Days 7 & 8 - Not a Lot to Tell

We were at dinner tonight when I realized that I didn't post anything yesterday. So, I guess I have to play catch up tonight.

Yesterday was strictly a travel day. We had scoped out the turn that we were going to have to make to get on the highway we would be on to get to Billings, MT from Spearfish, SD. It was going to be a really tough turn on a narrow, muddy piece of road. So, we road right down the middle of Spearfish in order to not have to make the turn.

We did not actually go into Belle Fourche to look for the marker, but that is supposedly the geographical center of the 50 United States of America. We had seen the signs for some time, and neither of us could believe that the geographical center of the US was in SD. I googled it and found out that the geographical center of the 48 contiguous states is in the middle of a hog farm in Kansas. SD holds the honor of being the geographical center of the 50 states. So, including Alaska and Hawaii - it makes more sense.

We turned onto highway 212. You should just look it up on a map. There is nothing there. I believe we saw 1,576,423 bales of hay - not counting the bales left over from last year's harvest. Now - that is an estimation. It was unbelievable how much hay had been baled up - those big round bales - not the little square ones. I think every farm had its own pattern for stacking the bales also. The weird thing was how few cows or horses we saw. I wondered if they were just growing hay to sell. There was one farm which had shrink wrapped his bales - so that might have been the case with him.

The really aggravating thing about the drive was that, shortly after we got on the highway, there was 13 miles of construction through which you had to follow a lead truck. I do not know what they had done to the highway (it was a real highway - not a dirt road), but there was enough dust blown up on the coach that we could not see out the back up camera. Once we cleared the construction, Jimmy got the broom out and swept the dirt off. When we looked at the Jeep cover, it was gray - not black. Needless to say, Mr. Neatnik had to wash the Jeep and the coach as soon as we got in our parking place - even though their brochure specifically asked that you not do so. He would not have been able to sleep!!!

There were multiple Native American reservations along the highway once we passed Broadus and were approaching I90. We could see the historic park and the grave markers at the place where Custer met his demise!!! Since we had already been there, we elected to pass it by and head on in to Billings.

We arrived at the same KOA RV Park at which we stayed the last time we were here. Supposedly it is the first KOA RV Park that ever was. It is nice. But, tonight is the first night that I have actually been connected to their internet. It just kept coming and going last night.

The bad part - it is hot. Period, end of that discussion. Low to mid 90's during the day. Bright clear skies. Sun that seems to come up early and go down late.

So, moving on to today (7/17/2011). We made up for the sleep that we had lost in Spearfish due to the wind coming up during the night. We slept till 10 am (Memphis time). Once we had breakfast and got dressed (that is my order - not Jimmy's), we headed to Cabela's to shop. We didn't need anything. But, of course, there were things there that had to come back to the RV with us. We bought one fleece, one pair of shorts for Jimmy, a Cabela's 50th anniversary t-shirt for Jimmy and some burnt peanuts for Jimmy. I paid. I must be missing something. Doesn't look like I got anything.

Then, the old obligatory trip to the Walmart. Absolutely nothing exciting about that.

We got back to the RV park and unloaded and stored the groceries. Both Peaches and The Bear wanted to go outside, so we put them on their leashes and out to the patio they went. The Bear thought the swing was super. He just got up on it and laid out while it swung. Peaches spent a few minutes checking out the patio and then decided that she needed to go back inside. We tried to make her stay, but she went so far as getting in the storage bin under the coach trying to get inside. Both of them were fascinated with the blowing cottonwood tree stuff. Of course, the blowing stuff is making my eyes swell.

We then went out across the Yellowstone River from Billings and drove six miles out into the country to the Pictograph Cave State Park. I took pictures. But, you will probably need to look the park up on the internet in order to see the actual pictographs. I took pictures and plan to upload them, but erosion and time has truly eaten away at many of them. What a shame that is.

Tomorrow we head for Great Falls, MT.

Oh, BTW, diesel fuel out here in Billings is about $3.68 a gallon. You feel like you need a big portable fuel bladder that you could just fill up!!!