Elaine and Joe CC 2021

 July 12th & 13th, Buffalo, NY Staying with Elaine's brother, Gary, and sister-in-law, Molly for a few days.  Great internet!  Best B&B in Buffalo! Cleaned up the rv before continuing East. Our route from Ionia State park around the souther shore of Lake Erie. Would have preferred to go through Canada if it was open. Downtown Cleveland Our favorite campsite in Williamsville  

 July 11th, Ionia State Park, MI Traveled from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan across the Mackinac Bridge, down the western side of the Michigan mitt touring some beautiful vacation towns. Traverse City, which bills itself as the "Cherry Capitol" of the country, was just ending it annual cherry festival. We googled "the best place for cherries in Traverse City" and were directed to Gallagher's for fresh fruit, jellies, pies, turnovers, relishes...well worth the side trip. We then headed south east ending up at Ionia State Park.  Here we found for the first time in our trip huge swarms of mosquitos! Got an early start from Indian Head State park and traveled a few miles to a lake side park in Manistique to have breakfast in the RV lakeside. At the tip of the peninsula we crossed over to the top of the Michigan mitt via the Mackinac bridge which is supposed to be the longest suspension bridge in the country A view of the bridge on it Stopped in Traverse City for c...

 July 8th, 9th, &10th, Indian Lake State Park, Upper Peninsula, MI We found this great site at a state park in the upper peninsula of Michigan.  We were about 100 yards from a large lake. The site was huge and the weather was gorgeous.  So we became Yoopers! (UP: Upper Peninsula's)  Not much to describe.  We basically vegged out for three nights. One outing was to an adjacent park eight miles away: Palm Book State park which had an unusual water pond with huge trout and boiling geologic cones. Our route from Lake Wissota, WI to Indian Lake State Park, MI Saw this banner for Yoopers in the gift shop at Palm Brook State Park At Palm Brook we visited this pond that had some unusual geologic formations and large trout. At the pond visitors can look into the water from a raft that traverses across the pond in a slow trip. In the center of the raft visitors can look down into the water to see the large trout and geologic plumes The raft is powered back and forth b...

 July 7th, Forest City, IA; Chippewa Falls, WI, and Lake Wissota State Park Traveled east on I-90 from Jackson, MN to Forest City, IA about 30 minutes south of I-90.  Decided to drop in on the Winnebago Factory Service center and ask a few questions about our RV.  That proved pointless as they handed me a business card, took notes on my questions and promised to get back to me.  That was 3 days ago, and no reply's yet.  Oh well... After Forest City we headed for the  Leinenkugel  Beer Factory in Chippewa Falls, WI. Our route from Jackson, MN, to Forest City, IA, and then Chippewa Falls, WI Entering Forest City, IA The Winnebago Factory Service Center in Forest City n Chippewa Falls we visited the Leinenkugel Factory                                                    The Leinenkugel visitor center Our campsite at Lake Wi...

 July 6th, Badlands National Park to Jackson, MN Today was a pretty boring day with a straight drive East on I90 from the Badlands to Jackson, MN. where we camped at a nice KOA just off the highway.  The highlight of the day was stopping at the Lewis & Clark highway road stop where I90 crosses the Missouri River.  We have been here before and noticed a new addition of a huge statue of a Native American named Dignity. Another highlight of the day was doing laundry at the KOA.  No big deal as we had great internet wifi and worked on the blog while three loads washed and dried, Our route east on I90 from the Badlands, Sd, too Jackson, MN Crossing the Missouri river at Chamberlain was the Lewis & Clark road stop with this teepee statue  Also at the Lewis & Clark road stop was this new statue of a native American woman named Dignity Description of Dignity statue Our camp site at the Jackson KOA.

 July 5th, Badlands National Park, Interior, SD Did a relative straight route east from Ten Sleep to the Badlands National Park.  Stayed at the Badlands Interior RV Park.  The drive was very interesting from Ten Sleep to Buffalo, WY as we drove west on route 16 through a very scenic mountain gorge of the Bighorn National Forest.  It looks like a great place to camp if you are ok boondocking(no electric or water).  The views are great and it looks like a great place for mountain climbers.  After Buffalo, it was a straight shot on I-90 to the route 240 exit for the Badlands and the badlands Interior Campground.  That night we had the most intense rain and wind storm so far this trip.  Seems like the winds are very powerful out in the western territories. The next morning we took a short drive into the Badlands and saw some impressive landscapes. Our route east on State route 16 and I-90 from Ten Sleep to the Badlands Zoom view of the Bighorn Gorge e...

 July 2nd, 3rd, & 4th, Ten Sleep, Wyoming Using the Good Sam phone app we found a little town in Wyoming that was north and east of Coalville.  We wanted to go north and aim to get on I90 eventually.  We chose not to vector through the Rockie Mountains and Denver.   The name of the town is Ten Sleep.  It got its name because it took the Indians 10 nights of sleeping to get to this town from some other well known Indian camps. The Ten Sleep RV park was adjacent to the local rodeo.  We had a nice time visiting the rodeo the nights of July 2nd & 3rd.  July 2nd was the junior 10 & 11 year old steer bucking contest.  The evening of July 3rd was the full adult rodeo competition. On July 4th the town which is immediately adjacent to the rv park and rodeo, had their fourth of July parade.   We stayed three nights as it was a relaxing location and we had fun visiting the rodeo and walking around downtown Ten Sleep. Our route from...