Catching up--A Whole year in one post!

Wow!  This playing catch up on this thing is something!  This will narrow a lot of it down, not a lot of adventure over the next year.  We spent the middle of August until Dec. 23 working at Amazon.com.  This was our second season there!  It was not entirely an uneventful trip back home to North Carolina.  We had pulled into a gas station to refuel, when we started to leave the auto park on the motorhome went out and wouldn't disengage.  It was Christmas Eve, so there were no services available.  There was a Camping World 20 miles south of us, but they had closed earlier in the day for the holidays.  I got on the internet and looked up a diagram of the auto park, showed it to Randy and he was able to crawl underneath the motorhome and release it.  Of course this meant we had no parking brake!  We had to chock our wheels when we parked.  The next morning, shortly after getting on the road again, it started to snow.  We were on I-40 about 100 miles west of Knoxville, TN, the further we went the more it snowed.  It was a real nail bitter crossing the mountains around Asheville, but we made it to our destination safely.  Don't want another trip like that again!

Not fun to drive a motorhome in!

But it was pretty!

We stayed in NC until the end of March, took a job at a campground in Hillsville, VA.  We wanted to stay as close to NC as we could because my son was graduating in June and I couldn't miss that.  We only stayed there for 1 1/2 months, thought we could do it but we didn't like giving up 18 hours a week for our site.  We met some really nice people there,  Mark and Sheri Harris, Doug and Judy Moore, Larry and Diana Collins just to name a few that we keep in touch with through email and Facebook.

We left Virginia around the middle of May and took a job in Pennsylvania, about 25 miles north of Lancaster.  At first I was excited about the area, I had heard so many people talk about how beautiful it was.  It was just okay for me, I mean lots of nice green farm land, blah, blah, blah.  I can see nice green farm land back home in NC, so I wasn't very impressed!  However, it was pretty cool seeing an Amish person going down the road in a horse drawn buggy.

An Amish Farmer plowing his fields

At the campground where we worked for Adventure Bound, Eagles Peak, we had no cell or internet service unless we hauled our computer up to the office and sat out on the front porch.  Not something I enjoyed, when I want to get online I want to get online right then from the comfort of my home!  No cell service meant if there was an emergency in the middle of the night, family couldn't get in touch with me! 

We made some great friends there, Richard and Linda, Sandy and Steve, Butch and June!  We endured 3 long months there and decided to leave and head toward Coffeyville, KS again for our 3rd season at Amazon.  If it hadn't been for the 3 couples mentioned above I'm not sure if I would have stayed that long!

While we were there we made the 9 hour drive back to NC to attend my sons graduation!

My son receiving his diploma!

Left to Right- my daughter Candace, my son Ricky, my daughter Whitney

Me and my baby boy!

My grand baby "Olivia"

My grandson "Brandon"

My grandson "Trey" and granddaughter "Haylee"

Graduation and seeing family was awesome though!  There was more but I can't remember everything, and I'm trying to get caught up and I'm getting close, very close! 

Badlands National Park-Aug. 2010

We left the Black Hills and headed towards the Badlands.  But first we had to stop in at Wall Drug, and from the looks of the traffic in the picture so did everyone else.  It sure was a busy place.  I think they have just about everything you can think of there.

We went on to Badlands National Park after leaving Wall Drug.  For such a desolate area to be named Badlands it was beautiful. Parts of  the Badlands is as old as 75 million years, different layers were formed at different times from sandstone, volcanic ash and other sediments.  Rivers once flowed through causing the different rock formations.  If you ask Randy what his favorite place to date is, he'll tell you the Badlands.  You can drive from one end of the park to the other rather quickly, leaving you plenty of time to explore the area on foot.  We would definitely go back if we're ever in the area again.

When the rivers stopped flowing through leaving behind sediments, the Badlands began eroding.  Scientist predict in 500,000 years it will be gone entirely.  What a shame, it's such a beautiful and unique place.

Black Hills of South Dakota-August 2010

 After leaving West Yellowstone, we were heading toward Coffeyville, KS to work our 2nd season at Amazon.com.  But first, a stop in the Black Hills was on the agenda.  When we got there most of the motorcycles from Sturgis had pulled out, there were quite a few that stayed past the end of the rally.  We were in the area for 5 days, not nearly enough time to see and do everything.  If we don't get to spend enough time in an area, I tell Randy that it's a good reason to come back!  Any reason for a road trip, right?!



One of the drives we took was through Spearfish Canyon, we seen a couple waterfalls along the way. Beautiful drive!

We seen a sign for Roughlock Falls...

We visited the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane while visiting historic downtown Deadwood.

Wild Bill Hickok's Grave

Side by side, just as Calamity Jane requested

Historic Deadwood

More Historic Deadwood

According to our map, this is supposed to be the building Wild Bill was shot in!

 Thunder Head Falls, can't remember exactly where they were, on one of our drives we took.

Randy, waiting for me at the entrance

Some water must have splashed up on the lens

We really enjoyed the drive through Needles Highway.  So Pretty, even though is was raining on and off.

Custer State Park was nice. We especially enjoyed the donkeys that were so friendly and came up to your car wanting treats. The only thing we had in the car was some sugar cookies and they seemed to really enjoy them!

Donkeys

Randy feeding a donkey

Aah, Mt. Rushmore!  I had seen so many pictures of  it, but to actually be there looking at it for real.  WOW!  It is so much bigger than you imagine it to be.

The entrance with flags of all the states

Our home state flag!

Us!

And if you think Mt. Rushmore is big, just wait til they get the Crazy Horse Memorial done.  I can't remember how much bigger it's suppose to be, but it's alot.  I hope they're done with it in my lifetime, but it's unlikely.  That's another reason to go back to the Black Hills, to see how much progress has been made on it.

This is what it is suppose to look like when it's finished

Us, again!