Milestones along the Way

The Clampetts head west--a new breed of pioneers. Looks dangerous, doesn't it. The only trouble we had was in Rapid City, SD. We had been thru the Badlands and Mt. Rushmore, and had just pulled into a hotel parking lot. I checked in and when I went back to the truck, Cindy said I needed to look at a trailer tire. When I touched the valve stem, it exploded and blew the inside right out--15 minutes off the interstate. Next morning I changed the tire, drove two blocks to a Wal-Mart tire center, had a new stem put in, and back on the road. To top it off, their computer wouldn't read my debit card, so they waved it off.

Beautiful! Clear sailing the rest of the way.

Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse--Black Hills, SD

Awesome, awesome country! If you haven't been there, you should make plans to visit.

Crazy Horse is located about 30 miles away from Mt. Rushmore and is unfinished. This was as close as we could get. When it's completed, it will be the largest single sculpture in the world.

Badlands, South Dakota

St. Louis, Missouri and the Mississippi River

These are pictures we took in Sturgis, SD, at a little bar and grill where we stopped for lunch. Sturgis is famous for the motorcycle rally every year. Anyway, since we just came from Gator country, I thought it was funny that we found them here. (Actually, the bar had a New Orleans motif, not U of FL, but a gator is a Gator.)



This is a picture from my front door taken just before dark. We are at about 3100 feet above sea level, some of these mountains run to 8-9000 feet.

#13 and 14

Katie and Glen. Katie is my wife's best friend. We have known them the entire time we have been in Jax, almost ten years. They are good people. Glen was easy and his portrait looks just like him. Katie was a little more trouble. There is something off here which I haven't figured out, but it's close enough to recognize her.

This is my cousin, Phil, and his wife, Deb. They live near Gainesville, FL. Phil and I were born just a few hours apart on the same day. We celebrated our 50th birthday together deep-sea fishing out of Mayport.