Our October, 2006 Travelogue

Our October Pics are Here.

When we left the September travelogue page we had taken the Winnebago (link) to Forest City - where she was born. Our quest for chairs at the surplus store was a success - we got two of them. There is a lot of stuff in the store, and if I had known what all those parts were for, maybe I should have bought some of them. We toured the factory (sorry, no photos allowed) - very interesting. While in Forest City we took a day to drive around the area, visiting Union Slough National Wildlife Refuge (link), and enjoying the country. When we left Forest City we traveled West on US 18, across the heartland of America (see pic), and enjoyed seeing the ripened crops and harvest activity. We turned North on US 281 and stayed in a wonderful small park in Armour, SD (see pic).

When we left Armour we traveled to I-90 and headed West - remember our goal was to see Devils Tower. We made the stop at Wall Drug in Wall, SD and continued on to Badlands National Park (link). We intended to stay in the campground there but they were re-surfacing the roads, so we opted to try and get to the Sage Creek primitive camping area. It was a horrible drive - 14 miles of dusty washboard - but the scenery at the camp (pic) was fantastic - if you don't mind the occasional buffalo (pic) in camp and the prairie dogs chirping.

After the Badlands we moved to Sturgis for s few days - deciding that car day trips were the way to see the area. We drove to Devils Tower (link)(see pics)and hiked around it - our objective for the trip. It was a really crappy day while we were there, but it is a very interesting spot and quite unique. We also visited Deadwood and Lead. It's a beautiful area and deserved more time.

After leaving the Rapid City area we headed south - visiting the Mammoth Site (link) in Hot Springs, SD (very cool) and then entered Wyoming. We parked in a city park in Fort Laramie and visited the site of Old Fort Laramie (link) (see pic).

From here, we drove to the Denver area, hoping to visit friends, but as luck would have it the park we wanted to stay at was closed for the season. We pushed on to Colorado Springs and found a park there. We spent a couple days in the area - visiting the Florrisant Fossil Beds, and Pikes Peak (see pics). It's a beautiful area.

After leaving Colorado we made our way to Carlsbad, NM to visit both Carlsbad Caverns (link) and the Guadalupe Mountains National Park (link). You can read about this park on their web site, but it is a beautiful dessert setting on the west shore of the permian basin (link) area. Our highlight of the Carlsbad visit was the evening bat flight. The bats roost in the cave and come out to feed just at dusk - an estimated 800,000 bats - we watched them for an hour - until dark - and they were still coming out of the cave. Amazing! We also walked into the cave from the natural entrance. It's beautiful and if I had not forgotten to put the chip back into the camera we'd have some interesting pictures (duh!).

After leaving the Carlsbad area we made a quick dash to the southeast because they were predicting snow - something we don't want to see anymore. We stopped to visit some Escapee friends who were tending a campground in Bastrop Texas. On the way we stopped and toured the LBJ Ranch National Historic Park (link). We'd recommend this stop to anyone - very interesting. We also visited some friends in Georgetown. Then it was on to the Rio Grande Valley and our workcamping assignment for the winter.

continued on next page.