June 25, 2022
When you RV or camp or “glamp” or whatever you want to call it, there are many advantages and positives that come from the activity. First it gives you the opportunity to be comfortable and commune with nature. It gives you a chance to see the beautiful country of ours. That’s one of our goals. We have been familiar with the flat lands of Indiana and the coasts of NC and SC. Last September we went on a vacation to see friends and family. Finally got to Maine, New Hampshire, Delaware. Beautiful scenery.
Then we drove north by northwest (I’ll explain in a little bit). Wow! Different but just as beautiful and awesome. While I dearly miss my family back in NC this has been and is a great decision. We only live once and we never know what tomorrow will bring. Tim McGraw said it all “Live Like You Are Dying”!
But even though you make some great memories, and sometimes you even make a not so great memory, there’s still one thing that RVing allows you to make. FRIENDS!!! You meet people of all ages, different back rounds, etc. The majority are very friendly. As we work the campground and office we get the chance to meet almost everyone. It is another perk of the jobs we do.
As an example last January we met a SD couple, Sandra and Chris, while we hosted at Huntington Beach. They had some great info to share with us on SD. We exchanged email addresses and a couple of weeks ago they were looking for a campground for a few days and wound up here with us. It was great catching up with them again.
This week we met another real nice couple. Chris and Mitch. They live in CO. They had the camp site 2 down from us and also from Belinda and Kathy. There was a connection and the next thing you know we were all hanging out together sitting around the fire and having great conversation. Found a lot of common ground. The more we talked we found out they will be in AZ in January. The plan is to meet up with them again and their going to show us around. Not to mention I’m looking forward to do some cooking and smoking with Chris. Again, phone numbers and emails, exchanged.
Great memories, great friends. The more we RV the longer our friend list gets. The picture above is Kathy, Belinda, Chris, and Mitch from left to right.
June 17, 2022
Tonight we are going to the Blue Bell Lodge Hayride and Chuckwagon Dinner with Belinda and Kathy. This is a 50% off event with our VIP cards. You’ll load onto a wagon (there is actually some straw on the floor of the wagon) and take about an hour ride to a large area where you will be served a chuckwagon dinner. There is entertainment on the wagons in the form of a singer with a guitar and a lot of audience participation., Rodney was our singer. He’s also a song writer and was a lot of fun. While you’re eating the musicians from the 3 wagons get together and continue the entertainment. Then you load back on your wagon for about a 10 minute ride back. All and all a great evening. We even got to see some wildlife on the ride to the dinner. Then we had to wait for an elk to cross the road as we made our way home. Lots of fun and good food. Almost forgot, we each got our own straw cowboy hat with a bandana hat band. Yee Haw!!
June 15, 2022
Today is Nancy’s birthday. We work the early shift meaning I’ll get off work at 1:00PM and she will be off at 4:00PM. I decided to take her to dinner and then she wanted everyone to come over for a campfire around 8:00PM. While I was working she went into town to get her birthday cake. All of this was kind of last minute arrangements. She found some cupcakes at our local grocery store. While we were busy, Belinda and Kathy decided to move the flamingoes from their site to ours. About 5 years ago, this tradition of flamingoes started with the work campers. The rule is that you cannot give the flamingoes back to whomever gave them to you. So, now we will wait until the appropriate time to move the flock to someone else. Maybe even the owners.
FLAMINGOES
I chose the Sage Creek Grille. Everyone I spoke with highly recommended it. Birthday girl had the salmon and I had a steak. The meal was delicious. We split the desserts. There was chocolate cake and a Belgian chocolate pot de creme. Yum, yum!! We got home and set up chairs around the fire pit and started a fire, Shortly after 8 all of the work campers and the campground owners were all gathered for a fire, a beverage and good fellowship. The first group photo (l to r) shows Cora and Leslie (both work campers), Carole (owner’s mother) and Belinda. Skip one and then the next one is Bob and Jimmy (friends of Bill and Leslie), Bill (work camper), Fred (father of the owner) and Jack (Cora’s partner). Then there’s the birthday girl with Steve and Kelly in the background. Steve and Kelly own the campground and Fred and Carole are Kelly’s parents. Jack and Cora also brought cupcakes with candles. Cora was looking for the candles you couldn’t blow out but couldn’t find any. Good thing. The last picture is a visitor that decided to check out our party with his family. Wasn’t too interested so they all hopped back over the fence.
June 11, 2022
We had to run to Rapid City today to run an errand. On the way home we thought “what the heck, let’s stop at the Rushmore Candy Company”. It is a large building. All I can say is WOW!! Here is the link to their webpage. Rushmore Candy Company
June 10, 2022
After breakfast we opted to take a drive south through Wind Cave National Park and Hot Springs. The scenery was beautiful. We actually got to see baby bison. The family decided to cross the road in front of us. It was awesome! We also stopped to take a photo of two bison standing on a hill. Then something else caught my eye. I was able to get a photo. It was a lone coyote standing nearby but watching the bison. Then there were the hundreds of prairie dogs who were all watching the coyote. We found our way into Hot Springs., Like most little towns we have already seen in this area, it was a neat little town. As we were driving through the first time, I noticed a butcher shop. On the return trip, we stopped. It was a very interesting place. They actually butcher the beef on site. On Monday, it came in the back door on the hoof and starting Wednesday it left frozen and packaged out the front door. They sold bison, pork, lamb, and chicken in addition to beef but the beef is all they butchered. The rest was from other local farms. We had to buy a few items to try.
We had made plans to have Belinda and Kathy over for dinner and a campfire this evening. I made Italian sausage subs and pea salad. They brought some fresh watermelon. Delicious meal and great fire side conversation. This is the life!
June 9, 2022
Busy day scheduled for today. We’re going to make a couple of stops on our VIP card and then meet up with Belinda and Kathy for an event in Rapid City. Our first stop is Old MacDonald’s Farm. It is a great place for kids. This is a family run farm and they have all kinds of neat animals. They even have goats roaming free for a short time period. Then they send out the dog and he rounds up the goats into their pen. Really cool. They sell feed so you can feed the animals as well. At various times they have different events going on. They had some baby lambs and allowed a few people to bottle feed them.
After Old MacDonal’s we went up the road and went through Bear Country USA. They have a small area of outdoor walk through exhibits, which we did not go through. The main attraction is the drive through wildlife park with various species of animals. We could have seen Rocky Mountain Elk, Reindeer, Arctic Wolves, Dall Sheep, Big Horn Sheep, Timber Wolves, Mountain Lion, Black Bear, Pronghorn, Mule Deer, Black-Billed Magpie, and of course Bison. Not all species were awake and moving around but we did see several.
Around 5:00PM we met up with Belinda and Kathy at Memorial Park in Rapid City. On this particular night there was a concert with rock music. In addition, there was a beer tent and 3 different food trucks. The park is beautiful and this event was geared toward the family. There was a splash pad, open spaces to play, tables with umbrellas and, chairs. It was a real nice time. The only down fall was we had to drive an hour home. We actually stopped at a Safeway for groceries before we left Rapid City and headed home. Busy day and night!
June 8, 2022
Plans for today are to go out to dinner with Belinda and Kathy and then find a place to play cards and have a drink or two. We decided to try the pizza at Pizza Mill. It was not very good. Each of us ordered our own personal pizza but the crust was soggy on everyone’s pizza. We checked out a couple of places and wound up at the Custer Beacon. Belinda and Kathy taught us a new card game. It was called Tens. A neat game. Very difficult to shuffle because you have to use two decks. It was a lot of fun. There were other patrons at other tables playing other games as well. There were also folks playing pool. Nice night.
June 4, 2022
Today is Keystone day. We have driven through Keystone and it looks like a quaint little town,. We decided to go back and spend some time walking around and visiting the local sites. Again our VIP card is allowing us to visit two museums today for free. Doesn't get much better. Our first stop is the Borglum Museum. It is dedicated to the man and his art. He is the designer and sculptor of Mount Rushmore. One of the most interesting facts I found was that Borglum had to convince Congress the Teddy Roosevelt should be on the mountain. Obviously, he did. Can you name the four presidents on Mount Rushmore?
We pulled into the museum and on the edge of the parking area is the Dahl’s Chainsaw Art. Absolutely gorgeous art with some prices that I can’t afford. We strolled around and admired the art before going into the museum.
We entered the museum and it is an audio self-guided tour. We were each given a remote control number pad with a headset attached. Each area has a number and when you get there you press the number on your pad and listen to the description of what you are viewing. Very cool. I only took one picture. It is an actual size granite eye. The detail shows a piece of stone projecting from the eye but that is what gives the eye a shadow or depth. Borglum figured this out. Very cool.
After the museum we wandered through the gift shop and then decided it was time for lunch. One young lady from the gift shop suggested Boss Burger’s and Cheesesteaks. Sounded great to us and we could easily walk there. Nancy had the Pineapple Express Burger. In addition to the burger it came with Provolone cheese (her choice), grilled pineapple, Teriyaki, ham and lettuce, tomato, and onion. The side is tater tots. I had the cheesesteak with the works (sautéed onions, green peppers) and tater tots as my side. Very good food.
After lunch we headed to the National Presidential Wax Museum. Again this was a self-guided audio tour,. Except this time you did not have any headset. You held the device up to your ear to listen about the facts of the President you were viewing. Each President was dressed as they would have been. Very interesting museum. Even some of the First Ladies were displayed. Again, we didn’t take any pictures except at the beginning of the tour. The very first exhibit is a mock up of the Press Room. It has quite the history. You can stand up and give your speech and it is even “televised” on a screen. At the end of this tour we headed home. It was quite the day.
June 3, 2022
No trips are planned for today. Actually we finished up the fire pit area and stacked some firewood. Nancy did a great job of digging out and leveling the area around the fire pit. I hopped on the Kubota BX 235 with a bucket and brought in 3 buckets of gravel. Then I went to the free firewood stack and picked up 3 buckets of firewood. I dumped it and Nancy stacked it. We have a nice little area for entertaining.
May 28, 2022
Today was a work around the house day. I emptied our tanks and had to replace one section of our sewer hose. I first opened the valve and then I noticed a pin hole leak. I immediately shut it down and let everything drain out of the hose. I replaced the bad section and proceeded with my task. The only other thing we did today was to move our fire pit. It was not in a very good position as people were sitting at angles. So we found an area a little more level but not a great distance away. Nancy even tried to dig a little around the pit to make things even more level. Now we just need to get some firewood and let the campfires begin. Actually, there is a very large pile of firewood that they cannot sell. They were going to just add it to their burn pile. The workampers said if you’re just going to burn it, can we burn it? So we have permission for free firewood.
May 27, 2022
Our day started with lunch with Belinda and Kathy at the Alpine Inn. The lunch menu is fabulous. The food was excellent. The Alpine Inn is one of our favorite places to eat. From there we went to the South Dakota Railroad Museum. It was very small but very cool stuff inside. The cool thing is that there was a caboose inside and you could go aboard and watch a movie about people who worked on the railroad and what the caboose meant.
We left the museum and we had reservations for the 1880 Train ride. It is a 10 mile ride through the Black Hills Forest with some interesting sites along the way. You ride in an old passenger car. Pretty interesting. The locomotive is a diesel/steam engine. I think the diesel fumes got to Nancy. One of the interesting facts on the trip is we passed the old miners camp and mine entrance. Tin was mined in the area. The railroad played an important part of that business. We also passed the back side of Mount Rushmore but could not see the front of it. There were still some telegraph poles standing. A piece of history. Of course there is always wildlife. Shortly after we left Hill City station there was a platform that the town erected to relocate the osprey nest. Apparently there are eggs in there. Of course we spotted some deer. Another point of interest is being able to see Black Elk Peak. The highest point in the Midwest at 7,244 feet. Parts of the ride take you within a foot or so of the rocks or trees.
The train ride goes to Keystone and back. We got back to Hill City about 4:45PM and we were in the mood for some ice cream. We searched in Hill City but came up short. So we went back to Custer to the Purple Pie Place. We found the prices were high and the ice cream was not that great. It definitely was not home made as we had thought. Oh well, now we know. Thus ended another off day.
May 26, 2022
Okay, today is a work day. Nancy wanted a TV mount that you could bring the TV down to an acceptable eye level. Most RV TVs are mounted high. So today we are taking the old mount down and then install the new one. It took almost all day but it is up and functioning.
Tonight we are heading to Belinda and Kathy’s for a cookout. Great food and great company. A campfire and adult beverages. As we were sitting and talking we had a few visitors. It is amazing how domesticated these deer seem. Bree was sitting in her bed but not barking. They came within 30 feet of us. Tomorrow is going to be a busy day so we had to get some rest. Got home around 10:00PM.
May 25, 2022
What a plan we have for today! The main goal is to go to the Badlands National Park. It’s about a 2 hour drive from here so we decided to hit a few places on the way. The first stop was the South Dakota Air and Space Museum. It is right outside of Ellsworth Air Force Base. It has 20 to 30 various aircraft outside. There are a few more inside but the indoor portion of the museum does not open until 5/27/22. We are a couple of days early. Will have to return. The weather was beautiful. Sunny, breezy, and mild temperatures. Just right to get sunburned if you didn’t bring a hat or sunscreen. Really need to put those items in the truck. Some very awesome aircraft. At each plane they had facts about the aircraft and/or about how it was used or who flew it. I learned a lot more history by reading these. One of the most interesting planes there was the C-54D Spymaster. It was a bomber but during the Berlin Airlift, it actually dropped candy to the children of West Berlin. Another one I thought was very interesting was the F-101 Voodoo. The actual plane on site was flown by Indiana’s Gus Grissom, one of the original Mercury astronauts. All astronauts had to keep their flying skills. This is on our list to go back. We also saw a jack rabbit at this exhibit.
After we walked around for a couple of hours we headed a little further east. It worked out that the Minuteman National Historic Site is the same exit as the eastern entrance to the Badlands National Park. First stop, Minuteman. Nancy did not want to go in but I did for about a half hour. It is a very small but interesting site. They had some great items on display as well as a lot of video. The thing is I grew up during this “Cold War” Era. There are two other sites associated with this one, Delta 01 and Delta 09. I want to go to each of these. Delta 01 is a guided tour into an actual missile silo to see Launch Control Facility. On the list.
Next stop is the Badlands! It is quite the contrast. You first pull into the park and you see flat grassland. Then all of a sudden you see beautiful rock formations in multiple shapes and sizes. The views are beautiful. They have several trails available to hike. Nancy actually hiked about halfway on the Door Trail. You can see the big smile on her face on her selfie. A lot of the trails start with a boardwalk but then you go off road. There are several lookout points along the Badlands Loop. We did not stop at all of them but a lot of them. It was interesting to see the warning sign at the beginning of each trail we stopped. We did get to see some wildlife, all four-legged. There is another leg through The Badlands, Sage Creek Road, which will be the next time also. Wonderful drive.
When we left the park we opted to go to Wall, SD. The big attraction there is Wall Drug. It is an interesting place but we were in the mood for ice cream and the ice cream section just closed. Bad timing. There is a Harley dealer there, which will be on my radar for the next trip. We spent all day on the road, hiking, etc. and it was around 7:30PM by the time we got back to Custer. We opted to dine out at the Mount Rushmore Brewing Company. Nancy had prime rib sliders and I had chicken tenders. Both were very good! And of course, I had to try their beers. I had 3 that I would get again. A couple that were so-so and a couple that I did not care for. A good ending to a great day!
May 20, 2022
Not much going on today. One of the perks of the VIP Card is half price for the Fort Hays Chuckwagon Supper and Show. We made reservations and we went with our friends Belinda and Cathy. The site is actually part of the movie set from Dances With Wolves. There have been several movies shot in South Dakota and at least 3 in this area.
Fortunately it is an indoor event as we had, you guessed it, snow shower, winds, cold temperatures. The bad news is that the venue was not heated. The good news is the venue had a couple of large propane heaters running. You ate at picnic tables which were arranged in front of the stage. This part was attached to a large open area. Once you are seated at your assigned table, you wait for the dinner bell to ring. Then you go through a chow line. The meal is served on actual tin plates. You are given instructions before hand on what you will receive where in the line. Kind of interesting to me.
The first thing is you pick up your plate. Next you receive your baked potato. It is wrapped in aluminum foil and is smashed flat on your plate so it won’t roll off. Next you receive your beans. Then you have a choice of either a BBQ chicken or brisket. Nancy and I both chose brisket. Next you got your applesauce (western style). This is the only cold item so you have somewhere to hold onto your plate as everything else is hot. When you get your applesauce, they place a piece of waxed paper on top of your plate and then you get your biscuit and your dessert, spice cake. This is almost the end of the line. The last item in this line, is your lemonade served in a tin cup. If you would rather, you had other choices; coffee, decaf coffee, or tea. This was the first time in two years they have had this show. They really have their stuff together.
The food was fabulous. After we ate, we enjoyed the show. It was a five man group. The played, sang, and told some Dad jokes. A couple of the jokes were really good. The music was old country, new country, 70s rock, 90s rock, and patriotic. They had a lot of audience participation too. Was a very enjoyable show. The last song was a mash up of God Bless the USA, America the Beautiful and one other song I don’t remember. Just before the song they took the time to thank the military personnel, LEOs, firefighters and all first responders. They had us raise our hands if we were one of the above mentioned. They had a large American flag in the background. A really good show. Great evening.
May 19, 2022
Our first of three days off. We’re heading to the Big City today. Rapid City that is. It’s about an hour away but it is the closest civilization. Nancy wants to get her haircut and do a couple other errands. We also want to check out Safeway grocery store and Dakota Butcher.
I decided to leave early and grab breakfast on the road. We have been hearing raves about the Baker’s Bakery and their fine pastries. We stopped in Custer at the bakery, just a few minutes past nine. Yes, for us that is early. The selection was not great. We had been told that you need to get there before 9. Didn’t quite make it. I had a yeast sugar donut and a cinnamon glazed twist. Nancy had a custard filled chocolate iced Bismarck. WOW! Will need to go back. The sign above the door entrance indicated that the building was a historic site. Cool.
Made it to Rapid City and ran a few errands. Belinda and Cathy were also in Rapid City so we met them for lunch at the Firehouse Brewery. I’ve had my eye on this place since seeing the fire equipment along Interstate 90 advertising for them. This is the oldest brewery in South Dakota. The cool thing is they are housed in the old Rapid City fire house. The station was built in 1915. The decor is all firematic. So is the menu.
Nancy did not like her food at all. I really had high hopes for this place. She had crabmeat stuffed mushroom caps. Didn’t even eat all of them. I had the Rueben with a side of chili. My food was very good. However, Belinda and I each ordered a flight to try their beers. You did not even have a choice of what you could try. All in all, the beer was unimpressive. Some just not very good at all. Both of us were disappointed in the beer. More breweries to try though.
After lunch we stopped at the Dakota Butcher. It was not what we expected. They had some interesting items. We did buy a few things. Mostly frozen items like ground beef, ground bison. Going to try their beef hot dogs also. We left here and stopped at Safeway on the way home. We bought a few groceries. They did actually have a deli section. They sell Primo and Dietz Watson. We tried the Primo American Cheese. Did not like it at all. So we got some Dietz Watson American Cheese. From here we headed home. The weather here has been very windy today and cold temperatures. A lot colder than forecasted.
As we headed back to the truck after shopping we could feel a light rain begin. About 20 minutes of driving we ran into snow showers. We had snow showers off and on all the way home. They continued for a while but never stuck. The weather is really funky around here.
May 18, 2022
We worked the morning shift today. That means Nancy got off work at 4:00PM. I got off at 1:00PM. We decided to drive the Wildlife Loop this evening. Supposedly the early evening is a great time to see various wildlife. Well we did get to see some wildlife but we did not see what we were hoping to see. A couple of days ago our friends had gone through the Wildlife Loop, in Custer State Park, and saw goats, mother and baby bisons, prairie dogs, and donkeys. We had to go get carrots before we could go so we could feed the donkeys.
We did get to see lots of prairie dogs. They are a lot smaller than I thought for. The area they are in is called Prairie Dog Town. They were very cute. Again, we saw a couple of lone bull bison. After some research, the males live near the herd or in the herd, depending on the season. After the prairie dogs the next animals we see are the lovable donkeys. They are a show in and of themselves. We stopped, took some pictures, fed them carrots and then moved on. It was comical to see the donkeys totally surround one vehicle. Not sure if they were feeding them. The views were phenomenal. I am so happy to be able to experience these sites in person.
May 16, 2022
It was decided that after work tonight it was time for a fire. It was going to be held at Belinda and Cathy’s site. Nancy and I went down and Cora (one of our next door neighbors) also came down And Steve came down as well. We were all sitting around the campfire enjoying our adult beverages and having a great time conversing. And then, we felt a little bit of rain. Then we saw lightning and heard the thunder. We decided it was time to go home. We just made it in the door when the bottom fell out. Oh well. There will be other times.
May 14, 2022
We awoke to real nice weather. Today’s agenda will be a walk around Sylvan Lake. There is a 1 mile trail around the lake. It’s an easy hike but we did not do the entire round trip. We had Bree with us. We enjoyed the walk, the beautiful scenery and talking with a lot of nice people. We decided that on another day, we would return without Bree and walk the entire trail. After exploring the gift shop we decided to just drive around and sight see.
As a side note, we decided to to do a couple of things. One is to collect Christmas ornaments from the various places we visited . This is because we will not be home this year for Christmas. Nancy thought it would be cool to do. I agree. One downfall to the ornament idea is that they are sometimes the size of a baseball and fragile. We came up with an idea. Why not use keychains? So our Christmas ornament will depend on what we find is cool and affordable.
The other thing we are doing is getting post cards and sending them to our grandchildren. We will try to incorporate some education into them as well, most of the time. Braxton was happy to finally get some mail. Michelle also got the US wall map out and it gives the boys an idea of where we are at or have been. They say they enjoy them.
We took the Blue Star Memorial Highway again. I might note here that the deer alongside the road I talked about yesterday, was actually today. The picture says it all. We headed to a little town called Keystone. In order to get there we had to pass by Mount Rushmore. It was awesome. Can’t wait to get to see more of it. We arrived in Keystone. There are a couple of places I want to go back to on another day. The town is small enough that you can park and walk the entire town. It looks awesome. Can’t wait. Not wanting to travel the same road we took yet another road back home. This way took us back through Custer State Park on the Norbeck Parkway. It was very curvy and took us over Iron Mountain. It was awesome. Time consuming but beautiful. We finally got to see our first wild bison. Actually we saw 3. All single bulls in 3 different locations. Totally oblivious to people. All in all, a great day!
May 13, 2022
The weather is nice, so far. So we decided to head to the Crazy Horse Memorial. We decided to take the scenic way to the Memorial. The road is SD 89 which meets SD 87. This is a road that is usually closed in the winter. In addition, it is the Blue Star Memorial Highway. It is a tribute to the Armed Forces. The scenery was beautiful. We also met some wildlife. About 15 feet from the road stood a deer. We had Bree in the back street and she was barking at the deer. The deer stood there and just looked at us. Not a care in the world.
PICTURES - ROAD TO CRAZY HORSE
One of the perks we get as workampers here at Fort Welikit, in addition to a free site with full hook up, is a Badlands VIP Training Program cards. These cards give us free admission to some places, 1/2 price for some places, discounts at various merchants and gift shops. The cards are for employees that work in the area. It is my guess that most are like us, and not from the area. The purpose is to give the employees a chance to explore the area, learn about the history and appreciate the area. It has been wonderful so far. An excellent perk. Free admission to Crazy Horse is one of the perks.
We arrived at Crazy Horse. We have seen it from the main road a couple of times already but it was neat to go a little closer. This memorial is actually a work in progress. It was started in 1948. It is intended to be not just a memorial to Crazy Horse but it is supposed to represent and memorialize all Native Americans. On the campus is the Native American Educational and Cultural Center, the Indian Museum of North America, the Nature Gates, and several others with more to come. We first entered the Welcome Center and we sat in a theater to watch a movie on the origins of the memorial and the people involved. Very cool. After we left the theater we wandered around the museum to take in the sites and history. The artwork was beautiful. The quotes were very appropriate, even today. One display that caught my eye was the Code Talker display. During World War II, native Americans were used for communications in their native languages. The most famous was the Navajo, depicted in the movie, “The Wind Talkers”. The Navajo were used in the Pacific Theater. Other tribes, like the Lakota Sioux, were used in Europe. Of course the exit from the museum is the gift shop. One section was nothing but hand-made items from Native Americans. Beautiful craftsmanship. One thing that caught my eye were the arrows and the quivers. Very cool.
The gift shop opens to an outdoor viewing area. You can view and photograph the Memorial. On the other side is a snack bar and the Laughing Water Restaurant. It was time for a late lunch so we went in. After looking at the menu, we opted for two dishes and we split them so we could each experience the tastes. We shared the Native American Taco and the Tatanka Stew. The taco was a base of Indian fry bread with taco meat, refried beans, lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, onions, salsa, and sour cream. The stew was cuts from local bison (buffalo), carrots, peas, potatoes, and onions. We enjoyed the meal but not overly impressed. Nancy liked the Indian fry bread but I did not.
After we left the restaurant we continued to explore the rest of the campus. There was a 1/34th size model of the completed memorial. Other items included statues, a 9-11 tribute, and the actual hose the sculptor (Korczak Ziolkowski) and his family lived in while they were working on the memorial. Chief Henry Standing Bear was the catalyst of this project. Visit www.crazyhorsememorial.org, to see the progress of the memorial. They have live web cams, etc. You also have the opportunity to donate. The neat thing about this memorial is that it is not funded by any government. Strictly donations.
May 12, 2022
Big plans today. We were going to go to Crazy Horse Memorial and then later in the evening so down to Belinda and Kathy’s and sit around the campfire. Mother Nature had other ideas. I had just gotten back inside when a hail storm came up. Pea size hail for several minutes at quite the intensity. So we did not go. Maybe tomorrow. No campfire either as it thundered and stormed most of the day, off and on. So we had Belinda and Kathy down for dinner. We still had some stuffed peppers from our Christmas present from Phillip and Michelle and boys. They brought a salad and we had a great meal. Afterwards we played Five Crowns. We may have been rained out but still had a good day.