We are camped at Cloud 9 Ranch in Caulfied, Mo. The Wilder Springs is located behind our campsite.

This a picture of our rig with bothe the tv and internet satellite deployed. The one on the back is my internet.

Mitchell, SD

While at Mitchell, we visited the Corn Palace and the Mitchell Prehistoric Indian Village. The Indian Village was awesome. We saw a movie and then were given a tour of the Village. The village has an Archeodome which allows archeologists to dig year round. They believe that this Indian Village hosted 80 to 100 lodges. They have set up a lodge that you can enter. If you ever get to Mitchell, you must visit this Village.

Here is a picture of Gary trying to use the atlatl which made it possible for the Indians to throw their spears a longer distance. They have 2 fake deer set up for people to aim at. As for Gary's accuracy, we would be starving.

This is the bed that would have belonged to the head of this family lodge.

The Corn Palace can be found in Mitchell, SD. It is free to visit. All of the outside murals are made out of corn cobs. This is the front view. They are still working on it.

This is the side view of the Corn Palace

This machine was used in the movie "Dances with Wolves". All of the buildings were moved from the movie location to this location. You can visit for free.

Another building used in the movie "Dances with Wolves"

This is the building used in the movie "Dances With Wolves"

Chief Crazy Horse

We visited Chief Crazy Horse Monument. This is a must see. Besides the monument, you can view a 20 minute film about it, a museum, the sculptor's studio, Indian cultural center, and other things. This first blast for this monument took place on June 3, 1948. This is larger than Mt. Rushmore, in fact, the faces of the presidents will fit in the head of Chief Crazy Horse. At night they have a laser show which is a must see. It is really great. The face is 9 stories high, the horse's head will be 22 stories high. When Crazy Horse was asked where his people were, his reply was, "My lands are where my dead lie buried." The monument shows Crazy Horse pointing to his lands.

This is what you will see when you visit Crazy Horse.

View of the model with the real thing behind.

Front view of model.

This is the model sculpture that tells tha can be found on the deck of the visiting area.

This is a stagecoach that was used to transport people to Deadwood.

You can see this scuplture of Sitting Bull when you visit the musuem.

Sometimes a person gets lucky. We were lucky enough to see this mountain goat and her two babies on the Badlands loop.

We visited the Badlands of South Dakota. We drove the loop around the Badlands. The sky was hazy, so I did not tak very many picture.

Minuteman Missile National Park

Today we visited the Minuteman Missile National Park. This is a new park opened up only two years ago. As of now the two hour tour is free. It is a misnomer that the missiles were a secret; their locations could be seen from the highway and by satellite if the Russians or anyone else wanted to look. This missile, the Minuteman II could be deployed in remote unstaffed underground silos and launched by crews stationed at launch control facilities miles away. They were designed to travel over the North Pole and arrive at targets thirty minutes after the launch command was given, its 1.2 megaton warhead carried the explosive equivilent of over one million tons of dynamite. This facility is set up to preserve Delta-09 - launch facility and Delta-01, a launch control facility. Our tour guides were two men who had worked at the site when they were in the airforce.

This is the missile you will see at the missile launch site. It is unarmed of course. They keep the temp at 68 year round.

This is where the minuteman missile is located. The tall pole on the left was the security for the area. If someone entered the area, a signal was sent to the command post. The cone on the right was a signal receiver.

Take a close look at the message. This is the 800 lb. door that closed behind the two men who were in the missile command center. Two men had to be in the center at one time. They did not trust one man alone. The center had a bed for someone to sleep in, a tv, one holer, and all the communications you could think of. These two men were in charge of 10 minuteman missles. During a crisis, they could possibly be down there for more than 24 hours straight.

You can see this as you enter the missle command center.

Mount Rushmore

We chose a great day for our visit. If you click on the pictures, they will get larger. We learned that the monument was not really finished because the sculptor died before it was complete. He had planned to have Lincoln holding onto his collar with his left hand. If you look closely, you can see that they started on the knucles of the hand and the top of the collar and that Lincoln is missing his left ear.

We visited Keystone. They have a ride on a train used in 1880 which goes from Keystone to Hill City. On the trip we were able to see deer, woodchuck, and turkey. This is the locomotive that pulled the train. Great trip.

We took the President's trail with a park ranger who gave lots of information about the monument. If you go to Rushmore, be sure to take the walk with the ranger.

Mt. Rushmore. Beautiful day.

Custer State Park, South Dakota

Today we took a drive through Custer State Park. The following pictures are some of the many animals we got to see.

This is truely where the buffalo roam. This is just the middle of the herd. We also saw some antelope and deer on the drive through Custer State Park.

During our drive, we were surrounded by buffalo. They were walking on both sides of the car also in front and back of the car.

This is the tunnel you hwave to drive through to get to the Eye of the Needle.

This is called the Eye of the Needle, can you guess why?

We visited Tatanka, a tribute to the buffalo made possible by Kevin Costner. This outdoor scene shows the way the Indians pursued the buffalo. They dug a pit and drove th buffalo into the pit. Some also used arrows to kill the buffalo.

They have a native Indian at the teepee to explain the ife of the Indian women.

After viewing the buffalo statues, you will see an Indian at the top of the hill.

Guess what! South Dakota has its own Bridal Viel Falls. This is located on the Spear Canyon Drive.

We visited one of the places where they filmed Dances With Wolves. Now we are going to have to see the movie again to identify the site we visited.

Indians tell that there were 8 children at play, 7 sisters and 1 brother. Suddenly, there was the boy became a bear. The sisters ran and the bear chased them until they reached a stump of a great tree. The tree spoke to them and the sisters climbed it. The tree began to rise into the air. The bear reared up and scored the bark all around with its claws. The 7 sisters were borne into the sky and became the stars of the "Big Dipper."

Devil's Tower in Wyoming. We stopped here today to walk around Devil's Tower. This is a picture from the road.

First day out

Well, we are finally on the road. We are headed for South Dakota. We camped tonight at Battle Mountain, Nevada.