Day 21-22 - Colorado

Luana (Sam's sister-in-law and Toby's wife) made camping reservations for us to meet them in Colorado. She reserved two spots at San Luis Lake State Park near the Great Sand Dunes based on the website she booked on showing people riding on the Great Sand Dunes and that the site said there were full hookups. When we arrived we were disappointed because there were no trees and it pretty much looked similiar to Lake Cahuilla in the desert where we live. It had surrounding mountain views and a lake and the desert scape. The only difference was we were at about 7500 ft. elevation, so it was cooler, but the sun was still intense during the day. They did not have full hookups, there was only electrical. We also were clearly confronted when we came with our trailer of quads/dirt bikes that we were not to even take our bikes off the trailer at our campsite or we would be fined $50 and that we were not allowed to ride on the Great Sand Dunes. They were not very nice at this campsite AT ALL. So, we will never return there!!!

We decided to focus on the positive and enjoy the time we had with Toby and Luana who drove up from Albuquerque, New Mexico to camp with us.

Toby got a fire started for us as Paige (aka. The Pyro) supervised.

A really neat old Carmega pulling an tear drop trailer was camping near us!

Sam and Toby went for a walk around the lake and found some neat wildlife.

Toby was acting like a pirate as Sam looked on!

We set up our awning to keep the sun off the motorhome and also put the sun screen on to provide shade while cooking. It made a huge difference!

The campsite had curved shelters at each site to give shade from the sun which was also good.

We pulled out pretty early on Saturday morning thinking we were going to drop down the 25 into Albuquerque, NM and then take the 40 across to Flagstaff but when we put Flagstaff in our GPS and set for Fastest Route, it directed us across the lower part of Colorado on the 160 and through the Four Corners to drop down to Flagstaff. We are glad we followed the GPS because the land is beautiful on this route!!

We came across a cute little town of Del Norte, Colorado that had buffalo and Sam had to turn the motorhome around to walk up to them to get a closer look and take pictures. He did okay until one of the big ones that had horns, charged at him!!!! Sam guessed that it was a warning to him!

Then we continued on and drove through some beautiful country!

This picture below reminded me so much of Lauterbrunnen Valley in Switzerland!

Day 20 - Wyoming

We spent the day driving through Wyoming toward San Luis Lake near the Great Sand Dunes in Colorado (about 7500 ft level).Before we had left South Dakota, we got gas at a gas station in at a small town that had 10% Ethanol in all grades of gasoline. Sam didn't think anything of it and pumped 78 gallons into our motorhome. After pulling out early this morning for Wyoming, we drove about 200 miles on the tank with about 1/4 left and the motorhome stalled out on the highway shortly after we crossed state line into Wyoming. We had a feeling it was bad gas so we tried to limp it along to the nearest gas station which luckily was only 1 mile away. God has really been watching out for us because we had just drove about 50 miles past nothing but open pasture land with no services anywhere along the road. Sam was able to pull into the gas station and filled the tank full with Super Premium gasoline to dilute the bad gas. It did the trick and we  began rolling along again toward Colorado!

While we were cruising in Wyoming on the 18 Highway, we noticed a sign for the town of Lost Springs - POPULATION 1!!! Of course Sam had to turn around on a small two way highway to get a picture!

I wouldn't want to go to the bathroom in there! It was falling down!

Lost Springs bar...

Lost Springs is the smallest bicentennial town.

Kenda thinks the people get killed off so the population stays at one!

Just before we got to Cheyenne, Wyoming, a semi truck passed us by and honked. Sam was alerted by this and asked the girls to look out the back window at the trailer of quads and dirt bike to see if everything looked okay. Hayle looked out and found that the back tire on the right side was completely gone and we were riding on the rim. We didn't feel or hear anything! Thank goodness the truck driver honked! It appeared that we had been driving on the rim for a while because the rim was cracked. So, Sam changed the tire on the side of the highway.

Absolutely no rubber was left on the rim...

We realized that the other trailer tire was worn down also (both were new before we had left on our trip). Since we used the only trailer spare, we did a search on our navigator for a tire dealer to get another spare. I let my fingers do the walking and called each dealer that was listed on my navigator and finally found a Big O Tires that carried our size tire and rim. We purchased two new tires and a new rim.

Then off to Super Wal-Mart to buy groceries for the remainder of our trip.

Now we are all set and off to camping in Colorado!

Day 19 - South Dakota

While driving through South Dakota on our way to Mount Rushmore, we kept seeing signs for a place called Wall Drugs. There was about 75 signs we passed with the first billboard being about 261 miles away from Wall Drugs! As we kept seeing signs, our curiosity peaked. Some said Homemade Ice Cream, Homemade Donut, shooting range, cowboy hats, western wear, homemade pies, black hills jewelry, etc. We decided to stop by to see what kind of place could afford that many bill boards along the 90 West. It was in the small town of Wall and was a couple blocks of suvinour shops, restaurants, bakery, drug stores, western wear (I had to buy a really cool cowboy hat!), museum, etc.

It was getting late and we really wanted to see Mount Rushmore but weren't sure if we would be able to see it before dark. The man and the western wear store told me that it was lit at night so we decided to still head up the mountain to see it. I am glad we did! It was beautiful at night!

Day 18 - Wisconsin and Minnesota

We woke up early from the UP and drove through Wisconsin. We stopped at a small town of Amish and Mennonite families and farms. We stopped at one farm that had a family restaurant because Sam was looking for pies. He spoke to some little girls that looked Amish or Mennonite with their hair in braids and dresses with aprons. They said they didn't have pies but we might find some down the road and gave Sam directions.

As we drove down the road, we saw a horse carriage with two young girls driving it.

We found the family farm and they didn't have pies, but the did have cheese that Sam loves, so he bought some.

We asked if it was okay for us to take pictures and see their cows and the said yes. The had many baby cows in crates. I think Sam had more fun with them than the kids!

Now off to Minnesota. We decided to stop at the Mall of America to check that out since we were driving right through Minneapolis.

I think it would take someone all day to get around this mall. It had 400 shops and an amusement park in the middle. It was so big that there is a North, East, South and West side of the mall!

Because there we so many stores, each floor had a food court and there were 2 Verizon Wireless storefronts, 2 Game Stops and so many fun shops to explore that we just didn't have enough time... or money!