Whelan's Wheels (go round and round, round and round): Home sweet home

Monday, June 23, 2008

Home sweet home

We arrived in SD yesterday. We will be in Spearfish for probably, hopefully, a week or so although I think only at this campground for three nights then move somewhere else in Spearfish or the surrounding area. Spearfish is one of my favorite places in the world. Rick and I were here a few years ago (neither of us can remember exactly which year but I think it was 2001 or 2002) for Sturgis Motorcycle Rally which is always the first week in August. Rick had been here prior to that in 1997 or 1998.

Spearfish is in the beautiful "blackhills" of South Dakota - in fact the most western border of SD, about 4 miles from Wyoming. We are at the base of gorgeous, beautiful, spectacular Spearfish Canyon. Also, part of Dances With Wolves (with ooooohhhhh Kevin Costner) was filmed here. We are close to Sturgis, Deadwood and Lead, SD all of which will be motorcycle rides for us because word has it those babies are coming out today.

You might have noticed there are no pictures today........ well here's the story ~ we traveled 216 (I think it was) miles yesterday from Casper, WY to here. We stayed off the interstate again and traveled for about 75 miles on beautiful back roads, hopefully we will be doing more back roads travel and less interstate but we'll see. Anyway, back to the pictures - the windshield was so encrusted with splattered bugs that there was no way I could do any picture taking. Have no fear tho......... there will be many pictures of the Spearfish area to come - maybe tomorrow's post ~ we shall see how many I take and get uploaded today but tonight we will be celebrating our first anniversary so that takes priority over anything today!!! Ah a year ago we were doing the "I do's" on the Charles on the deck of the SS ??? (not the SS Minnow) ~ but I/we never did find out the name of the "duck" we were on - does anyone know? I just know it was one very fun day and we had a blast and hope everyone that was there did also.

One more thing ... as we traveled yesterday we passed many many many (read hundreds) of antelope. I think antelope will now be my obsession and the subject of probably 500 pictures! You've been warned!

1 comment:

Beth said...: Happy Anniversary!

At one point I did know the name of the duck boat, but now I forget. Drats.

I look forward to seeing pictures of your new home!; June 23, 2008 at 7:41 AM

Post a Comment

This is our story ~ and we're sticking to it.

Our attempt at a blog - quite scary isn't it?

We left MA in early October, 2007 after I (Tracey) retired September 5 as an executive assistant for a software developer and Rick retired from his job on October 1. We passed papers on our house September 28th and off we went. We traveled down the east coast to the Florida Keys ~ where we planned to spend three nights but 17 nights later had to leave our site because someone had reserved it a year prior! We then stayed in northern FL for another month and headed off to meet our Marine returning to the San Diego area after his second tour "over there". We spent several wonderful weeks realizing why grandparents get tired easily! After the San Diego area we headed to the "low desert" (certainly a new phrase for us) of CA and into western AZ .. and decided it was finally time to start the blog we'd talked about since August or so!!

So many wonderful things we saw along the way. And the people, oh the people. I have said so many times to Rick the best part of this journey has been the people. So, so many people with so many interesting stories. Think about it - think about the stories YOU have and multiply that by the many many people we must have met along the way ~ particularly a social person like Rick .. we met a rattlesnake milker in Sweetwater, TX, we met the camp hosts in the Keys who summer back in NH ~ talk about the best of both worlds! We met the female police Sgt. at the Sweetwater Elks whose son was also in Iraq at the same base as my son. We met people in Slidell, LA who survived Katrina and had a great attitude and a smile on their faces and were proud to share their local cuisine with us. We saw the Blue Angels, purely by chance, in El Centro, CA. Or the "campground" where within an hour of arriving our house had been hit three times by golf balls! Or the Elks lodge in Indio ~ the sweetest, bike riding, bartender ~ I just wanted to pack her up and bring her along on our adventure. Not to mention the aerial tram while we were there, the warplane museum for Rick who does NOT do aerial trams! The Salton Sea ~ WOW just WOW. We stayed in the lovely little town of Wilcox, AZ - there was just something about that town. How about Pensacola, FL where the Elks Lodge on the beach is now built high, very high, off the ground! Or what about Huntington Beach State Park in Murrels Inlet, SC - talk about beautiful. What a great place that was to spend our first Thanksgiving on the road with good friends - that was something to be thankful for, for sure. Our first Christmas and New Years in the Keys!! WOW. The love and support of a dear friend in FL while Rick had to fly back to Boston and we dealt with all that entailed with unexpected follow ups back in FL .. how fortunate were we through all of that. Not to mention having the new trailer outfitted in Myrtle Beach and staying at what a week or two a year is the Broken Spoke? Or the kind and soft spoken LA Police Detective who is on the gang unit? So many people, so many stories. And there is so much ahead. The people .. did I mention how wonderful the people have been - all different walks of life .. so many personalities, so many stories! I have said many times ~ I need to pinch myself every morning to be certain it REALLY is happening to US! We are so grateful.

Click here to see our pictures on picasa