In the latter part of May, 2016, we began our epic midwest trip. We started out at Lethbridge, Alberta for the Victoria Day long weekend, then headed east to visit our friend in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Manitoba was enjoying tick season and on a walk through the woods my husband and I both ended up with a lot of ticks on our clothes. Fortunately we were able to pick most of them off and flush them down the toilet once we got back to our friend’s place. We also borrowed some of his clothes while we washed ours. Tick checking and picking off ticks from each other is not something I recommend for entertainment!
We then made our way through the Dakotas, to our ultimate destination, Mount Rushmore.
We stopped along the way at Wall Drug https://www.walldrug.com/about-us to enjoy their five cent cup of coffee, a piece of pie, and wander thru the wonder that is Wall.
Most of the campsites we stayed at along the way were nothing special, but the Mount Rushmore KOA https://www.palmergulch.com more than made up for the lacklustre campsites. Billed as a resort, it has deluxe RV sites, hotel rooms, camping cabins, several restaurants, and plenty of activities such as horseback riding, quadding, swimming, etc.
This KOA was home base for us. We were able to travel from it to Mount Rushmore to take in the evening presentation.
As well, we went on part of the Needles Highway, so named because of some of the needle-like rock formations that stretch to the sky, like this one:
Sometimes the highway gets quite narrow, and at one point we witnessed a vehicle struggling to get through. Fortunately we had no problem. I laughed when we drove by what the park ranger described as a “lake”; little more than a slough compared to the lakes in Alberta and other parts of Canada.
Unfortunately this trip was not without vehicle troubles. The front brakes and rotors went. Fortunately however we were in the Mount Rushmore KOA when this occurred, which was close to a city where we could get the repairs we needed to keep going.
After Mount Rushmore, we made our way to Iowa and Illinois. In Iowa, a very pretty state, we visited “The Bridges of Madison County” a series of covered bridges, like this one:
We then stopped a while in Illinois to visit family then made our way home with another stop in Winnipeg area where I’m happy to report no ticks this time. [Although I did see one crawling on a parking meter in downtown Winnipeg.] We visited the Canadian Human Rights Museum in Winnipeg where the Witness Blanket was on display.
Inspired by a woven blanket, we have created a large scale art installation, made out of hundreds of items reclaimed from Residential Schools, churches, government buildings and traditional and cultural structures including Friendship Centres, band offices, treatment centres and universities, from across Canada. The Witness Blanket stands as a national monument to recognise the atrocities of the Indian Residential School era, honour the children, and symbolise ongoing reconciliation.
http://witnessblanket.ca/#!/project/
We were gone approximately three weeks.
Our Hotel On Wheels 