Rapid City, South Dakota

We visited Wind Cave National Park two days ago while we were still near Custer. This is the fourth longest cave in the world and they say that it could only be 5% explored. It also is one of the only places to have certain type of formation called boxwork which looks like honeycomb. It was a really hot day so was nice to go into the cave. It gets its name because the natural entrances are so small that when there is a difference in air pressure on the surface, a wind will blow in or out of the entrances. We went on an hour long tour which showed the main points of interest.

We are now 20 or so miles north in Rapid City. It was really hot again yesterday and this morning, but then the weather changed and we had quite a long thunderstorm. The wind really shook the van about. It eventually cleared up and we went to play mini golf at a place we spotted yesterday. Hopefully going to have a BBQ if the weather stays as it is. Moving on tomorrow across the state, to a place called Mitchell. Probably only for one night on our way to Minneapolis.

Custer, SD

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After Coeur D'Alene we moved on into Montana. We spent one night in Missoula before heading down to Yellowstone. We stayed just outside Yellowstone and the next day we drove through the park to visit the main attractions. We could have spent a lot more time there but the weather was bad and forecast to be bad all week, so we decided to see what we could in one day and move on.

The drive provided some good sights along the way including elk and bison right next to the road. We stopped for an hour or two at Old Faithful where there was a short walk around all the different geysers. The weather was ok at this point but as we got back to Old Faithful it started to rain and gradually get heavier. The geyser erupts regularly and the times are predicted. We had to wait about half an hour but the predicted time was fairly accurate. it wasn't as impressive as I had expected, but the more impressive ones only erupt every 11 hours or more. On the path near the geyser there was a large herd of bison which we could get remarkably close to. They seemed pretty calm animals.

We stayed just outside the East entrance of Yellowstone at an RV park that was also part of a motel. There was a creepy old house on the hill behind the motel which looked like a scene from Psycho.

From here we headed right across Wyoming to Sundance, the town where the Sundance Kid got his name after being jailed there. We stayed two nights and checked out the town. There wasn't too much to see but there was a small museum in the basement of the police station which had original documents from the Sundance Kid's arrest and imprisonment.

We left Sundance today for Custer in South Dakota. Along the way we visited Mount Rushmore which was impressive, but not as much as we had expected it to be. It was a lot higher and further away from the viewing platform than I imagined so it didn't seem as big.

We're here for a couple more nights now. Going to visit Wind Cave National Park tomorrow, then watching the new Transformers the day after..

Coeur D'Alene, Idaho

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We've done quite a bit since the last blog. We visited the Hoh Rain Forest from Forks. We did a short trail which was called 'Hall of Mosses' - everything was covered in moss and things like fallen trees had new trees and plants growing on top of them.

We left Forks and headed off the Olympic peninsula by ferry to the group of islands North of Seattle.

We stayed the night near a town called Anacortes where we went to another brewery for some dinner. The food was probably the best meal we have had. The beer was good too, so I bought half a gallon of it and they gave us 2 free drinks too!

Next day we drove to a place called Concrete which was a random personal goal of ours to visit this place. We took some pictures and drove down to the North outskirts of Seattle where we stayed one night.

We only spent one day actually in Seattle but managed to fit quite a bit in. We went to the Space Needle which had amazing views of the city. This took up quite a bit of time due to the parking being quite tough to find for a 25ft RV.

After the Space Needle we headed toward our next park where we checked in, then headed out straight away to play mini golf and get some food. Once we finished eating we went to a drive-in movie theatre, just to experience it basically. We had to be at the back but the view was still pretty good.

Since Seattle we have driven to Idaho with one stop half way at Moses Lake:

We are now at Coeur D'Alene for 3 nights. The weather is hot and dry mostly here. We went to play golf today but ended up just on the driving range - I think some more practise is needed! We're going to check out the town tomorrow as its within walking distance, then will be heading into Montana and onto Yellowstone.

Forks, Washington

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After Silverton we headed for the coast again to a place called Tillamook. There was an air museum here which was inside a massive hangar that was used for WW2 airships. Supposedly one of the largest wooden buildings in the world. It was a pretty impressive sight and was really good inside with loads of aircraft from WW2 to modern jets. http://www.tillamookair.com/ We stayed one night at a park in Tillamook.

Before we left Tillamook we took the RV to a garage to get the oil topped up, tyres and transmission fluid checked etc. Then we headed north out of Oregon and into Washington state. We were aiming to stay at the RV park owned by the guy who leased us the RV. This was at a place called Grayland, halfway up the Washington coast. The weather finally changed and we have sunny clear skies rather than endless clouds like our whole time in Oregon.

Today we left Grayland, stopped off in Aberdeen to get some lunch, use the wifi and see the Hangover again (yep, its that good!). After this we were back on the road to Forks. This is a town on the west side of the Olympic national park which we will visit tomorrow. The park is quite big so we can only visit a few highlights. Tomorrow will be the Hoh Rain forest which is one of the few temperate rain forests in the world. We'll be moving to the North side of the park in a couple of days and then on to Seattle.

Silverton, Oregon.

So we're in Silverton. It's just outside Salem in northern Oregon.

We went to see The Hangover at the cinema yesterday, it was brilliant. Hilariously funny and outrageously insane. It has the funniest ending credits I've ever seen.

Today is William Cory's birthday! 23 years old. Congratulations to him! Think we're heading to some mall to do some shopping and get some food.

Not much else to report, RV park is good, weather is so-so. Driving up to Portland tomorrow. Oh yeah! We got tickets to see Greenday and Coldplay in July! Closely followed by Blink 182 in August. Going to be a crazy few weeks!

Go watch The Hangover!

Crater Lake - Sutherlin

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After Eureka we stayed at an RV park a little further north, near redwood national park. It was on the bank of a river at a town called Klamath. The nightly rate was cheap so we stayed for 3 nights, making use of the pool table in their rec room....

We left Klamath and headed north towards our next state which is Oregon. We couldnt make the drive to Crater Lake in one day so we stayed a couple of hours away. This is where we headed today. Its been warm all day but there has always been rain on the horizon.

There was still a lot of snow either side of the road up to the lake, and at the visitor centre it was really deep. The views were fantastic even though the weather wasnt great. We took some pictures and then headed out the north side of the park.

The drive was another couple of hours to our next stop at a town called Sutherlin. The storm caught up with us for this drive and we had heavy rain for the majority of the journey. It had stopped by the time we arrived so we got set up and had a bbq. The RV park has a big prjection screen in the corner like a drive-in movie, you just tune your car radio to get the audio. Most of the rv sites have a view on the screen too. It would be interesting to see it in action but they arent showing anything until saturday.

We'll stay here a couple of nights and then were heading up to Salem.