Bunny and I are sitting in the parking lot of a rest area in Iowa.  We are looking at 8 1/2 hour drive to Mt Rushmore and the black hills our next stop.  What to do????  We decide to just do it !!!! Just bite the bullet and not waste 2 days getting across south Dakota to the black hills.  So we decided to reward ourselves with a motel room once we got to rapid city south Dakota … the biggest metropolis outside of the black hills.  Bunny went on price line and got a Howard Johnsons for $39 a night.   WOW is that cheap … Probably a dive but we set out for rapid city an 8 1/2 hour drive. 
If you look at a map you will understand how boring this drive is. … You go straight across south Dakota and I mean straight .. All I had to contend with was an occasional slight hill and big trucks going by me.  After a while Bunny called ahead to confirm the reservations and found out they have a complimentary beer and wine bar from 6 pm to 7:30.  We now have a new goal … To get there in time for happy hour.   Step on it ..
We pull into rapid city and find the Howard Johnsons.  Its a little before 6 pm we made good time…It looks nice!!  We check in and find out they have a pool, fitness center, 120 channels of cable TV (we have been without for a week now) and free breakfast.  We get to the room … Nice … So we get on price line and get another night ..because we are going to spend the next day seeing my Rushmore and just find another place to stay in rapid city .. Why not HoJos.  We got another night at HoJos thru price line but at $49 per night but still that’s equivalent to a RV site.  We go downstaitprs for complimentary wine and beer … Oh My ….

We were up early and showered .. again … and made our way to the casino.  It was empty … There was no one there but it was 9am on a Monday morning.  We found out that the whole casino was nonsmoking … Unheard of … Also a portion of the casino was actually a riverboat.  Although you couldn’t tell where the casino on land started and the riverboat part started.  We had coffee and played some machines.  While we were playing and my friend John Elvik called and we set to meet up around 6 pm because it was a 5 hour drive to LA Crosse from where we were.  We packed up and hit the road. 
After 5 hours and 307 miles we got into LA Crosse.  John was out and about for work but asked if we could stop by his work around 7 pm.  So we did some grocery shopping and drove to his work.  He is the head maintence guy at the local YMCA.  He gave us a tour … It is a HUGE place … It is a large fitness center and more.  We got to see pics of his 3 boys .. He has a big 17 year old and a pair of twin boys 15 yes old.  I hadn’t seen John for probably 15 yes.  It was great to see him and see how well he is doing … It was great catching up and we both wished we could have spent more time catching up but he had to get back to work and we had to find a place to stay for the night.
We said our goodbyes and hit the road.  I had another casino in mind, but bunny had found a rest stop actually on an island in the middle of the Mississippi river we could stay overnight at … how cool does that sound …. The rest stop was 20 minutes out of LA Crosse.  It was just off the freeway out of town, but when we got there the freeway was under construction and so was got confused and missed the turn off.  Then it looked like it was gonna be a huge hassle to turn around with the construction going on so we set out for the casino I had originally plan on.  But it was a 2 hour drive and it was already after 8:30 …
So we set out for Diamond Jo casino.  It was just gonna be a sleep over stop. 
The stop was actually in Iowa.  Bunny figured out that in Iowa they let you stay in a rest area for up to 24 hours.  Diamond Jo’s just happened to be next to A very nice rest area.  So we pulled into the rest stop and quickly hit the hay.  We woke in the morning got our coffee from the cafe inside this Great rest stop … See Bunny’s blog about this rest stop.  We were trying to decide where to aim for next.  The next stop on the itinerary was Mt. Rushmore.  Which we figured was 8 1/2 hours away.  It was around 9:30 am we were not sure what to do .’.

Before we get too far down the road, we need to post something about our Maid of the Mist experience. This is the boat tour that one takes to get “up close and personal” with Niagara Falls (we “experienced” the Maid of the Mist on Thursday; it’s now Sunday).

The above photo was taken before the boat ride with Niagra Falls in the background.

Marty’s perspective of the boat ride: (this is a verbatim transcript of his comments) It was wet. It was great. Did I mention it was wet? It was about 45 minutes long. Did I mention that it was wet?

Photo of Bridal Veil falls from boat – this is before it got really wet! When we got to the main falls (Horseshoe) it was too wet to use a camera. We were in white out conditions anyway…

Bunny’s perspective: I’m renaming this boat ride “The Maid (I wish I had) Missed”. For $17 each, we basically got familiar with how victims of a Class 5 hurricane would feel if they were stupid enough to ignore the evacuation orders. We were able to get an up close view of Bridal Veil falls (the much smaller of the two). But the main event (Horseshoe Falls) was obscured by torrential rain/mist and a visceral fear that the rocking boat would not make the turn and that our names would be listed among those “lost at sea.” Most of the people on our boat – and there were droves – didn’t speak English which explains why they were there: they couldn’t read the warnings on TripAdvisor. We had no such excuse. But I can say “been there, done that.” And move on… 🙂

A selfie of us after the boat ride. The only reason I’m smiling is because it’s over. 🙂

We woke up in Battle Creek Michigan at Firekeeper casino.  The drawback of hiking over 3 parking lots to get to the casinos was out weighted by the great bathrooms,  lots of free coffee and pop and the free overnight stay.  We walked to the casino in the am for coffees and bathrooms and made the trek back and hit the road.  Today’s driving was gonna b easy.  An hour and a half to Notre Dame and then 2 hours to the next stop Hollywood casino in Joliet Illinois.  On our way to ND we wanted to find out if students were going to be there or not.  We did some research and found out that it was graduation day for the senior class.  OH BOY …what have we done.  We were going on the worst day to visit.  We figured it was gonna be a zoo.  So we took our time getting there and arrived around 2 pm.  Things were settling down and people were leaving so it was easy to find a place to park.  As it turned out it was a Great day to visit.  It was special watching these newly graduated kids celebrating and taking pictures with their family and friends.  We blended in nicely taking our pictures and moving around the campus. 
It was around 5 pm and time to move along.  We hit the road for our next stop in Joliet IL at a place called Hollywood Casino.  Bunny had called and talked with them the night before and found out they had an RV park with water and electrical hookups and bathrooms with showers.  2 hours later we arrived and hooked up and showered.  The next days stop was gonna be LA Crosse Wisconsin to see a good friend of mine from high school.  I called himbut got his roommate and left a message hoping he would call back tomorrow.  I went to the casino and Bunny went to bed. 

We are sitting in a cool old-fashioned diner INSIDE this amazing museum (in Dearborn, Michigan) having a late lunch. Marty ordered the Sloppy Joe; I’m having an open-faced beef sandwich with mashed potatoes and gravy. They’re playing Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys. 🙂

Here’s a photo:

We will publish another blog on this museum but here’s one more photo to whet your appetite:

It’s a Tucker! More later…

OMG, I just got my order!! Here it is:

We found a wonderful campground in Monroe Michigan.  Harbortown rv campground and resort.  I would have loved to stay there longer.  Very clean and well maintained.  It had go carts, putt putt golf, batting cages, and a pool.  It was very family friendly, which was the only downside … packs of kids running around making noise (I sound like an old fuddy duddy).
We were not sure what we were going to do the next day except get farther down the road.  We started to do some research that night and found the Henry Ford Museum was only 30 minutes away … not very far out of our way and it got good reviews on trip advisor I.  We had gotten in late that evening and showered and went to bed …so in the morning we did our laundry, took showers and got ready to go.  I had to do the unpleasant job of emptying the black and Greg water.  So I got the hose out and layer it out.  I took the cap off the dump pipe on the RV.  Well aparantly the values on both the black and Greg water were open.  The contents began spewing out all over the ground.  I quickly attached the hose which had not yet been put into the dump hole.  So I then had to open the hole in the ground and put the hose in it while the contents were spewing all over.  I got it done and miraculously didn’t get that much on me.  It was some pretty anxious moments.  I got cleaned  we finished the laundry and we hit the road.
The Henry Ford Museum was simply Fabulous.  See Bunny’s review.
After the museum I wanted to go back to Harbor town and play … but Miss commonsense made note of the fact that we have to keep moving to stay on schedule.  Harbourtown was a great stop and reasonably price at $40 … But we hit the road for the next Casino. They kicked us out of the museum at 5 pm. We set our sights for Firekeepers Casino in Battle Creek Michigan. It was only an hour n half drive and 104 miles. We got in and parked in the RV portion of the parking lot. We made the trek across three separate parking lots and found our way into the casino. We talk with the head of security and explained what we were doing and they told us we were parked in the wrong spot and we would have to move the RV to another lot if we were gonna stay the night. It was Saturday night and the place was packed. We hit the bar for some drinks and headed to the nonsmoking section. We played a little slots and decided to call it quits for the night. We moved the RV to the lot they instructed us to stay in …. and called it a night. The next morning I got up and opened the door and there was a sign on the lamp post right in front of the RV “No Camping” …. We made our way over the 3 parking lots to the casino for our morning coffee before we hit the road for the next stop .’… Notre Dame …

We got to the casino around 5:30.  We were shooting for 5:25 which was post time for the first horse race.  We sat down at the bar with 5 mins to post ti me for the 2nd race.  I had already said I was going to bet the 2 horse when we get there.  I hussled over and bet the 2 horse to win.  IT WON.  We won $6. Oh boy!  Mostly the drinks were inexpensive,we were playing jacks or better video poker and betting the horse races … Life Was Good …. We hadn’t eaten all day and the drinks were going down fast so we ventured out for food.  Small cafe full of fried foods or the $18 buffet.  We were both starving and decided we could do the buffet justice.  BIG mistake.by the end of the last horse race we were like beached whales sitting at the table … Going .. Why did we do that.  We were miserable the rest of the night and both of us vowed that it will be our last casino buffet ….

A beautiful sunset walking out of the casino.

We started the day at the Presque Isle downs and casino.  We left there at 10 am.  Gassed up and headed for the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio.  It was 1 hour n 37 mins or 99 miles distance.

Chuck Berry’s jacket and Guitar.
The exhibit was surprisingly good. We got there at 1 pm and they kicked us out at 5:30.

Our next planned stop was a casino in downtown Cleveland which was a short drive from the Rock n Roll Hall of Fame. Well it was downtown Cleveland and rush hour. Not only that but the Indians were playing in the stadium next to be the casino we were planning to stay at. We quickly switched plans and were lucky enough to make a quick exit of the downtown area and we then went to Harbortown RV park in Monroe Michigan.  It was a 2 hour drive. Looking forward to a good shower and a chance to do laundry. We haven’t seen a washer and dryer since day 3 of the trip. Running a little low on important items.

We started the day in the parking lot at the Seneca Niagra Casino.  Which is only a half mile from Niagra Falls American side.  We had a pretty tense moment on the way to the falls.  We had to go under a 12 ft high over pass.  We really don’t know how high the motorhome actually is. We have looked thru all the literature but nothing spells out how high it is.  We need to call and ask … We just haven’t done that.  Anyway,  I had read about this on one of the travel forums and they said to keep in the left hand lane and you will be fine.  We did make it thru..
The falls were spectacular .. See other posts for pics
We then left Niagra falls and began the journey to our next destination.  We got a little ways away and saw a sign which read 11 ft 8 in over pass ahead. What do we do now????  We went thru the overpass very slowly listening for contact, but we did make it under without any damage.  We think they measure the over pass at the lowest point.  So while the right side maybe short the left side can be much taller.  Still made for some tense moments.
The next stop wes Presque Isle Downs and Casino.  115 miles and 2 hours away.  Halfway there we hit a torrential downpour.  The rain stopped once we got there but after we went to bed it started up again and rained also all night long.

…with the fact that the photo Marty posted under his Niagara Falls header is NOT of Niagara Falls?

More later. We are pooped!