GTG in the Black Hills Report Here

Hi All.

Well we just returned from a short three day trip to the black hills. It was a trip filled with the good the bad and the ugly. One high point was meeting Biggie, and MDZ66 the day they got into town. I unfortunately had to leave on Sunday but it was nice seeing Jen and meeting a couple of extras.

The good: Badlands was awesome - killer photos coming soon. Mt Rushmore of course. Mt Rushmore Beautiful Cave - very neat and a really nice break from the HOT weather. Reptile Gardens - way cool and pets can attend on a leash. Should have taken my Dobe and my Husky but didn't know. Black Hills National Park - just awesome scenary and climbing. Had very nice picnic areas.

The Bad: Crazy horse memorial - $20.00 just to park. Mt Rushmore was only $8.00 and twice as nice. Really cool signs and enticing advertisements and a very lousy end product - specifically the Thunderhead underground waterfall. Don't waste your time and money on this one. They really rape the tourist there.

The Ugly - The KOA website in Rapid City was very disappointing. It was overpriced, not very user friendly and in desparate need of some improvements(fire pits etc). The web site is very misleading. Cabins are extremely small. The Weather. It was in triple digits almost every day we were there, made it hard to go outside and enjoy yourself.

Overall, I wish we had more time and a bit cooler weather. More details coming soon.

Later.
CT

Great meeting you all in Rapid City! I think we had a good turn out for a non-nationals meet 11 or 12 AV's

Sorry I could not attend any cruises. Off to WI

I will get pics up as soon as I get to a good computer

drive safe,
Faver Buhler

I hear it was a hot one, 109 today!!!

well we just got home at 10:07 pm on friday night. I had a great time glad to me all of you. everything we did was fun...l i took about 400 pictures and i will have every single picture posted on my website

Talk to you later

Got home last night - 13 hours towing over some of the most boring terrain in the country. Western wisconsin is at least wooded and green. Had a GREAT time meeting new friends, seeing the sights. We were glad to combine the Avalanche GTG with visits to places we had not been to but wanted to anyway. We were amazed that 12 families brought together by a common interest in a truck could share such a great time. All of us (me Kim & Alex) are looking forward to another trip or whatever. I hope everyone got home safely and look forward to seeing all of you guys again.
I started this post to separate the results from the planning on the previous vacationing post. Pictures will be posted soon.
Thanks to all involved for a really great vacation!!

We got home about 2 & 1/2 hours ago. Seems my Dad did something to the computer while we were gone and we could not get online right away. I also have tons of pics, and will be posting them on the picturetrail site this week. I can't stay on long because we still have to unpack, etc.

I want to thank everyone who was there for making this trip really great! Everone that I just met for the first time and those of you who I've met before. Members, family, friends, and pets. You all made this a really special trip for me! It was a hot week, but our caravan of AV's made it cool! I had a lot of fun, and I think we saw everything around Rapid City that we had time for. Thank you all for your suggestions of great things to do. And a special thanks to Mike (mdmull) for leading us all through the Badlands on Tuesday and Custer on Wednesday.

A small tribe of us met at noon Saturday in Baraboo, mdmull, NorthFace-of-NW-IN, jakom, and myself. We headed to Worthington, MN, where Avialanche and Mdz66 (&Biggie) caught us in the morning. We arrived Sunday night and Mdz66 and I got to say 'Hi' to Chevy Thunder before he headed home.

We never found Brecwood, and there was a California member in a naked yellow AV around town, but I don't know who that was. fbuhler visited with us in the mornings as we got ready for our daily trips.

Monday morning schoony found us at the KOA. Monday afternoon mdmull, scoony, NorthFace, Mdz66, Avialanche and me went to Deadwood and walked around for a while and had lunch. Mdz66 and I went back to the campground, and everybody else went on a scenic drive called 'Spearfish trail' or something like that. Everybody met back up at 7:00 that night to plan the next few days.

Tuesday mdmull led us through the Badlands. We went in the back way on hwy. 44 which was a lot more scenic than I90. We had a picnic lunch in the park. On the way out we all stopped at Wall Drug and did some shopping. members were: mdmull, NorthFace, schoony, bubba9004, rogerh, avialanche, Mdz66, and me.

Wednesday fbuhler headed to Wi, and the rest of us started our day at Wind Cave. It was very busy and everybody couldn't get on the same tour, so a few didn't go. Next we took a drive through Custer State Park. It was very hot and we didn't see a lot of animals, but we had a convoy of 11 AVs. That was cool. We all had lunch in a nice picnic area. After Custer, a few went back into the park to look for buffalo, and the rest of us drove by Crazy Horse. We all met up again that night at Mount Rushmore and watched the lighting ceremony. members present were: mdmull, jakom, NorthFace, schoony, bubba9004, rogerh, avialanche, Mdz66, Dwayne, ducksface, and me.

Thursday Avialanche headed to Co, a few of us decided to go to Bear Country and Reptile Gardens. Dwayne had already been to Bear Country, so he went to Deadwood, and we finally let mdmull go ATV-ing. Afterwards a few went back to the Badlands. We all met in the courtyard of the Ramakota that night to chat and say goodbye to those leaving on Friday. At the Ramakota that night was mdmull, jakom, NorthFace, schoony, bubba9004, rogerh, Mdz66, Dwayne, ducksface, and me.


Friday Mdz66 and I went to Keystone to shop. We ran into Northface and did the pig-tail bridges road. later that night NorthFace and mdmull joined Mdz66 and I at the KOA and we had a little cook-out dinner.

The last of us 4 left Saturday morning. Mdz66 & Biggie left around 4: am and drove straight though. mdmull also left early. NorthFace met us at the campground and we headed out around 9: am. We stopped at Cabelas in Mitchell, SD, and the Corn Palace. We spent the night in Albert Lea, MN. We stopped for lunch outside of Madison, Wi and went our seperate ways.

And that is it!

I brought the other replies from the original thread over here.
Good idea, mdmull!

Hello everyone. We had a great time in South Dakota. It was nice to meet everyone & the cruises were great too, even though it was a little hot. Hope we can make this an annual thing!

Hey guys we got back about 8:30 Sat. evening. Before leaving South Dakota we stopped at the Air Museum, Wall Drug and the Corn Palace. We stayed in Sioux Falls Fri. night. We had good weather all the way but it was hot.
Thanks Jen for planing a great GTG. We had a fantastic time meeting new friends and seeing some great sights. Mike was an outstanding tour guide with the help of his GPS I don't think we were once lost.
Some of the guys were inquiring about the Mirror Bras I had and where I got them. Check out the site below. This is where I got them.
Roger H.

Hi, Just wanted you to know that I also had a great time. Wow, what wonderful people to meet and hang out with. I enjoyed every minute we spent together and hope that we can do another gathering in the future.
Your new friend,
Victoria

P.S. Great dogs also!!

www.autoanything.com/mirrorbras3.asp

Hello,

I also had a great time. It was a very very nice vacation. I sure hope this is something we can do every year. and maybe more member will join us as the years go by. (if you build it, they will come).

My family had a great time, and were glad to meet so many new friends. the only drawback is that we don't get to see you all that often.

Hope everybody made it home ok.

I also will be posting pictures on picture trail.

Once again we had a great time, and hope to see you all again soon.

David (Debbie and Caleb)

hi guys,
I just got back last night. Wanted to say that I had a great time with everyone and look forward to meeting everyone again in the not so distant future. I will try and post some pics soon, probable after the brickyard 400 this weekend.

brian

I have the same to say. Great time, great people and lots to see and do. Hope we can all meet somewhere in the future. Dwayne & Lois.

Hi Folks, We also had a great time!! The Av did great all the way home after our little situation with the faulty fuel cap (my dealer is sending me a check) We sure have a great group of people in this club!! Thanks to Jnspur and mdmull for never getting us lost or leaving us in the Baaaaaaaddddddddlands. The sites we visited were awesome. Thanks I have lots of pics. Matt

We also had a fantastic time at the GTG and agree with all the praising others have mentioned. Meeting all the wonderful people was great. We cut over to Wyoming to Devil’s Tower and then cut up thru Montana, North Dakota, Northern Minnesota, Michigan UP, and finally home NE Indiana. Our total trip was about 4,500 Miles. We feel that we broke our new AV in proper. Thanks everyone for the great time!!!!!!!!!!!
Hang-in-there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
John, Laura, & Kaila

sorry i am to lazy to upload any pictures and i need to download kodak software and upload the pics i will get on it one of these days....

I am posting a few pictures at the time in my picture trail account. You can try to see them there, I will keep adding to the list as I get more time.

Once again it was a great time, had tons of fun.

David

We got back yesterday, after having a great trip. We got 18.2 mpg from Lake Havasu to Denver, and 17.3 on the total trip. We had the back window out for most of the trip [we always forget to do that, I'm having a custom screen made for it tomorrow] and the weather was great. We went on to Yellowstone after the meet and it was nice also. Ive made reservations for the west coast meet in Moab and hope to see many of you there.

Undead Scourge said:

sorry i am to lazy to upload any pictures and i need to download kodak software and upload the pics i will get on it one of these days....

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Biggie

The above Post combined with your Avtar - means big trouble in MI - a bored and lazy 15 yr old means noting but trouble

Blueruck said:

Biggie

The above Post combined with your Avtar - means big trouble in MI - a bored and lazy 15 yr old means noting but trouble

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hmm..... all i have been doing is sleeping til noon and skateboarding. the brewmaster is a hero in warcraft III frozen throne. he is basically a drunken panda bear
http://www.battle.net/war3/neutral/pandarenbrewmaster.shtml

Hey guys! I got 120 of the pics I took uploaded to my picturetrail site... www.picturetrail.com/blackchev I am sorry at this time they are not labled or in order and the album is huge and slow. I will get it fixed. I have been very busy this week getting this back in order. I really had a great time with everybody!
Jen

jnspur said:

Hey guys! I got 120 of the pics I took uploaded to my picturetrail site... www.picturetrail.com/blackchev I am sorry at this time they are not labled or in order and the album is huge and slow. I will get it fixed. I have been very busy this week getting this back in order. I really had a great time with everybody!
Jen

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Even me jennyspur

Hey Jen those were great pics. We didn't need the labals because we was there too.
It was a great vacation and thanks again for puting it all together. Your the best.

WOW Great, really cool pics. Really wish I could have made it out there. Looks like it was a great time and you all were all over the place takin in the sites.

THIS IS MY FAVORITE PICTURE!!!

Hi you all, got back to chicago on the 1st at noon, left denver at 7:30pm on the 31st (15-hour trip), had really great time with you all in South Dakota, had fun in Colo also, did some fun 4-wheelin, i unfortunetly gouged my new Stealth bumper while hugging a rock wall as i was driving on a rock-shelf road to keep my av from falling off the mountain to my certain death below, this road has taken lives in the past, that's how dangerous it was, but othewise the av performed flawlessly on these 4x4 roads, and the views were awsome, i would've tore up the factory bumper big time if i drove these roads with it on, the trailer hitch in the back protected the rear bumper, i heard it doing it's job three or four times (scrapping against the ground) as i was driving these passes, Again i had a great time with you all in South Dakota, the folks were so nice and friendly and so were all the dogs, i'm looking foward to next year's national meet!!