Summertime: Girls' Trips and Family Gatherings

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Summertime: Girls' Trips and Family Gatherings

After we returned home from camp, I had almost a week in Pittsburgh before I headed out again for a girl’s trip with my sister Brenda and sister’s in law, Carol and Val. We have started an annual winery and shopping trip. This is the second year for the girl’s trip and we went closer to Val’s home since she had to travel the most last year. We decided to rent a cabin near Lewisburg, PA. Since Val was familiar with the area, she had a list of wineries, antique stores and artist shops to visit.

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Roadside Attractions in Minnesota

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Roadside Attractions in Minnesota

As we left the Dakotas, we headed east into Minnesota. When we visit a new state, I do research online to select a few stops that we will enjoy. One of our goals is to see National Parks and Monuments as well as historical sites. I knew that I wanted to stop in Walnut Grove to visit the Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum so the goal was to find something along a route that would take us near there.

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Visiting the Land of Teddy Roosevelt

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Visiting the Land of Teddy Roosevelt

We enjoyed our time in South Dakota and didn’t really want to leave this magical place. So we decided to head northwest to North Dakota and visit Theodore Roosevelt National Park. This way we were staying in the Dakotas and Badlands. It was a beautiful day for a drive although it was probably the windiest day that we experienced on the trip. I was happy that the van was not a high top van during this drive. The wind was really pushing me but I was able to maintain it and enjoy the drive.

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Amazing South Dakota

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Amazing South Dakota

After our stops in Deadwood and Sturgis, we headed to Hart Ranch Camping Resort in Rapid City, SD for a 4 day stay. I picked this spot because it was part of our RPI membership and it appeared to be centrally located to the places we wanted to visit in South Dakota. It turned out to be the perfect place to stay in this amazing area and the price through RPI was fantastic - only $30 a night. There is so much to see near Rapid City and it was a perfect location for our bucket list stop: Mount Rushmore.

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Fun Times in the Wild West

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Fun Times in the Wild West

We had a great time visiting Deadwood and Sturgis over the Memorial Day weekend. Deadwood was very busy when we arrived early Saturday afternoon; filled with a mix of families, gamblers and many who just wanted to party. Definitely a great place to people watch.

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Time for More Unplanned Stops

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Time for More Unplanned Stops

As we prepared to leave Scotts Bluff, we had a decision to make, i.e. where to go??? I think that I had mentioned that the only reservation that I made in advance was for 4 nights at a campground in Rapid City, SD so that we could visit Mount Rushmore, which was our main destination for this trip. I didn’t want to go there over a holiday so we planned to get there on the Tuesday after Memorial Day. Well, it was only Friday, the start of the holiday weekend and we had no plans.

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Blown Away

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Blown Away

We drove out of Branson and the Ozarks and headed into Kansas and the Great Plains. Yes, this is truly flat land with the wind constantly blowing. On that first day in Kansas, we really felt the winds. It was blowing at us pretty hard for most of the drive and with higher profile vehicles, we could really feel it. I guess I should be happy that the van isn’t any taller. It would have been more of an impact with a higher van.

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Finally On The Road Again! Ready to Explore New Places

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Finally On The Road Again! Ready to Explore New Places

As we entered May, Florida was starting to get pretty hot and we were ready to head north for the summer. So the question was, where to go to? When we started our RV life journey, our goal was to see the lower 48 states. At this point, we had visited 33 states, with only 2 missed in the south - Louisiana and Arkansas. We thought we could visit those states and then head north to visit a few Mid-West states with a goal to get to one of our bucket list items - Mount Rushmore.

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