Tuesday Treatment and Short Visit to Grand Teton NP

My first treatment here in Jackson went really well. It is a very modern infusion area. It was recently built with the very latest in equipment. Less than five minutes after I arrived, they asked me if I would like to order from their hospital room service. Of course, I asked about the charge and the nurse said there was no additional charge. I did order and it was delicious. It was as good as a restaurant and better than some. Nice surprises! It is good to have positive things to say when I had been really concerned about problems getting the treatment while away from home and our wonderful treatment facilities there.

Good news about the Yellowstone reservations. I was able to change the reservation and move it up a week when the long-range forecast is calling for better weather. Thanks to my WS (wonderful sister) for suggesting that. I had not thought of doing that. If we have rain here in the Tetons this week, we will probably go over to Idaho Falls, ID and see if we can find some interesting things there. I don't think we have been there before.

I am including a photo of one shot of a mountain in the Tetons. I am concerned about the weather ahead and being able to get photos. I sure hope it does not hinder us doing that. The photo below shows a blue haze. I am thinking it is probably smoke from the many fires that occurred earlier and might still be burning. Maybe the rain will settle it some.  I took it late in the day which might have made it worse.

Monday to Jackson Hole, WY

We arrived at Jackson today, and boy is it crowded. I thought this late in the season it would not be, but I was wrong. Maybe it will be better later.

We continued our drive up highway 191 and it was a very beautiful drive, especially during the last 30 miles. Some of the aspen trees were at full peak in golden color. I am adding some photos along that route so you can see some of the beauty.

I will have treatment starting tomorrow and Wednesday so we will probably not have time to go exploring any. I am going to contact Yellowstone lodging reservations tomorrow and see if I can change our reservation from this week to next week. That should work out lots better since the weather forecast for next week is much better than this week. I fear they will not have openings for next week but I will see.

  

Sunday-on Hwy 191

We are north of Rock Springs and I was afraid we would not have service and the capability to update the blog later today. At times, this will be happening when we are in areas with no service.
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I was wrong about not having service tonight, we do. We are staying in a campground tonight that is a Bureau of Land Management campground. It is a first for us. It is out in a barren area near the Green River. There are not any BLM areas near us back home or even in the eastern US as far as I know. In this campground, each site has water but no electricity or sewer hook ups and the rate is wonderful at $5 per night.

I looked at the weather forecast for Yellowstone for the time we will be there and it does not sound good at all. We have 5 nights reserved starting on Sept 21 and during that time the forecast is for low temperatures at night with rain for three of those days with rain and snow one day. I am hoping it will not be as bad as forecast.

On highway 191, there are several information markers and pull-offs. It is near the Oregon Trail and a trail called the Lander Trail. We passed by a Pony Express exhibit along the road but missed seeing it by the time I realized what it was. I now wish I had turned around and gone back. The photo below tells about the trails at one of the pull-offs.

In case you want to read what is on the sign

I got my travel buddy out of prison. Here we are at the BLM campsite where we will spend the night tonight. As you can see in this photo, there were some mean looking clouds in the background but it never did storm or rain. 

We are now about 57 miles from Jackson, WY where I will get treatment and then go on to Yellowstone before the next treatments a week later. 

Saturday to Rock Springs, WY

Tonight we are in Rock Springs, WY. The temperature last night was 39 but tonight it is much warmer so I don't think it will get as cold here.

Today, we learned of another prison that was taken out of service and turned into a museum so we toured it like the one we did yesterday. I guess we are learning lots about prisons on this trip. The one we visited today is the Wyoming Frontier Prison Museum in Rock Springs. It was interesting. It was more recently closed  (1981) than the Federal Territorial prison we visited yesterday. This prison was the location for some of the filming of the movie "The Prison".

We would like to thank everybody for the nice comments on the blog. Your comments make it really worth doing. 

Entrance to the prison

The main eating area. The murals were painted by an inmate. 

 People that had received the death penalty were either hanged or gassed in the gas chamber. Five people were put to death in this gas chamber. 

 One of the mean inmates that was there

Friday to Rawlins, WY

We had another cold night last night. I did not reset the thermometer memory but I think it was 33 or 34 degrees. Tonight, we are in Rawlins, WY.
I had meant to include in my post several nights ago about the Black Hills when we were there. I wanted to explain the following to anyone that is not familiar with the area around Mt Rushmore, Rapid City and surrounding area that is called Black Hills. The Black Hills gets that name from cedar trees that cover the hills and makes the hills look dark or almost black. I wanted to pass that information along now since I missed doing it earlier.
Today we visited the Wyoming Territorial Prison State Historic Site in Laramie. It was a federal prison. It was very interesting and once housed the infamous Butch Cassidy. The prisoners were only allowed to bath once a week and were not allowed to talk with other inmates until it was concerning their work during their work time. If they broke any of these rules, they were sent to the dark cell which was like solitary confinement. They made brooms at the prison and all the prisoners had to participate.
After we visited the prison historic site, we left on highway 130 which is the Snowy Range Scenic Byway. My sister had told me about this drive and I am glad she did. There was some beautiful scenery and some of the aspen trees were at peak color and brilliant in the sun. They were beautiful! The bad thing about it was every time we saw them, there was no place to pull off to get a photo so I don't have any to show.

 The infamous Butch Cassidy

 The cells were very small

 Along the Snowy Range Scenic Byway

Thursday at Laramie

We woke up this morning to frost and 33 degrees. It has been overcast most of the day with some rain and the temperature around 50. We used the day to catch up some with our chores. We did our laundry, restocked on supplies and also had to repair the water pump on the camper. There was actually not a problem with the pump itself but in the water filter going into the pump. For you non campers the water pump provides hot and cold running water in the camper and it's a must-have if you're not in a campground. I got very concerned last night when we no longer had water flow. It is a requirement for us to have the pump operating when we're in Yellowstone with no hookups. I knew we could not continue with our original plans if I could not get it working normally. The good news is I got it working and there appears to be no problem now.
I don't have to be in Jackson until Tuesday morning for treatment so we can take a slow route from here on. Distance from here is about 387 miles.

Wednesday to Laramie, WY

We are at Laramie, WY tonight. The drive here was mostly on two-lane roads with very little traffic. It was a scenic drive. Since we are running ahead of schedule, we wish we had stayed in Custer another night but we did not get around to that thought until we were about 100 miles away from Custer. The temperature was about 45 when we left Custer, but on the way here, it got up to 77 for awhile.
I have seen quite a few western TV programs in the past that mentioned Fort Laramie. Today we got to go there. It is about 100 miles north of Laramie where we are tonight. Fort Laramie played an important role in settlement of the west since it was near some important trails where settlers traveled. such as the Oregon Trail and the Mormon Trail.

One of the soldiers barracks

Inside one of the barracks 

There is a State Historic Site where the wagons on the Oregon Trail cut down deep into the rocks. I can just imagine them coming through with their horses and wagons. It is amazing how deep the wagon wheels cut into the rock.  

Not far from the Oregon Trail was a cliff called the Signature Cliff. People that traveled the Oregon Trail would stop and leave their signature on the cliff. The hole in the cliff was a storage area for food. 

Crazy Horse Memorial on Tuesday

We are spending our second night in Custer, SD. We went to the Crazy Horse memorial today but the whole mountain that has the Crazy Horse Memorial sculpture was hidden by fog. There is a nice museum there so we had plenty to see while there. It was really interesting. We had been by there before on trips but never had stopped. We are glad we went.
Work on the memorial started in 1948 and has been done continually since then. The sculptor that started it in 1948 and devoted his life to it passed away in 1982 and his offspring continues the work today. Just the head of Crazy Horse on the memorial is big enough that all the presidents on Mt Rushmore would fit there. Chief Crazy Horse was a great chief but was killed when a US soldier stabbed him in the back with a bayonet.

This is what the completed memorial will look like. (The white sculpture, not Reta.) Crazy Horse's face is the part that is now completed on the mountain.

We could not even see across the parking lot. The red car in the lower right of the photo had Sullivan county tags and had a car lot sticker on it from Kingsport. This is the only Tennessee car we have seen in a couple of days. While we were at the memorial, our thermometer indicated it was 38 degrees.

Near the Crazy Horse Memorial is the small town of Hill City. Looks like a nice place. 

A native American from the Pine Ridge reservation doing the ring dance. 

Visited Mt Rushmore on Monday

My goodness what a difference a day and location change makes in temperature. When we were at Badlands National Park yesterday, the temperature was 95 at times and now at Custer, SD it is 45 with a low predicted tonight of 38.
We visited Mt Rushmore today but it was raining so we did not spend much time there. We plan to see some other points of interest in surrounding areas before we move on.

Keystone is a small picturesque town near Mt Rushmore that reminds us of Gatlinburg. There is a steam train there that takes tourists to Hill City and back. The photo below shows part of Keystone.

There is a wood carving business in Keystone. It has the best wood carving I had ever seen, I just had to get a photo of some of his work.

We were disappointed that we were not able to get photos that we wanted at Mt Rushmore because of the rain.

We still need to develop a plan for tomorrow and what we are going to see and do as we work our way toward Jackson Hole, WY.

Sunday night

We are in Rapid City South Dakota tonight. On the way here today, we visited the Minuteman Missile Historic Site and Badlands National Park.

The Minuteman Missile Historic Site is a nuclear missile site that is no longer in use and is now part of the National Park system. It was preserved so that visitors can see and learn about the Minuteman Missile system. Visitors can go see an underground silo and missile and actually go inside the underground launch control center. It looked like the steel door to the launch control center must have been two and a half feet thick. There is a new visitor's center there as shown in the photo below.
If you would like to learn more about the missile site, you can do it at the link below. I would recommend you visit this site if you are in this area. It is very interesting and such an important part of our national defense.
https://www.nps.gov/mimi/what-is-so-special-about-this-place.htm

We also visited Badlands National Park today. Below are some photos I made there. 

Saturday

We are at Mitchell, SD tonight. We had a wonderful drive today. The temperature was about 72 at the warmest part of the day and it felt so good. By the time we get this far on the trip, there are fewer trucks on the highway and the traffic is really light, so it makes for very pleasant driving. When we got to Kansas City, we turned north on I-29. Then at Sioux Falls, SD, we turned west on I-90. The roads we have been on today and yesterday follow the Lewis and Clark trail. I am including the photos below that gives a little history about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

When we arrived in Mitchell, we visited the Corn Palace. If you are not familiar with the Corn Palace, I will explain a little about it. It is the only existing corn palace in the world. It is decorated using corn to create murals. The original Corn Palace was built in 1892 and each year the murals are created with a different theme. Lots of people stop at Mitchell to visit the Corn Palace. According to the information we saw, about 500,000 people a year visit the palace. 

If you look closely, you should be able to see the ears of corn making up the image of Willie Nelson. 

We were surprised to find the UT/VT football game on TV here, and we are watching the game now.  

End of the day Friday

Tonight we have made it to Council Bluffs Iowa. We had rain during quite a bit of the trip today. We drove 470 miles yesterday and about 500 today. We got to see the most spectacular sunset that either one of us had ever seen today. It was absolutely beautiful. We were driving on the interstate and I was unable to get any photos.

Starting Our Day on Friday

We had rain during the night & also this morning which delayed our campground departure. We got through Saint Louis traffic with no problems. I was told by someone in the campground this morning that during the night Kansas City had received eight and a half inches of rain so we don't know what to expect in that regard as far as flooding.

We really appreciate the comments that have been left. We won't normally respond back so please know we appreciate each one.
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Sent from my Android device with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

We made it to our first overnight destination

Tonight we have made it to Mount Vernon, Illinois. We had hoped to go farther to possibly Danville, Missouri but we were just too tired. We drove in rain about the last 70 miles before we got to Mount Vernon. I have a son that lives in Illinois but it's over three hundred miles north of here so we will not be visiting him on this trip. I am scheduled for treatment on the 20th of September in Jackson, Wyoming. It was a very good driving day today and it was so good to be out on a road trip again. We're looking so forward to what we will get to see and do on this trip. A real adventure awaits us.

The beginning of our trip

Good morning. We left on our trip at 7:10 am. We are not yet sure of our goal destination for the day. It will either be Mount Vernon Illinois or Danville Missouri. Thank you for joining our blog.
Jerry and Reta

We will start updating this blog on September 8, 2016 when we leave home to begin our trip. Sometimes, I will be adding more detail to my posts because this blog will also serve as a journal for us. As I mentioned earlier, many of the photos will be made using a smartphone. By using our smartphone, we can post to the blog while we are on the go and from anywhere we can get phone service. If we post photos made from our other camera, I will have to do it using the computer we have with us. This would give us much better photos to post but is much more time consuming. I will try to post photos made with my digital camera (DSLR) when time allows.

We are very thankful to be able to take this trip. I be getting treatment at a medical center in Jackson, WY.  My schedule for treatment is twice a week for three weeks then I skip a week. That schedule gives me twelve days off treatment. We will go to Jackson Hole on one of those breaks and return on another.

We hope you enjoy following along with us on this trip. We are glad you are with us. We love taking road trips and each one is a real adventure.