Mission Accomplished

 September 9, 2025

The most ambitious goal we had for this trip was to finish finding a geocache in every county in the lower 48 states.  We have been striving to reach this goal ever since we found all 254 counties in Texas in 2010.  Look at Brian's BIG grin!  To celebrate, we met the woman who placed this cache at a restaurant in Alliance, Nebraska for lunch.

Brian with seashell_dawn and the trackable hiking stick gifted to him by Baytown Bert.

Now we can travel the country without searching for county line signs 

and making many detours.

Another goal: visit more state capitol buildings.  We added Bismarck, ND, Pierre, SD, and Cheyenne, WY.

North Dakota State Capitol

Important figure in ND History

Great mural on the bridge support before crossing the Missouri

We found John Steinbeck's observations to be spot-on.

Sakakawea sculpture on the Capitol grounds - Lewis and Clark might not have reached the Pacific Ocean without her assistance.

On the west side of the Missouri River, we visited Fort Abraham Lincoln State Historic Site.  General Armstrong Custer and the 7th Cavalry were housed here for a time.  The CCC did some work here, and the Mandan On-a-Slant Village has been reconstructed here.

distinctive CCC masonry work

We continued south into South Dakota.  We drove out to the Wounded Knee site on the Pine Ridge Reservation.  A young Lakota man was out there to explain the history of what happened there in 1890.  He pointed out the part of the sign that now says "MASSACRE" covering up the original word "BATTLE."  I climbed up the hill to the mass burial grave.

This is a mural in Pine Ridge that caught my eye -

Then on to Pierre, SD for another state capitol visit.

Then to the Badlands and the Black Hills, with a repeat visit to Minuteman Missile National Historic Site.

decommissioned missile silo

Badlands National Park - just a drive-through visit and one hike

We camped two nights in Black Hills National Forest where it made it down to 30 degrees one night.  We drove through the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Drive and visited one of the earliest fish hatcheries.

A mountain goat and her kid were munching their way through the foliage at the base of Bridal Veil Falls.

underwater viewing window, the ducks paddling by amused us

Our last night in Nebraska in the Sand Hills.  I was entranced with their beauty in the last afternoon light and early morning.

This is a hand-planted forest in the Sand Hills with a nursery that was started in 1902.

Early morning fog over the Loup River in the Sand Hills.

Before leaving Nebraska in the rearview mirror, we drove the Summit Road at Scotts Bluff National Monument because I read the CCC built it.

Seen while geocaching:

Hill City, SD

Scrap metal sculpture at a museum in the tiny town of Faith, SD.

Several T Rex fossils were found in the area, the most famous being

"Sue" now on display at the Field Museum in Chicago.

We love finding public art displays in small towns.

the stool bus

check out the names of the "students"

Sakakawea's monument overlooking the Missouri River near Mobridge, SD

Sitting Bull's gravesite