South Dakota Vacation - Day 3

Today we went to the Crazy Horse Monument in the morning. My uncle told me that they lived in a house about 200 yards off the road at the entrace to the monument and told me to look for an old house on the right. If he is right this is the house my grandmother raised her five boys at. She was widowed when she was pregnant with her last child (the one who told me where the house was located at).
We left Custer heading west to Newcastle Wyoming. We went north from there to Lead South Dakota where the gold mines were.

This was one of the sights we saw driving our short stretch in Wyoming. This was just a mountain in someones field, no special markings. I thought it was pretty with the white on the top and the red dirt with the green trees at the foot of the hill.

When we got to Lead we had lunch at a Pub on Main Street. In Lead the streets are almost straight up and down. And I had to parallel park to boot. It took me a few seconds to remember which way to turn the wheels when you are parking facing down hill. I turned them to the right toward the curb. I guess I was right because when I was sitting with mom on the deck eating lunch I scoped out all the other cars and they followed my lead.

The clock below was right next to the pub we ate at.

The buildings below are part of the old gold mine "Homestake" in Lead. The gold mine was active for 125 years closing in 2002.

The open pit gold mine in the picture below is one of the mines in the area. This hole was huge. I had an uncle that worked in these mines in the 70's.

I'm not sure what this contraption was for but it was up on the side of the hill above the open pit mine.
This is one of the trains used in the mine to pull the rock out of the mine.
We finally made it to Deadwood which is now the area for gambling. I thought this hotel was a good picture. We made it home in time for a nice nap.

We wanted to go see the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore. You can see we made it. I have never really taken pictures after dark so this is one of the first of my attempts.

One of the rangers gave a 30 minute talk about the monument and what each of these men did for our country. It was very informative and it was quite amazing how much she taught me that I should have already known.

At the end they brought down the service men and women. They took volunteers from that group to take the flag down and fold it. Then each of them stated what branch of the armed forces they were in and their name. It was a very nice end to the day.

South Dakota Vacation - Day 2

There are just some days you can't summarize everything. Today is one of those days for me. It was so full from the beginning to the end. I am going to summarize the best I can what we did; where we went and what we saw today.

To start off we took the road out of Custer heading to Mount Rushmore. On the way you could see the Crazy Horse Monument from the road. We have not been down to the monument yet but we plan to do that on our trip. Here is the picture I got with my nice zoom lens. It's almost as good as being at the park.
One of the big things I wanted to do was to go see Mount Rushmore. And as you can see we could not have picked a better day to go. Mom read that the best time to take photos is in the morning. The lighting was perfect. In the gift shop they had a man who had actually worked on the monument for 3 years. He was 18-21 during his 3 years working on the monument. He is 88 years old and was in good health. It was really neat to get to talk to him. The monument was being built from 1928-1941.

On the road down from the monument there is a place you can take a profile picture of George Washington. I didn't remember that as a child when I was here but I'm so glad I stopped to take the picture. After we left Mount Rushmore we went to a town named "Hill City" to have lunch. Mom had a Buffalo Burger and I had a BBQ Pork sandwich. I was a bit buffalo'ed out since the night before I had a Buffalo Sirloin and for lunch I had a Buffalo Burger. Least to say they serve a lot of buffalo here.

After lunch we were heading to Custer State Park and the Needles highway. This was the second thing I really wanted to see up here. So I guess today was my day to pick and choose. As you enter the park there is a lake "Lake Sylvan" and it's so beautiful.

The reason it's called the needles highway is the rocks and this one in particular is called the Needles Eye. We continued to drive through the needles highway and I have so many pictures you are not seeing but here is one we had someone take of me and mom.This area is called the Cathedral. Not sure why but it was a sight to see as we drove around the twisting roads.

I wanted to see the Bison in the wild. I was corrected that they are not called Buffalo but they are North American Bison. So from here on out I'll refer to them as Bison. This one was out in the wild just walking around. We couldn't help it we saw the prarie dogs and we had to stop and feed them some of the peanuts from yesterday. The ones in the park here were not as tame as the ones yesterday but he figured out we were pretty cool and took the peanut and made his feast on it.

I'm not really sure what these animals were they looked like a different type of deer than what we have in the south. They were all over the place.

We finally ran into a South Dakota Traffic Jam with a bunch of donkeys. One car made the mistake of rolling down the windows and feeding one. Nex thing they knew they had donkeys with heads all the way in the car from both sides eating. I'm glad I was not in that car, I'm not big on donkey slobber in my car.

At last we found what I remember my dad showing me all those year ago. The field with all the Bison in it. There were over 500 in the herd in the picture below. The guard said there are 1200 more but they were not sure where they were in the park today. There were Bison Chips all over the place. You had to watch your step

Once we left the State park we had about a 10 mile drive on a dirt road before we got out on the blacktop heading to my uncles house. I took pictures of all the hay yesterday and we saw a bunch of haystacks in the fields today. I have not seen that in years and thought I'd share it with everyone.

We finally made it to my Aunt and Uncles house in Buffalo Gap. The town is very small and all the roads are dirt. I saw my uncle last when my grandmother passed way in 1995. I had not seen my aunt since the winter of 1987 (22 years back). Least to say it was really good to visit with them again. My aunt's mom lives with them and remembers seeing me when I was a little kid back in the early 70's when we visited them in Elgin, IL.

My uncle shared pictures with me he had of my dad when he was a baby and little boy. He had a sheet of photo paper with my Grandma and Grandpa and the military pictures of all the boys. My grandfather had two sons from a prior marriage both of which served in WWII. Then my dad was the first for my grandma and he served in WWII and Korea. Then her other four sons served in Korea.

My uncle told us a lot of the family history. Some I knew and a lot I didn't know about. He told me my Grandfather had been gassed in World War 1. He was originally from Freemont, Nebraska and the reason they ended up in Custer was because they had a hospital there and the altitude. They sent the military boys who had been gassed to these areas. He also told me about one of my relatives that lead Brigham Young to Utah.

Our history seems to be between South Dakota, Nebraska, Oklahoma and back to South Dakota. I really thought I was the first of the Dowty's to be the Okie... But he told me I wasn't. Darn, can't I be the first at something?

We left my uncles house with a wooden shoe that my Great Uncle Gillis wore when he came over from Holland. He was married to my Grandmother's Sister and they never had any children. He maintained the Custer Cemetary for years.

I also left with some pictures I will cherish from my dad's childhood.

So that is my day in a nutshell. I know today's blog was long but it was such a full day I couldn't shorten it much more.

Greetings from the other South State - South Dakota

Well this is it... Live from the other South State! South Dakota. At last a trip for pleasure instead of work. Today we left Rapid City and toured the Badlands National Park area about 50 miles East of Rapid City, SD. The fields on the drive were loaded with hay and rolling hills. Here is a picture of the fields with hay as far as you could see.
South Dakota is famous for Wall Drug. When my dad was in the military he saw signs in Japan of how many miles it was to Wall Drug in South Dakota. They had road signs all the way from Rapid City and I found this offer of Free Ice Water just too funny not to take a picture of.

Of course when we got to Wall Drug sure enough there was the Free Ice Water. I guess if you advertise you have to make the effort to deliver right?

Wall is a small town on I-90 just north of the Badlands and just East of Rapid City. The town is really small and pretty much all there is to do is eat and shop at the drug store. Mom was brave enough to ride the Jackalope. Note there is not a picture of me doing this. I know what get's posted on the internet.

Anyone who knows me knows the terror I have when it comes to snakes. So you know I was not too thrilled to see this sign. Of course it was far too hot for the snakes to be out, we didn't see a one. I guess this is one way to keep people on the path (NOT).

I got off the path and saw this beautiful picture. I wanted to know what he was looking at so I had to get closer.

When I did I realized what this fella must have been thinking... How the heck am I gonna get down there? And why are they hanging on the side of the cliff like that? Is there room for three?

Once we got through the bulk of the Badlands which I consider "South Dakota's Grand Canyon" we started seeing the prarie dogs. They were so cute and I bought some unsalted peanuts to feed them. This one even posed for me. As you can tell he's had a few peanuts in his days, look at that pot belly.

Just before checking into our room we ran across the cemetary that is one of the reasons we came. My dad's family is from Custer SD and we wanted to see my grandparents graves. My real grandfather passed away when my dad was about 8 years old. We found his gravesite quicker than we thought considering I have not been here in 14 years and mom in about 17 years.

Not sure what the plans for tomorrow hold. Sometime this week we will see Mt. Rushmore; Crazy Horse and then who knows what from there. Keep an eye out and I'll try to post more pictures if I have time.

What a lazy blogger

I know it’s been a week and I’m still uninspired to write. Last week was a good week mom came to Lufkin where I was working to spend the week with me. We really had a good time and I’m glad I have been assigned a place close enough she can come see me.

I caught a nice summer cold on the way home so the weekend was spent sniffling and sneezing. And today I am on my way back to Houston. Next week I get to head back to Oregon and I’m really excited to get that long flight again. It gives me time to write and do things I never seem to do on the shorter flights.

I had sworn off vacations this year to focus on the remodel at the house. Well this is a testament to my will power… I booked tickets to South Dakota and then later this year I’m heading off to Isla Mujeres. So much for not taking a vacation! Good thing I get all the frequent flyer miles and the costs are minimal. When I was able to secure my tickets to South Dakota for the lowest miles and $10 I thought I just have to do it.

So I will get to see the area my dad grew up in. I have not been there since 1995 when I went to my grandmother’s funeral. My dad was raised in the Black Hills in a town named Custer.

www.visitcuster.com

He always told me when he went into the military that he found out there were places you could live and not have the bitter cold. He never went back there to live, only to visit after that.

Well it wasn’t much to write about today and just the mixed up ramblings. At least you all know I’m still alive though.

Trip last week

I’m not sure how all you folks write so often from home. I always get preoccupied and don’t ever sit down to write anything. You must be much more disciplined than me.

Last week on the drive from Arkansas to South Carolina I took a few pictures to share with everyone. One of those was in Birmingham, AL. We were on the loop around town and I saw this replica of the Statue of Liberty. It was so beautiful I had to share it with everyone.
On my post last week I told you I felt we had it made when we crossed the Mississippi River. On the way home I noticed that we saw the Kudzu again once we were on the East side of the river. They have it west of the Mississippi but not like we have in the east. This vine crawls all over everything and grows up to a foot a day. I don’t have pictures of it but someday I’ll have to get a picture and post it.

The girls were both very good on the trip. The cat “Pez” hates to get packed up and travel. Once we get her in the car she is really pretty good. She’s the only one with a bathroom on the road. Sheeot (the dog) is just as happy as can be if you put her near an AC vent. She spent a lot of her time sleeping in my lap and when she was not there she was between the seats with her head on my travel pillow.

I hope everyone is having a good week. I hope to get inspired to write more in the next few days.