week five - South Dakota and homeward bound
My good friend Rod is retiring on June 1. He had some vacation time and flew from Burlington, Vermont to Rapid City, South Dakota. I picked him up Friday morning at the Rapid City Airport to join me for the rest of our trip from South Dakota to his home in Vermont.
Rod is a musician, guitar player. Our first stop was Haggerty’s Music Store. Haggerty’s had some beautiful guitars and other instruments. Rod was like a kid in a candy store. We then traveled to Mount Rushmore.
Rainy day at Mount Rushmore. Rod, Washington, Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt and Honest Abe.
We made reservations to stay at Steinke Ranch. On our way from Mount Rushmore to the Steinke Ranch, we received tornado warnings. However, no tornado, just a beautiful rainbow.
Al Steinke is 4th generation at the Steinke Buffalo Ranch. In his younger days, he was a champion bull rider and bronc rider. He entertained us with his stories for a while before leading us to a field with bison where we parked our trailer for the night.
View from our trailer door.
No explanation required.
Leaving the South Dakota Buffalo Ranch we crossed the Missouri River on our way to Iowa.
Many miles of farm land brought us to the beautiful Dolliver Memorial Park on the DesMoines River, Lehigh, Iowa. We arrived around 6:00 and checked in at the Park Manager’ s office not knowing if space was available. Park Manager Kevin Henning was extremely cordial and helpful. Said “follow me” and led us to a camp site and assisted in parking. He described some of the parks features and gave us a map of the park’s trails.
Watching the geese on the DesMoines River.
Rod, Bailey and I went on a hike in the park and visited what is referred to as the ‘Bone Yard’. A place where the early inhabitants of the area would drive bison off the cliffs.
Hunting for Bones.
The park has many stone structures built by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) in the 1930s.
Rod & Bailey – 1930s bridge
This beautiful log and stone lodge is one of several built in the park by the CCC in the 1930s and available for group rental. Seeing the results of the CCC begs the question as to why similar programs can’t be implemented to help solve some of the homeless problems of today.
Sunday found us looking for a truck wash to clean a very muddy truck and trailer. We traveled on to Hawk’s Mill Winery where we arrived at 6:59, one minute before 7:00 closing time. Tracey greeted us with a frown and a not too friendly instruction as to where to park our trailer.
Monday morning we traveled to Janesville, Wisconsin and had breakfast with Bill Simmons, my Alpha Tau Omega big brother. I had not seen Bill in over 50 years
Some nostalgia: My Big Brother Bill at my ATO initiation dinner. Note the cars.
Travelling from Janesville, Wisconsin to Kalamazoo, Michigan and a visit with Herb Brinn and his wife, Mary Ann.
Herb is an ATO Brother and was Best Man at our wedding.
Herb, Ed and Bailey with Herb’s 1967 Chevrolet Camaro SS. He bought the Camero new, did some drag racing and the car is showroom new, with less than 400 miles.
Some more nosalgia: Ed & Herb at ATO
We left Herb’s in the morning and stopped to visit Sue and Dean in Flat Rock, Michigan. They treated us to a BBQ lunch.
Crossing into Canada at the Detroit – Windsor bridge, we were subjected to an extensive one hour inspection of our truck and trailer. We then traveled on to our next planned Harvest Hosts overnight at the Railway City Brewing Company, St. Thomas, Ontario.
We arrived about one minute before 7, but this time greeted by a friendly crew and enjoyed one of their fine products on the patio where they allowed Bailey to join us. They supplied Bailey with a nice fresh bowl of water.
We left the Brewery the next morning and after a long drive, arrived at Rod’s home in Vermont, ending my Travels With Bailey 8,500 mile odyssey.