Heading for home and a bit of wind….!!

John James Audubon State park totally lived up to expectations…what a beautiful place……but now….having reached the northwest corner of Kentucky and with a quick jump into Indiana, the journey home became a bit more earnest.

Our State Park stops in Kentucky and Tennessee had been such lovely experiences that I mapped out a few more for our journey west.

As we hit the highway we noticed that we were carrying a passenger……he(she?) valiantly held onto the hood for most of the journey.

When we stopped for gas he was nowhere to be seen …. I admit I was a little sad….!!!

Our first stop was an overnight in Finger Lakes state park Missouri. We made the mistake of taking I-70 to get there…..a very busy and desperately in need of resurfacing Interstate…..not the best for towing a trailer.(or transporting a stowaway..!!)

But the park was no disappointment.

And to my delight our little stowaway had moved back behind the cab for a better ride…he reappeared as we were setting up.

I checked to make sure katydids were also present in Missouri and found him a nice bush to settle in. I hope he is happy in his new home…

Back to the journey and an upside of a slight northward jog to get to this lovely state park was that the next part of the drive was on smaller and better roads…

Next stop Lake Manawa State Park in Iowa. It’s almost on the southeast corner of Omaha Nebraska and you can see the city not too far in the distance.

Lake Manawa was another lovely campground……and the sunset was truly spectacular….

Our next days driving took us into South Dakota….I was not finding any state parks in a convenient location so I picked a campground that was about the midpoint between Lake Manawa and our destination for a few days in Custer South Dakota.

As we pulled in we were the only trailer in the grounds….nicely laid out sites with shade trees…..and some interesting old tractors by our site.

A few more trailers pulled in through the evening…..and then a huge storm hit us overnight.

In the early hours of the morning the thunder and lightning was almost directly overhead and then a strike…and we lost power. As we drove out we were surprised to see one of the trees at the other end of the campground had met its demise (it was quite the storm…!!…..and the cat was not a big fan of the storm either)

Back to a familiar stomping ground in Custer, South Dakota…and a favourite campground at Broken Arrow Horsecamp. This would be our 4th time in this campground, it’s far enough from town to be quiet yet central for all the amazing sights and sites of the Black Hills area.

Although we have hiked many times within the park, the cave tour at Wind Caves National Park was a box yet to be ticked. We had never been enthused by the thought….but based on the surprising success of Mammoth Cave...and previously Jewel Cave National Monument…we decided it was worth a shot.

I would have to say…it was not as scary as I might have previously thought….and it was interesting…..but a pale shadow of the Mammoth Cave experience. The rock formations were varied and impressive but the scale of Mammoth was on another level.