Custer, South Dakota

Custer, SD

6.21.13

Mt. Rushmore

The weather went a little cold on us but we were determined to start our South Dakota visit with a bang. We went to Mt. Rushmore and though it was foggy intermittently, we still got a great look at the monument. We toured the museums, watched informational movies and did walks that allowed us different views. But, in the end, really, how long can one look at a monument?  We enjoyed our morning/afternoon. After our tour we were very hungry and went into Rapid City for a Buffalo burger at the Firehouse Brewery and walked around the town a bit. From there we went to Wal Mart and got our supplies for the week. I am not a big Wal Mart fan but they are CHEAP in comparison to everyone else. We went home and put away our supplies and walked our new camp ground a bit. Our campground host/hostess are really nice. They are from Texas and decided to leave the rat race and open a campground. Very friendly, helpful and they have a great dog, Bo, who loved to be petted so I was happy! We both really miss having a dog but we don’t miss all the associated issues having a dog in an RV brings along with it. I don’t know how long we will feel this way but for now, we are content to be dog less. We did laundry that night while we watched the weather as it predicted golf ball sized hail! Thank goodness it didn’t happen.

6.22.13

Custer State Park

The weather predictions were still on for bad weather so we chose to do a wildlife-driving loop in Custer State Park. We stopped at a visitor center and spoke to a volunteer who has been working there for 3 summers. When you give three days of your time per week (not sure if this is per person or couple), you get a full hook up in the park and a pass to every tourist attraction around and believe me there is plenty of tourist attractions! He was very positive about his experience and Sean and I have already decided we will come back and work camp here as there is so much to do but it gets costly.  A free pass and a free campsite makes it all so much more inviting!  Our drive took us through herds of buffalo; three prong antelopes, chipmunks, prairie dogs, birds etc. We stopped at Sylvan lake and did a small walk around the lake. There was a group of red headed young boys, (reminded me of Jenny’s kids!) fishing. We asked them if they had caught anything and they were quick to wave us over to see their catch! They were adorable little boys. After our walk a storm that had been threatening all day hit. We got home and ate left over’s and prayed that no hail hit us! We also discovered a local pie place called “The Purple Pie Place” and they have the worlds best strawberry rhubarb pie! (sorry mom L) and we had that after the left over’s.  It has been great sleeping here, quiet, cold and wonderful to 

snuggle too!

6.23.13

Wild Horse Sanctuary/ Mammoth site

I really wanted to see the Wild Horse Sanctuary. The kids and I explored the Wolf Sanctuary when I worked for the Boys and Girls Clubs in Pueblo CO. We all remember it as being extraordinary! So, I was hoping for the same experience but with wild horses. I was sadly let down. Maybe it would have been much better if we had paid $45 each to go on a “tour” but I couldn’t bring myself to spend that much money. We walked around a bit and left.  We stopped at the Mammoth Site and we both thought it would be hokey but it was so cool! We learned there was a sinker hole there and over 60 (to date and counting) mammoths fell into it and died! There was a guy who bought the property and was going to put a bunch of houses up and he started finding all these bones so he brought in a scientist who discovered this sinker whole and the whole excavation process was started and the housing project was given up. We learned a bunch of great information but the best was that all but two of the mammoths that were found in this pit were teenage males! I guess the herds were ran by elderly female mammoths and when the uppity teen males gave them too much trouble, they chased them off. Being teenagers they were too stupid to see that even though there friend was dying in the mud, they could surely get down into that pit and get good water and food.  Testosterone has been the bane and saving grace of men since the start of time!  Saving grace because it makes the girls want them, and bane because it makes them stupid and fall into holes, starve and die!!! I cant tell you how that made me chuckle all day……

6.24.13

More RV repairs and Mickelson trail ride

What I didn’t mention before was that Sean had wanted to get our wheel bearings packed on the RV before we left Texas. His research had said that they could be an issue but with all of the rest of our problems we never had a chance to get it done and it preyed heavily on his mind. When we were leaving Sioux Falls, we left our site and went four miles up the road to get gas before we hit the freeway to make our way to Custer. When we pulled in Sean noticed large puffs of black smoke coming from our RV! My heart did a flip and we both jumped out to see what was the problem. Sean figured out that our quick release cord on the hitch had gotten trapped under the hitch and it had caused the emergency breaks to start breaking on the RV and thus smoke! Luckily there was a RV repair nearby who disengaged the cord and we bought a new one but now we knew the wheel bearing packing was even more important so as to surmise the damage done to the brakes.  The strange thing was we both had a bad feeling when we left tour campsite. Sean said he kept checking gauges and nothing showed. I just waived my bad feeling off to my general paranoia though I hadn’t felt this way the whole trip. I need to listen to my bad feelings! Anyway, when we got to Custer our wonderful camp hosts pointed us in the direction of a local mechanic. Sean called him and he got us in today. He was awesome. He packed the bearings and sanded down the brake pads and replaced the grease as it had melted away from the smoking and charged us HALF what camping world had quoted. While we had this done we went and had a hardy breakfast and did a 25-mile ride on the Mickelson trail to the Crazy Horse monument.  We then went back and got the rig and took it back to our site where we got everything hooked up again.

6.25.13

Deadwood, SD

We drove about an hour away and went to a historical town called Deadwood. It seems that both Wild Bill Hickok was murdered here and Calamity Jane called it home for a while too. Deadwood is like Tombstone with their own boot hill but much bigger. It was a nice day and we walked around and had lunch.

6.26.13

Back to Custer Park/Lovers Leap and Mule fun!

Today we went back to Custer Park and did a 3.5-mile hike straight up a hill to Lovers Leap. Supposedly an Indian couple jumped off this peak and died. Sean and I just took some photos and didn’t leap. It was a great hike. We went down and had a picnic then took the wildlife loop again in the hopes of seeing the mules we didn’t see before. We did and they were very cute!  We got back to our campsite to do laundry but a large encampment of Catholic high school kids on a large camping expedition beat us to the laundry mat so we went back into town and did all of our laundry.  We had dinner and started the process of packing up for our 2-3 hour drive to Gillette Wyoming today for the Escapees’ Escapade!