of have you heard about the "Hurricane.?"  It seems we have a hurricane that could possibly be heading to our home in North Carolina. 
Joey and I looked at each other this morning and said, "It's time to go home."  We spent much of the day on the phone with family, friends, neighbors and business calls.  We have driven to Kansas City, Missouri today.  It was a 450 mile day.  Long day.  We'll do 400 to 500 miles a day until we reach home. 
It has been so much fun and sorry to see it end, but we've got bigger fish to fry so to speak.  It certainly was a dream of ours to travel like this.  I'd recommend the accomodations of a small RV and the route we took across America to anyone.  Safe travels to all of our dear friends and family. Thanks for tuning into our blog on occasion, to see where we had landed.  Happy trails and travels.

Joey and Rhonda Gebbia 

Badlands National Park & The Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota

Rode through the Badlands National Park today.  The Badlands begins with roaming green hills that is said to be very fertile pasture lands for cattle.  Farmers do not have to supplement with feed or grain due to the richness of grasses on the plains of the badlands.  President Theordore Roosevelt was a cattle rancher in this area.  After crossing these grassy plains, the landscape changes into a rough rocky mountainous area.  These mountains are made up of soft rock that erode up to an inch a year.  This mountainous area looks like giant Sand Castles.  These large mountainous rocks are full of fossils that are millions of years old.  Dinosaur bones, crocodiles and animals that no longer roam the earth have been found here.  I mean their bones of course.  Stopped by the visitor center and looked at the exhibits and watched the movie of this area.  Learned a great deal.

Our next stop was Mitchell, South Dakota.  We drove there to see the "Corn Palace."  The Corn Palace is a multi-use facility, where activities are held.  The attraction is that every year the outside of the building is decorated with different types of corn and grains produced in the state of South Dakota.  Each year a different theme is constructed.  Murals are also done inside with corn and grain.  It is a unique site and one must marvel at how long it would take to construct such a project.   This tradition began in 1892.  Every year since this date, the outside and inside area of this building is being decorated.  After the corn palace is decorated, the town has a Corn Palace Festival.  It is a Mid-Western tradition. 

Mount Rushmore, Crazyhorse Monument, Custer National Park, Wyoming

Saturday 8/20/11
Drove from Devil's Tower to Hill City and Palmer Gulch KOA Campground.  This is the largest KOA campground we've stayed at so far.  Five hundred RV sites along with tent sites, cabins and even lodges for rent.  Everything is here meaning - you can rent a horse, car, atv, take a tour, two stores and gift shops along with two restaurants.  This place is huge.  We got settled into our campsite and decided to go to one of the campground restaurants, but a telephone pole fell in the campground and the power was out for dinner time.  We opted to go back to our RV and clean out the fridge.  Leftovers on the grill it was.  We redeemed the leftovers with smores on the campfire later on that night.  No sightseeing today, just setting up camp and relaxing.

Sunday 8/21/11
Rented a car today thru the campground.  Thought it would be easier maneauvering through the mountains with a car instead of the Chinook.  Our first stop was Crazy Horse Monument.    The head is completed on the monument, but it is still in the process of being carved into the mountain.  I have posted a picture of what it looks like now and a picture of what it will look like when completed.  This project began in 1948 by sculpture, Korczak Ziolkowski and is still being carried on by his family.  Korczak died in 1982. Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear wrote to Korczak and asked him if he would carve, Crazy Horse on the Black Hills of South Dakota so the white man would know that the Indians had great heroes as well. 

We then went on a joy ride so to speak through the Black Mountains.  There were lots of tunnels and wildlife in the Custer National Park.  We saw chickories, mules, buffalo and one antelope.  We also drove past Sylvan Lake.
This route took us in a large circle where our next stop was Mount Rushmore.  Gutzon Borglum was the sculptor, artist and originator of the idea of the four presidents being carved.  These 4 Presidents, Lincoln, Jefferson, Washington and Teddy Roosevelt were the preservationist of our country.  Borglum completed three of the presidents in his lifetime and his son completed the project fifty years after his father's death.  Borglum had a budget of $500,000.00 for the project and seven years for completion.  It took 1,000,000.00 and fourteen years to actually complete Mt. Rushmore.  It was a monumental task. 
It began to rain while we were there and on our way back down the mountain we were greated by wild turkeys in the road.  Soon after it began to hale and rain in a terrential downpour.  The rain was so cold and the largest drops I've ever seen hitting the windshield.  By the time we got into town, Hill City, the rain stopped. 
We stopped for dinner at Chute Rooster Steakhouse.  We headed back to the campground.  The Hill City Slickers were playing at the gazebo, so we took our blankets down and sat and listened.  They were pretty good.  Long day!  Enjoy the pics

Cody Wyoming Old Western Town and the Devil's Tower, WY

Before leaving Cody, we decided to ride over to the Old Western Town area.  Cody is rich with cowboy history.  Cody is the town Buffalo Bill created and it is also home to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jeremiah Johnston and many others.  This old western town is original in it's building and contents.  The old buildings house stage coaches, buggy's, saddles, old guns, buffalo fur coats, old pictures and even a graveyard where Jeremiah Johnston is buried.  We spent a couple of hours in this old town before we realized how long we had been there.  It is truly a place to become acquainted with how the west was won.  People lived hard back then and died young. 
We left Cody for Devils Tower, Wyoming.  This is the large formation where "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," was filmed.  The large mountain is actually lava that went up into a rock.  The rock broke away and left this large lava formation.  It is huge and what a site to see up close.  The campground did nightly viewings of the movie, "Close Encounters," but unformtunately just as we walked over for the movie, it began to rain.  Oh well, we'll have to rent the movie when we get home.  Enjoy the pics.

Cody, Wyoming

Left Yellowstone park and drove thru the Shoshone National Forrest and Buffalo Bills Dam.  Great scenery and lots of lodges and dude ranches along the way.  The rock formations thru this area were incredible.   We drove beside the Shoshone river most of the way.  We stopped in Cody, Wyoming for fuel.  We saw a large sign posted above the street that said, Cody Rodeo tnight at 8:00 pm.  It did not take much to talk each other into staying at Cody for the Rodeo.  We found the local KOA campground and were happy to find a free shuttle to the Rodeo from the campground. 
We cleaned up from the day's ride and got ready for the rodeo.  Our bus driver was a brash man who left on time no matter what and our company on board the bus were about thirty french canadian college students.  It was fun and LOUD.  The rodeo was good clean family fun with bull riding, barrel racing, calf tying and funny rodeo clowns.  Joey and I had a blast.  I think I could go to a rodeo every week.  It's like Friday night football, except Western style.
Enjoy the pics!