Day 62. We are spending the night at Glenrock Recreation site, about 25 minutes outside Casper WY. Lynne found it on Campendium, plugged in the GPS co-ordinates 42.839041,-105.863447 and voila, a free night stop with water.
Tomorrow we will head off to the Badlands for a few days so with limited cell service in the park there won’t be any travel updates for a while.
Surprisingly we have cell service on “The Wall” next to Badlands National Park. We spent two days in the Black Hills National Forest, first night at Sylvan Lake and another night at Horse-thief Lake.. On our way to Sylvan Lake we were confronted with this warning sign about the tunnel on our route.
Now Ushingi is 10 ft 7 in high and 7 ft 11 in wide. Mmmm – we (OK…I) decided to give it a try. Lynne walked ahead and I drove.
We visited Mt Rushmore and rode Umfana around the Needles area along Rte 16A. Lynne wouldn’t let me try this tunnel with Ushingi even though the stated height was slightly higher than the previous tunnel.
Here are a selection of views of the Needles and views on the drive in.
We managed to get the last site at Sylvan Lake (next to the restrooms but we put up a side flap 😀).
We are boondocking on the “wall” for 2 nights – what glorious views and silence. A local magazine aptly describes it as Desolation at its purest. There are no obstructions to mar the horizon, and the land unfolds until it meets the sky.
There was quite a storm last night with rain and high winds. Hopefully the sun comes out today for our tour through the Badlands National Park.
We toured the Badlands Park and found a remote spot far from the crowds to have our picnic lunch. Below are a selection of views of the Badlands. Architect Frank Lloyd Wright had this to say – “What I saw gave me an indescribable sense of mysterious elsewhere – a distant architecture, ethereal…., an endless supernatural world more spiritual than earth but created out of it“
A long day of driving from the Badlands to our overnight stop at Loess Hills, IA. We took a detour off I-90 to alleviate the boring drive and it was surprisingly scenic, especially crossing the Missouri River near Yankton.
A somewhat long (380 miles), boring drive today from Loess Hills to Auxvasse, Missouri on mainly interstate highways. We are spending the night in Whetstone Creek campground – another great (free) find by Lynne.
Bambo was the co-pilot for an extended period while Lynne was in the rear lounge area talking to her sisters in Africa.
Apart from two raccoons growling at Bambo we had a very peaceful night. We saw comet Neowise again last night through binoculars, occasionally obscured by all the fireflies dancing around us. This morning we awoke to the birds and cicadas.
Day 70
Mangwanani, marara sei?
Ndarara, mararawo.
Ndarara.
A typical Shona greeting for the morning, loosely translated –
Good morning, did you sleep well?
I slept well if you slept well.
I slept well.
We did sleep well at our campground in southernmost Illinois, Ferne Clyffe. It is next to the Shawnee National forest. We haven’t seen much of the area due to a torrential downpour yesterday but we will do a short hike this morning before going off to Nashville.
We spent two glorious days at Seven Points campground near Nashville with Greg. Our site was right on the lake, which was literally like a warm bath with temps over 100.
We then spent one night at Indian Springs State park campground. It is thought to be the oldest state park in the USA. The Creek Indians used the springs for centuries to heal the sick and impart extra vigor to the healthy. We filled a one gallon bottle with the magical water from their spring. It has a sulphur taste so will be interesting to see if we can drink it all.
Day 72 – At the moment (1:48pm, July 20) we are at an RV service center in Macon GA waiting for a verdict on a possible leak in our propane system. Hopefully we can still make Savannah GA later today.
Badly leaking LP regulator replaced (fortunately we didn’t have a fire or explosion the last few days) and we departed RV service center slightly after 4pm and arrived at Skidaway Island State Park just before 8pm.
We took a ride on Umfana into Savannah today to visit the River Front and the Historic district and we enjoyed a picnic lunch in Forsyth Park.
We left Savannah for the last stop of our trip, Ocala National Forest. We meandered along routes 19 and 40, anything but Interstate highways! We came across Juniper Springs and chose that for our last night. It was a delightful place with a swimming area fed by the spring, 72 degrees all year round. Very refreshing with high humidity and temps in the high 90’s.
Places like Juniper Springs owe their existence to the work projects devised by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The nation was suffering through the darkest days of the Great Depression when, in 1933, President Roosevelt asked Congress to approve “a civilian conservation corps to be used in simple work, not interfering with normal employment, and confining itself to forestry, the prevention of soil erosion, flood control and similar projects.”
Day 77 – we will be departing soon for home with very mixed emotions. What an amazing experience we have both been through and it is sad for our trip to end. At the same time it will be good to get home. We feel truly blessed to have had this opportunity among all the craziness of Covid.
We hope y’all have enjoyed the travel blog. We look forward to our next adventure.
.ps we are home safe and sound after 10,000 miles on the road.
ushingi 