Vacation 2016: It's Over

After a fantastic 12 days, it was time to put this vacation in the books. We had a 2-3 day drive ahead of us. We drove south to Denver, and then started heading east.

I've been on steep roads before, but these were the steepest hills I've ever been on.

 I'm not sure what this was, but it reminded me of an old mine. 

 We saw this water wheel & I snapped a couple of pictures as we went rolling by.

 We weren't looking forward to driving through Kansas, just because we knew it would be flat with not a lot to see. It was weird, because it seems like as soon as we left Denver, it got very flat. Since Denver is the "mile high city", I assumed we'd have to go down more steep mountains to get to where it's flat.

What we saw were some magnificent clouds.

 And a lot of wind turbines.

We spent the night somewhere in the middle of the state, and looked forward to driving back through Mo. & Illinois to get through Kentucky (just because we were closer to Tn.!)

We ran through some rain in Ky., which meant that I had to pull my camera out because there were more amazing skies.

Our original plan was to spend another night on the road, but CH said he thought he could make it home. We ended up rolling into the house around 2:30 a.m. The dogs were well taken care of by one of YS' friends and the house was in excellent shape. 

Another vacation in the books...time to start planning for next summer!

Vacation 2016 Part 1: Sister Time!

What an awesome vacation we had! I had never been further west than Texas (except for a quick weekend to Phoenix for my nephew's wedding), so I was really looking forward to seeing a different part of the country. 

We started off our vacation with a 2-day visit with one of my sisters. I hadn't been to her current house, so I was really excited to see it...oh, and her! I can't believe I didn't get a picture of the 2 of us. (Bad blogger....very bad blogger!) 

I got to see the St. Louis Arch for the first time. The Small Town's high school band participated in their St. Patrick's Day Parade when YS was a junior, so he has actually been to the top.

As we went over the bridge (which apparently had been built since the last time CH went through St. Louis...he talked about how horrible it was to go through that city but was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was this time), I was busy taking pictures. when we got to the other side, I asked CH when we got into Missouri; he looked at me kind of funny & said we hit the state line When we went over the bridge. I was too busy taking pictures to notice the sign!

The drive up was somewhat uneventful, except for the horrendous rain we drove through Saturday night. If Google maps hadn't frozen, we wouldn't have missed the exit that would have taken us around Kansas City, and we would have missed the rain. We ended up getting a hotel room that night...we were only about 1 1/2 hours from my sister's. 

We drove the rest of the way in on Sunday morning, and arrived to see my sister standing at the end of the sidewalk with a huge smile on her face. My BIL was standing on the porch. He doesn't ever show much excitement, but I know he was secretly excited to see us!

She gave us a tour of their beautiful home; we were standing on the balcony looking out at the backyard, and she caught sight of a cardinal. She grabbed my hand & told me to look. No doubt Mama was looking down on us in approval.

My sister is an absolutely marvelous cook: we ate really well while we were there! We originally had visions of us sitting around the pool, talking, but y'all, it was cold! YS (who went with us) and CH got in the pool; I stuck my feet in, but that was as far as I got. It was cold enough for us to have a fire in the firepit one night.

I even got to see one of my nephews! (That's  him on the left, YS in the middle and my BIL on the right.)

We did a bit of sight-seeing while we were there. My sister lives near the town where the Pony Express started.

 Very interesting history there. It was very much worth the $6 admission.

We also went by the house where Jesse James died. We didn't go in; my sister said that the only thing really of interest is the wall that has the hole from the bullet that killed him in it. We saw a picture of it & saved the $4. (The house isn't at the original location.)

Just a couple more pictures of my sister's yard. They have a sweet little fish pond with a bridge over it and some lilypads in it.

My sister was a little concerned that YS would get bored, but he got in there and the boys did their thing.

The only bad thing about the first leg of the trip was that it was over too soon and we had to leave. But we had more adventures to come!

Vacation 2016: Let the Sight-Seeing Begin!

We finally got to SD and got our "home" set up. We had a quick breakfast at the cafe at the campground, then our discovery of the Black Hills began.  At the end of the first day, YS & I had a mountain to climb. If you look at the end of the arrow, there is an American Flag there. I climbed that mountain!

YS & I at the top of the mountain:

The "view" of Mt. Rushmore from the top:

 & when we got back to our campsite...just ahead of a thunderstorm:

In the Black Hills, we saw animals:

Monuments:

(This is what it will one day look like:)

Parks:

Beautiful lakes:

Rocks that were tight squeezes:

Brave rock climbers:

(Here's a close up shot)

Rocks that looked like Darth Vader:

 Buddha:

 a dwarf:

& a snail:

 Rocks that had roads cut through them:

 Amazing views:

Famous resting places:

 Wild Bill Hickock's grave:

 Calamity Jane rests right beside him.

This is the grave of a famous madame...the first known madame to franchise her business:

(Side note: that was all there was in Deadwood...except for gambling.)

 Incredible skies:

And one of the highlights of the trip, WINE!

We enjoyed it so much, we went 2 days in a row.

An added plus: there is a brewery right next door!

CH & YS took a ride down an Alpine Slide:

 An interesting site in Custer:

 I found something that reminded me of Berlin, except they have bears, and it's in, well, South Dakota!

We got a good laugh when we saw this shirt.

"The Dragon" is a stretch of road that is partly in the county where I live. It's a big motorcycle destination, but it's also very dangerous (318 curves in 11 miles). Numerous people die every year. "Iron Mountain Road" appeared to be a much safer, better paved road. It boasts 17 miles, 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 pigtails, 3 tunnels, 4 presidents (you can see Mt. Rushmore as you go through them), and 2 splits.

We had an awesome time in the Black Hills. After 5 full days, it was time to pack up and head to Colorado for a few days.