After visiting the casino again in the morning it was time to gas up, empty the back n gray water and go see Chuck.  See Bunny’s blog about our visit with Chuck.  It was 6 pm and we had 3 hours of driving ahead of us.  Next stop Lake Chelan.  This drive was short but we got to see northeast Washington.  I thought it would be mostly mountainous.  It is all farmland.  Not sure what kind of crops but when you get closer to Lake Chelan it is aparant that there’s a lot of fruit being grown with the prominent fruit processing plants around Lake Chelan area.  We got onto some back roads that were very isolated with no others cars or towns around.  It was a little scary.  Then once in a while a little “town” would pop up.  One of the no more than 2 blocks long with about 6 houses and that’s all.  We finally got onto a road with a 12% downgrade for 2 miles.  Well that is a steep downhill.  We took it easy but it was kind of scary.  We then turned a corner to find 4 deer standing in the road.  We were just barely able
to stop in time.  We finally got into the casino about 10 pm and I went in to register the RV to be able to stay over night.  The gave me a players card and $10 to be used in the slot machines.  I took it to a machine and within an hour cashed out for $62.  It was great!!

On Sunday our little RV made its way to Spokane. Our mission: to visit one of Bunny’s oldest and dearest friends Chuck Teegarden and his wife Kathleen.

We spent the day catching up with them and being entertained by Chuck’s unique, larger-than-life storytelling style. If you know Chuck, you understand what I’m talking about. We laughed until we cried, ate lunch and then we were treated to a grand tour of Spokane, courtesy of Kathleen. All great fun!

Just a little history here: Bunny has known Chuck since he was about 10. He used to work for Judd at Sherlock’s Market! And we went to the Junior Prom together! He’s been an honorary member of the family for half a century.

We love you, Chuck!!!

This day began in an RV park just south of Livingston Montana.  This is BEAUTIFUL country.  There are snow capped mountains all around with the Yellowstone river running along the drive to Yellowstone park.  Just Gorgeous.  The day’s drive was only around Yellowstone park and back to the RV park in Livingston Montana. The goal being to view Old Faithful. It was a little challenging driving an RV onto the small curvy roads inside the park, but we were driving one of the smaller RV’s being driven in the park.
It was about an hour drive to the entrance to the park. From the entrance to the park it was still a 2 hour drive to Old Faithful. We mostly just drove straight to Old Faithful except for a couple of stops. One of those stops was when we were pulled over for a pee and drink break and Bunny looked up and saw a bear about 200 yards off the road. Several people driving by stopped too see what we were looking at. By the time we left there were four cars parked and looking at the bear.

So we got to Old Faithful around 1 pm spent a couple of hours there watching the geiser and learning about how it works. We had ice cream and hit the road back to the RV campground in Livingston.

We stopped at several sights on the way back. We got back around 8:30 and got ready for another big driving day tomorrow.
Yellowstone park is incredible and something everybody should see.

Today’s schedule is a big one.  Drive from Rapid City SD to Big Horn Wyoming to see the spot of Custer’s last stand and then cross Wyoming to Yellowstone park.  On the way Bunny learns that the road to Yellowstone across Wyoming is very curvy and has a lot of elevation gain.  So she determines that the best route is actually to drop in from the north out of Montana.  The roads are much less curvy and less elevation gain.  So we set our sights for Livingstone mt.  Then she realized that I had actually got the wrong location for Custer’s last stand.  I was going to Big Horn Wyoming, but actually the spot of Custer’s last stand is at Little Big Horn in Montana which just happens to be on the way to Livingston Mt.  Funny how things work out sometimes.  Well it was over 4 hours drive to little big horn and around 8 hours to Livingston mt.
We got to Custer Last stand and it was very good.  Bunny and I enjoyed it much more than we thought we would.  There was a lot of history leading up to the event and much more to the story than just where Custer was finally killed.  The whole thing stretched over 3 to 4 miles.  Really interesting.  But once again an exhibit is closing and we still have to find a place to stay in Livingston mt.  After a lot of reaseach we found an RV park for a reasonable price and a short drive to Yellowstone.  Its not HoJos but it will do … Tomorrow Yellowstone … Maybe we’ll find a picnic basket … Hey Bobo….

I wasn’t sure what to expect when we got to Mt Rushmore.  We have all seen pictures but what does the area around them look like… what is the history of these stone faces.
We took a leasurly day.  Slept in had breakfast and coffee worked out in the fitness center and sat in the hot tub then headed out about noon.  It was only gonna be a 30 minute drive which was really good because I was exhausted from yesterdays driving.  I got in the car and started out and felt like all I wanted to do was go back to the room and sleep more … We got to Mt Rushmore and it energized me.  The thrill of seeing these carvings for real and also learning the history of the carvings and a lot of american history also.  For example George Washington wasn’t actually our first president til 1789.  I always thought he would have started in 1776 as soon as we became a country ….
Anyway … I walked the trail around the base of the carvings and met Bunny back at the car.  I had hoped to drive to 2 other tourist attractions but we were exhausted and headed for HoJos.  We were even too tired to head down again for complimentary wine and beer … actually we had our fill the night before.