Oklahoma was hot and dry

After leaving the wonderful folks at Augusta, Kansas, we were behind on our driving schedule. I had wanted to stop at Ponca City, OK where there was going to be a big Pow Wow, but we decided to drive through to OK City area. We were doing fine, driving down I35 and about 15 mikes north of OK City when I heard a loud POP. I figured maybe a flat, but it was a blowout tire. I called Good Sam, which is like AAA for RV's. They would send out a repair man, and needed to charge me for the tire and repair...like$400. Damn man. Well what could I do, so we waited and waited for this guy to come. Imagine the scene It is 94 degrees out, we are on the side of a very busy interstate and the grass on the berm was all sticker grass, which got all over poor Dakota and my socks. We waited almost 3 hours for the guy. We were not happy campers. But he fixed the tire and off we went.

Going around OK City in the dark on a toll road which had not clerks, you needed exact change, was not so fun. We finally got to the KOA at 8pm. Luckily the lady was just coming out of the office and put us in a spot. We were exhausted from the tire fun and went to sleep only hooking up the electricity and of course the TV.

The next morning I was not ready to get driving again, so we stayed another day and explored the area. Right next to the KOA, which was on I 40, was a pen a buffaloes, and a Cherokee Trading Post, a diner restaurant, and an antique shop. We talked to the Buffaloes for awhile, we restrained ourselves from buying Indian crafts, we checked out the antique store and we had a nice dinner, where I flirted with the 2 policeman who were next to us. I made a grown man blush and laugh. We had fun. We also had a great hot shower.

The next morning I was totally refreshed and ready to hit the road again. West on I 40, which runs next to old RT66, we saw cows and ranches and drilling rigs, some working, some rusted and dead. They look alien. We noticed many people were taking RT66, mostly motorcycles and some bikes. The road dies out in some places only to reappear again. It was a warm sunny day and we were headed to Amarillo TEXAS.

KANSAS CITY HERE I COME

After all that Jesse James history, I realized that I had never been to Kansas. I also didn't know how Kansas was such a wild place. Kansas City was the starting place of the Oregon Trail and the Santa FeTrail. Towns are Dodge City, Medicine Lodge, Wichita. There were many fort here. There were Indian wars, Civil war battles, and Wild Bill Hickock. We didn't stop in Kansas City due to time, but my friend Pier says it has great shopping. It is known as a cattle city, larges stockyards....we saw hundreds of cattle in one of them. Can you say steak for dinner??

We drove south on I35 and said hello to Courtney's hometown of Emporium, (Sean's girlfriend). Then we drove through the Flint Hills. They are rolling hills that look like desert. Nothing there for miles, the soil is alluvial deposits. It is plains with grass growing and occasionally some wildflowers. Way off in the distance black dots, which are cattle, graze. There is no town for miles. It was a beautiful place though. It felt like I could touch the clouds.

Our goal was to was originally to camp in El Dorado, but the campground had very bad reviews so we ended up in the Walmart parking lot there. I noticed that Agatha was backfiring, and I knew that wasn't good, so we called around to see if someone could look at it. Interestingly most RV dealers don't service them, or you have to wait a week or so to get in. So we were referred to PRO DIESEL, AND Cory said we could come the next morning. so we did.

LIFE AT PRO DIESEL

When we pulled into the Pro Diesel yard, we were met by Cory, the owner and his little helper, a small rambunctious girl of about 2 years old, Reese. Cory started exploring the problems of the RV and I played with Reese. Her Mom, Kellie, works in the office. Cory tried several things and we were still backfiring. So we stayed in the yard that night. They hooked us up to electric and we read until it was dark.

The next morning, Cory worked on some gaskets and valve cover. He and his number one man, Jeff, brain stormed trying to figure it out. Still nothing stopped the problems. So we stayed another night in the yard. I spent my day playing with the kids, Reese and Ty, a Kindergarten age boy who likes rocks. And I met Cory's son, Garrett, who could be a future geologist. He is collecting rocks and wanted to know all about them. We gave him a quartz crystal and some others. He has a tumbler machine and was very curious about all the rocks we had collected along this trip. We found fossils, mostly shells and coral, right by the garage. We are collecting more rocks and will send him a bunch from New Mexico.

The next day Cory is stumped. No seems to know why this RV is backfiring and running rough. I felt so bad because clearly he was frustrated by Agatha. We were all frustrated. We took it on a night ride and he said there was fireworks-sparks everywhere. I was scared shitless. Cory called everyone in the area to pick their brains, and looked on line.. so it looked like another night in the yard.

This is how nice Kansas people are, particularly Cory and Kellie. They asked us to come over to their house so we could have a shower,(best shower ever) wash our clothes, have a real dinner, and sleep on their couches. Mike also was happy to see the 50" TV too!!! It was great fun, like a pajama party.

Saturday, Cory and Mike went to the shop, while I hung out with Kelly and the kids. Dakota, the dog, also had a buddy to play with, a young catahoula, named Diesel. They ran all over the yard, wagging tails and playing. Cory put a new set of spark plug wires and and something separate them and a new muffler. This seemed to work. Was it true, Agatha was fixed. Yes.

To celebrate Cory and Kellie bought pizzas for everyone. It was good, hadn't had a pizza for months.

Since it was Saturday and pretty late, we decided to stay and again we were invited back to the house. We had a great time, campfire and all and enjoyed talking. We watched a movie, as everyone, except Mike drifted off to sleep.

Sunday Mike and I made pancakes and eggs for everyone. We all enjoyed them and we said our goodbyes. Down the road we were missing those kids...

So if you are near Wichita go 8 miles east to Augusta, KA and say hello to our new friends. The nicest people in Kansas- Cory and Kellie at PRO DIESEL.

Don't shoot Jesse James....

From Lewis and Clark State Park we drove south on I29, past Council Bluff and into Missouri following the path Lewis and Clark took on the Missouri River. Going past towns of Marysville, Watson and Craig, we reached St. Joseph, MO. We stayed at Beacon RV park, which was right on the shopping strip drag at rush hour. My favorite time to drive in a city!!!! The park was a converted mobile home park, and I managed to back Agatha in with no problem. I"m getting better at that.

Late that night was a big thunder storm, lots of rain...it was still raining pretty hard in the morning so I made an executive decision. we are staying another day. I had no desire to drive in the rain. So we decided to explore St. Joseph. In 1826 Joseph Robindoux founded a trading post here, mostly furs. In 1848, when gold was found in California, thousands of folks came to St Joseph to cross the Missouri River and get supplies. The town grew quickly. Railroads and meat processing were early industries.

THE PONY EXPRESS was started here and this was the eastern terminal. There is a museum. I didn't know

that most of the riders were

young boys 14-17,weighing less than 120 pounds, many riding up to 200

miles. Going from St Joe to

San Francisco, in all weather, with Indian attacks, mosquitoes , and low

wages. It only lasted 19 months

before Western Union put them out of business. Every year 500 riders re-enact the trail.

JESSE JAMES WAS SHOT IN THE BACK

St.Joseph is also the area where Jesse James was born. His dad was a Minister. and he became

the most famous bank/train robber of all time. Many people here still consider him a hero. He

was wounded while surrendering during the civil war. He married his cousin, who was named after

his mother. He and brother Frank escaped the bank holdup in Minnesota, where the Younger

brothers were captured. (we drove past the town in Minn.) He and his wife moved to St Joseph

using an assumed name of Tom Howard, trying to live a normal life. But the Pinkerton

Agency had a $10,000 reward, and so he had hiding places and escape hatches in his house on

top of the ridge, actually a block from whee we camped.

Jesse wanted to buy a small farm and didn't have enough money, so he got 2 brothers,

Bob and Charlie Ford to pull one more heist. But they were greedy, and one night while in the

living room, while Jesse stood on a chair to straighten a picture, Bob shot him in the back of the

head. Mrs Jesse was left penniless with 2 kids, sold everything. People stole the wallpaper,

the wood floor where his blood was, and later even his tombstone. We toured the house,

the hole where the bullet was is still there. Poor Jesse James.

PS His son became a prominent Lawyer and daughter married a wealthy man n Kansas City.

It was a good and interesting day, we also went int a big antique store..

Tomorrow onto Kansas City..Kansas City here I come.....

Following Lewis and Clark down the Missouri

SAY GOODBYE TO PIPESTONE

What I got from the Black Hills was a wicked cold. I finally had to break down and go to the Doctor, which with no insurance almost killed me $230 !! It took me awhile before I was feeling well enough to drive, so we stayed at Pipestone a little longer, which really was not bad, since we both have fallen for the little town. Finally Sept 17, we left the town, driving south on Route 75, King of the Highways, which goes from Minn. to Texas. It goes through miles of fields, until you get to the Loess Hills. We followed the hills and river all the way through Iowa.

LOESS HIILS- unique glacier event

Many Americans think of Iowa as having little topographic variation. However, in westernmost Iowa the Loess Hills rise 200 feet above the flat plains forming a narrow band running north-south 200 miles along the Missouri River. The steep angles and sharp bluffs on the western side of the Loess Hills are in sharp contrast to the flat rectangular cropfields of the Missouri River flood plain. From the east, gently rolling hills blend into steep ridges.

Loess (pronounced "luss"), is German for loose or crumbly. It is a gritty, lightweight, porous material composed of tightly packed grains of quartz, feldspar, mica, and other minerals. Loess is the source of most of our Nation's rich agricultural soils and is common in the U.S. and around the world. From the melting of ice from glacier events. google it.

CAMPING AT LEWIS AND CLARK STATE PARK

After driving through Sioux City, we headed south on Rt 29 to Onawa, Iowa. The Omaha Tribe has a reservation there. The state park is on Blue Lake, the sites were beautiful, big trees, falling leaves, view of the lake, and stars. We met some fine people there, a family with 5 kids, camped in a tent next door. It was fun to watch and listen to them. Mike teased them about not catching any fish, course Mike hasn't caught a fish in 15 years!!!. The kids were very bright and well behaved. They asked great questions. I talked with Breanna for a bit and hopes she keeps painting. It seems everyone knew Caleb, even the guy across the road with the white dog. We were very glad to meet them. Hi kids!!! we know you are checking this out.

The state park has a replica of one of the keel boats that Lewis and Clark used. I think 13guys sleep in this small boat, plus all the gear. Hard to imagine. It makes me want to read Lewis and Clark's journals of the trip.

We stayed there for the weekend and it was very pleasant. I highly recommend this state park.

THE BLACK HILLS- GOLD and CRAZY HORSE.

We left early Friday for the 435 mile trip to our campground in the Black Hills. We traveled on I90 and saw 91 Walls Drug Store signs. After you go over the Missouri River, where Lewis and Clark stayed, you notice the environment changes from corn covered prairie land, to scrub brush ranges dotted with black Angus cows in the distance. This area was once a shallow ocean, and that becomes evident when you get to the Bad Lands. There is nothing there except barren land, and some of it looks like Mars. This is the land we gave the Sou ix to live in..we are so generous.

Arriving at Kemps Kamp , Kennedy, SD, around 3pm MT.,this camp is on the side of a mountain in a small valley which was cut out by a stream. The camp was very nice, catering more to tents, with a few RV and pop-ups spots. Each site has a covered picnic area, very nice. We met our neighbors, some cool folks from Ca, or Park City. Kristie and Juan. They were very interested in Mike's Hobo life, and we made them honorary HOBO's.

Saturday, I wanted to go to a cave or mine, so we ended at the BIG THUNDER GOLD MINE. As we drove up to the mine, there was a Western show at the General Store. There was singing and dancing girls, and George Custer, who I booed, everyone laughed. Then I put on my hard hat and went into the mine lead by a cute young man, who I flirted with. Can you say Cougar? The mine tour was neat, the 2 guys who mined it hated each other, and only got about $200 worth of gold for 50 years of work. These guys had gold fever bad.

After the tour, I panned for gold , and only got a few flecks, mainly because I don't have patience for all that. But it was a fun day.

Sunday, we went down town to Kennedy, which is a real tourist town, lots of cool shops,selling Black Hills gold stuff. Also this is where Carrie Ingells, younger sister of Laura, ended up. At 41, she was editor of the newspaper, and married a widower who bought most of the town buildings.

After the shopping spree we drove to the Crazy Horse Monument. We drove past Mount Rushmore. Crazy Horse was having a special night to memorialize the death of Crazy Horse, and the birth of

Crazy Horse sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. We waited for Evening, after taking turns going into the fabulous museum.There are displays from ever tribe. We met some fine people while we were sitting on the lawn. We talked with Rich and Amy from Florida. Everyone loved petting Dakota. The Lazer Light show was awesome, telling the story of Native Americans, honoring Crazy Horse and Korczak. Also honoring military. Then after the show, was the nightly blast, which was amazing. It was a good day. We got home and were tired. It was very cold that night. Monday, we drove home, but stopped at Wall's Drugstore. It started as a stagecoach depot, where they offered a free glass of water. It is now a whole block of departments of everything from a chapel, restaurant, leather goods, a drug store, museum, tee shirts . We had a buffalo burger, met a lady from Hawaii, bought a few things, and left. No more signs to count. We stopped at Chamberlain on the Missouri and looked over the bluff. Our windshield was covered with bugs, I could barely see. It was a great weekend.

How Sioux Falls South Dakota got it's name

The history of Sioux Falls revolves around the Big Sioux River, which 14,000 years ago in the last ice age, carved a path through the valley of dense red quartzite, now called Sioux Quartzite, which is believed to be a billion and half years old. The result is this area of falls.

There were early Mound Builders here as early as 500 BC, who left burial mounds along the river, few are left, but we did see 8 mounds. Most mounds were either raided for artifacts...I call that grave robbing...they call it archaeological research, or plowed under to plant corn.

After the Mound Builder culture, the Plains Indian groups, Lakota, Dakota, etc. camped here. The bison came for the water. And the came trappers, and explorers, like Lewis and Clark...and then greedy land speculators, and pioneers and businesses and then the train, and finally the interstate.

And now Sioux Falls is 150,000 people, looking like every other US small city with strip malls, and big box stores. It has homeless and casinos.

And a great park called FALLS PARK, which we visited. The park has a walkway by the falls which has attracted people for generations. There is the remnants of an old mill. A gift shop and restaurant. It was a nice day trip.

THE END OF THE LINE. A small town near Walnut Grove named Curry, MN

We thought it would be a great day trip on a sunny summer Sunday. We traveled deep into the country, past fields and fields of corn. The huge wind turbines windmills scattered on the ridges. By the way, these things are huge, one rotor can be 40'. There are many wind mills here. We drove towards Walnut Grove, yep the home of Laura Ingells. They have a "festival" there. (Laura ended up in South Dakota. )

We drove into Currie, a small town of many 500 people. Downtown had a bar and some other building that were all closed, due to it being Sunday. At the edge of town, we found THE END OF THE LINE. It is primarily a railroad spot, with so much more. We took the tour, and since no one else was there, we had a VIP tour, just Mike and me and the tour guide.

The history of the place was interesting. In the golden days of steam engine railroad, there were many lines to all these small towns. Corn, Beef, Grain, ice, and people were shipped to Chicago and points east and south. Curry was at the end of the line, which meant the engine had to be turned around so it could do the return trip. This was accomplished by a wooden turntable, which with man power, would turn the engine 180 degrees. It still works, we got a ride.

There is also a railroad museum of the Northwest Illinois Line. There is a restore steam engine, which was found in a junk yard. There is also a little area about HOBO's, with a hooch and signs on the wall, neat.

Besides the train museum is a restore train depot with manikins dressed in period clothes. The people who live in this town donated all sorts of stuff. There is a mill, a General Store, stocked with goodies of the days, a church, which is still used, a train masters house, decked out in all the period antiques, and the Sunrise 1 room Schoolhouse.

The story about the schoolhouse is neat. There was a teacher who taught in this schoolhouse for 60 years. When she retired, a bigger school was built and the building was vacant for years. The End of the line Museum bought the building and refurbished it. The former teacher, who was now in a nursing home, found out about it and gave the museum all her school books, atlases, maps, and the piano that she had. I swear, when I walked in, I could feel this teacher, still standing at her desk, with the reading primer open. The room was exactly how she left it!!

The End of the Line was a great little museum . Worth the trip.

On the way back to the campground, we stopped atWoodstock, MN. We are trying to go to every Woodstock in the Nation. This Woodstock was about 200 poeple, and the main business is a Rehab facilitiy. How Ironic to being sent to rehab in a town called Woodstock-especially considering we are celebrationg the 40th anniversary. However, in a flash of the eye, we drove through the town. After seeing only farms and corn up the way, I turned the car around and there was a table with a FREE sign on it. FREE will always make me stop. There was tomatoes, homegrown garden tomatoes. My mouth was watering..I miss my garden. As Mike was picking them up, the farmer was bringing more stuff. He said it was all fresh, he just picked it, didn't want it to go bad, he said help yourself. Yes sir Mr Farmer, you are the best.

We got tomatoes, cucumers, potatoes, and they were good.. So the moral of the story is..,good people live in every town name Woodstock.