Hanging Around in Hill City

Today was a lovely, leisurely day of just enjoying ourselves in a low-key kind of way. It seems that although there are oodles of things to see in the Black Hills, we may have seen the things most compelling to us (the Mammoth Site, the drive we took yesterday, Crazy Horse Monument, Deadwood, etc.) and so many of the other things are those kind of “family fun” places which are not geared for us at this point. 

So we went for the practical— we started the day with a visit to the laundromat. The place was small, but not crowded— I was able to get 3 machines right away, and by the time they were done, there was no one else using the dryers either. So I sat down with my iPad and uploaded yesterday’s blog, and tried to get my phones charged at the same time. Working on the blog made the time pass very quickly, and the dryers turned out to be very efficient also (i sure hope my clothes didn’t shrink—i put them on Low but they dried in 30 minutes, a little worrying.) In any case, I was finished at 1:00 pm. Joe and Cassie, meanwhile, were hanging out on the bench outside in the shade, people watching and talking to people who started up conversations. 

Whirligigs and lawn chotchkas

We put all the clean laundry into the Jeep, and then went to find a place on Main Street in Hill City to eat lunch. I was concerned about Cassie, though— the weather had gotten warmer than we expected. So we popped the roof off of the Jeep on the passenger side. It was heavier than I expected, so rather than take it off and try to wedge it into the front seat, we just left it up on the roof! That worked perfectly fine, and we ate right across the street from where we’d parked at the curb.

After lunch, we went back and got Cassie again. I had thought we might go to one of the small museums in Hill City, but Joe wasn’t really in the mood, and I wasn’t too excited about them either. So we wandered up and down the streets, which are full of the kind of stores you’d expect in a small, mostly touristy city— souvenirs, gifts, t-shirts, saloons (it is the Wild West, obviously), etc. But we did have to stop in first at the Beef Jerky Outlet. It was right next door to our restaurant, and Cassie was invited in with us. Joe sampled the jerky while i sampled the chocolate cordials. We both found something yummy to take with us, of course. I wandered into a couple of gift shops, but didn’t damage the bank accounts too much. Joe and Cassie sat outside and Cassie shmoozed with passers-by. We crossed the street and checked out an ice cream shop (I had Black Hills Gold flavor ice cream, which was salty caramel with cashews, pralines, and butterfingers candy. It was outstanding!) We sat on the patio in the shade and watched the people go by. It was just so relaxing! Finally, we visited a store with a lot of lawn “whirligigs” outside, and again they invited Cassie in, so we checked out the gifts as well. Hill City was very dog friendly, with a lot of blue bowls of water lining the streets for dogs to have refreshment. We really enjoyed the day.

“Iron Star” is made out of recycled metal items

We finished up with a quick trip to a local winery. I couldn’t resist going in, because they had big ads lining the road for their signature wine, “Red Ass”. I mean, they showed a donkey on the label, but REALLY? Joe stayed in the car with Cassie, while I went in for a tasting. It turned out that Red Ass was a rhubarb wine, of all things. They gave me 5 free tastes (they had a full complement of everything from dry to super sweet Concord grape), and I just did not care for the Red Ass, despite the intriguing name. So I could not in good conscience buy it as a gift for someone. I did buy another bottle of the Cabernet, which surprisingly, I really liked! We’ll see what the family’s expert thinks of South Dakota wine. 

After that, there was nothing to do but stop at the local grocery store, pick up a few things, and head back up the mountain to our campsite. I put the laundry away while Joe did some electrical things (there’s always maintenance going on around here!) and read my book. After dinner tonight, we are going out to look at the stars— there are about a gazillion stars visible from this campground and it is truly amazing so see. They were beautiful last night, and with a cloudless sky all day today, I’m sure they will be just as extraordinary tonight.

Getting the WOWs in Custer State Park

“Needle’s Eye” Tunnel

2019-08-27 Tuesday

It’s funny that some days driving all day can leave you just tired, and some other days of driving all day can leave you in awe (as well as tired!) Today was one of the latter. We drove all day, we are in fact quite tired, but WOW, what an awesome day!

Today was one of the days which explains why we are towing our Jeep now. We’ve been to the Black Hills three or four times already, but the one place I’ve wanted to go has been out of reach— the loop road through Custer State Park, which includes the Needles Highway and the Iron Mountain Road, both of which have tunnels through the mountains which are too small to accommodate an RV. Today, courtesy of our Jeep, we finally made it through that road.

When we woke up, it was almost COLD out! We put on jeans and sweatshirts, for the first time in months, and it felt delightful. We had breakfast, took a leisurely walk around our campground, and then we packed up our car with a picnic lunch, drinks and water, snacks, my good camera, my iPad, our car jumper, Joe’s walking stick, flashlights (you never know), phone chargers, and Cassie’s water bowl. Then, with Cassie in the back, we set out for a day’s adventures. 

We started the day at the Visitors Center in Hill City (a 25 minute drive down the mountain from our campsite). There, I asked the nice lady specifically about the drive we wanted to take. She explained where to go from the Visitor Center, and what parts of the loop were especially interesting. She also told me where the laundromat is, because that is something we’ll also be needing. And she directed me to the post office— I’ve been carrying around postcards for days, unable to find a place to mail them.

The Needles Highway

It turned out that we had a fantastic internet connection in the parking lot there. So I was able to upload my blog and the photos to go with it— both quite quickly.  Next, after dropping my postcards at the library, headed to Custer State Park. The first stop on the loop, about 6 miles along, was at Sylvan Lake. This was convenient because it had picnic tables and it was 12:30 pm. So we ate our lunch while Cassie lay in the grass nearby. After that, I ran into the gift shop, and of course managed to find a few little souvenirs. 

After we left the lake, we continued climbing and encountered the Needles and the tight tunnels through the road. The experience was extraordinary! This is one of those blogs where I am going to have to let the photos tell the story. (Speaking of which, I took most of my photos on my iPad, and that worked very well.)

The drive continued— we drove through beautiful pine forests along incredibly curvy roads (I can’t guess how many S turns and hairpin turns we made on that road. As a result, the average speed we drove was about 25 miles/hour, I’d guess, and maybe less. We stopped a lot to look at the views, too. At one pullout, we struck up a conversation with another couple about our age, who were from Virginia. We shmoozed and exchanged tips and places to visit, as well as general info (they were on their honeymoon) before setting out again.

In the Wildlife Loop Road, we encountered a herd of buffalo wallowing and digging in a muddy morass by the side of the road. Since it was on BOTH sides, they were IN the road as well. Needless to say, I took photos . Further along, we saw prairie dogs (they were too small and too far away for the iPad to get them, and my good camera was buried), and then a pair of pronghorn deer. Soon after that, we were stopped by a group of semi-tame burros, who spend their time begging for food from travelers. We didn’t feed them, but again, I took photos. And then a few miles further, we encountered yet another herd of buffalo, some right next to us. There seemed to be a large number of calves with their moms, which was sweet. 

The last section of the trip was the Iron Mountain Loop Road, which is famous for the 3 tight tunnels near Mount Rushmore. They were cut into the rock so that when you go through them, the faces of the presidents are framed at the end of the tunnel. I was looking forward to this, but alas, it was actually about 5pm, and the sun was low, and Mount Rushmore was in shade. This meant that the faces were nearly indistinguishable from the surrounding rock until we were very close later on. The tunnels were fun, however, as was the “pigtail” section of the road—a place where the road was supported by wooden structures which led from one tunnel to the next one, and as a result, turned the car about 270 degrees at each junction. It’s hard to describe, but was fun to go down. The road runs right past Mount Rushmore National Monument after that, but we were exhausted, so we headed home instead. 

100,000 miles

We got back to our RV at about 6:30 pm, I think, and we are utterly wiped out. I said to Joe, “But all we did was DRIVE!” And ironically, the loop is only 76 miles. So we didn’t even cover that much territory. But it sure was fantastic. Joe really loves that kind of driving, and there were times that we were the only ones on the road and saw no one else. The forest came down to the edge of the road, and it was beautiful and enveloping. Truly a gorgeous drive. And, as an added fun thing, our Jeep’s odometer went over 100,000 miles! We were just at a turnout when that happened, so we were able to stop and take a photo of the dashboard to commemorate the milestone.  And now, photos:

Badlands and Black Hills—Driving

The road ahead

2019-08-26 Monday 

We had a long day of driving ahead of us today, so we tried to get up and out early. We did a pretty good job hooking up the Jeep, despite the muddy campground— it rained last night, and the campground had a lot of standing water in the grass, and puddles in the road. It wasn’t really mud— the ground in that part of Nebraska is pretty sandy, and the road was sand under gravel. In any case, we worked around the puddles, and got out at about 9:30. 

After that, it was just a long drive! We drove west through northern Nebraska, on a road which is a “scenic highway.” It was very pretty, although it wouldn’t knock anyone’s socks off, but it is pretty in a very mellow way. Lots of bales of hay rolled up, green fields, corn, and then toward the last section, an area known as the Sandhill region (more sand, I guess!) The hills were rolling hills and pretty.

We finally turned north toward South Dakota, after stopping at a Sinclair gas station. It was a bit retro—it had a dinosaur sculpture under the gas sign. We also noticed the price of gas was going up, which I expected. Anyway, we drove 8 miles north and were suddenly in South Dakota. I had originally thought of taking I-90 so we could shorten the trip, but Google maps told me that if we drove the scenic way, it was only about 10 minutes longer. So we drove parallel to I-90 on a road which went through some National Grasslands, with quite a bit of “Badlands” thrown in, and even a section of Badlands National Park (the scenery for those couple of short miles was spectacular.) We’ve been to Badlands NP before, so we didn’t feel too bad about not going up to the main part of the park. We also crossed into Mountain Time, so we are now 2 hours behind home.

Badlands

It *was* a long drive, but eventually we got to the Black Hills area, and followed our directions to Dutchman Campground, which is 6100 feet up in the Black Hills National Forest. The road was steep,

and I was having second thoughts about being so far from all the “touristy” things we might like to do (such as our definite plans for Custer State Park and Mount Rushmore.) It took us almost 30 minutes to get up here once we left the main road. Also, when we turned off to go into the park, there was a 1.5 mile unsaved road full of potholes, which were mostly full of water. So we arrived muddy as well.

But when we got here, we weren’t sorry— it is beautiful, and Joey especially loves being up in the pine forest on top of a mountain. We stopped at the camp host’s site briefly to get a map of the sites, and then came to look for one which might be reasonably level. We found one, but the road itself is very sloped, and we needed something flatter to unhook the Jeep. So pulling forward, we successfully blocked the road and wrestled with all the muddy connections, trying to hurry because of course someone came up behind us and wanted to get past.

Eventually we managed to get it all unhooked, and just then the camp host drove up. The site we’d picked was right next to a double site (which costs double per night), but he told us we could take the double site for the single price. We also got half-price because of our America the Beautiful senior passes, so our cost was a most reasonable $12/night. We have a view of the lake below us, we are surrounded by pine trees, and the campground is only about 1/4 full. So it’s incredibly quiet and beautiful. 

On the way through Hill City (the official address of the campground where we are), I saw a Visitor Center, so we will probably go there first tomorrow. There were also a couple of wineries, and I plan to pick up a couple of bottles of the local product for my son-in-law, the wine connoisseur. After that, I have no idea what we will be doing! I will figure that out once I visit the Visitor Center and get some suggestions. I’m sure, though, that it will be a lovely day.

Another long driving day

Day 4: August 30, 2011

Yesterday continued uneventfully after my blog's ending point. We had a lovely drive through Wisconsin, on some windy hilly roads through gorgeous green farms and countryside. I am just in love with that state--so lush and relaxing. It speaks to me.

We crossed the Mississippi River at La Crosse, and followed the river on the Minnesota side up to I-90. And then we were back on the superslab, driving as fast as we could. We were hungry but didn't want to take the time to make dinner, so we had some fast food, not a very exciting anniversary dinner, but oh well. And then we drove until about 10:30pm when we voted to stop and spend the night at a rest stop. I have to say, I have stayed in many places noisier and more crowded. The highway itself seemed very untravelled and the rest stop had 3 cars when we pulled in. It was dark and even quiet.

We set the alarm for 6:30, hoping to get an early start today. We knew we had to make a stop in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, for our new air conditioner cover, and Joe would have to replace it on the roof. So we were up and out early. It began to rain overnight (luckily Joe decided that would NOT make a difference to our naked AC) and it was lightly raining while we had breakfast. It was cool, too--we dressed in jeans and sweatshirts, and I was cool all morning. We turned on the radio during breakfast, and were entertained by the lead-in story of the news, that the harvest was now 60% in, and by the flat midwestern accents of the announcers. The local news was also interesting--evidently volleyball is a big deal in Minnesota, at least in the southernmost part of the state. Then we started driving and again the road was fairly empty--I don't know where everyone is this year--relatively few RVs and campers compared to the past, I think, and even fewer cars. Perhaps I-90 is just less travelled than I-80...it seemed so empty to us.

So we zoomed through Minnesota and arrived in Sioux Falls around 11 a.m. We spent about an hour at the RV dealer. They were very nice--they had the exact right AC cover, and Joe went up on the roof and had no trouble replacing it--he is just great at this stuff! I, meanwhile, purchased a few other items and made myself generally useless. We left Sioux Falls around noon and headed west again.

The rest of the day was basically about driving. At some point, it got really hot, and we changed from jeans to shorts--I think we went through a 35-degree temperature change today. South Dakota is also a beautiful state--rolling farms, mostly, and the road stretching out endlessly. We stopped for lunch--Joe made me an awesome salad!--and at a beautiful visitor's center in the center of the state near the city of Chamberlain overlooking the Missouri River. (it IS "wide" at that point!) There was also a Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center there.
Then back to the road until 4:30pm Mountain Time (we crossed another time zone--they put them out in the middle of nowhere, amid the corn) when we stopped at Wall Drug. We skipped this stop back in 2007 and I must say, we were smarter then . What a horrific collection of every kind of tchatchka in the entire world! I walked in and walked around but the entire place gave me a headache. Joe and Roxy waited outside on a shady bench and watched the people go by.

Less than an hour later, we were leaving Wall and continuing on. At this point, I started to fall apart--the heat was too much for me and I was stressing because I didn't know where we would stay tonight. I really did not want to spend a lot of money, and a lot of the campgrounds in the area of the Black Hills are ridiculously expensive. The KOA at Rapid City was listed as $25-$80. I mean, who PAYS that for a campground! But we did want internet and Joey pointed out that it would be good to have AC tonight to cool me down.

So I finally found this place called No Name City Campground. It is in Sturgis, which means we are now only about 30 miles "behind" my original day-to-day plan for this trip (obviously the mechanical problems yesterday set us behind; now we're virtually caught up.) It's small and seemed noisy to me, because it is very near the Interstate with no trees or anything as a buffer. But in that it's no different from most of the campgrounds we passed along the highway--they are all sitting out in bare fields without any charm whatsoever. I guess it's because we are on the edge of the Black Hills and not really IN them. The good news though is it only cost us $18.99, a downright steal, and we do have Internet. Today we drove 512 miles.

So now we've had our dinner, I've written this blog, and all I have to do now is wrestle with the photos from yesterday and today. Tomorrow we are on schedule to drive into Montana for the first time, stop at Little Big Horn, and then continue on to Red Lodge for the night. And then, into Yellowstone.

Visionaries

Aug. 24, 2010

Today we spent another day in the Black Hills. We woke up to an absolutely scrumptious day—not a cloud in the sky, and crisp cool weather. I think the latter was helped by the fact that we were up on the side of a mountain, not down in the valley of Deadwood. I decided that after all, I really did want to see Mount Moriah Cemetery, even though I likely wouldn’t get to see the Jewish graves unless we walked up to the top of the hill (and bear in mind, this is not a “hill”, it is a MOUNTAIN.) So anyway we subjected ourselves to one of the 1-hour guided tours which tend to overemphasize the Wild Bill Hickock stories and are less heavy on the history. At least, our tour was like that. The lady at the tourist office said to “pick whichever tour fits your schedule better, they are all excellent”, but our tour guide seemed to specialize in horrendously corny and stupid jokes.

However, we did get the ride up into the cemetery, and it was abundantly clear that Joe and I could *never* have walked up it yesterday, and probably not ANY day. The road up was longer than we’d realized before we even reached the cemetery gates, and then we continued up even further inside. The bus stopped at the gravesites of Wild Bill and Calamity Jane (who is buried right next to him, allegedly as per her request), and Potato Johnny, another colorful Deadwood character. We also stopped for a view of Deadwood—the dead have the best view of the town. I was unexpectedly happy to discover the historical marker about the Jewish gravesites right at our stop, at the corner of David St. and Jerusalem St.—apparently not everyone wants to have to climb up to the VERY top of the hill to read a historical marker. The Jews are buried at the highest part of the cemetery, and if we’d left the tour at that point to go see their graves, we’d be climbing yet another very steep section of walkways. Also it was interesting—on the way out, I noticed that the designs in the iron gates included a Jewish star. Unfortunately the bus was at a bad angle for me and I couldn’t snap a photo in time.
After our bus tour, we did a little bit of shopping. Then we went back to Mo for some lunch, before heading south out of town. We followed Route 384 through beautiful Black Hills scenery, until we reached Crazy Horse, our destination. The sculpture of Crazy Horse seated on his horse, pointing out over the landscape, is going to be the biggest sculpture in the world, by far. So far the only part which is completed is Crazy Horse’s head. It is so monumental that the faces on Mount Rushmore, only 17 miles away, would fit into Crazy Horse’s head. Work on the sculpture has been in progress for 60 years so far.
The project is supported solely by private donations and by the proceeds from visitor fees and purchases at the Crazy Horse Monument—no government money at all. To attract tourists, the site includes not just the view of the mountain carving, but an orientation film, galleries of photos about the project, an Indian Museum, the Native American Cultural and Heritage Center, the studio and home of Korczak Ziolkowski (the sculptor of the work), a restaurant, and a large gift shop. We spent about 3 hours there.

The most interesting parts to us were the historical items and photos dealing directly with the work of beginning and continuing work on such a gargantuan project. From the first letter written by Chief Henry Standing Bear to Korczak asking him to participate in creating a heroic memorial on behalf of the Native American peoples, to the photos of the first blasts of dynamite and the careful photo record of the sculpture’s advance since then, it was fascinating to see how this dream became reality.


What is truly amazing is that none of the people who began the project could ever expect to see it completed; since Korczak’s death, his wife Ruth (now 84) has directed the work, with the help of 7 of her 10 children. At the time when the actual work was begun, the first blasts were attended by the last 5 living tribal elders who had been at the Battle of Little Big Horn! Tonight Joey and I were estimating that we would not be alive when the horse’s head was completed; and thinking about the rest of the sculpture, it will probably take another couple of hundred years. The scope of the project is just mind-boggling.

We finally left Crazy Horse and continued south to Hot Springs. The drive was beautiful; it was after 6, and that is when the wildlife is supposed to be more active. We drove through Wind Cave National Park (which we saw in 2007) and in addition to seeing deer, prairie dogs, and wild turkeys, we also encountered bison at a roadside overlook, and standing in the road nearby.

As for Hot Springs, we stayed in this town 3 years ago to visit the Mammoth Site and head north to Deadwood; today we reversed the trip. We are now in the same KOA we stayed in 3 years ago—it is shaded and nice, and the wifi seems good. Tomorrow we will head further southeast into Nebraska, and get our last new state sticker for this vacation.

Jews in Deadwood

Aug. 23, 2010

After we completed the Enchanted Highway portion of our drive, and the beautiful agricultural landscapes of North Dakota, we crossed the state line and soon discovered that the land in this northwestern corner of South Dakota quickly became endless ranchland rather than unending farms. We passed a lot of cattle, plus quite a few sheep. The land began to change and soon there were outcroppings of rock and large stands of dark green trees. We could see the Black Hills in the distance and suddenly we were there.
We entered the Black Hills area via Sturgis, and quickly found our way to Deadwood. We had spent a day in the Black Hills, including dinner in Deadwood, on our 2007 trip, and really enjoyed it. The entire city of Deadwood is a National Historic Landmark, and there is a lot of tie-in between the current businesses and the historic sites. New buildings have to match the old ones they replace, and casinos (there is legal gambling in Deadwood) are encouraged to maximize the old west theme. There are markers and explanatory information in many places.
This time I was determined to do something I couldn’t find time for in 2007, and that was to trace some of the Jewish presence in Deadwood. Thanks to an article in the Jewish Forward newspaper, I had some information to start with. So after parking Mo and picking up some tourist info and maps, Joe and I walked a few blocks from the parking lot and found ourselves on the historic Main Street of Deadwood. We were heading for the Adams Museum, which among a lot of other fascinating displays about the history of the Black Hills area in general and Deadwood in particular, has a display dealing with the Jewish merchants who were among the founders of the town. At the museum, we read about Harris Franklin, Jacob Goldberg, and Sol Star, Deadwood’s mayor for 14 years. There were photographs and other archival materials which gave texture to the Jewish contributions in helping Deadwood to overcome its wild-west reputation and turning it into a respectable town.
As we walked up and down Main Street we took photos of stores which had been owned by these men, helped by a marker on one corner which detailed some of the information and identified buildings which had been built by Jews or were sites of Jewish-owned businesses.


It was a lot of fun, and nice to have a focus besides gambling (not our interest) and shopping (the Black Hills Gold which is to be found everywhere is one of my favorites, but I have so much of it already!) I am disappointed that we did not have time or energy to go up into Mount Moriah Cemetery, better known perhaps as “Boot Hill”. This is the cemetery where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried—but I had wanted to visit “Hebrew Hill”, the site of the graves of the Jewish founders of Deadwood. The path is extremely steep and we never even made it to the cemetery gates before realizing that at 5 pm after such a long day’s drive, it was just beyond our strength today.

We walked around town for about 3 hours, before heading back to Mo to find a campground for the night. We had absolutely no “bars” on our cell phone, so we couldn’t call anyplace; as a result, we decided to head for the same KOA campground where we stayed 3 years ago. And here we are, two sites away from our previous one, both exhausted (in fact Joe is already asleep). But it was really a wonderful day.

A Golden Day in the Black Hills

Wow--today was so full that I can hardly remember what we did this morning!! Luckily I snuck in that little blog entry to remind me.

The Mammoth Site was really awesome. The site was discovered by a farmer, who was planning to build a subdivision when his tractors kept "hitting things". It was a former sinkhole where scores of Columbian Mammoth bones have been found. He gave it to the state government with the condition that anything found at the site remain at the site. So it is now an archaeological museum, with the building built over the actual dig site. In the basement is the research lab where the bones are cleaned up and studied. They still haven't finished digging up the bones, and both Earthwatch and Elderhostel run trips there every July with people who are then trained to unearth the bones.



You should be able to pick out the skulls with the large tusks in this photo

One of the most interesting tidbits was that all of the skeletons found are of male mammoths! The female guides say it's because the males wouldn't stop and ask for directions, so they fell into the sinkhole! The male guides say it is because the females pushed them in . In reality, our guide (a woman) said the latter was closer to the truth--the majority of skeletons are of "adolescent" males, too young to challenge established bulls, but too old to remain with the herd. The oldest females run the life of the herd, and they would have kicked out the young males, who then had no guidance and fell into the sinkhole.>
An almost complete skeleton (from bottom: leg bones, pelvis, spine, ribs--only the head is missing!) Deb's height compared to a Columbian Mammoth

After we finished our visit at the Mammoth Site, we headed north into Wind Cave National Park, and stopped to take a tour of the cave. That, too was very interesting. The cave is much dryer than places like Howe or Luray Caverns--there are no stalactites or stalagmites. Instead, there is an unusual formation known as boxwork, which was very beautiful to look at--even though it reminded me of moths' wings! Boxwork at Wind Cave
I thought the historical information the guide gave us was just as interesting as the geology. Here is a photo of some graffiti from 1882--the names were of the young man who discovered the cave when he was 16, and subsequently explored 10 miles of it, mapping and recording it all; and his tour group. Some of the names of the latter have been found in the old guest registers in a hotel in Hill City!
After our tour, we had a quick lunch, then continued up through the park on our way north. We passed huge prairie dog colonies, and then suddenly, we saw this guy grazing by the side of the road. I stopped Mo, and jumped out to take this photo. Don't you love the sign? We left the national park, and drove up to Hill City, a funky touristy town with a lot of art, jewelry, restaurants, and of course shops of all kinds. I did some souvenir shopping, and got a way-cool cowgirl hat with rhinestones, LOL! It is so cute!!!. Then we had to make a detour (planned) back to Rapid City to get the wire connection gizmo that Joe had looked for in the morning (the auto parts place in Hot Springs didn't have it, but they referred him to their branch in Rapid City.) The subsequent hour was spent doing some more work on our flukey alternator/voltage regulator combo. I don't want to give it the evil eye by writing more, but it might be fixed.

Oh--almost forgot! On the drive up to Hill City, we passed the Crazy Horse Monument. We didn't stop, but you don't really have to stop-- the head of the statue is so totally gigantic that it is clearly visible from the highway. The overall size of it close up must be mind-boggling. And for those wondering why we didn't go to Mt. Rushmore--we did both see it before. I understand the new evening program they have is pretty terrific, but as you can tell, we felt we hardly had time for anything! There is just so much to do here.

The sad part of having to deal with the regulator is that it took away a couple of hours from our Black Hills day. We left Rapid City and drove back into the Hills, up to Deadwood. I had been eager to walk the streets with the article I'd found in the Forward newspaper, talking about the Jewish presence in early Deadwood. But we got here at dusk, and it seemed like exploring the cemetery wasn't such a hot idea (Deadwood IS haunted, you know!)

However, we once again stopped at a KOA, and although the ambience leaves a lot to be desired (let's face it, it's a parking lot!), the people are great, and there was a shuttle down into town. So as soon as we parked and walked Roxy, we went into Deadwood for a steak dinner, which seemed the most appropriate meal in such a place.

I hadn't realized that Deadwood was like a mini-Las Vegas. The entire historic district is filled with casinos. So I'm not sure i missed that much in terms of historical touring. Nevertheless, I would like to come back again some day--there was SO much we didn't or couldn't do today, including drive through Custer State Park, which is supposed to have incredible wildlife. I'm already planning a return trip to this part of the world someday soon--it seems definitely do-able for a 2 week vacation!
Tomorrow's plan: up early, and head for Wyoming. A stop at the Devil's Tower National Monument, and then on to Thermopolis.