To Cody, Wyoming – Epic RV Road Trip Day 2

Location: The Black Hills – From the Badlands to Cody, Wyoming
Attractions: Mount Rushmore, the town of Keystone, and a Rodeo in Cody
Date: August 4th, 2018

We wanted to leave at 7:00 AM so I was pretty impressed when we were actually leaving the campground at 7:30 AM. We took the scenic way out of the Badlands and saw tons of prairie dogs and a few deer and sheep. We got separated from my sisters and parents again, but I’m still including some of their pictures at the bottom, because I didn’t take many that day.

When we got going on the highway the bouncing on the RV was still very noticeable so after a few hundred miles, we stopped and found a tire shop. The mechanic came out and told us our tire had a broken belt but luckily, they had tires that fit and could get us in in a few hours to swap it out. I had them put two new ones on the front and put the still good tire that was on the front, on the back as a spare (This is important because of some events that happen later in the trip).

As they worked on the RV, we jumped into the in-law’s truck, dropped off their fifth-wheel camper and headed to Mount Rushmore.

We somehow ended up not meeting up with my parents and sisters families while we visited Mount Rushmore, but we caught up with them in Keystone. We walked the board walk for a bit, ducking into the occasional shop or pub, here and there. The ground shook with rumbling motorcycles. It wasn’t hard to tell it was the week of the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. When we had our fill of bike exhaust and loud pipes, we headed back to the tire shop to pick up the RV. The new tires they put on the motor home had it floating like a boat on milk. She drove like a dream.

On our way to Cody, Wyoming, we drove through the immense trees and stone walls of the Big Horn National Forest… and it was gorgeous. There were times when it got quite steep, and the switch backs were pretty tight, but the RV took it like a champ.

Our original plan was to make it to Cody on time to catch the rodeo (because that’s what you do in Cody), but we didn’t make it in time. We rolled into our KOA campground around 8:00 PM and made some pie iron pizzas over the fire.

Pie Iron Pizzas
INGREDIENTS: Butter or Non-stick spray, bread, a can of pizza sauce, shredded mozzarella, and pepperoni and mushrooms (if you like that sort of thing).
DIRECTIONS: Spray both halves of the the pie iron with non-stick spray or butter a piece of bread and stick it butter side down on the pie iron. Add your ingredients. Place the other piece of bread butter side up and close your pie iron. Roast that puppy until it’s golden brown.

The rest of the group arrived with actual pizza from Pizza Hut, but I have to believe that our version of the dish was better. That night we had some cocktails out by a fire and dreamed of the sights we would see at Yellowstone National Park the next 3 days.