Little Big Horn National Battlefield

2,454 miles into our trip we found ourselves at the Little Big Horn National Battlefield in Montana. A very interesting historical site that I thought would have depicted the massacre of US soldiers in 1876. While the Native Americans won the battle, they lost the war and history is written by the victors.

I was glad to see that instead it was shown as a battle between two opposing armies – a few hundred overconfident soldiers from the 7th Calvary and almost 2,000 warriors from several of the plain Indian tribes led by Chief Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse.

The battle field marks where the soldiers fell. The Indians removed their dead without documenting the locations. There is a nice self-guided tour that we were able to drive in the light rain that was falling during our visit.

A worthwhile stop for anyone traveling through the area.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

On the Western boarder of North Dakota sits the only US national park named for an individual – Theodore Roosevelt National Park. Now we are 2,023 miles from home. The park is split into a north unit and a south unit. We camped one night in the north unit and spend the night as a free for all – Sara went for a run, the boys climbed a butte and Bill and Michelle went to a ranger led talk. Keegan also carved a very cool spoon.

In the morning, we went for a hike on the Caprock Coulee trail, a 5 mile loop that took us through some amazing scenery.

We also saw some amazing wildlife while we were here – a jack rabbit, white tail deer, a snake, a golden eagle and 7 buffalo, including one right in our campground!

After lunch, we headed 60 miles South to the south unit of the park and crossed into the Mountain Time Zone. After a visit to the visitor center, we hiked the Painted Canyon Trail about 3 miles. On the trail, the boys talked us into climbing a butte just off the trail. While they were able to ascend the extremely steep slope of loose rock with relative ease, others in the party found it much more challenging! There was no way we were going to be able to get down the same way we got up! Luckily for us the backside of the butte was challenging, but not impossible to climb down.

Instead of turning around at the end of the trail and walking back on the trail, we bush-wacked back, making our own trail as we went. Now the badlands of North Dakota earned its name. As soon as we thought we has a straight trail back, we ran into a gully or a cliff, or a rock wall. When Sara led we usually found the easiest way around the obstacle in our way. With Keegan or Conor in the lead, we generally choose a more challenging path that often included climbing over rather than going around.

Our campground tonight is the Red Trail Campground in Medora, ND – home of the Cowboy Hall of Fame. The campground is fine for an overnight as it is close to town. The worst thing about it is the showers. The shower head is level with my mouth. Do you know how hard it is to wash your hair when you have to bend over backwards because the shower head was designed for a midget!

I have uploaded some additional photos onto Facebook and you can view the here.

Why I like North Dakota

Traveling Through North Dakota

After leaving Rochester, Minnesota, Home town of Michelle Clark Rice, we headed North and West on I94 for most of the next day. We stopped for the night at Jamestown RV Park in – you guessed it – Jamestown, ND. The campground was nice enough, but it was so close to the highway that you could hear the cars roar pass all night long. This marked our 1,735th mile on the trip.

In the morning we went to the National Buffalo Museum, just down the road. It did a nice job describing the history of the American Bison going from millions of animals down to just a few hundred at the turn of the 20th century to their return due to conservation. Currently there are more than 250,000 bison in the country, mostly on private ranches.

One of the highlights had to be seeing the world’s largest buffalo!

After spending some time on the road, we got to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center and Fort Mandon where Lewis and Clark spent a winter before heading out to explore the West. Many people do not know that for a long time, Michelle Clark Rice thought that William Clark as a distant relative and was always fascinated with their travels. Maybe that is why we traveled so far out of the way to check this place out! However it was very interesting nonetheless.

What not to do at a family picnic

Because this is what happens....

Michelle’s Hometown

Our first official stop is Rochester, MN birthplace of Michelle Dawn Clark Rice. It only was 1,249 miles and a little over 24 hours to get here. We pulled into town after having to hide out in Sparta, WI because of a storm passing through Southern Minnesota. We saw some lightning and drove in the rain for awhile, but it was not bad.

We are staying at the Chesterwood Campground about 7 miles outside of Rochester. It is a nice campground with free showers that are clean and hot.  Unfortunately, we did not get a spot that has electricity so no air conditioning.

We spent the day doing errands and picking up food for our picnic. We did get to watch Team USA lose a heartbreaking game in overtime to Ghana in the World Cup in overtime at a place with 27 large screen TVs. After that, we headed back to our campground for a picnic with all of Michelle’s family living in Minnesota.

So we parked the RV at a picnic shelter and had a ton of cousins, aunts and uncles come to visit, have a brat or hamburger, play bochi or throw a football and get caught up.  This is where things got interesting.

First Keegan, who had been doing flips off his skateboard all day, decided to try a ganor (kind of like a back flip where your feet go up in front of you). It didn’t work. In fact, he hurt his shoulder and was taken to the emergency room for xrays. After that some of the family that was visiting wandered off to something called RochesterFest, while the diehards (Steve and his kids) stayed around the campfire until the park ranger kicked them out.  Before they left, we were treated to a great lightning show in the distance.

When we returned to our campsite, we were told to prepare for a severe thunderstorm with possible tornados heading our way. The kids thought that would be cool to watch, but cooler heads prevailed and we headed to the storm shelter to ride the storm out with the rest of the campground. The storm has now passed and we are just waiting for Keegan and Michelle to get back from the hospital.

Keegan returned and his arm is in a sling. He hurt/pulled/tore 2 of the 4 mussels in his shoulder. He will be fine, but sore for the next few days.

And We Are Off!

The RV is packed, the house is clean and we are off.

Our first stop is at mile 4 – the Mead’s house and Troop 175’s annual picnic and Court of Honor. The weather is threatening, but it holds off. Keegan is named Immortals Chief and Assistant Senior Patrol Leader for the upcoming year. About 8:30pm we pack the kids into the RV, take a group photo and we are off again – after a quick stop at Starbucks!

About 200 miles into the trip we remembered the first thing we forgot – our family passports. I hear it is no problem getting out of the country, but getting back in will be problematic. But don’t worry, we have a plan!

The First night we log 332 miles and pull over for a little shut eye around 2am just outside of Buffalo NY. Up at 5:30am for an early start and we made Cleveland by 9:30am. The mobile Internet seems to be working fine so I can upload this post.

RV Trip 2010

It has been awhile, but the Rice Family is packing up the RV and heading out for the summer again!



Here is our tentative agenda:

Simsbury, CT
Madison, WI
Rochester, MN
Mandan, ND
Theodore Roosevelt National Park, ND
Little Bighorn National Monument, MT
Mt Hood, OR (Snowboarding)
Mt Rainier National Park, WA
North Cascades National Park
Alaska Highway
Skagway, AK
Glacier Bay National Park, AK
Dawson City, Yukon
Wrangell- St. Elias National Park, AK
North Pole, AK
Fairbanks, AK
Chena Hot Springs, AK
Denali National Park, AK
Seaward, AK
Anchorage, AK
Badlands National Park, SD
Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, IN
Cedar Point, OH
Simsbury, CT

We will be posting to our blog whenever we have service, so make sure to sign up for our email notifications!

The Rice Family