The Stoltzfus Family's Quest for Adventure

This morning we left Bozeman and began the several hour drive to Glacier National Park in Northern Montana. About an hour away from our campground, we stopped for lunch at Flathead Lake and ended up swimming for an hour and a half! We rented a paddle board for an hour and took turns paddling around. We also bought some Flathead cherries, which were really good (Heidi ate a lot). Our campground tonight is about a mile west of the West Entrance to the park, so tomorrow we will be there. Maybe we'll even get into Canada!

Thursday we got an early start and and spent the day in Yellowstone! We visited all sorts of hot springs and geysers, including Old Faithful which sprayed us! We also saw a lot of bison. Thursday night and Friday night we stayed in the Grand Tetons. Friday we hiked to Inspiration Point overlooking Jenny Lake and Hidden Falls. We then drove past some picturesque barns and saw more bison.  Saturday we drove through Yellowstone again and hiked up to Mt. Washburn, elevation 10,219 ft!!! We drove the Beartooth Highway and saw a herd of elk! Today Dad's cousins that live in Montana took us white water rafting down the Yellowstone river! We had a great time, and tonight we are staying in their driveway. Tomorrow we are heading for Glacier!!

After leaving the campground Tuesday morning, we headed to Devil's Tower. It was really pretty. The rest of that day we drove to Cody, WY. They have a nightly rodeo that we went to. We have some friends that live in Cody and one works as an EMT at the rodeo, so he could get us in free! It was a fun, high energy rodeo with lots of events. This morning we explored Cody farther. We visited the Buffalo Bill Dam, Old Trail Town (a Wild West town), and the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Then for supper we visited the Henson's who we haven't seen in 5 years!! (They have twice as many kids now (: )

     Today we left the Badlands and headed northwest to Mt. Rushmore. To get there we drove the scenic Iron Mountain Road and went through many u-turns and tunnels as we wound up the mountainside. Once we got to Mt. Rushmore, we walked near the base and stared in awe at the mighty creation in the Black Hills of South Dakota.      After leaving Rushmore, we drove past Crazy Horse (which didn't have much completed) and then went to the town of Lead (pronounced LEED) and toured the gold mining museum.  Tonight we camped approx. 30 miles away from Devil's Tower, which we will see in the morning.  At our campsite in the Badlands we found a Hawaii license plate and that combined with the plates we found at Rushmore we have 43 states license plates as well as four Canadian provinces, US Government, Washington DC, and Germany!!

On July 23, we left Iowa and went to South Dakota. We stopped in Mitchell, SD to visit the World's Only Corn Palace. A building decorated with different colored corn and corn stalks. We visited and stayed in the Badlands National Park. Heidi described it like this, "As I look out the window of the camper, I can see for miles across the South Dakota plains. As we neared the Badlands, you could see the silhouettes of the jagged peaks in the distance. The closer we got, the more detail we could see; all the different colored rocks, all the peaks, and all the crevices. It was amazing to be able to look at the awesome things God created for us."

Today we drove through Indiana, Illinois, and partway through Iowa. Tonight we are staying with Mom's college friend in Independence, Iowa. Tomorrow we are going into South Dakota and camping in the Badlands.

Apologies for the short post last night. We stayed with family friends, the Paynes, in Hicksville, OH (yes, that's a real town) who we hadn't seen in about five years. We hung out with them and their two-year-old dog, Caspian. It was Mom and Dad's first time sleeping in the camper (Heidi and Maria have been sleeping in it for a couple weeks because it has AC and the house didn't), while Maria and Heidi slept on couches. Currently, we are driving down Rt. 30 in Indiana on our way to Iowa.

We left this morning with about a 2 hour stop in State Collage. We are now in the north west corner of Ohio. We are stopping at our friends house for the night. We had a leaking pipe under the motor home that we are fixing in the morning, then another long day of driving tomorrow.

The Stoltzfuses are about to head out! The trip to South Dakota, Wyoming, Yellowstone, and Montana is about to begin. The camper/motor home (pictured below) is all packed up and ready to go. We are all excited to start our adventure west.  *If you got the title reference, you are awesome.