Brown county, Indiana

L's parents came down from LaPorte the first Friday that we were here. The next day we went to the popcorn/apple festival in a small town north of here. We walked lots and looked at lots of things for sale.

That afternoon we went to a corn maze. There were three different areas in it; one small, one med, and one large. By decided that we should do the small one and see which couple could get through the fastest without using the maps that we received. There were places that you could get a stamp within the mazes. If we found one of those it would take one minute off of our time. So B and I went first. A minute later L's parents, and then By and L. We were in it for about 30 minutes when we came to a place that we recognized as the 'quick way back' for the large maze. We couldn't figure out how we got in it. Upon getting back to the start and meeting the others, we found that our smart organizer had sent us into the wrong maze. L's parents had realized this when they found one of the stamps and recognized which maze it was for. So they back tracked. With this additional knowledge, we went into the correct one and did it in much less time. However, By and L won with six and a half minutes.

The next Thursday afternoon By, L, Bob and I took off for the small town of Nashville, IN. We took the trailer along for our motel. We stayed at a state park that is very large with lots of hiking and biking trails. The area is known for it's fall colors, however we were a little early. We could see some starting to turn. By doesn't think that it is going to be as pretty this year as some of the leaves are just turning brown due to the lack of rain.

We went into the town one day and walked around checking out some of the shops and buildings. Most of the shops are in old homes.

The next day we went hiking at the park.
This is Ogle lake. We hiked around it and through some other areas too. If you look close you can see a little change in the leaves.These are our famous cooks. Even though we could cook in the camper, the preferred way was over the campfire. There were also lots of nuts in this area of different kinds. We ate some but decided it was too much work to get them out as they were pretty small.


We didn't see any deer. However, we did find some pawpaws. We broke open some we found on the trail and By recognized the seeds in them as some he had seen with some deer dung. We had to ask one of the park personal when we got back what they were. They have a mild taste, somewhat like custard. You had to take the skin off. By trying one. Notice the one in his other hand.
Did I mention that we were there on the 27th? So we had to celebrate some one's birthday too. I would tell you his age now but that just makes me feel too old.

Mt. Rushmore to Indiana

Here goes the second edition to the saga. Sorry if there were some spelling errors in the first as I remembered to check the spelling after I published it. Whoops!

On our way to S.D. we saw deer, lots of pronghorns, and a flock of wild turkeys. They were all too quick for me to get a picture.

We stayed in the small town of Custer, S.D. It is not far from Mt. Rushmore. To the south of Custer is the Wind Cave Park. We traveled through it going to and from church. There we say deer, another flock of wild turkeys, lots of bison, and lots of prairie dogs.We went to the wind cave that is the largest barometer. There is only one small natural opening and over a hundred miles of known passages. Depending on the barometric pressure, the wind either moves in or out of the natural opening. The cave is also know for it's box formations. They are actually calcite crystals that look like the sides of boxes, some going across the bottom. It is a little hard to see them in the picture.
We went through the black hills and broke out into the prairie. We made a swing down into the bad lands. It is easy to see why they got this name.
Learning about the formation of this area is very interesting. The whole plains area was once seabed. Then it was a fresh water lake. Plus it received many layers of volcanic ash which turned to clay. Thus all the layers of color. The colors were more vivid than my photos show. I need to get better with my camera.

The Bad Lands are continually changing. When there is rain it erodes more, washing the soil out into new flat lands and moving the rim, or edge of the prairie, back further. The light gray is clay that was originally ash. Where it is on the surface, it is quarter inch granules. It takes little water to wash them down a slope.

After leaving the Bad Lands we saw a sign for a prairie dugout. So we decided to check it out. Part of the house was dugout with the front part sod. There was also an addition that was added later. The original part had a sod floor and just a curtain to separate the living quarters from the bedroom area.

The room was about twelve feet across and about eighteen feet deep. There were two windows, one on each side towards the front. The soil had been dug out in a trough so that the light could come in. You can see what looks like bricks on the wall. It is actually sod.
This place also has whit prairie dogs. There was an area that had a few white ones that they captured and brought here. Their old town was killed off.

I had to put this picture in. It grows along side the roads across South Dakota and Minnesota. It was also in the Bad Lands. Of course, not all of them had the bug on them that this one has.

We dropped down into the north eastern corner of Iowa to go to the Effigy Mounds Nation Monuments. Some of them have been excavated and found to be burial grounds. The Indians, who were in the area when the white man came, didn't know who built them. There were many of them throughout a large area. Most were plowed up as they were thought to be natural land formations.
Some are cone shaped as above, some are oblong, some are circular nobs joined by lower areas between them and some are shaped like birds or bears, as the one below.

This is the Mississippi taken from an area at the mounds. We were going to follow along its western bank but the road was too narrow and twisty so we went further inland.As we drove we say many fields of corn and soy beans, on the left of the picture. This was taken not too far out of Lafayette, IN. B always complains that all he can see on his bike rides is corn fields.

Montana to Mt. Rushmore

The kids talked me into doing a blog so that they could see the pictures that we have taken. So here goes.

This picture is at the Little Bighorn. The light colored grass foreground shows where part of the Indian encampment was located. Their encampment actually covered about two miles.
Custer and his troops came in from the east. They first spotted the smoke from the Indians encampment when they were on the peak that is in the center and horizon.

Custer's group was divided into three groups. He led one group to the north of the encampment. Reno led his group across the flats to attack from the east. Benteen was to go further north with the pack mules. When Reno started to attack some of the Indians came out and drove him north and across the river. He was then forced to retreat up the hill, where he was joined by Benteen. This next picture shows where Reno went up the hills.

Benteen had be notified by Custer to come quick with the packs. When he met Reno's group he joined them and helped them. They took a stand about 5 miles from where Custer and his group were killed. Custer and his group were killed fairly early in the fight. The Indians that fought Custer then joined those fighting Reno and Benteen. They fought the Indians all of that day and part of the next. The Indians broke camp and fled when another calvery, coming from the west, was spoted.

The next picture shows places where soliers were killed. There are many markers throughout the whole area marking, to the best of their knowledge, spots where soldiers fell.
Our next spot of interest was the Crazy Horse Monument. The next pictures show what it currently looks like and the model that is being used to make it.

Mt. Rushmore would fit in the area below Crazy Horse's head under his arm. They started this in the 1950's.

We learned that Mt. Rushmore was to be full figures of the presidents but due to the death of the sculpture and lack of funding from the government, because of the outbreak of World War II, it was never completed.