James loves finding dog toys when we walk or visit dog parks. These “found” toys end up being his favorite toys! In Georgetown, James would love to walk past the tennis courts and collect any stray tennis balls that made it over the fence. It was actually pretty rare for James to NOT find a…
When we are on the East Coast of the United States, I don’t seem to have any allergies. But as soon as we arrive in dry states like Wyoming, Colorado, Idaho and Utah, I tend to start sneezing! And the sneezing gets worse whenever we spot Cottonwood “snow.” We’ve read online that it is rare…
I know it’s hard to believe, but James really is a lap dog. You have to get past the 65 pounds of squirming poodle and the long legs flailing in all directions but after that he’s pretty cuddly. If you’ve seen our video of James being sweet & sassy, this is the same experience and…
We are back at one of our favorite places in South Dakota – Angostura! It is really hard to get a waterfront spot at Angostura but we managed to get a waterfront spot and an end spot! We really love looking out over the lake. We had a cute family of Canadian Geese we saw…
We love camping at Vermillion Lake in South Dakota! There is a large campground at the main entrance to the park. But if you head to the east side of the lake, there is a smaller campground with quite a few waterfront sites. And the waterfront RV spots are eyebrow sites so your door opens…
Sioux Falls has so many public spaces that we love. One morning we decided to go walk around Falls Park on the north side of downtown. Then we headed to another park just south of downtown to see the David statue replica. James has also seen the replica David statue outside of the Accademia Gallery…
We hit 222,222 miles on the FJ. And it’s running great still. I ran into an FJ fan at a Costco gas station recently and he couldn’t stop talking about how Toyota makes a 1,000,000 mile engine. Well I guess we’re going to find out. 😁 It was funny that we were able to catch…
I had a 1979 Scout and it was great. Funny that it’s such a classic car now but of course none of us knew it back then. It was the first to market for what we now refer to as SUVs. It was followed by the Chevy Blazer and the Ford Bronco with each new…
In the middle of South Dakota along I-90 is a place called 1880 town. It is a fun breaking point along the long windy drive across the state. We decided to check it out! There is a large indoor area with lots of props from Dances With Wolves (filmed in South Dakota). Then out back…
It was a cold and windy summer day in South Dakota and we decided to drive around Badlands National Park. The boondocking area in Badlands is really amazing! You pull up to the edge and that is your spot! You can spot two RVs on the left: You know it is COLD if I am…
The grounds at the capitol building in Pierre, South Dakota are beautiful! There is a large pond with a walking path around it and a few different garden areas. This was a water feature at the Veteran’s Memorial and it extended out over the pond: It was a hot day and James the Poodle wasn’t…
We decided to take a road trip to Pierre to see the capitol building. Our GPS told us to take some paved two lane roads but I was looking at the map and decided a dirt road would be much more fun! We drove through miles and miles of farmland! It was unbelievable how much…
Isn’t that the craziest set of clouds and a rainbow? I’m so glad I had my phone while we were walking James so I could take this photo! While in Belvidere, South Dakota, we saw rainbows every night. And usually they were double rainbows! It was the craziest thing – a big storm would roll…
It is another beautiful summer day in the Black Hills of South Dakota so we are driving the Custer Wildlife Loop! Time to get back in the car – we see buffaloes! We found a lot of buffaloes in Custer during this drive around the Custer Wildlife Loop. Quite a few buffaloes came up to…
I really enjoy swimming and soaking in natural springs – especially when they are hot! I saw there was a mineral spa in South Dakota called Moccasin Springs. It is in the town of Hot Springs so we decided to go and check it out! This is the main building out front where you check…
It’s amazing what you can order online now. I guess I always thought you needed to go into a tire shop and just take what they had in stock when you needed new tires. But not anymore, and it was a great experience! Let me walk you through it. Sandra’s cousin Hiram works for Goodyear,…
We love Custer State Park – the mountains, the forests, the lakes, the scenic drives and the wildlife! Custer has one of the world’s largest publicly owned bison herds (bison/buffalo – I tend to call them buffalo although they are technically bison). There are over 1,000 buffalo! They round them up at the end of…
There are two scenic roads in the Black Hills of South Dakota that are so much fun to drive! Iron Mountain Road is close to Mount Rushmore and Needles Highway is close to Custer State Park. Both roads are actually connected and there are lots of picnic spots along each road. We love driving through…
When we were in South Dakota a few years ago we wanted to tour Wind Cave National Park but we ran out of time. We decided to make it a priority this time! Before our tour, we wandered around the exhibits at the visitor center. Chris spotted this display on root systems. We had no…
I don’t know about you, but when I hear people talking about electric vehicles I hear a lot about torque. Knowing that a diesel also has a lot of torque and really great gas mileage while towing, that makes an electric vehicle seem like a great option for towing as well. At least it seems…