Happy Trails to You!

One thing we've learned about being in the Black Hills after September is that a lot of things close for the winter. Yesterday we wanted to go up to Mt. Rushmore on the Iron Mountain Road. We "got right close," but around a corner came upon a closed gate. The road was closed. So we took an alternate route, but the one we wanted to go on has three tunnels, and they've arranged the tunnels so that you can see Mt. Rushmore through the tunnels. I'm sorry I missed that.

Anyway, Mt. Rushmore was awesome as usual. George Washington had a little snow "dandruff" on his shoulder.







After Rushmore, we went to Hill City and ate at the Alpine Inn. It was wonderful German fare, and we also had hot apple cider.

Then we wanted to travel the Needles Highway. It is known as such because of the pointed rock formations known as "needles." It was also closed. Both highways were closed because of the snow that had fallen Monday. So I guess I'll have to come back and see those places sometime when it's not snowing. But for now, I'm glad we came in this season.



Since Needles Highway was closed, we went to Custer and ate pie. I had rhubarb, my first try. I think it's delicious, Justin and Paul. I think the lady who waited on us was a little nervous about me trying it, but I loved it. It was just the right amount of sour and sweet. We got to talking to a local couple there at the pie shop, and talked for over an hour! That was different and fun! They told us about the wildlife they see from their house, and we talked and talked.



Then we went to the Crazy Horse Monument. It's an amazing project, much bigger in scope and size than Mt. Rushmore. I wonder if I'll be alive when it's finished. The museum there just goes and goes. It's a huge collection. You can't experience it in one visit. We stayed after dark for the light show, and were sorry we did, because when we left to go home it was dark and it was snowing...and we weren't familiar with the highway.



We finally made it back to the hotel after an hour's drive. We were both tired from the stress of trying to see through the blinding white snow.

This morning dawned cold. We decided at the last minute to catch the 1880's train from Hill City to Keystone and back, a round trip of 20 miles. We did get to the depot on time, but just barely. The train ride was a total of 2 hours, as the train goes a whopping 10 miles per hour. It was beautiful, but very cold! My feet and legs got real cold, and I wished I had put on my long john's!











After the ride, we went in to eat at the Hill City Cafe, where the waitresses were running their legs off, as a tour bus had just come in. The only seats were at the bar, so Jackie and I joined the other man there. I started talking to the man, who it turns out, is married to one of the waitresses. A local. So we talked and talked; he told us some more scenic routes to try that we hadn't yet...

So we went to Deerfield, and from there on gravel road to Rochport, and then up to Spearfish, where we are staying tonight.




The "non-road" we were on today!


At Spearfish, we joined up with Barbie and Dave and their son Jase at Sanford's to eat dinner. We spent an enjoyable two hours with them. Barbie used to work for a software company that Jackie does business with, and we had both met her before, but it was our first time to meet Dave and Jase. Jase showed me the wooden miner in the restaurant. He was amazing; a five-year-old that really behaved well the whole two hours that we visited.



All in all, we just haven't met any South Dakotan's that we wouldn't be proud to call friends. We have had an amazing vacation. We leave tomorrow to go to Wyoming to see Marie and John. We'll stay there for a day, then leave on Sunday morning to return to Texas. Great time, great sights, great experience!

Just a little sprinkle on the top, please...

On Monday, while we were coming up from Nebraska and spending the day at Wounded Knee, the Badlands, and Wall Drug, it was snowing on other parts around here. Jackie heard a lady on the telephone at Wall say that it had snowed a foot at Mt. Rushmore. But we didn't see any of it that day.

Yesterday, because it was so sunny, we decided to go to Spearfish Canyon. It's the prime reason we're here, and we wanted to take advantage of a sunny day. What we didn't know at the time we set out was that it would be drop-dead gorgeous with the yellow aspens, the green pines, the black hills, and the smattering of white snow.









Spearfish Peak

We wound through already-snowplowed highways up to the town of Spearfish, ate lunch at the Cedar House, and came back on I-90 to Rapid City, then set out again, this time to the south and Custer State Park. At Custer, we saw more beautiful scenery, pronghorn antelope, bison, and deer. And we got off the pavement and went down a couple of the dirt roads of the state park, Oak Draw and Lame Johnny. (I do wonder who that one is named after.) It was all beautiful.






This was Lame Johnny road.

We came back at sunset and washed the car -- it was sooo nasty from the snow and the salt on the highways and the muddy roads! Then we spent a few minutes in the whirlpool and headed up to bed!

Bury my Heart....

We started out our day in Chadron (pronounced with "sh") and headed north to Pine Ridge, SD. As soon as we arrived in Pine Ridge, we stopped for gas at the first station we saw. I went inside to use the restroom, and knew immediately that I was on the Sioux reservation. The restroom signs were in Sioux; so was the sign on the trash can. there was a mosaic seal on the floor of the gas station, with Sioux words on each side, and their English translation below; they were words such as Honesty, Courage, Respect, Courage, etc. I was looking at the floor when up walked an Indian man who began talking to me.

I knew as soon as I walked in the building that I was in the minority; it didn't bother me. I respect the Indian nation. So when this man, who introduced himself as Floyd John, began talking to me about the floor and how it meant balance with the Creator, oneself, and Mother Earth, I listened. In some ways he made sense, and I listened more than I talked, but when he asked why I was there, I thought for just a few seconds, then said, "My husband and I have been wanting to come here for some years, so it's like a pilgrimage to us." He said, "Why?" And I said, "To go to Wounded Knee." He said again,"Why?" And I said, "To honor the dead." He struggled to maintain his composure. As we parted, we both said, "God bless you."

We wanted to go to the site of the massacre at Wounded Knee, the last "battle" between the Sioux and the federal soldiers.

It was a sad place. There is not much honor there. There's just a plaque, front and back, that tells the story. It has graffiti on the back. And there's a mass grave with a marble marker on the hill just 400 feet to the west of the massacre. That's all.




At the gravesite, we met four men from Minnesota, who took our picture after we took theirs. They were there to feed the homeless in nearby Clay Hills, the city we passed just before Pine Ridge.


The mass grave site, where all 160 Indians and soldiers were buried in late December, 1890.

Then, as we were coming down the hill where the grave is, a woman got out of the only other car in the parking lot with us. She was Indian, and introduced herself. We chatted for a bit, then she extended what she had been playing with: it was a little black bag, decorated with beads. She asked if we wanted to buy a medicine bag; this one contained sage. I was pleased and we took it for what she asked. She lives in Wounded Knee. Even though there was no souvenir shop nearby, I was handed one. It will be special to me.

By this time, it was noon. We headed to the Badlands National Park. It took us a while to get out of Pine Ridge Reservation, and we looked at all the little towns we passed through to see if there was anywhere we could buy something to eat. Nothing. It was past 1 pm when we entered the Badlands, and just inside there was a place to eat! It was a wonderful souvenir shop/cafe. We had the Sioux Indian Taco and I had hot tea, as the day was cold and drizzly. We had a fantastic view from the cafe window of the badlands. I had never seen them before, and they are amazing. God is indeed creative. Big brown and pink-striped hills rising from the grassed prairie, with seemingly no rhyme or reason.

Our view from the cafe.

The cafe was decorated with lovely sunflowers in vases. They didn't look real, but they were standing in water. I took a snapshot of the ones in the bathroom, and then afterwards read the sign that said that taking pictures in the building was prohibited. So enjoy the black market picture!!!


Just outside the Badlands was an authentic sod house built into the prairie hillside. I suppose this is what the Ingalls' sod house looked like, too.


Just in front of the sod house was a prairie dog colony, which I've seen before in West Texas. What I had never seen before were white prairie dogs. But that's the type of prairie dog there was in that location.



After leaving the Badlands, we drove east to Wall, South Dakota. This town was made famous by Wall Drug. The owners made it famous by offering free ice water to anyone that was thirsty. Today, it occupies a whole city block, and 20,000 people come through there every day during the summer months. That's a whole lot of people.


We didn't buy a thing, but we browsed through nearly the whole place.


We were disappointed that there were no cups at the ice water holes, but I guess not many people want ice water when the outside temperature is 45 degrees!

All day I was enthralled while sitting in the passenger seat, at the amazing palette of colors. From the nearly neon orange of grasses along the side of the road to russets and olive greens and nearly black land with tiny bits of green coming up that make them look almost maroon at times (I know, that sounds really crazy). Then we saw the cottonwoods that ranged in color from green to yellow and the pine trees with their dark green to other trees that looked sawdust in color. And dark red nearly maroon bushes on the side of the road. So amazing, and I don't do it justice at all...I hope I can hold it in my mind.

We are now in Rapid City, and will be here for three nights. We will be seeing a lot of things in the next few days, and I'll try to keep you updated. We are enjoying ourselves here. I think we'll hit the whirpool later on tonight. At this particular hotel, it is in an adjacent indoor waterpark named WaTiki. Go figure!

Traveling

Jackie and I have been planning a vacation for some time now. He has wanted to show me around the Black Hills for some years now, and show me at the time of the peak fall color, so we are going now.

The main place he has wanted to show me is Spearfish Canyon, just to the north of Rapid City, South Dakota, so that will be one of the places we visit.

We left yesterday morning, and drove north through west Oklahoma and western Kansas. There wasn't much to see, and we spent the night at the Holiday Inn Express in Garden City, Kansas. The whirlpool was so nice! We sure enjoyed it after driving for 9 hours.

Yesterday was mostly 67 to 70 degrees all day long, but all through Oklahoma, the sky was full of clouds that really looked like snow, of all things.

This morning, we started out at 40 degrees, and never got above 41, with rain pretty much since noon or so. About an hour north of Garden City, we stopped to look at some Pueblo Ruins, known as El Cuartelejo. Of course we didn't know what to expect, so it was an adventure! We followed signs for a time, then the trail got cold, and we knew it, so we turned around. We turned into a state park, hoping someone there could direct us to it, but no one was around. I guess there's no one who wants to camp out when it gets into the 30's at night. Go figure.

But we went just a little further, and found the signs again. The ruins were just a little square of four rooms, but it was cool to see something that was there more than 400 years ago. Cuartel means an army outpost in Spanish, so cuartelejo may mean the small army outpost. It was still around in 1604, 4 years before Jamestown. Too cool. Picture below.




Cute woman, huh?

Then, we continued on our journey, but were just a little down the road when we saw a whole herd of bison on our left! Jackie quickly stopped on the shoulder of the road, and scampered across the road to take pictures. There was a semi right behind us. As he passed us on the top of the hill, he hit the air horn, which startled the bison to run toward us! Jackie caught an awesome video of it!







So enjoy the video. We did!

We crossed into Nebraska sometime around noon. Then, between Ogallala and Lewellen, Nebraska, we passed a sod house! Jackie promptly turned around and we went to see what we could see. Turns out it was a sod house recreated in 1967, but it was neat to see it anyway. And it was built right where a house was on the old Oregon Trail, just west of Windlass Hill. We (you guessed it) took some pictures. It was raining lightly by this time; my new jacket sure was warm!




The sign by the gate says: "Close gate please -- otherwise cattle get in and rub the old sod house down. Thanks" I thought it was quaint!




Yes, that's right, there were cacti growing on the roof of the sod house!

And, finally, one last picture of a weird lady and her sweet husband...



All in all, a great day! More to come...