Needles Highway to Custer State Park

We loaded up in Rick and Y's Jeep and headed up the Needles Highway. The shot below is called the Eye of the Needle; aptly named, don't you think?

Here is a shot of Rick and Y in front of the narrow tunnel that everyone drives through. We were more than happy to ride along with them as we are always concerned about scrapping the sides of the trucks' wheel wells as we would only have a margin of error of less than four inches. We have seen a Class C drive through the tunnel; I'm sure the driver was sweating bullets!

This is a shot of the area above the tunnel. Rick and John climbed up the rocks to get to the top. Crazy John was wearing flip flops. If you click on the picture, you might be able to see the two crazy ones in the middle of the picture. I apologize as we didn't have the long lens on the camera when I took the shot.

From one of the lookouts on the Needles Highway, we looked down on the valley where the town of Custer sits.

Here we are in what is called the Hole in the Wall. The cave doesn't go too far back as Rick checked it out. Last year when we visited the Black Hills, the cave still had some snow in the back; not so this year.

From the Needles Highway, we headed for the Custer State Park Wildlife Loop. As I've stated before, we never get tired of taking this drive.

We saw our first Pronghorn babies and even got to see a pair of twins. How cute!

We also saw our first American Goldfinch. We mistakenly thought the bird was a Western Tanager but after downloading the pictures (fuzzy), we could tell that it didn't have the red head and the wing markings weren't similar. Darn.

We just had to take a picture of this Bison bull as we were taken with not only his size but the size of his beard.

As we finished up the Wildlife Loop, we were all starving and stopped for lunch at Elk Canyon in Custer. We stopped at a store where Melissa found a clock she liked to see if it could be ordered; it could. We then stopped at the Black Hills Pies Company for a slice of pie that was very good.

After a full day, we headed home where I got some laundry done. We also had a busy evening talking on the phone to Bonnie, a friend of John's (George), and Melissa. Whew!

Good food and good company

After a quick run into town, we returned home when John decided that he wanted to go for a bicycle ride so he headed off. I met up with Jim the RV repair guy to give him the information he needed from our furnace to order a part for us while he was up at Rick and Y's. When Rick and Y pulled into the campground, they discovered that their propane regularator was leaking and will need to have it replaced.

When John returned to an empty rig, after cleaning up, he knew where to find me. Yep, I was sitting outside visiting with Rick and Y. Rick and Y had invited us to dinner. We had a very good meal: BBQ steaks, salad, steamed veggies, hot bread, and dessert. We had a weird experience while we were eating, a guy walked up and asked Rick how much his International truck cost and then just stood there while we were eating. How rude. First, the guy interrupts our meal and second, there is no other conversation but to ask how much the truck costs. Some people.

After dinner, I went up and asked Faye and Marshall if they would like to join us for a game of Pegs and Jokers which they did. Rick and Y taught us the game in April when we ran into them at the Excel Service Center. With the help of my "cheat sheet", I think I am starting to get the hang of it. We played three games and the girls won two. I think we all had a good time. Hopefully, too many days won't pass until we play again so I don't lose any ground.

Faye and Marshall went home to have dinner and John and I joined Rick and Y in their trailer for more good conversation. Soon it was 11 p.m. My how the time flies when one is enjoying themselves.

Busy weekend

John and I both resumed our regular work shifts. Our friends, Rick and Y, arrived and got settled in their site. We now have two Excel fifth wheels in the park. As I was returning from taking John a cold drink on Saturday, I saw another Excel fifth wheel pull in to the campground. Wow, now there are three. For those of you that don't know, it is unusual to find two Excel's in a campground much less three. It is always fun to meet other Excel owners.

My shift Saturday night was a very busy one. It is amazing to me how little planning people do for a major holiday. We've taken so many calls wanting to know if we have any RV sites available over the 4th of July. You've got to be kidding! We will have a very full campground for the 4th.

My Sunday morning shift was a little busy and John worked hard all day cleaning up an eyesore part of the campground. The area looks much better but another section could use some work. After John got off work and cleaned up, we headed up to Brenda's for a potluck. We had a good time visiting with everyone and once again, the food was plentiful and tasty. Once the group started breaking up, John and I headed up to Rick and Y's were we had good conversations about a multitude of topics.

Crazy Horse Memorial Night Blast

John worked the second shift for Terry. I spent the day suffering an allergy attack (that darn pine pollen). There were threats of thunderstorms that I was hoping for but never appeared.

After John finished his shift, he came home to shower and we headed off for Crazy Horse to view one of their twice a year only night blast. The blast tonight was to celebrate the 83rd birthday of Ruth Ziolkowski (sculptor's wife and President/CEO of Crazy Horse Memorial) as well as to commemorate the 133rd anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn. We were at the 132nd anniversary of the Battle of the Little Big Horn last year. The second night blast of the year occurs on September 6th in observance of the 1877 death of Lakota leader Crazy Horse and the 1908 birth of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski. Admission tonight after 6 p.m. was a donation of 3 cans of food for the KOTA Care & Share Food Drive in lieu of the memorial’s regular admission fee which benefits everyone.

I had hoped to have an Indian Taco in the Memorial's Laughing Waters Restaurant but it closed early due to the ceremony festivities (should have checked their website first). Darn - we had to settle for a hot dog.

On the viewing deck, there was going to be a program around 8:45 p.m. We chose to sit outside of the Museum building with hundreds of our best friends. This really is a big deal and the locals come out in droves as well as the tourists. It got a little chilly sitting outside with only our coats on so I went in to the gift shop and bought a Crazy Horse Memorial blanket. We were very much appreciative that we had it for the next couple of hours! Once the program on the viewing deck was finished around 9:40 p.m., we were treated to their spectacular "Legends in Light" multimedia laser light show. The Crazy Horse carving really comes to life with laser lights and music that "illuminates our cultural diversity, celebrates our similarities, and encourages understanding and harmony among all people." Not exactly a bad message to try to get across. The light show is presented nightly through the summer and early fall.

Around 10 p.m. there was a spectacular night blast. The pyrotechnic displays were made up of a rapid-fire series of intense explosions that looked like giant candles but the sound was reminiscent of the sound of hundreds of drums playing on the mountain. It was quite the visual and audio experience.

Traffic out of the parking lot was a bit of a mess as it took us 30 minutes to get from the gravel parking lot to the paved parking lot. Once on the paved parking lot, it only took us twenty minutes to get home.

We didn't bother to take the camera as we felt the low light wouldn't make for good pictures. However, that didn't stop lots of others from taking pictures all around us. If we make it for the September blast, maybe we will try to take pictures then. Even if you can't make it to a night blast, the laser light show was well worth seeing.

Back to work

Now that our time with Melissa has passed (all to quickly), John had to make up the time he swapped with another workkamper (two days) before he starts his regular shift. John said the day went by rather quickly but he was tired come the evening. Mostly because it was it was very warm here - 90 degrees. I know where some of you are that seems cool but trust me, it was quite warm. By evening, it was much more pleasant and we were able to sit outside and enjoy the evening.

To pass the day, I did some visiting with the office staff, laundry, and ran a couple of errands.

Some friends of ours (Rick and Y) that we first met at the Excel factory last year and again this year (totally unplanned) are coming to Ft. Welikit for a month on Saturday. We are looking forward to their arrival and hope they enjoy the Black Hills as much as we do/have.

Melissa's visit

We loved having Melissa with us and tried our best to show her the highlights of the area. You can only imagine our delight when she came down the escalator at the Rapid City Airport to hugs and kisses. She said that it was one of the smallest airports she has ever seen. What do you expect when you come to "podunkadunk" as Melissa calls it.

On Saturday, we drove the Wildlife Loop through Custer State Park. We stopped to give treats (carrots) to the wild burros. We all enjoyed the encounter.

After driving most of the loop, we finally caught up with a part of the Bison herd.
Pronghorn Antelope near the road.

On our way home, as we neared Grace Coolidge Campground, we were was able to see a female Big Horn Sheep. Later in the week, we were able to spot to females and one baby grazing near the road.

We made a drive through Deadwood, Sturgis, and Spearfish on Sunday (Father's Day). John was thrilled to be able to spend Father's Day with his daughter. We stopped at the Roo Ranch and were able to interact with some Wallaroos.

Here are some babies resting in a pouch in the nursery area.

We stopped at the DC Booth Fish Hatchery in Spearfish. Look at the size of some of the trout. We especially liked feeding them. The hatchery grounds are beautiful and makes the Natomas Hatchery near Sacramento look lacking.

The scenic drive through Spearfish Canyon is beautiful and well worth taking.
As we wound up the day on Sunday, we stopped at Crazy Horse (in the background). The detail is much more impressive when seen in person (I think).

On Monday, the first stop was at Sitting Bull's Crystal Caverns. I opted out of the tour as they had steep and possibly slippery stairs. I waited while Melissa and John went. They both enjoyed the Cavern tour. The best part was that they both got in free; John with his VIP card and Melissa for being young and attractive.

The next stop was Bear Country. Melissa thoroughly enjoyed the driving tour seeing Rocky Mountain Elk, Big Horn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Artic Wolves, and Black Bears. After the driving tour, we stopped at Babyland. Here we are in front of one of their Grizzly Bears.

The most fun, of course, was watching the antics of the baby bears whether they were running around or positioning themselves in the trees.

From there we headed to Old McDonald's Farm for some hands on with the animals. We all enjoyed feeding the goats and sheep. This little fella just couldn't contain himself waiting for Melissa to get some food.

On Tuesday, we headed for Keystone via Iron Mountain Road. Once again, we ran into a herd of Mules and of course, we had to keep them. Melissa got a kick out of how they stick their heads into the vehicles to get fed. The Mules definitely know how to play the tourists. Once in Keystone, we played miniature golf (one tough course and our scores stunk), took the chairlift up the mountain and took the Alpine Slide down. I took the slow lane (HaHa) while John and Melissa zoomed past me. I must admit it was fun and I would be willing to do it again maybe even a bit faster. As we wanted to attend the night lighting at Mt. Rushmore and needed to kill some time, we decided to take in the Rushmore Caves. Melissa and John both thought this tour was better than the Crystal Caverns which was good to know.

We finally made it to Mt. Rushmore and here is a family shot of us in front of the four Presidents faces.

At the close of the patriotic ceremony, the President's faces are lit. Here is what they look like at night. Very impressive.

Melissa discovered that she has allergies as she was affected every day she was here. Being the trooper, it didn't slow us down. The good news is that the weather was pretty darn good while she was here. We only had rain on Saturday night and then Melissa got to see the downfall that comes with thunder and lightning. We were gone from 10 to 7 most days and then we would play the card game Wizard until midnight or 1 a.m. What fun we had!

It was sad to take Melissa to the airport and kiss her goodbye. The good news is that it will be only five months before we see her again. John and I miss her smile and laughter and soaked it up while we could. Sometimes, I would have to sneak in a hug just because. Thanks for coming out to visit us Melissa; we love you bunches. We hope you had a good time visiting with your parental unit and the Black Hills of South Dakota.

Catching up

On Wednesday, we headed up to Rapid City and bought us some fishing poles, reels, and other fishing stuff. We also hit Target and Safeway before heading home. We managed to keep ourselves busy for over seven hours.

John got the fishing stuff all put together and as we still had plenty of sunlight, we headed up to Sylvan Lake to try out our gear. We did manage to catch a couple of fish (catch and release) and enjoyed ourselves until the mosquitoes ran us out.

Thursday morning we were up early and headed out to Sylvan Lake. It was windy and rather cool and didn't have any luck. A couple of deer did walk past not too far from us as we were at the lakes edge. That was cool. We decided to call it quits and go get breakfast and then try Stockade Lake. Some nibbles but we didn't catch anything. We did watch a Blue Heron fly low over the lake and were serenaded by quaking ducks. When we called it quits, we decided to take a drive around the lake as we hadn't done that before. It is a very pretty lake and will be nice to kayak.

We got home, had a snack, and went up to the office to chat. There ultimately were eight of us out chatting in front of the office. While we were standing there, what sounded like an siren went off for several minutes. None of us knew what it meant but the park's owners didn't appear concerned so we dismissed it. Later, John and I were up at Custer True Value when one of the locals asked about the siren. No one seemed to know anything. We thought it was all very strange.

As the evening was still young, we went back up to Sylvan Lake (only 15 minutes up the road) to try our hand at fishing. We had bought some Power Bait that everyone swears by and a couple of lures. The fish weren't too impressed with the Power Bait. John caught nine fish and me two. All fish were released. John caught the most but I caught the BIGGEST. Still it was nothing compared to the one Travis caught the other day. I must say, my shoulders are feeling used as well as my biceps. Who knew you used so many muscles casting and reeling in.

Friday is the day Melissa arrives. We spruced up the place and washed the truck as it was very dirty. The rest of the day was spent pretty much just cooling our heels until we head up to Rapid City to pick up our beloved daughter. When Melissa arrived in Salt Lake City, she gave us a call as she had a four hour layover. It will be so nice to be able to wrap her in a big ole hug.

Went hiking and fishing

Another workkamper couple, Travis and Cindy, really wanted us to go fishing with them today. They said they had all the gear to share with us and all we had to do was get our fishing licenses. We went to Pamida last night and got our SD fishing licenses. As residents, we only had to pay $27 per person for the year. I have never fished as an adult and it has been about 30 years since John has fished; this should be interesting.

Travis and Cindy were waiting for us a little after 8 a.m. We were ready and headed to the Grace Coolidge Walk-in area where there are about five ponds that are fed from Center Lake. The hike is roughly 3 miles and well worth the effort as the scenery is beautiful as you hike along a creek on a very nice trail. We also had roughly six creek crossings to make; more on that later.

This was pond #5 where we decided to stop and fish. Shortly after we settled in, a family came up and went to an area that was around the bend. In no time, they were catching fish and so were we.

I did catch a 12 inch fish but I won the award for the smallest fish caught. You can hardly see the little fella in the left side of the picture. He swallowed the hook and John almost had to dig down to his tail to get it out. Unfortunately, the little fellow lost his life. HaHa - The prissy girl even put her own worms on the hook! That was a surprise to everyone.

The fishing award of the day went to Travis as he nailed a 21 inch Rainbow Trout that weighed 3 3/4 lbs. It was a beautiful fish. It made all of our other catches look puny in comparison. Travis and Cindy BBQ'd the trout and brought us down some still hot from the grill; it was very good.

The trout was proudly displayed back at Fort Welikit with all the other fishing people and there was some jealousy as up until now, the biggest trout caught was 18 1/2 inches long.

This shot I took looking down the creek from our fishing pond.

Here is a shot of Cindy, Travis, and myself as we finished up fishing and were heading back down the trail.

Like I said earlier, there were many creek crossings. In the beginning, we were careful to limit the exposure of water to our shoes. It also took some coaxing for Cindy and I to cross as certain parts. I lengthened out my hiking poles to help me balance but I really don't like stepping on rocking, slippery rocks.

Anyway, after about the third crossing, it became apparent that we weren't going to be crossing any further without getting the water up over our shoes. Boy, once we made the decision to just walk through the water, it made both Cindy and I feel a lot more comfortable. As you can tell in this shot, the water was up to my knees as we walked across.
Here is one of the scenic shots John took on our hike out.
Oh, oh another crossing.
There was a section along the creek where all these ferns were growing alongside the water.
And another water crossing.

This one had a board going across so it made the traverse easy. Notice that I have a backpack that weighed about 14 pounds on my back (a first for me). The blue thing is a folding chair that we use when washing the kayaks. Both John and I carried one and it came in handy for fishing. I was very proud of myself as I was way out of my comfort zone and there was no whining or sniveling.

Another creek crossing where the water was over my knees.
Here is a shot of another one of the ponds.

No body complaints other than my shoulders are a little sore. Actually, I must admit I had a lot of fun and the hike was very nice. I found that I really like casting. John enjoyed himself also so it looks like we will be getting some fishing equipment.

Some sun and no rain

It was rather spooky watching the fog roll in last night.

We woke up to beautiful sunshine. Everyone around here is terribly excited. It is only the second day in June that it has not rained.

When we got back from the post office, we saw one of our regular squirrels helping himself to the bird seed and shelled sunflower seeds. Notice the bulge on his tummy? It got even larger as he was gorging himself on the good eats. He must have left and gone off to sleep with a food hangover. We have another red squirrel that frequents the feeder but he actually climbs into it to feast.

We've heard that turkeys frequent the park but this is the first one we have seen in the six weeks we have been here.

We had threatening clouds on and off all day but no rain. Yippee!

We chatted with our neighbors before settling down for dinner. Marshall brought over two slices of pie to share with us. That was very thoughtful and it was tasty, too. We took back their plate with our much appreciated thanks. Faye and Marshall are great people.

We then settled in for a little TV and some computer games of Hearts before calling it a night as we both have to "work" tomorrow.

Rain that never seems to stop

Another dreary wet day. Everyone we've talked to is getting so tired of the lack of sunshine. As we were getting ready to crawl up walls, we decided to take the drive up to Rapid City for lunch and possibly taking in the Air and Space Museum if it wasn't raining. When we stopped for lunch at El Patron, it was just misting. Lunch was uninspiring and sat like a rock in my stomach hours later. I digress...when we came out after lunch, it was raining. Not to surprised. No Air and Space Museum today so we stopped at a fabric store to pick up some felt to help darken the main area of the rig where Melissa will be sleeping when she comes to visit. It starts getting light here early like at 4:30 a.m. when the sun does come up. We are hoping (fingers are crossed) that soon we will start to see some sun. One would think we were in the Pacific Northwest with all the wet gloom we've had. Anyway, we got the coverings all done . . . looks a little tacky when they are in place but they should do the trick.

Later that evening we pretty much did a whole lot of nothing. I did go over to the office and chatted with Faye, Marshall, and Barbara for a while. John ran out and filled a propane tank for a camper and he wasn't even on duty. What a guy!

Rain . . . again

The rain started around 3:30 a.m. and it pretty much continued on and off all day. The drought is over; the rain can stop any time.

After feeling trailer bound all day, we headed up to Hill City to have dinner at the Alpine Inn. The dinner menu: Bacon wrapped filet mignon - choice of 6oz $8.95 or 9 oz $10.95 includes lettuce wedge with homemade Ranch Dressing, baked potato, and Texas Toast. We both had the 6 oz. steaks and splurged for their Turtle Cheesecake for $4.95 (very good). Out the door for less than $28 and oh so good.

Settled back in for a little TV and some computer games. We pray that tomorrow will bring some sunshine (not likely) but we are going to think positively.

A slooow day

We woke up with a gray sky (again). We ran into town to the Ace Hardware and Pamida looking for cord or fish line to repair one of our day/night shades. We think we found something that will work but only time will tell.

When we got home, amazingly there were bits of sunshine. We pulled out our chairs and sat outside soaking up the sunshine for a while. When we got ran inside because it got chilly as the sun left us, I looked at the wall clock and commented how the day was dragging by. John agreed.

Later in the day we saw Ray heading for home and the clock said it was only 3:30. What was up with that? Ray was suppose to work until 5:30 p.m. Again, we commented on how odd that the day was just dragging by. It was when I noticed Jack leaving the office that I looked at the wall clock. It said it was saying 4:45. What???? I looked at the clock and something seemed amiss. I then looked at the cell phone and discovered that it was actually 7:45 p.m. We had a good laugh as we realized the reason the day was dragging was because the clock was slowing down. Needless to say, the evening just sped by.

Weekend

What to say other than we did our work shifts. Due to bad weather, John was let off work early on Saturday. It was a little disconcerting for him and me both when he was out filling propane tanks and there was lightning and thunder going on nearby. John pretty much hung out with me during my shift on Saturday.

On Sunday, John was a lawn mowing and weed eating madman. My office shift was rather quiet. I took a couple of calls but that was about it. As John was leaving the golf cart up at Ray's, the sky opened up and just poured. After all that lawn mowing, John was rather tired.

We got a cute call from Melissa who was helping her friend Sylvia put up some shelving. Melissa said she was playing handyman and wanted to know how to change bits from the drill motor. John did a good job walking Melissa through the steps and the shelving got properly installed so we learned later.

Rare sighting

After a slow morning, I suggested that we go over to Peter Norbeck Visitor Center in Custer State Park. The park has some geocache coordinates I wanted to pick up as well as some information on the hiking trails in the park.

On our drive to the Visitor Center, we spoked the ever elusive Rocky Mountain Elk. We felt lucky in spotting these Elk in the wild.

After the Visitor Center, we took the drive on the Wildlife Loop. Surprisingly, we didn't see that many Bison but made up for it with viewing a lot of Pronghorn and Deer. As always, it was a nice drive.

Mysterious phenomena, baby animals, and Cabela's

A beautiful bright day so we knew we were going to get out and about. We decided to visit the Cosmos Mystery Area. To quote their website "a natural phenomena that is intriguing and mind boggling." Their normal adult admission is $9.50 with our VIP pass we were charged $5 each. Even at that reduced rate, we felt it was a rip-off. There is a lot of optical illusions that come in to play. We weren't impressed but the kids there got a kick out of it. Here is a link to their website if you care to check them out.

From there we drove up the road a little further to Old McDonald's Farm. Who can resist cute baby animals . . . not I. The farm has this suspension bridge that the goats climb up on. At first, I thought they were fake but they aren't. They also aren't "rabbits" as the sign states below them. They did have come cute bunnies there also along with baby chicks.

Interesting looking rooster, isn't he?

I love geese so here are a cute picture. We were able to feed both of them. The small one was a very gentle eater.

Strange looking turkey.
Feed me! No, feed me! The impatient babies just came through the fencing while the adults had to wait their turn.
A Draft Horse; he was huge but so gentle.

Pig races . . . my chosen pig came in second. They were in a hurry to get to the cherry flavored kool aid.

Llama's

We saw ponies, baby lambs, calves and lots of chickens. We had a good time and so did all the kids and parents we saw.

From here we headed into Rapid City and grabbed a bite to eat. We then went to Cabela's (a first for us). Boy, it was one of their smaller stores but they had a lot of everything. We found the gas lighters we like and bought us two. They had beautiful full body mounts of all creatures small and large (even a moose and polar bear). We really enjoyed going through their store. Their competitor, Scheels, also has a terrific store here in Rapid City.

Once we were done browsing, we decided we should do a large shop at Safeway (selection is better and so are prices) than the store in Custer which is good for quick stops. We got home and were still able to enjoy a little of sunshine before the clouds started moving back in. Such is being in the Midwest while it is still spring. One thing for sure, all the rain certainly has made the area beautifully green.

Rainy Day

Yep, we didn't do much as it was rain, rain, and more rain. Tomorrow is suppose to be the best day of the week so you count that we won't be sitting around here.

Squirrels, trains and prehistoric animals

John took a picture of the squirrel that hangs around our site. His/her coloring is certainly different from the squirrels we had in Sacramento.

While I was on the computer pondering what to do on this cold, dreary day, Faye knocked on the door and asked if we would like to take the 1880 Train. We said sure and off she went to make reservations. Faye came back a short time later and said that we had reservations for the 1:30 p.m. train and to be ready to leave in about 45 minutes.

The 1880 train is a vintage steam train that winds its way through the scenic hill country between Hill City and Keystone.

The train station.
This caught John's eye as a unique use of a railroad cattle guard.
Water tank for loading the engine with water.
One of the scenic views as we chugged along.
Pretty meadow with a stream wandering through it.
An old caboose left over from some movie shoot a number of years back.

The train ride takes about an hour to get to Keystone and 50 minutes to return to Hill City. The outbound trip has a 6 percent grade to go up that slows the train down. It was a nice trip but it wasn't quite as rural a trip as we thought it would be but our VIP passes got us the trip for free so it was all good. We saw deer, horses, and a marmot or two.

When we were heading back to the truck, Fayed asked if we would mind going through the Black Hills Museum of Natural History since we were in Hill City. We said we'd love to as we really enjoyed this museum last year. Better yet, our VIP passes got us in for free this time. The museum basically deals with all things prehistoric. Here is a shot of different geodes from around the world.

The best part, as far as we are concerned, are the dinosaur displays. Here is what was a predecessor to an alligator.

A Pterodactyl.
A big fish and that's no lie!
A fossilized dinosaur egg - notice the yolk. Awesome.
A Triceratops head.

This is an absolutely wonderful museum on all things prehistoric. In our opinion, this is an absolute must see when you are in the Black Hills area.

By the time we were done with all our sightseeing, we were all starving. We stopped at Crazy Horse and had dinner at their Laughing Waters restaurant where three of us had Indian Tacos (so good) and John had Buffalo Stew.

Another delightful day of sightseeing with Faye and Marshall who are good company.