Week 2 of our Journey across the U.S.

Published by Terrance Ó Dhomnaill in Blog Article · Friday 23 May 2025 · 23:15
Tags: Crann, na, beatha, Blog, Week, 2, Journey, U.S., Travel, Adventure, Exploration, Road, trip, Experiences

Let me begin where I left off last week in Wisconsin Dells, WI. The reason I'm starting there is because a few minutes after I posted last week's travel blog, we had a tornado warning that first hit our phones, then the air raid sirens went off in the town.

A few minutes later a severe thunderstorm ripped through dropping golf ball sized hailstones on top of everything. I was scared they were going to break the soft top of the RV. Luckily they didn't but it was a worrisome hour or two before the all clear came through.

That's the last thing I needed was to have a tornado roll through and cause severe wind damage or worse to our RV.

The next day, Friday, we packed up and continued west. The trip across western Wisconsin and Minnesota was pretty uneventful. Lots of rolling hills and prairie land with the main highlight of the day being when we crossed the upper Mississippi River into Minnesota. Once we crossed into South Dakota, we started seeing the first signs for Wall Drug, South Dakota, just like when I made this trip in June of 1986. The signs were newer but there nonetheless all along I-90 west.

I had made a reservation in advance for a, supposedly, highly rated Good Sam campground but boy, were those ratings skewed. We arrived late in the afternoon in the cold rain, to find a rundown campground barely open for business. I realised that it was a bit early for normal tourist season but this place had definitely seen better days. It was good enough to get us through the night though. I most certainly will be adding my own rating on the Good Sam website and it won't be anywhere near the four to five rating everyone else gave it. My rating will be more of a steer clear warning than anything else.

The next day, my lovely wife, using her Chinese YouTube influencer apps, decided that we needed to tour the South Dakota Badlands State park. At first I was like, you want to do what? But, as I love my wife, I looked at the clock and realised that we had plenty of time to take a run through the Badlands park and visit Wall Drug, and still make it to our campground in time south of Rapid City.

The park turned out a lot better than I expected. The natural scenery there was absolutely gorgeous. I'm now sorry I ever dismissed this park in the past. We found a large parking area and got out to walk around for a bit. We took lots of pictures and when we were finished, we drove the loop through the park checking everything else out. It just so happens that Wall Drug was just across the interstate at the west end of the park. Here is a photo taken by me at the Badlands State Park in southwestern South Dakota.

When we exited the park, we drove down this road looking at ever more signs for this tourist stop and finally found the tourist part of Wall Drug on the other side of town. As I was driving through town, all I could think of was "Where did all of this town come from since I was here last?"

When I was there back in 1986 with my first wife and three kids, Wall Drug was just a tourist attraction right off the interstate with an entrance into a dusty dirt parking lot, with a big statue of a T-Rex out front. Inside were some little retail stores with native Americans selling handmade jewelry and Minnetonka footwear. There was also a little reptile zoo as well, if I recall. We didn't stay long back in 1986. Just long enough to look around and let my two boys run around a bit. My daughter was only a year old at the time so it was more about the boys letting off some steam after riding in the car for what seemed like forever for them.

This time, the town of Wall Drug had built itself up around a main street full of tourist shops all designed to take your money with little to show for it. Like Wisconsin Dells, Wall Drug seemed tawdry and left a bad taste in our mouths. We were there all of half an hour before I decided that enough was enough. We took a couple of photos and headed out for our campground near Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

I spelled that out on purpose and I’ll tell you why a bit later on. I always that Mount Rushmore was a national park. More about that coming up.

We had to stop in Rapid City, SD to get a couple of groceries, which turned out a bit crazy. I ended up driving halfway across town to find a local Safeway. That's not fun in a 25 ft. motorhome in rush hour traffic. Once we had the groceries, we made a run for the campground. Once again, it was threatening to rain when we arrived so getting checked in and set up in our spot was fun. It was getting dark by the time we got set up and ate dinner. My wife then informs me that we needed to do laundry. So we ended up walking about a half mile in the dark to the nearest campground laundromat to wash our clothes. By the time we were finished, the clouds had rolled in and it was pitch dark during the long walk back to the RV.

To give readers an idea of where we were, this campground is considered a KOA resort. They have a hotel lodge, a very large area for huge amounts of RV campers and facilities that outshine nearly every other campground I've been to around the country. This one gets 4.5 stars. I docked them a half star for something I'll tell you about in a minute.

The next morning, it was raining as the sky had promised the night before. We had planned to take the day to visit Mount Rushmore and spend the rest of the day doing other touristy stuff. My wife loves to see wild animals in their natural settings so we set our sights on Custer State park. There is supposed to be lots of antelopes and buffaloes roaming around according to our research.

Our initial plan had been to rent a car here and that was when everything went sideways. This KOA has a concierge service, which I noticed it when we checked in the previous evening. We also have a small toy poodle dog with us.

When I was planning our trip a few months ago, that was one of the selling points for this campground out of all the others in the area. They offer a rental car service. I thought at the time I looked at this place that renting a car to traverse the winding mountain roads of the Black Hills would be worth the rental fee. That would be a lot better than trying to drive my big motorhome and taking a chance on tipping it over somewhere up in the mountains. But such was not to be.

Our first morning there when we went up the concierge service desk to inquire about renting a car, the man said, "Sure, no problem. Pick out the size car you want, and fill out a rental contract," he would hook us up. Until he saw the little dog my wife was carrying when she walked up to the counter. Then he decided to tell me that they didn't allow dogs of any kind in their cars after I had filled out the paperwork and he had copied my driver's license. To say I was a little pissed off that he wasted our time was an understatement. I asked him in my Army sergeants voice, why he didn't tell us about the no dog policy up front after admitting to seeing us walk in with the little dog. He then made the excuse that he was new and still learning how to do his job. Yeah right, he's my age or older. Apparently common sense isn't a job requirement.

As we were leaving, my wife chided me for being angry with the man. I told her in a nice way, that I didn't really show the man just how angry I was for wasting our time and she smartly let it go.

Needless to say, we had no other choice than to unhook all of our utilities and drive the RV to Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park. First stop, Mount Rushmore National Memorial Park.

When we arrived, myself thinking this was a national park, whipped out my national park get in free cards. I have two. One for being a veteran and the other for being a senior citizen. The lady told me at the gate that they wouldn't work there because this is a National Memorial, not a national park. It took me a second for that to register in my brain. I tried again, when she tersely told me I had to pay for parking as this was a national memorial and not a national park. I took the ticket she gave me still in a moment of what!!!!! And went through to find a parking spot for the RV.

Good news for anyone wishing to visit any of the national whatever parks. They have extra-large parking spots for RV's and tour busses.

Once we got parked and walked up to the front entrance, we also found out that you can't take any dogs into any attractions in any national whatever parks anywhere in the country. One of us had to stay at the front entrance and babysit the dog while the other would go see the attraction up close. In this case, I agreed to watch the dog while she went up to see the flags and the rest of the exhibits. I had been here before in 1986 so I didn't need to see all of that stuff again. I still have pictures from 1986 and this place hadn't changed all that much in 39 years so I told her to go as I was good.

So while she walked up to see things, I set up my tripod and camera and took some pictures of the ex-presidents while waiting for my dear wife. I think she was a little disappointed in the exhibit because she didn't say too much. We took a couple more pictures when she returned to the front entrance, then we went off to find U.S. highway 16A to Custer State Park. Little did I know how narrow, switchback and steep this road was until we were in it and committed. We were fortunate that there are a couple of little attractions along the way that give us a chance to pull in and stretch our legs. Otherwise, it was a stressful ride driving that motorhome all the way to the state park.

Once we were there, everything was great, despite the rain. We saw a bunch of pronghorn antelopes and lots of buffalo. We took lots of pictures, most of which came out good. My wife loved it and that was all that mattered. It made up for the crappy start.

(pronghorn antgelopes in Custer State Park, SD)

(Buffalo in Custer State Park, SD)

When it was time to leave the park and head back to the campground, my wife said there is no way we're going back over that tall mountain again. I pulled over and got out the map to find some different roads that took us a few miles out and around but ultimately a lot safer with the weather getting worse.

The next morning the region was blanketed with about two inches of fresh, wet snow. I had to go out clean the snow off the utilities and front window before we could leave. But once underway, the trip out across State Highway 16 west was interesting with things to see along the way until I picked up I-90 west going towards Cody, Wyoming. Our next stop.

As we continued across Wyoming that Monday, we started seeing the Rocky Mountains in the distance with all of the snow on top. I was getting a little worried about road conditions as the winds were coming out of the north west again. When you're driving a big motorhome like ours, any big head winds will drop your gas mileage into the basement.

Once we got off I-90 and headed west on U.S. Highway 14, we had to climb the mountains in Big Horn National Forest. At the very top I saw a little sign that said passing over Big Horn Mountain range at 9300 plus feet above sea level. I don't remember the name of the pass as it was snowing and visibility was becoming limited. The road was wide enough but it was still stressful driving with the wind and blowing snow threatening to knock us off the road at nearly every turn.

As we got farther west past Big Horn National Forest, the sun started shining so I thought, "Good, maybe I'll get lucky with the weather for a change." It was still pretty cold out despite the sunshine though. Once out of this first mountain range, it was just a sunny drive the rest of the way to the KOA in Cody.

Cody, Wyoming is just a stepping off town for Yellowstone National Park. Everyone there pretty much caters to all of the passers through on their way to the oldest and most famous national park in north America. The Cody, Wyoming KOA is no different. It isn't a bad place and the people were nice for the most part but it's nothing to rave about in the travel blogs. We woke up to a cold morning and ready to head up to Yellowstone Park.

U.S. Highway 14/16/20 is the only road going to the east entrance of Yellowstone National Park. We weren't more than a few miles west of Cody when two deer decided to jump across the road right in front of me, and, as luck would have it, I clipped one of them despite me only going a little over fifty miles an hour and jamming on the brakes as soon as I saw the doe start across the highway from the east bound lane. The doe limped off with her partner down the road behind me as I moved my RV to the shoulder to assess the damage to the front of my vehicle. She cracked the cheap plastic grille is all when I hit her so I took that as a win-win for both of us. I will worry about making the cosmetic repairs after I return to Virginia in a couple of weeks and I hope the deer came off with just a heavy bruise. At least that's what it looked like anyway when she ran off favoring a rear leg.

I cleaned off some of the deer fur from the cracked grille and we continued on. Once we arrived at the east gate to Yellowstone, the ranger there was very kind and answered our quick question about where the camp site was. Then it was over the mountains once again. Up through Sylvan Pass, nearly 9000 feet above sea level with lots of snow everywhere.

This is where I learned that Yellowstone National Park is all high mountains and a bit tricky in places for RV's. The roads are well marked with speed limit signs and yellow speed warnings for curves and such. I paid close attention to all of those, no matter how tired I was or how much car traffic was behind me getting impatient with my slow rolling down the treacherous roads. That and I didn't want any park police having an excuse to pull me over.

Did I say there's a lot of snow up there for the middle of May? A lot old snow from the last winter is still lining all of the roads and in the heavily wooded areas. Some of the side roads are still closed due to snow that hasn't melted or been cleared by park staff. Some of the lakes are full of slushy ice or still frozen over yet. And it was cold out.

We arrived at the only RV campground in Yellowstone with full hookups in time to go out Tuesday afternoon to see the sites in the middle and northern part of the park. We visited every natural attraction we could driving the RV and thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon.

There is a large canyon area in the middle of the park that we spent a lot of time going to all of the viewpoints and taking pictures. There were the little geysers and steam vents at Norris, and then we drove all the way up to Mammoth Springs to take more picture and out to Lamar valley to see some elk and buffalo. Here is a sample of the landscape in Yellowstone National Park.

It was a little late by the time we got back to the southern part of the park where the campground is but we had a great time. The next morning, we woke up to about four inches of wet snow on the ground, which made things more difficult when unhooking everything in order to set out to see all of the sites on the west side of Yellowstone.

The west side of Yellowstone is where the majority of the geysers, steam vents and hot springs are located. We managed to get into all of them that would accommodate our RV, especially the massive tourist attraction called "Old Faithful." I personally thought it was more hype than performance as the geyser apparently goes off approximately every hour and half and sometimes it gives off a high plume but mostly not. It went off right as we were walking up to the viewing area so I didn't have time to set up to take any pictures. I also didn't want to fight the hundreds of people watching this spectacle so we waited towards the backside of the viewing area. We had the dog anyway and, as I said before, no dogs are allowed on any of the wooden boardwalks erected for people to get closer to any park attractions. Not that this stopped some people.

After watching the geyser, my wife decided she was tired and wanted to take a nap in the RV. I wanted to walk around and take pictures so I gave her the keys and I spent a couple of hours walking around this attraction and even managed to get a picture of one of the other geysers spouting off in a large plume. Larger than Old Faithful I thought.

I walked probably close to a mile and a half or more before getting tired and returning to the RV. We spent the rest of the day going to all of the rest of the natural attractions on the west side and by the time we were finished late in the day again, I was completely exhausted.

After we returned to the campsite once again, we both noticed that we were experiencing a little bit of high altitude sickness. We noticed ourselves being more dehydrated than normal after a busy day, dry sinuses, with my wife complaining of lightheadedness. As we still had a couple more days of being in the extreme high altitudes, I became a little concerned for our health. With a little extra mitigation during the night, my wife said she was feeling better the next morning.

We spent the day getting ready to leave our campsite and move on to the next one. And that's where things went sideways.

Part of our trip preps that started last year, was a schedule of where we would be on any given day on our trip across the country. I had made Park campground reservations, paid deposits and so on.

On the day we left Fish River Bridge RV campground, we were supposed to head north into Yellowstone to another campground for one night that I had made a reservation for, but I forgot to write it down in my oh so perfect schedule.

With no internet to double check the schedule that was on my paper, I blew it off, even though my knowing wife kept insisting that we had planned to spend one more night in Yellowstone.

After spending half the day getting some maintenance done on the RV, we drove south down to Grand Teton National Park without another thought. Once we arrived at the only RV park in Grand Teton late in the afternoon, the young lady checking us in couldn't find my reservation for May 22nd. It turns out there wasn't one. I had made a one night stay for May 23rd because I had a reservation for Madison campground in Yellowstone for May 22nd. Obviously, since we were already at the RV campground at Grand Teton on May 22nd, I wasn't going to turn around and spend almost three hours returning to a primitive campground in the north part of Yellowstone park for the night.

They were very nice to accommodate my senior moment mistake in Grand Teton and set me up with a campsite for the extra night. Then I had to call to a couple of the other KOA campsites in our near future to rearrange those reservations so we'd be on time for our reservation at Yosemite National Park next week. All's good as we're in a much nicer campground and all I had to endure for punishment was my wife telling me how right she was about the reservation schedules and how I didn't listen to her once again. Not the first time, nor will it be the last I suspect as we get older.

As I finish this episode of our travel blog for this week, I offer a bit of advice for traveling out here for a vacation. You should visit these national parks, if you can afford it sometime in your life. I don't know how long, if at all, it will be before Trump starts carving out parts of these national parks for his corporate buddies. There have been rumors that he wants the minerals and other natural resources, such as the timber, to give leases to some corporations. You have to know that there will be a kickback for Trump in this if he is allowed to do this. I hope the judges will stop him from ruining these pristine parks that are like the crown jewels of North America.

We've run into so many people from around the world at these parks in our journey so far. We camped next to a couple from Japan last night, there have been people from Quebec, Canada, Russia (I think, maybe Ukrainian?) Germany, Chinese people from Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia Canada, and probably a lot more. I've heard people speaking a Scandinavian language and some I couldn't place. The news articles about international visitors being afraid to visit the U.S. maybe over hyped a little. I take some blame for that as I parroted a lot of those articles on my previous podcasts. I stand corrected. I have no doubt that tourism will be affected some but not as much as the news media may think. It just goes to show you that the world-wide media is probably wrong again.

Despite our maintenance issues with the RV (I had to repair the microwave this morning and still need to fix the A/C), and problems with remembering which campground we supposed to stay at, at a given time, we're having the time of our lives. All of the snow on the mountain passes was scary and the narrow roads dicey to navigate at times which only scared us sort of like being on a carnival ride. We have no regrets and my wife wants to come back to Yellowstone again someday, maybe with her girlfriend who has also been here before. I told her I'd come back again if she wants. Maybe in a couple more years.

Next week, we'll be in eastern California visiting Yosemite and Sequoia National Parks. We will be staying at a couple of KOA's in Salt Lake City, Utah and Reno, Nevada along the way. After California, it's off to the Grand Canyon in Arizona, and then we start heading back east through Utah and Denver, Colorado. I'll keep everyone abreast of our continuing journey, including the hiccups along the way. I just hope I can find a start capacitor for my A/C on my way to California. Yeah, that went out also a couple of days ago during the snow storm in Yellowstone. I was trying to turn on the heat pump when it went out. I don't have a tall ladder in order to get up on the roof to check it out so I'll have to find a repair shop somewhere in Utah or Nevada. I have plenty of tools and the skills, just no really tall ladder. Such is the camping life. It's all part of the fun.

Until next week, sláinte

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