Welcome to Rich Hudgins N5ALE Web Page

2018 August 01 The first day in august was spent in complete and totally rapt contemplation of my navel....Meaning  I dont remember what the hell I did.
 Having said that August 02 was spent in traveling from the Fox river camp site and one of the most hospitable RV campsites I have ever found [only in Wisconsin] the front office is also a BAR what a concept and its a nice small bar with a lot of local beer.  Of course I had to try some of that and support a brave and enterprising man who has the balls to have a bar on site.



 

and the Falls of course



August 03 hit some cheese stores but was disappointed as they  did not have any tours.  They did have an observation window so you could watch the curd forming process.   I ended up at a little camp ground that was not on any POI or map that I could see,  Mead Lake campground , a very nice place.



I am here for three days until Monday the 6th.  Well later in the day a band of Red Neck Gypsies swarmed into the camp ground and I found out that they were in reality a National Water Skying Competition team that placed Sixth in the Wisconsin Finals, pretty amazing and they were putting on a free show on Mead Lake for all to see.  So with that in mind take a look at the Northern Species of Red Neck and see if you can tell the difference between the Southern Red Neck.  [ I will admit that not once did I hear the phrase
' hold my beer and watch this'



August 04 Saturday time of the sky show.
First of course you have to have a saftey briefing.  and thats what is happening below.  I can hear it now...  [and what ever you do dont say hold my beer and watch this thats a sheaky Texacan Red Neck watching]



The show was very good and some of the skyers were pretty new to the sport and had time to grow into it if you know what I mean.




And finally to prove that they are really serious take a look at this you bass fishermen and just shut up....



Thats Right THREE EACH THREE HUNDRED HORSEPOWER EVINRUDE OUTBOARDS  now thats how to get from one end of the lake to the other.   All they really need now is Nitros and super chargers...
Enough for now
Aug 05 Sunday
I finaly noticed the really classic motor home across the park today just as it was leaving so I went and talked to the driver about it.  Its a 1971 Winabego motor home and its almost pure stock.  Then engine could use some work but it ran and got it out of the park so it must be ok.




August 06 Monday
   I picked out a little town named Dodge That I thought looked like it might have some intresting roads into and out of and put the navigator Tom to work on the shortest route [this alwasys seems to have the most interesting roads and farm land]  I spend the whole morning on little back country gravel roads like the one below.  It was a most interesting morning, I even found a campsite only for four wheelers and Utvs back in the woods.




It also took me down many small one lane roads that had Corn planted almost up to the edge of the road.  This one is only on the right side but there were miles of road where it looked like you were passing down in between the rows of corn.




Thats Bob the Bobble head Bear my Copilot [ I may have been on the road to long at this point]
Tomorrow I start working my way back to Montana as I forgot to visit the Little big Horn national park and I do want to visit the place where Custer got his BUTT kicked.


August 09 Boy have I been out of touch for a while
 
Version   sucks as far as I am concerned.   Well Let me start with the aprs track for the last week or so and go from there



August 09 or there abouts
I know it seems as if I was wandering all over the north lands, and I was so there it sure is nice to not know where you are going from day to day. But as some point I was taken over by the desire to see Little Big Horn where Custer made his fateful decision to attack five times his number.  You have to wonder what the hell was going thru his mind at the time.  Well in my wondering I stoped at Fort Sisseton  that I saw a sign for on the road.  I did not even know it existed but decided to visit and see the fort for my self.  I had a great camp ground as well that I stayed at for a night along with two other campers and had a great time.  At this point I have to put in a good word for South Dakota State parks, every one that I have visited has been very good with Power for each camp site but no water or sewer although they all have water and sewer at the dump station so all in all not bad and the sites have been very clean and the restrooms very clean as well [ Camp South DAKOTA] and get the annual permit [30 buck not bad ] you will use it .



Lots of great pictures of Really old buildings that have been restored, Ok heres one at least



I will have to say that I was not visited by any ghosts that I could remember that night but I was open to them if they wanted to talk.

August Fort Sisseton South Dakota to Reva Gap Camp ground national Forest
A really nice drive across South Dakota that ended in Custer  national Forest  [damn small maybe one mile by one mile]  No power not water nothing but great scenery  and a great place to stop for the night.



This was in a small range of hills that was on the border with South Dakota and Wyoming.  Reva Gap is a very small part of Custer national Forest.  

August 10  From Reva Gap camp ground to Little Big Horn Battle Field

I did find where all those sun flower seeds in the little plastic packs come from [ South Dakota you guessed it] 





And I also found where Sitting Bull the Chief that lead the Indians against Custer was finally buried. 



Again only a small sign on the hiway to indicate where he was so keep you eyes open and dont be afraid to take a chance on some out of the way places.   You might just find some real gold there.

Little Big Horn Battle Field
 This is the cemetery that the Seventh Cav is buried in on the site.  It containers also veterans from all conflicts up to the Vietnam War as well.  It is a national Cemetery just as Arlington is a national cemetery for all Veterans




More tommorrow.
Well its now August 19 some time has past and its time for an update
I have spent the last  days  at a number of sites that were not that memerable but I did get the oil and filter changed in the truck so that was good.

I have spent the last four days at a Tribal campground just off the road to Two Medicine camp ground at Glacier National park and that has allowed me to drive as far as I could [up to the pass where the road is blocked off because of fires.  I have spent a nice few days here almost by my self except for the cows [free range bovines] and the creek.  But first some pictures of Glacier National Park.



As you can tell the smoke makes the pictures somewhat hazy but still its majestic.

Hard to see here but this is the Going to the Sun road up to logan pass where I had to turn around and come back.



And now some pictures of the camp site

One of my nabors at the camp site just kicking back with a nut or something.



Camp site near the creek



It has been cool in the mornings and warm in the afternoons so not bad at all.  I just wanted to say a few words about the camp ground as you can see from how long I spent there it is one of my favorite places to visit.  It is not for everyone however as it is truly primitive with no water/sewer/power to be had anywhere on site.  Even the camp hosts have to bring in water for their use.  I did visit the two medicine camp ground on the park and it was like being in an ant hill with people people every where.  I was happy to return to my camp after that.

August 20 Red Eagle Camp ground to Silo Montana [just south of Helena]
  A look at the Blackfeet Reservation Buffalo heard not yet covering the plains in their thousands but a good start.




August 22 Silos to Billings

Some of the gravel back roads in Montana that you may travel if you put the GPS on shortest path.



But dont trust it completely as you could end up on one like this [ I had to turn around and back track as this one just got worse and worse as it progressed.  There were people and farm houses down this track as well so I guess they did not get many visitors.  It filaly got down to no track and I had to turn around in a hay field and back track about two miles to the  "Main Road" to get out.





August 23 Billings Montana to devils Tower Wyoming

Good Road all the way on this leg of the journey and this is the first good view of Devils Tower of the day.  Can you imagine being a palio Indian [early native American Indian] and seeing this tower above the surrounding country side for the first time.



When I got there there were actualy people climbing the tower which was pretty cool


and just to give you a proper perspective this is what it looks like with out zoom.  There are two climbers on the tower if you can find them.




August 24 day of rest at the Devils Tower KOA

August 25 on the move again.  Headed to Sturges South Dakota...  Well what is there to say  but Sturges is a city of motercycles saloons and churches [got to have a balance I guess].  Its a pretty city in a valley with a secret that I have discovered.  But first a  peak at the main street from a cross street.



And now about that secret.... 




The fastest Farmall tractor I have ever seen how about you..





 

1968 Opel Kadet [mini vet]   with some extra horse power  I can only dream.




No snow on this track but I bet the winter drags are a blast...

Last but not least the Junior class these mini rails are for younger racers like the driver here that is only six years old and runs low eight second quarter miles.  That right he out runs some of the big boys what a rush.




Well that does it for now Monday is Deadwood and there abouts.  If you get a chance to visit Sturges and you like cars that go really fast for short periods of time less than six seconds for some of them dont stop in the city any longer than you have to get out to the east side of town past the big Conoco station and take a left  and roll down your windows and listen for that beautiful sound of a big Detroit V8 and burnt rubber.

August 27 Deadwood
I arrived in Deadwood and had breakfest then went downtown to the main street below and walked both sides of the street.  Lots of tourist type stuff but there are some pretty cool  places there as well the Deadwood distillery is one of them.  It produces its own saloon shine on site.




 I picked up a flyer for the 1880 train trip in Hill city so I drove down there and took the ride pretty cool.  It comes out about a mile form Mount Rushmore but behind it so all you could see is the back of the mountain, and no it is not the back of their heads just a mountain.  When you look at the picture the locomotive is connected backwards as there is no turnaround at the end of the line just a track to switch it back onto the track it works just a well that way as going forward.



August 28 Day of rest

August 29 onward to the BADLANDS of South Dakota



Spent four days at the Badlands KOA and visited several places around the area notable the city of Wall which has the largest drugstore /trinket store I have found yet.