After returning to the US, and zipping across the top of Montana, we went to Fort Union in North Dakota. It is a restored trading post on the Missouri River. The fort thrived in the mid-1800s, trading beads, cloth, weapons, and liquor for furs.

The park employs 'historical interpreters' to bring the Fort to life. Here, the 'Fort Hunter' explains his duties to visitors (which is to trap or shoot enough meat to feed the fort). He gave us a detailed lesson in beaver trapping - fascinating!

Heading South, we entered the Little Missouri Bad Lands (from a French expression 'Bad Lands to Cross'). This is part of the North Unit of the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The Little Missouri River has cut through sedimentary deposits, volcanic ash (Bentonite clay), and lignite coal.

Also being exposed by erosion are 'cannonball concretions'. Although mostly round, they can be any shape and they fall out of the bluff when enough of the supporting material has been washed out from underneath. Notice the two in the wall (soon to end up as more benches).

The campground (Juniper) was one of the most pleasant we have stayed in (if you don't mind waking up to a small herd of bison grazing in the middle of it - between us and the showers).

In 1959, following the admission of Alaska and Hawaii, the Geo Center of the US move from Smith Center, Kansas to Belle Fourche, South Dakota (actually to a farmer's field 20 miles north of town).

Devil's Tower in Wyoming is a volcano core that cooled slowly while still underground. The surrounding area eroded away leaving the tower with it's five sided (mostly) columns. It rises more than 400 feet above the base, and is normally adorned with climbers testing their skill on any of the more than 200 routes up the sides. While we were there, we counted more than 25 climbers as we walked the 1.3 mile trail around the base.

As we were headed back to South Dakota, we couldn't help stopping to marvel at the tower dominating the scenery from miles away.

The area around the Black Hills has many excellent motorcycle rides, including The Needles near Sylvan Lake, Spearfish Canyon, and Custer State Park (if you don't mind being chased by bison).

Just outside of Custer, South Dakota is the National Museum of Woodcarving. It is a facility that mostly features the work of Dr. Harley Niblack, who developed animated caricatures and did the original animated figures for Disneyland.

The work of Dr. Niblack (a retired chiropractor) spanned 30 years (more than 70,000 hours of work) and includes figures of all sizes, furniture, miniature steam engines, and paintings. Other carvers are also represented, and there are resident and guest woodcarvers in the shop that you can watch and talk to.

A work in progress near Mount Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial. Sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski (who also worked on Rushmore) was asked to create a memorial to Indian heroes. The original model and first blast on the mountain were done in 1948.

Although Korczak died in 1982, his wife and 7 of their 10 children took over the project and carry on today. The entire project is funded by the public (not taxpayers - by design). The story quilt shows Korczak (quilted into the clouds) overlooking his wife Ruth as she directs the continued work.

Although not by any grand plan, we ended up at Mount Rushmore on the Fourth of July! How patriotic can you get?

The project began in 1927 and was headed by Gutzon Borglum who had to work out many new techniques and solve some engineering nightmares to work on this scale. The head of Jefferson actually started out on Washington's left but had to be blasted off and moved to the right when serious faults in the structure of the rock were discovered. It took 6 1/2 years of carving over a 14 year period to complete, and was finished 6 months after Borglum's death by his son Lincoln.

Although we would have to be bound and drugged to be in Sturgis during the rally (we avoid crowds - even small ones), the Motorcycle Museum is reason enough to visit any other time of the year. There are over 100 bikes displayed, mostly Indians and Harleys, but many other interesting marquis as well.

East of the Black Hills is the Badlands National Park. The formations created by erosion over the ages in the soft deposits are filled with spires, gullies, buttes, mounds, and other shapes that are harder to describe. The area is also littered with fossils, including the ancestor of the horse, a massive rhinoceros, and a saber-tooth cat.

The badlands is an area of transition between two elevations of grasslands that extends for about 60 miles, but it isn't very wide. Erosion is relentlessly moving the edge northward. The 'rock' is more the consistency of very coarse, soft sandstone and is actually pretty fragile.

The subtle color banding (87 have been identified) are evidence of flooding and sand deposits from the Black Hills area, and subsequent swamp/forest growth.

Leaving the Badlands, we headed south then east across Nebraska, the edge of Iowa, and then to Pipestone National Monument in western Minnesota. This is where Indians quarried a very soft red stone to carve into pipes. They still quarry the stone by hand.

Travelling across Minnesota, we passed countless family farms. Most had corn and soy beans planted with mature trees surrounding the house and barns (to help reduce the winds).

We also stumbled across the last covered bridge in Minnesota while passing through Zumbrota. It was built across the Zumbro River in 1869 to serve the stagecoach route between St. Paul and Dubuque.

After camping at Frontenac State Park, we had our first look at the Mississippi River. Actually, it is Lake Pepin (the birthplace of waterskiing) on the river that is backed up from a dam/lock.

A little further south on the river is Kellog, the home of L.A.R.K. Toy Company. This is a Destination for anyone with a kid in their heart! They have designed and built one of the most unique carousels operating today (no horses).

The facility is marvelous (it's not just a toy store) with things stuck high and low. You have to stroll slowly and look everywhere. Included as miscellaneous displays is a collection of antique toys that would make a collector drool. The inovative designs of the wood items are inspiring.

In the carver's workshop is the current project (a sea turtle with a crab on it's back). These carvings are stained (not painted) and have tool marks showing as a feature of the surface. All of the carousel animals are finished in this fashion and the effect is stunning!.