Deadwood, SD

We made a run to Deadwood to see what all that was about,,,visited the place where Wild Bill Hickok was shot and killed which just so happened to be in a saloon, which is now a casino,,,and yes, we played,,,the casino gave us $5 'on the house' to join their club so why not? I played by $5 for almost 2 hours and in addition my name was called for the 'hot seat' cash for $15 and I parlayed it all into well over $50,,yes, I know...my win was a 'wash' after Ted told me his $5 lasted about 5 minutes then he started digging into his pockets,,,but hey, it was fun while it lasted and the casino staked me! We had dinner upstairs in Wild Bill's restaurant overlooking main street and darned if I didn't see Wild Bill mozying down the street looking for trouble...yeah, I put my winnings back in,,,got to learn to walk away,,,,

Crazy Horse Memorial, SD

Next day we headed up to Crazy Horse Memorial-only 8 miles from Mt. Rushmore,,now, that impressed me..talk about big? when finished - Mt. Rushmore[remember the measurements?] will fit in just the head of Crazy Horse...when finished the entire sculpture will measure 641 feet long and 563 feet high..and just the head of Crazy Horse is 87 feet high...after touring the museum, gift shops, watching a film, artists studio, we enjoyed a befitting lunch of indian fry bread taco and tatanka stew while looking up the mountain from the Laughing Water restaurant,,,,the sculpting started in 1948 when sculptor Korcazk Ziolkowski was invited by Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear to sculpt a hero of the red man letting the white man know they have heroes also,,,Korcazk, a firm believer in the free enterprise system, felt that Crazy Horse should be built by the interested public and not the taxpayer,,twice he turned down federal funding,,also knowing the project was larger than any one person's lifetime he left detailed plans and scale models to continue the project,,since his death in 1982, his wife and ten children working in concert with the Crazy Horse Memorial Foundation Board of Directors, has directed the work which continues to make exciting progress each year,,all without state or federal funds,,to see the finished sculpture would be a dream of mine and so it shall be,,,

Mt. Rushmore, Keystone, SD

It's getting cooler but so far just rain and no snow,,we continue our easterly course leaving huckleberry country and entering choke cherry country... I'm about huckleberried out,,,tonight we camped at the Palmer Gulch KOA - 2 miles from Mt. Rushmore - after setting up camp we head up the hill to see the Presidents,,,I have to admit here that I was a little disappointed,,not in the park itself, but in my mind I had the sculptures much larger,,don't get me wrong, they are great sculptures and the park is nice,,,just smaller than I thought,,,Ted just laughs at me telling me that the photos I have seen were probably made from a helicopter up close and appearing much larger,,,he's such a funny guy...

and just to give it a little perspective,,these sculptures are about 80 times larger than a normal human head, amounting to 4 - 60 ft. sculptures..and with this in mind,,we went over to see Crazy Horse - Memorial and Indian Museum of North America...

Gillette, WY

Gillette, Wy is not RV friendly,,well, shall I say,,short term RV friendly? What an impressive place though...we ended up camping near Pine Haven about 30 miles east of Gillette on the banks overlooking Keyhole Lake...we helped Amy move into her new digs in Gillette - new apartment building - great location and just an all around neat place - she loves her job ,,got that 'morning' drive slot,,loves Gillette and loves her new digs,,,it was a good visit...always sad when I leave my kids but know that she is in a good place and that leaves me with a smile and good feeling,,,

Devil's Tower Nat'l Monument, WY

,,,just northeast of Gillette - the first National Monument...didn't know that until we got there...you know the one in "Close Encounters"?,,Richard Dreyfuss kept building it out of mashed potatoes....I admit it is impressive and just up there,,we stopped at the KOA at the base of the monument where they show the movie each evening with the tower as the backdrop....

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument

Left Red Lodge, MT this morning, Sept. 18th,, heading to Billings, MT and I-90...the Crow Reservation is outside of Billings and this is where you will find the Little Bighorn National Monument

A Clash Of Cultures,,,

...one of the last armed efforts of the Northern Plains Indians to preserve their ancestral way of life,,on a hot June day in 1876 more than 260 soldiers and attached personnel of the U.S. Army met defeat and death at the hand of approximately 7,000 Lakota, Cheyenne and Arapaho, including 1,500 to 2,000 warriors,,,led by Sitting Bull they refused to be restricted to their reservation,,,Custer, apparantly underestimating the size and fighting power of the Lakota and Cheyenne forces, divided his regiment into three battalions,,,and well, you know the rest of the story,,,the monument was very well done honoring all who died during the battle, even the horses,,,,

Beartooth Pass, MT

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I think one of the biggest lessons we may have learned,hopefully have learned,,is to ask more questions of Park Rangers or even locals about roads to travel...not that we didn't ask as we did, but thinking back we just didn't ask the right questions,,,on our way out of Yellowstone NP we did ask the Park Ranger about the NE entrance? to which she replied "no problem,,some construction outside of the park on Beartooth Pass,,you should have no problem",,,with that,,we headed to the NE entrance, enjoying a picnic lunch on Yellowstone Lake watching the geese on the lake...out the entrance we go looking back down at Yellowstone,,climbing, then climbing some more,,,winding around a little,,beautiful scenery and forest,,first noticing all the campgrounds going through the Absaroka Range,,Nez Pierce forest are all “closed for the season”,,,we continue to climb,,,then the construction begins,,and one lanes and lead cars,,,more climbing,,,we finally make it to "top of the world" so I think to myself,,well, this wasn't so bad and the construction was minimal...but just when we thought we wouldn't climb anymore up popped the signs, you know the ones that wiggle and display hairpin turns?...we also notice that we have not met any RV's on the highway,,if we could have turned around we would but we were already in too deep so we had to keep going,,,and yes, we had a line of cars behind about 8 deep so can imagine the chatter going on there,,,the photos will tell the tale of the 11,000+ ft. climb and then the dissent to Red Lodge...all I could do was pray and take photos...at the 10,000+ ft. level we stopped to rest and let drivers go around,,,another RV that was behind us also pulled in,,,they had a 23' cabover and were amazed at our choice of driving Beartooth Pass,,,telling us that it would soon be closed as it was only a seasonal road due to the massive amounts of snow that gets dumped there every year,,and of course the alpine glaciers [photos included]...arriving at the KOA in RedLodge the host chuckled a little under his breath when we told him where we had been telling us that he told folks to not even go that direction anytime of the year, much less pulling a 40’ fifth wheel,,,I am going to search for a bumper sticker that states something like "We survived Beartooth Pass",,,much like the 'road to Hana' bragging rights....

Charles Curalt once stated that this route was the most scenic highway in the lower 48....I would have to agree,,,

Downtown Red Lodge reminds me of the typical winter ski town,,log cabins,,lodges,,snowmobiles parked alongside the cabins waiting for the snow,,,Humphrey Bogart's Cafe allowed us to sit down, enjoy a drink and talk about our day on Beartooth Pass and unwind a bit...nothing like a huckleberry martini,,,,

Yellowstone National Park

                       

 Old Faithful

YELLOWSTONE NATIONAL PARK

We had a rather long drive after leaving Polson to West Yellowstone.Knowing what we know now we would go into Yellowstone from the northwest entrance near Gardiner, MT..We stayed in the KOA campground about 2 m. west of the west entrance and I must say it is one of the prettiest campgrounds we have stayed, along with an indoor pool and spa as well as being nestled in the Gallatin Forest. Next morning we headed into the park,,did I mention we, well Ted purchased a lifetime national park pass last year for $10 when we stayed on Mustang Island, and it has paid for itself many times over for us during our little adventure,,,just thought I would throw that in just in case any of you get this same gypsy-lifestyle adventure notion....the road from Norris to Madison was closed for construction so we headed south,,,first up were the elk grazing in the meadow along the Madison River, followed by the Bison scattered about the park and on the roadways,,heading toward Old Faithful you come upon the lower geyser basin and I must say that topping the hill and seeing all the steam rising from various areas of the earth's floor was a bit unsettling,,,but it gets better....of course one has to walk about on the wooden paths to explore the geysers up close with posted warnings along the paths about not getting off the paths, etc. so who built these sidewalks over the boiling water anyway?,,,, did I tell you about the bubbling pools of muck - mud pots and paint pots - water over 200 degrees all around us - oh, and the smell of sulphur? peeuweee...I felt we were in a pre-historic land far, far away..onward to the midway geyser basin and then Biscuit Basin,,,Black Sand Basin and finally up to Upper Geyser Basin where we made it around to Old Faithful around lunch time and just in time to watch her do her thing,,,then had a cold hard sandwich from the cafe,,nothing to brag about...advantages of traveling out of season is not having to contend with hoards of tourists and sometimes getting a break on lodging but disadvantages are also that these places tend to use up what foods they have at the end of the season before they shut down for winter...ever have a 3 cheese sandwich with no mayo, lettuce or tomato? I have to chuckle and laugh at us humans from time to time,,,while driving thru the park [not more than 45mph and crossing the Continental Divide 2 times] all of a sudden you see cars pulled off to the side of the highway,,like sheep others fall in behind quickly whipping onto the shoulder, or even stopping in the middle of the road to see what is going on?,,,,there it is,,,a bull elk taking what started out to be a leisurely walk thru the forest,,no, we didn't stop...but I did roll down the window and gawk a bit to see what the fuss was all about,,,,first of many sitings 'throughout the park,,,I can just see Mr. Bear in the mornings holding the weekly meeting with the elk, bison, wolves and other bears....'okay now you wildlife listen up,,,,seems the bull elk have made headlines in this weeks issue of Yellowstone News..reports of you 'charging' a tourist in your meadow while grazing near the Madison River...also headlining was Mr. Bison,,seems you gored a tourist near where you crossed the Madison River...I say,,let's try to avoid the charging and goring of tourists,,they mean no harm,,although their cameras may look like cannons,,they are only taking photos,,so let's take it easy and only the tourists that are really annoying will suffer your impatience...along with the wolves most of the bears will be heading north to ready our dens for winter and our sightings will be non-existant until spring most likely - so I say to you all,,,just get out there and create some traffic jams this week'....