Category: Campsites

Interesting places where we’ve stayed

Four states in two days

You can’t make this stuff up, unless you make it up as you go along…

Carhenge
Carhenge

As I’ve mentioned before, we don’t have much of a plan – we’re letting this adventure unfold as we go along. After our visits and sightseeing in SD, we had a chance to arrange a visit near Boulder, CO. The folks we were meeting were only available on the weekend, and somewhere in there we needed a day or so to take care of a few things on our own. That was tight (at least for us, given our typical travel habits), but it appeared that, yes, we could be there with a little bit of hustling.

Continue reading “Four states in two days”

Badlands National Park

Coming from Hot Springs, we decided to enter the Badlands National Park via the southeast entrance, seeing hints and badland teasers as we approached. Nothing could have prepared us for the view as we crested the hill and dropped into the area known as Cedar Pass. And, we were staying at the Cedar Pass Campground. Cue the squeals!

Cedar Pass
Cedar Pass

Continue reading “Badlands National Park”

The Black Hills of South Dakota

29456380356_5fbd122680_k
Cathedral Spires from the Needles Highway

I visited the Black Hills in 1983 and put it on the top of my list of places to visit again. It only took 33 years! I’m finally back, and Doug is getting to see this beautiful place for the first time. Some of the tourist towns have grown, attractions have received face lifts, and more vacationers have discovered the Black Hills, yet it remains every bit as beautiful as I remembered…

Continue reading “The Black Hills of South Dakota”

Not the Dakotas we expected

Folks told us we’d be bored with all the flatness and corn fields of eastern and central South Dakota and North Dakota. ‘Take the interstate. Drive 80 mph along with the trucks. Suck it up and get it over with.’ Trucks? Hmm. Plus, 65 mph in our rig feels almost too fast, and we haven’t driven 100 miles straight on an interstate since we left Maine. To top it off, the sights we wanted to see called for a diagonal route through both states and the interstates just don’t go that way – but, hey look, some of these state roads do!

28962452970_0e1d27cb33_k
SD prairie

Continue reading “Not the Dakotas we expected”

Is all my life really a circle?

Yes! In fact, Harry Chapin pretty much nailed it right there. Here’s what we’re talking about:

A day or two ago, Rod & Tanya were at their desks at home in Egan, SD reading a new post on Technomadia about their friends Chris & Cherie’s stay in our driveway back home in Vermont. At that very moment outside in Rod and Tanya’s driveway were The Destinators (aka Doug & Sue), enjoying a cup of coffee in their rig, catching up on the news and a few select blogs – and reading the same Technomadia post. See what I mean?

RTSD2048
Rod & Tanya & Sue & Doug

Continue reading “Is all my life really a circle?”

Bayfront Blues

The blues community in Duluth, Minnesota has been putting on a blues festival right there on Lake Superior every August for 28 years. (I never knew!) When we found out about this year’s festival and noticed how it coincided closely with our evolved and updated route and timing, and how they have overnight RV parking in the adjacent Duluth Entertainment Conference Center (DECC) parking lots for festival-goers, well, there was really no decision left to be made. The only dicey part was that RV parking was first come-first served, but we showed up early in the afternoon on Thursday and we got The Destinator a spot for the weekend.

Blues Parking Continue reading “Bayfront Blues”

On Wisconsin: Pelican Lake and the Apostle Islands

My cousin Jean was 18 years old the day I was born, and she joined the army 8 months later. Two years after that, she married her sweetheart and moved to Wisconsin. Needless to say, I never knew my cousin. We met for the first time at her mom’s memorial service about 10 years ago. We decided we needed to connect and planned to do so at some time in the future which finally happened this week…

Pelican Lake
Pelican Lake

Continue reading “On Wisconsin: Pelican Lake and the Apostle Islands”

Simply Superior, part 2, west

The ‘Simply Superior, part 1’ title for the earlier post started out as a joke – I saw it on a roadway sign and thought it sounded cool. Yet, there is decidedly an eastern and a western UP – we’re not sure where the line is. We clearly crossed the line somewhere between Munising and Marquette, MI. Both halves share the beauty of Lake Superior and its shoreline, a penchant for winter sports (the locals talk wistfully about snowmobiling and ice fishing all summer), and the highest average daily spotting of tourists driving around in RVs since we started this adventure. The Hiawatha National Forest with its endless views of flat terrain, scrub pines and wetlands dominates the eastern half and most of the towns cater to tourists whether lake or snow related. The western half is all about mining (and evidence of its related current or former prosperity) and higher education. The terrain becomes hilly and the forests more deciduous. Hard to explain, but palpable…

Continue reading “Simply Superior, part 2, west”

All things Mackinac

Although we’re not much for planning our itinerary, we did plan to stay at Straits State Park on the shores of the Mackinac (pronounced Mackinaw) Straits, and visit Mackinac Island on a weekday. The State Park is a destination in itself – gorgeous views of Mackinac Straights, Lake Huron and the Mackinac Bridge just a few steps from our campsite. It’s also walking distance from downtown St. Ignace, home to 3 ferries, 2 Native American museums and several nice restaurants.

Continue reading “All things Mackinac”