More Black Hills touring

We did one more tour of the Black Hills today.... down south again. On the way, we came around one corner and saw this....

Side view of George..... pretty awesome!

Our main objective today was to see the Crazy Horse Memorial.  Oh my goodness, it was amazing!  So much work has been done but so much is left to be done.  This is the current progress.  And they've been at it 50 years or so.  It is a privately funded effort that was actually started by a Polish American sculptor.  Several of his 10 children continue the effort today.  

Along with multiple models, he left detailed drawings and instructions as he knew that this would be a multiple lifetime project.  This is a 1/34th scale model of the finished monument.  You can see that the tunnel above is actually just under Crazy Horse's arm.  When they finish his head (with hair), you would be able to fit the entire Mount Rushmore monument within it.  This baby is huge!

While we were at the Crazy Horse center, they had a group of Indian storytellers and dancers.  This was the chief.  I believe his name is Leaping Buffalo.

A back view of his regalia.  He told us that some of the feathers in their ornamentation were over 100 years old!

After we left the Crazy Horse monument, we continued on to Custer City.  And no, we did not go see the Flintstones Bedrock theme park there.  Gotta draw the tourist line somewhere!  :)

We did see several painted buffalo statues on street corners.  This one had the 4 presidents from Rushmore on one side.....

And then a painting of Mount Rushmore on the other.....  along with a painting of Borglum (the creator of Rushmore).  The detail work was amazing!

Lunch was at the Baker Bakery and Cafe in Custer City.

And yes, the hamburger buns were pretty darned good!  :)  As was the whole green chili burger that I had.

We made one more stop in Hill City on the way home.  While we girls were shopping, the guys were hanging out on the patio of the Mangy Moose Saloon.  Alas, no more rings for the girls, but the guys did get a beer!

Now we are back at the rv park and the guys are grilling dinner.  Some excellent steak to go with the wine we got yesterday.

Doesn't get much better than that!

Another drive in the Black Hills

Today we toured the southern Black Hills..... and it was gorgeous!!  We started out by going to the Prairie Berry Winery for a wine tasting. They make some yummy wines!  And the names are pretty entertaining too -- Red Ass Rhubarb, Poker Face, Lawrence Elk, Pink Slip.  We walked out 7 bottles of wine richer.  :)  Then we headed over to do just a little shopping in Hill City.  And yes, I found just one more Black Hills gold ring.  Sheesh!  :)

These statues were outside of one of the shops in Hill City.  I thought they were pretty awesome.

Q

More on the burros soon!  

Oh, and we found a rock shop in Hill City.  Yes, people DO actually pay money for rocks!  I used to shake my head at Judy O when she would tell me about the rocks she found.  And now?  Well, she's converted me.  Today I picked up a white quartz and a pink quartz rock.  Grin.

Then we headed for a driving tour of Custer State Park.  We went in on the Iron Mountain Road.... a twisting, turning route with tunnels that were really tight!

At one of the tunnels, we actually had to pull in one of the mirrors on the truck!

At at this particular tunnel, as you exit, you have a beautiful framed view of Mount Rushmore.  I snapped a pic, but it was too far away to be recognizable.  However, the way the sun was shining on the monument, it was just breath-taking!

We actually passed by Mount Rushmore two or three times today -- and it never fails to impress!  One of the passes, was on the back side of the monument.  And despite what the tee shirts say, you do not see the president's butts on the back side of the monument.  :)

Along the way, it started pouring rain and we decided that was a good time for a stop.  We found this place......

The front of the place was lined with two rows of rustic rockers.... and most of them were filled with bikers!  Riding in the rain isn't a whole lot of fun.

They also had donkey food!  So, of course we had to buy a sack.

Because when you get to a certain point in Custer State Park, you encounter a herd of burros!  Max was demonstrating how you distribute donkey food (alfalfa chunks).

Many years ago, they used burros to take people to the top of Mount Harney (elevation 7242).  When they stopped that, they turned the burros loose in the park.  So now they are quite an attraction!  

This one was a baby that Ron O had eating out of his hand.

One family with kids had the burros sticking their heads inside the truck to get treats.  Ugh.... donkey slobber! 

They other major attraction in the park (besides the beautiful views!) were the herds of bison.  This one was right next to the road.  What majestic creatures.

The drive back was along Needles Highway.  Named, of course, for the needle like rock formations along the route.

This one is called Eye of the Needle.  Unfortunately the parking pull-off was tiny and full, so I got this pic as we slowly drove by.  I couldn't even see the top of the darned thing!

Our final stop was at a place called Sylvan Lake.  Aptly named, I think.

This is just actually one small piece of the lake, but I wanted to get the rock formations in the background.

What a beautiful, but long day.  I had a serious case of TB by the time we got back to the trailers!

This evening was dinner out in Rapid City..... a yummy restaurant named Que Pasa.  Loved their food.  And the rest of the evening was spent giving some face time to the puppies.  They've been pretty good this trip.

And just now, there is a huge thunderstorm going through the area, so it is a good night to stay inside!

Touring the northern Black Hills

Today we spent the better part of the day touring the northern Black Hills.  It is a beautiful drive through rolling hills and, what this flatlander would call, mountains!  Unfortunately they are having the same problem with pine beetles that exist in the midwest, so many of their trees are dying.  It is a shame.

The first town we went to was Lead (pronounced Leed).  It is the sister city to Deadwood, as both are original mining towns.  Frankly, there wasn't much in Lead.  They actually have an open pit mine (1200 feet deep).  But they are working hard on a $5M visitors center so you can't actually see much of the mine as the fences have you too far away to even see the bottom.  I will say that the terraces they've made to the bottom of the mine are huge and pretty darned impressive.

We drove through the town of Lead itself, but they have the Main Street so torn up, you can't even really drive down it.......

So we headed on to Deadwood.  It seems to be a much more thriving town.  Not quite as touristy as yesterday's Keystone.......  Here's a view down the main drag.

This is definitely a gambling town!  Everyother building houses a casino.  And can you believe..... we didnt't gamble at all!  

It is also a town for more Black Hills gold jewelry and the obligatory tee shirts.  Judy and I both found another gorgeous ring.  This is mine......

Not the most expensive, but I love it none-the-less!

One of the casinos is owned by Kevin Costner.  The lady in the jewelry store recommended his sports bar for lunch.  And it was a great recommendation!  We all agreed the food was excellent.

The bar itself has memorabilia from most (if not all) of Costner's films on the walls....  posters, costumes, etc.  It was pretty entertaining to realize just how many crappy movies that man has been in.  :)

On the way home, we had to drive through Sturgis, of course!

It actually is not at all what we thought it would be.  From the travel shows about the motorcycle rally, it seemed that Sturgis is really just a wide spot in the road with lots of seasonal bars.  It is actually a pretty good sized mountain town.... and you can tell from the businesses away from the main drag that there is a sizable year-round population.

We didn't stop and shop in Sturgis.....  The rally was last week so I'm pretty sure that all the folks are a little bit weary of visitors!  

Next year is the 75th anniversary of the Sturgis motorcycle rally and they are expecting somewhere around a million visitors during that week.  Ack!

This evening will include a trip to Walmart......  we are campers and we MUST visit Walmart at least every two or three days to keep our camper badges!  :)  Then it will be leisurely dinner at the campers and a quiet evening.  All that driving today made me tired!  

A day around town

We started yesterday by touring around Rapid City.  Their downtown area is known for its Walk of Presidents.

Do you recognize this one?  George Washington with a modern twist!  :)  

The Walk of Presidents consists of full-sized statues of every US President.  It is spread out over probably a 6 or 7 block area, with statues on almost every corner.  Very impressive!  And no, we didn't go see all 44 or so of them.

And even the alleys of downtown Rapid City have art!

Their main square is very nice.  You can tell that these awesome fountains are a kid magnet on a hot day!

After some intense shopping downtown (gotta have some of that Black Hills gold jewelry!), we headed home for a short rest before more sightseeing.

We headed to Keystone next.  If you want a gaudy, touristy town..... well, this is your place!  :)

There are still quite a few bikers left around from the Sturgis motorcycle rally.

Couldn't resist a pic of this coffee shop name......

And dinner was Indian tacos at this place.....

The tacos were heavy on the beans.  :)

We ended the day at the most famous American monument -- Mount Rushmore is awesome!!!

They have a very cool but small museum that chronicles the building of the monument.  I couldn't believe the scaffolding they used!

It reminded me of the bamboo scaffolding that I saw all over China a few years back.  

We timed our visit to Mount Rushmore so that we could watch the evening lighting ceremony.  They have a pretty awesome amphitheater for the program.  It is a great program with a short talk by a park ranger, a film about the monument, the lighting of the monument......  And then the park ranger invited all the active and previous armed service members in the audience to come to the stage for the lowering of the flag.  Then he had each service member introduce him/herself.  It was a very moving ceremony.

On our way out, Max turned around and snapped this pic of the monument back through the avenue of state flags.  Wow!

On tap for today...... more sightseeing!  :)

Driving North

Some observations along the drive today......

The north central Nebraska prairie is beautiful!  It is reminiscent of our Flint Hills in Kansas.... except their hills are made of sand instead of rock.  Every low spot between the hills is either a pond or a marshland area.  One would think with all this sandy soil that you wouldn't see a marshland!  In fact, we just passed "Marsh Lakes Scenic Overlook"!

The tax base up here has to be pretty small, since we can drive for miles and never see a house!

We've been imagining the original settlers coming this way from the east..... and trying to visualize wagons passing through this area.  It truly boggles the mind what those early migrations of people must have looked like -- and what they must have faced!

And one final observation..... the state roads in South Dakota are horrible.... I feel like I've been shaken, not stirred!

Once we made it to I-90, we stopped at one of the rest stops along the interstate.  As we were walking out girls, we saw this.

Ack!  That made us really check the area where we were walking.  

We finally made it to Happy Holiday RV park about 6pm this evening.  It was a fairly uneventful day right up until we started setting up.  Poor Ron and Judy!  One of their slides wouldn't come out.  It took both Ron and Max pushing from the inside to get it out.  Then they figured out that the gas line was broken..... so no using the stove or oven.  Fortunately their water heater and fridge run off of either gas or electric.  So they will have a bit more work tomorrow in order to get things back in order.

So, have you figured out yet where we are????  For the next week, just south of Rapid City, SD is home base.  But the Black Hills are calling our names for day trips!

A new adventure

This view is NEVER a great way to start another adventure!

Actually, we were tnankful that this sheriff patrolman showed up!

We and the Os left yesterday morning for another adventure across the US.... this time north and west.  We got to just south of Concordia Ks on I135 when Ron and Judy had a blowout.  ACK!  

If you'll remember, we faced the same thing last winter on the way back from Tucson.  To be faced with changing a tire along the interstate, particularly on the streetside is rather daunting.  So it was very helpful to have the trooper's car behind us, warning folks to get over.  A big shout out to Cloud County Sheriff Deputy Nick Patterson for staying with us until the tire was changed!!!!!

Unfortunately, the Os fifth wheel sustained quite a bit of damage.  Ron had a bit of work to do in taking off loose pieces, tying up wire bundles, and bolting down shaky pieces.

We went on to a little town (Bellevue) just north of Concordia to make sure that things like the slides and the propane still worked.  Fortunately, with little attention while the slides are moving in an out, they seemed good to go.  Whew!

We parked at the Visitors Center there and right next to us in the parking lot was this.....

There is a museum for everything!  :)

We went on north to I-80 in Nebraska and then headed our way west.  We were in the lead and got a phone call from Judy..... they had a second blowout!  Oh good grief!  So we circled back and came up behind them.  You can't imagine how fierce the traffic was on I-80!  Of course, the blowout was on the traffic side of the camper.  Max stood at the back of our camper, waving folks over.  Judy stood at the back of their camper, waving folks over and warning Ron when someone was too close while he changed yet another tire. I stayed out of the way!

A state trooper behind us would have been nice!!!

We were down to one spare between us (thankfully Max travels with two spares!) for the rest of the day.  And fortunately no one needed that last spare.

We arrived in North Platte Nebraska about 6.30/7 pm last night.... about 2 hours later than we had planned.  

The extended trip did give me some time on my hands yesterday.  I figured out that I can crochet even tho' the ride with the camper attached is sometimes rough.  And really, who DOESN'T need yet another potholder!  :)

This morning Ron found a Goodyear store just down the street from where we are staying and ended up with 4 new tires.  

Today should be a better day on the road!  We are headed north then west for the day.  Have you figured out where we are going yet???  Grin.

Cheers!

Okay.... I'm lazy!

Yep, I just realized that I missed a day of posting.  And I didn't even bother to show you our decor for the 4th. Call me lazy!  :)

This is my table decoration.... Courtesy of Mom!

There were other decorations too..... Notice I said "were"?  That's because we've packed up and moved on. But more on that later.  

We spent Saturday afternoon on the lake... You guessed it -- floating!  :). It was another beautiful day with just enough cloudiness to make things comfy. 

The guys started taking down and packing the outside stuff Saturday morning, so floating was a welcome break. 

This morning everyone finished packing up and took off. The Oelkers and Zinks headed home. We headed north and east for further adventures!  :)

Another Missouri state park!

As it turns out, about the time that we were ending our holiday at Table Rock Lake, Rochelle and Roy were headed to Lebanon to visit with Polly.  So we both made a small detour and met up at Bennett Springs State Park for a couple of days.  What a beautiful park!!

This is what our campsite looked like.  There are actually 5 campgrounds around the state park.  We ended up in what I think is the nicest one.... mostly because it has full hookups and I don't have to be so conservative with water usage.  :)

We met there Sunday afternoon and spent some time setting up.  Then the guys did some grilling for our dinner.  It was warm and muggy, but still a nice evening outside.

Then on Monday morning, after a yummy guy-cooked breakfast, we headed out for some hiking.  This really is a spring.... fed from something like 100 feet below ground.  It is also a primo trout fishing site.  As a matter of fact, they have a trout hatchery here!

Above and below are a couple of shots of the hatchery.  The top one was from one of the pools where the really small trout are.  The bottom one is a shot of some of the larger trout.

As we walked through the hatchery, some of the larger trout (who would normally be swimming towards the end of the hatchery) turned around and started following us.  I looked back and saw the whole group swimming along, pacing us.  It was very eerie as I've never been stalked by trout before!  :)  Apparently they are accustomed to people feeding them but none of us had any quarters for the food machine so we couldn't accomodate them.

They release trout into the springs every evening.  We could tell when that was happening as they would sound a siren just like the ones we have for tornado sirens at home.  The first night it had me reaching for my phone to check the weather!

And of course, up and down the springs were LOTS of trout fisherman!  Max found out that you could fish for a daily fee of about $10.  Most of the ones we saw were definitely catching fish, so it sounds like a good buy!

In addition to seeing all the fishermen, we saw quite a bit of beautiful things along the hike.  Above is called, appropriately, Arches Bridge.  :)  And this was a little foot bridge that we passed on the trail.  Seemed like a good opportunity for a photo opp!

This was about half way through the hike so we weren't too "done in" by that point.  By the end of the hike, all any of us wanted was some very cool A/C!  It was mid-90s yesterday and very high humidity.  Ugh!  Most of the hike was pretty good because we were on shaded spring and forest paths.  However the trek home got pretty long, sunny, and sweaty.

We rewarded ourselves with some shopping......

Now THIS is a store!  I've gotten so accustomed to the marina stores (which are small and limited in stuff) that this was a pleasant surprise!

After lunch, we adjourned to our respective couches for a well deserved rest.  Altho' Roy was a bit of a masochist as he set out on a 8 or 9 mile bike ride.  Later that evening, as we were going to dinner, we drove up the hill that he climbed on his bike.  Sheesh!  I would end up off my bike and pushing it up that darn hill.

Dinner was as the "dining hall" at the state park.

As you can see it was a lovely setting.  The food was a bit "eh", but we managed to eat.  :)

As we were preparing for bed last nite, Max happened to look at the weather and realized that we had a helluva storm headed our way.  So we ended up taking down all of the outside stuff and stowing it --- doing that all about 11pm last nite.  What fun right before bed!

The storm hit about 1am.   We know this because we woke when we heard a loud thump against the roof of the trailer.  Ack!  Turns out it was a limb from the tree right next to the site.  Fortunately no damage was done.

Unfortunately, the noise woke Gabi who, in turn, woke Ginger..... so they ended up getting to sleep in the "big bed" last nite.  It thundered and stormed for quite a while during the night.  So we are all a bit bleary today.

One thing the storm did is bring out all the worms.  When I stepped out of the trailer this morning, I noticed 3 or 4 cardinals hopping around on the ground outside of our trailer.  Didn't really think much about it at the time.  There were quite a few twigs and limbs on the ground around the door.  Again, didn't think much about it ..... that is, until one started moving!

My first thought was "SNAKE"!  Gad, I hate snakes!  But then I realized it was a huge worm.  I wear a size 8 shoe, so that should give you an idea of how long that thing was.  NOW I understand why all the cardinals were hanging around.  That baby could have been breakfast, lunch, and dinner!

Sadly, we each packed up and headed out today.  Rochelle and Roy had about a 30 minute drive.  I wish ours was that short!  We are on 54 right now, headed west.  In about 5 hours or so we will be home and ready to unload.  

Hopefully our next adventure is right around the corner!