Second Stop - South Dakota

After a long drive, we stopped in Wall, SD, home of the Wall Drug Store. We toured the store area and ate at the Drug Store. On Monday we drove through the Badlands. Beautiful scenery!!!
This a typical view of the Badlands, barren rock and steep slopes. The power of wind and water erosion is amazing.

As we were driving through the Badlands, we saw these flowers all along the road. We thought they were Black Eyed Susans. But after a trip to the visitor center we learned they are small sunflowers. After touring the Badlands, we continued on to Mt. Rushmore.

I had been here when I was young, but this was Barbara's first time. The heads are beautiful. We took a walking, guided tour and learned about the sculpting process.

Barbara is standing at the entrance to the walkway of states.

The final stop of the day was at Chief Crazyhorse statue. His head is finished but hey hope to have a complete statue of him riding his horse.

First Stop - St. Louis

Our first stop on our Grand Adventure was St. Louis MO. We arrived about 8 PM on Friday night and stayed at a hotel in downtown St. Louis. We had a great view of the Gateway Arch from our room. On Saturday morning we rode to the top of the Arch. We went up the North side and down the South side, making a complete traverse of the Arch.
Here we are at the top, 630 feet above the ground. We had a great view of St. Louis and could see both the baseball and football stadiums as well as city center and the state capitol.


The Arch is a magnificent structure and very beautiful.

After the tour of the Arch, we headed for St. Joseph, MO, starting point for the Pony Express. We went to terible's casino and found it not so terrible. We both went home more money than we started with. On Sunday we headed for the Badlands in South Dakota.

Wev are back from our Grand trip to the west coast and Alaska. We had a great time and saw alot of sights - Mt. Rushmore, the Badlands, Yellowstone National Park, the Hubbard Glacier, the Mormon Tabernacle. Will add more details and pictures shortly.

Hot Date on Saturday Night

Last Saturday night Adam, Sara, and Emerson were going to a birthday party for Adam's dad. So Barbara and I were going to keep Carly for them. But, the VFW Post was having a Luau Party that we wanted to attend. Barbara was playing bridge and we we going to meet at the post. So I picked up Carly and took her to the post with me. She was the best looking girl there. We had a great time!!!

Emerson stayed with us last week for a couple of days. he was playing in his room and then he came upstairs to show me sometning. If you look on his shirt, their are a bunch of sticker letters just below OSHKOSH.



Those letters spelled his name. He attached the letters himself, in the right order, and none of them were upside down.I think that was pretty AMAZING for a lad who won't be 4 till next month.

Carly's First Birthday Party

Friday was Carly's first birthday so we had a party for her at Andma and Papa's house. We had 13 children and 16 adults. Everyone had a GREAT time and the pizza was good.

here is Carly opening some of the wonderful gifts she received. She has her birthday taiar one, showing she is someone special.

This is Carly befor she had her birthday cake!

And this is her enjoying her cake. time to enter her in another "messiest baby contest".

A Mountain is Born

Once the track was operational, I decided to add a mountain in the corner of the layout as my first scenery project. The first step was to add support in the corner using some Masonite left over from my control panel efforts. next I crumbled up sheets of newspaper and taped them together. Then I taped all the balls of paper to hold then in place.

Next I applied plaster coated sheets over the paper mound to to provide a hard surface. While the plaster was drying, I mad rocks in a mold using more plaster like material called Hydrocal.

The molded rocks were then glued to the mountain and painted. The first coat was yellow, followed by coats of brown and black paint. I then painted the mountain with earth colored paint.

Finally I added grass coating to the mountain, using several different colors. also added small rocks along the bottom, simulating rock that have broken loose and tumbled down the mountain. I hope to place a water tank and a cell phone tower on the mountain. Then it will look like the hill I see from the house.

My next step will be to layout the road system for the city of Galville and the supporting industries.