We could see Devil's Tower from our site.

We watched to moon come up over a hill.  At first I thought there was a forest fire and it was getting worse..... only the moon.

Devil's Tower from another place in the KOA.

 

A couple of retired teachers from Tenn. took our picture in front of the tower at the park entrance.

There is a huge prairie dog town just inside the park.

We walked around the tower on a 1.3m trail.

Some people scrambled up on to the rocks, not me.  I'd kill myself.

The view of the valley with the tower to our back.

The Indians still hold the tower as sacred and put prayer flags up in the trees.

We watched a climber repel down one of the cracks.

There was someone up top feeding down the rope.

That tiny red roof is the KOA from the trail.

Another side of the tower.

We were almost finished with our walk.  Now you can see all the trees.

The day we got to Deadwood we decided to drive on down to Mt. Rushmore.  This was our first look at the faces.

The Avenue of the Flags

This what you can see from the top of the theater.

We walked the trail again this time.  It is suppose to have about 400 steps down and then you have to climb back up.  It feels like at least 5000.

Down on the trail you get a different view, like up Washington's nose.

The pile of rocks is from the carving.

On our way to eat dinner in Hill City we saw a mountain goat family.  We got fairly close and they didn't seem spooked.

We went back to Rushmore for the lighting show.  After a movie they called down all the vets and active duty military.  There was quite a crowd.

At least 100

There was a flag lowering ceremony with six volunteers. 

That's your dad in the blue hat.

Rushmore in lights

We spent one afternoon in the town of Deadwood.  It's old.  this is the post office. 

There is several sculptures in town.

this is Wild Bill Hickock

They had a "play" in front of a casino of a gun fight. The man with his back to the camera Was "shot" in the forehead and was suppose to have lived for 67 days.

Main St.

 

We  drove into Rapid City one day as well.  We didn't take any pictures, but we did visit a gold factory and saw how they make Black Hills Gold.  Not much to show from this "big" city. 

 

We're in Interior, SD tonight.  We are going to drive into the Badlands in the morning.  We have no cell service here.  That's okay as long as the KOA has wifi. 

Well that's all for tonight.  Love, Mom and Dad

Gillette, WY

This was our site in Buffalo, WY.  Indian Campground boasts 200 mature trees.  We had 8 at our site alone.

That's the view down the street from our rig.  We were in site #1.

Now here is the campground in Gillette.  We were here for the Monaco rally and got to stay put for the FMCA rally. 

You can see how close together we are.

Down the other way

That is one of the buildings here at Camplex.  It's a nice grassy area.

The cowboy statue outside the offices of Camplex.

We had one show so far.  Here we all are waiting for the fun to begin.

Look at all the rigs parked out there.  I think there are 3000 on the property.

More that way

The Buckinghams put on a fun show.  They played  lots of oldies.

Remember I said it was nice and grassy?  Well, not when it rains.  We got mud.

The wheel ruts through the mud.

But wait, we had a hail storm this afternoon.  Luckily we were back from doing laundry and we had gone looking at coaches and venders.  We got a little damp from rain coming home.  No biggy   After we got in a message came over the loud speaker for us to seek shelter because a severe thunder storm with hail was on the way.  It came and was very NOISY.   

And the muddy road became a river.  Oh well we leave tomorrow.

 

We may opt to stay in tonight and not go to the Marty Stewart Show.  It's 48 outside and it is still raining. We go to Devil's Tower in the morning. Maybe the rain will go away by then.

 

Love, Mom and Dad   

Our first night in Cody we went to the Rodeo.  This is bronco riding.  They have to stay on for 8 seconds, and they get points for style.

It looks like it hurts to be whipped around like that.

This looks like it takes your breathe away.

This is calf roping for branding.

The girls run a barrel racing.

They said that most horses with run to the left rounding the barrels.  He told us that horses are mostly left handed. 

This is in the Cody Museum.  The firearms hall. There are tons of guns.

Wild Bill Cody lived in this little house here in Wyoming.

The next day we took a scenic drive into the hills. 

 

The mountains here are very eroded.  The shapes or unique.

We saw a fast river.  I can't remember its name.

Part of the drive was called after Chief Joseph.

This is Bear Tooth peck.

The Bear Tooth Mountains.

We ran into snow on our way up the road.  This road is in Montana.

There is a lot of snow up there. It was about 9000 feet.

The little lake up there was still frozen.

More of the lake.

We started down the mountain.  No more snow.

We have to get down there to that road.  The road was full of hairpin turns.

 

We're in Gillette right now.  We'll be here until the 23.  We are meeting all sorts of people.  We even ran into a man and his wife that your dad use to work with at LCE.  We haven't seen them since the 90's.

 

That's all for today.  I have a seminar to go to soon.  Love, Mom and Dad.