October 11, 2022
We started the day with about an hour drive to get to Arches National Park. Once we got there it was closed as it was full. The sign said come back in 3 to 4 hours. So we took the 5 mile drive to Moab. Our first stop was the Moab Information Center. We were given some great information and was able to sit in on a short video about the area. Interesting. After the Info Center we found a highly recommended local eating establishment, Milt’s Stop and Eat. Good ole fashioned cheeseburgers and onion rings and milk shakes. Yum!!
We still had some time until we could get into Arches. We traveled up the road and past Canyonlands and into Dead Horse Pointe State Park. It had some beautiful views. We visited the Visitor Center and then headed to Arches.
DEAD HORSE STATE PARK PICTURES
Our first stop at Arches was the Visitors Center. It was very busy, very warm, and we had Bree with us. I dropped Nancy off and found a parking space. When she was done, she texted me and I picked her up. Then we were on our way to drive through the park. It was very warm and we didn’t really want to walk too much. There were a lot of lookouts that we could get out for a few minutes, take some pictures and then back on our way. There was a lot to see. We focused on Balancing Rock, Sand Dune Arch, Salt Valley, Delicate Arch, Windows, Double Arch, and Turret Arch. Tomorrow is another travel day.
October 10, 2022
I found several Discount Tire stores in the area. I called one and talked to someone who could answer my questions. Having satisfied my questions I made an appointment to replace 4 tires. It was an early afternoon appointment. This was going to delay our travel by about 4 hours. We arrived at a Discount Tire store on the appropriate time. However, it was not the correct store. Who would have known that there was another Discount Tire about 1 1/2 miles down the road, on the same street, in the same city. Anyways, Discount Tire took good care of us and we were back on the road headed to our next destination. Because of the delays, we arrived after dark. I really dislike arriving after dark. That means set up is in the dark. Not a fun job.
October 9, 2022
Travel day. We left our campground in Idaho and headed south toward Utah. We had a reservation for one night at Willard Bay State Park. Along the way on I-15 we had a tire come apart. We checked the tire inflation before we left South Dakota. The tires had about 3,500 miles on them. They are only 2 years old. We use a TPMS (Tire Pressure Monitoring System). And still the tread separated from the belt. As soon as we heard the tire blow, I let off the accelerator and slowly pulled to the side of the road. After a few seconds, the TPMS did go off. Unfortunately, we were right next to a guard rail. I limped along for about 200 yards to find a wider area to change the tire.
We have a spare, an air compressor, an air impact wrench, etc. We set out the emergency triangles. Then I remembered that we have a roadside service contract. I made the call and they called back in about 5 minutes and said they had a local contact that would be at our location within 60 minutes. The young lady on the phone was very polite and courteous and concerned about our safety. The company arrived. It was Solomon’s Service. While we waited, we had to take half the things out of our basement to get to the spare. We did so while waiting. We also removed a small piece of the fender skirt that was damaged. Then we got out our camp chairs and headed about 150 feet from the RV and set up “camp”. We had a beautiful view. The weather was awesome. Even grabbed a drink out of the fridge of the outdoor kitchen.
Solomon’s arrived on time. The gentleman was also very polite. In about 10 minutes he had the tire changed. He even stowed the flat in our kitchen. And helped pick up our triangles. Since this is Sunday we will have to wait until tomorrow to get a replacement. We arrived at our overnight stop. I could then research where we were going to get tires tomorrow.
October 8, 2022
Okay, so today my darling wife wanted to go see the back side of the Grand Teton Mountains. To do this we traveled north through Idaho and then into Alta, Wyoming. We got to the turn and everything was pretty nice for the first 200 feet. It was a paved road. The next 4 or so miles were gravel, dirt, potholes (too numerous to mention) and one of the roughest roads I had ever been on. About 30 minutes later we got to the end of the road and looked at the view. We both agreed, it was not worth the jostling we took. So we turned around and spent the next 40 minutes or so praying the trip to be short. We finally got back onto the main road and proceeded with our day.
There was one place in the Tetons National Park that we did not explore yesterday so we went back today. It was Mentor’s Ferry. It was a short hike to tour several buildings and the ferry itself. Mentor started the ferry to cross the Snake River to Jackson Hole. It was neat to see how the ferry used the river’s current to go across the river.
Once we finished our tour, it was time to grab a bite to eat and check out a local brewery. We went to Jackson, WY to the Snake River Brewing. The food and beer were both good, After a relaxing dinner, we headed home to prepare for traveling the next day.
October 7, 2022
Our first stop of the day is the Craig Thomas Visitor Center. We watched a short video on the Grand Tetons. The visitor center was also constructed with large windows facing the mountains. A really cool feature was on the floor they had metal strips that had the name of the mountain and the elevation engraved on it and the strips pointed to that particular mountain. We scoped out our plan. Today we would travel north and stop at a couple of the exterior sites and then travel up to the north entrance to the park and work our way south.
The first stop is Cunningham Cabin. Most of the stops you take short trails to the site itself. This was about a .3 mile walk Not bad. The next stop is the Chapel of the Sacred Heart. It was closed but we did a drive by to get a couple of pictures. Then we started our south bound journey. First stop on our interior trip is Signal Mountain Lookout. We also packed our lunch so our view from atop Signal Mountain Lookout was spectacular while we ate. From there we traveled to see the Cathedral Group and the Teton Fault. We next visited the scenic Jenny Lake. Very peaceful to sit and look out over the water and see the mountains. The weather was ideal and a slight breeze was blowing. An ideal spot to relax in a hammock for hours. AAHHH!!
We proceeded to check out Mormon Historic Row. We couldn’t stop because it appeared that there was a wedding going on or at least wedding photos. As it was getting close to sunset we headed to Snake River Overlook to get pictures of the sunset. Once the sun set, we headed home. We had checked off most of our items of interest today. Not a whole lot for tomorrow.
October 6, 2022
Today’s agenda is to pack up and head to the Grand Tetons. Looking out the window I saw Ferdinand grazing on the lot across the street. He had moved on by the time we were ready to hitch up. Nancy decided she wanted to drive. She did a fine job. The first few pictures are of Yellowstone Lake as we were leaving. Basically you travel from the east entrance to the south entrance of Yellowstone and once you leave the park you are in the Grand Tetons. Beautiful country. When possible we were able to stop at a couple of turnouts and get some pictures Little did we know that our route was one of the two main roads to see the Tetons. She also got lucky as it was a pull through site and not a back in. Our RV spot for the next couple of days is in Victor, ID. Looking out behind our RV we saw a beautiful sunset. Since we traveled and stopped a lot today we decided to try the Big Shot BBQ in Victor. I had a sampler platter and a local beer. I enjoyed my dinner.
October 5, 2022
This is Day 3 of 3 at Yellowstone. Our plan is to travel from the bottom right of the “8” to traverse the entire upper circle. Again we saw a couple of elk cows dining along the roadside. Our first stop is Roaring Mountain. In May of 1988 a lightning strike started a small forest fire. By the end of the day it was extinguished. This is quite common. However, the summer of 1988 became very dry. This became known as the Summer of Smoke. Between June and September 50 fires had burned the forests of Yellowstone. Drought conditions, dry lightning, high winds all contributed to the destruction of Benson Peak. The fires were smothered on September 11, 1988 with a heavy snowfall and continued to smolder thru the remainder of the year.
We went on to Sheepeater Cliff. We traveled on to the main course of the day, Mammoth Hot Springs. Once we got there we started to walk the maze of boardwalks to the site. We talked to someone on the boardwalk and they recommended that we take the Upper Terrace Drive. That involves less walking and a bird’s eye view. That’s what we did. It was an awesome sight. In addition as we were coming back down the mountain we got to see Orange Spring Mound.
It was time to refuel. Just a few minutes up the road was a fuel station. A whopping $5.79 for a gallon of diesel fuel. WOW!! But it was the only game around and we were leaving in the morning. As we pulled up, there were a few park rangers and yellow banner tape up. It seems that a herd of elk just love this one spot to rest under the shade of a big tree. They cordon off the area to keep people from getting too close to the wild animals. Go figure!! After this excitement we headed toward home. However instead of taking the main road we took another side road, Blacktail Plateau Dr. It was an interesting dirt road with lots of potholes and beautiful views. There were a couple of times Nancy had to lean her head out of the window to let me know where the road was. We finally made it back home.
The plan was to rest for an hour and then go back to Hayden Valley to take a few pictures of the sunset. I went out to start the truck and Nancy was locking up the RV. I wasn’t paying any attention and walked around to the driver’s side and had to suddenly stop. About 8 feet away was a bull bison. Let’s call him Ferdinand. We had seen him the last couple of days at various times at sites not too far from us. But this time he was really close. He paid us no mind and went on eating. We waited a few minutes and Ferdinand strolled through the park to various patches of grass for dinner. Talking with a park ranger Ferdinand is a resident of the campground. So when he moved on, we headed out to Hayden Valley to get our pictures.
October 4, 2022
Day 2 of Yellowstone starts with a trip to the Continental Divide. It was on our way to the crown jewel of Yellowstone, Old Faithful. We had to wait about 30 minutes to see Old Faithful. In the visitor center they post the approximate time of the next eruption. They allow +/- 5 minutes. Our “scheduled” time was 2:19PM. It is pretty cool as there are other geysers around but Old Faithful has a large concrete sidewalk at least 3/4 of the way around. On the sidewalk are numerous metal benches. You find your seat, and wait. The time estimation was right on the money. We only had one more area we wanted to visit and travel on the rest of the figure of eight so we opted to save that for tomorrow. While it was still mid-afternoon, we decided to check out West Yellowstone, MT. West Yellowstone, MT is where we initially had reservations at another campground. It was only a short drive.
We drove through the town. We located a post office to mail out some things for the kids and grandkids. It was a cute little town. We opted to stop at a McDonald’s. We didn’t pack a lunch today. While in McDonald’s we got robbed! Check this out. We each ordered a Quarter Pounder w/cheese and a milkshake. Our total bill was $22! WTF!! I had to take a double take at the receipt. A Quarter Pounder w/cheese was $7.20 for just the burger. No fries. No drink. At home or most other places you get the entire meal for that price. Then the milkshakes were $4 each. Highway robbery. I am so happy we changed our campground. We returned home stunned and poorer.
One bright spot on this evening’s drive home was a chance to see and hear a heard of elk in a field. In addition on the opposite side of the road, up a wooded hill were two more bucks. Lots of folks stopped and took pictures.
October 3, 2022
Today is our first of three days of exploring Yellowstone. The roadway system inside Yellowstone is basically a figure of eight. We planned our trips around certain areas and what we were interested in. Today we did most of the lower portions of the figure. Our first stop was the Mud Volcano. While we had walked out on the boardwalk to see the volcano and the Dragon’s Mouth Spring we met a couple from Germany. We spoke with them for several minutes. They were very friendly. It is quite interesting for me to recognize and realize the international diversity of people visiting our national parks.
The next stop is Sulphur Springs. Definite stench in the air. Then we drove through Hayden Valley on our way to the Grand Canyon of Yellowstone - Artist Point. The views were breath taking. When you stop and think how many millions of years this took to create, it is staggering. We left Artist Point and took the North Rim Drive, stopping at Lookout Point and Grand View. We found a quiet place and dined on our brown bag lunch in the truck.
Since we were in the neighborhood, we stopped at Canyon Village. The amazing thing about this place was that once we parked and I got out of the truck, two, not one but two, ravens were perched on my tailgate. They were unfazed by me. They kept sitting there staring at me. I did not want to get too close as they are a rather large bird with sharp talons and beaks. I eventually got them to fly away. We looked around the two gift shops there and came away with our usual haul; a token for my national parks token book, smashed pennies if they have a machine, postcards for the grandkids, a Christmas ornament, and a walking stick medallion.
We traveled across the middle of the figure of eight and on that road we encountered a female elk. Very large animal. She was just standing along the roadside grazing. A little further down the road we had to wait for a bison to cross. After the car in front of us passed him, he decided to lumber toward us. I wasn’t sure if he was going to hit the truck or not. Fortunately he didn’t and just walked right on by us. Shortly after we took a side road that led us to the Virginia Cascade. Really neat.
Our next stop is the Norris Geyser Basin. Then on the way back “home” we stopped at Firehole Falls, and the Grand Prismatic Spring. At Grand Prismatic Spring we saw the Midway Geyser Basin. It was getting late and we were tired. We decided on a game plan for the next two days. We journeyed home. Yellowstone is a very large park. It takes 20 to 30 minutes to get from one place to another. It was amazing.
October 2, 2022
Traveling again today. Enjoying lots of new and awesome sights. Today we even spotted some wildlife. Granted they were aways away but it looked like Pronghorn Antelope. We are actually camping in Yellowstone National Park at the newly renovated and recently opened, Fishing Bridge Campground. Most national parks do not have room for a 42 foot long fifth wheel. This one does. We actually got the last spot. They will be closing the campground on October 9th. We are here until October 6th. Since we are in the park itself, you must be self-sufficient. Things in the park like groceries are very expensive. Few restaurants are open and they are pricey.
With that said, one of our stops on our way was to Albertson’s Groceries in Cody WY. It was truly on our route. We stocked up on the necessities like lunch meat, cheese, etc. They actually carry Boars Head luncheon meats and cheeses. Our favorites. Also, thanks to our friends that were here a couple of weeks ago, they suggested that we pack our lunches as the park is huge and you won’t be able to run “home” for lunch and then back out. What a savings.
On our way we passed through Thermopolis, WY. It is home to the “World’s Largest Mineral Springs”. Was really neat to see it. One of the pictures is of Ashes, our rescue cat. He really doesn’t mind traveling. He is not allowed out of his carrier unless he is in the passenger’s arms. Most of the time he sleeps in his carrier but enjoys peaking out now and again.
Shortly after leaving Cody, WY you drive on mountain roads, go through a tunnel and then you enter into Yellowstone National Park. Once we entered at the East Gate, we still had about a 35 mile drive to the campground, which is next to Yellowstone Lake. We had to go through Sylvan Pass, a couple of switchbacks at an elevation of 8,534 feet.
October 1, 2022
It’s our first travel day in 5 months. We prepped earlier in the week by airing tires, etc. It took Steve and Nancy guiding me about 20 minutes or so to back into this site. We loved our site. #37. Now it's taking Steve and Nancy about 15 minutes to guide me out of this site. It is really difficult to say good bye. We waited to leave until about 12 noon so most people would be gone because we knew it would take us a while to pull out of the site. We pulled out of the site and only clipped off the left rear gutter extension on the RV. Minor problem, no biggie. After our last farewells, we were heading to Ten Sleep RV Park in Ten Sleep, WY. The route was US 16 which took us through Big Horn National Forest. While driving through the mountains we encountered rain, heavy rain, sleet, and snow. It was very interesting but we made it through just fine. The scenery was absolutely beautiful.
We arrived at Ten Sleep. We had a pull-thru space and it was relatively level. This means that we just put the jacks down for stabilization and never unhooked. Since this was just an overnight we didn’t hookup our sewer. After talking with the campground owner she told us that The Sleeping Coyote was a great place to eat. Fortunately, Ten Sleep is a very small community. We walked the 2 blocks to The Sleeping Coyote where I enjoyed a very good cheeseburger with fried pickles and a cold local brew from the Ten Speed Brewing Co. Nancy also had a burger with sweet potato fries but she did not enjoy hers like I did mine. A nice walk back to the RV and a little TV time. Tomorrow we will be in Yellowstone.
September 30, 2022
The day has finally arrived, The Buffalo Roundup. Everyone has recommended that we get up early. I thought early was 5:30AM. I guess I was wrong. We arrived at the gate to enter the south side of the Wildlife Loop at 6:30AM. The Roundup starts at 9:30 AM. We got stopped about 4 cars back to make our turn. For the next 2 hours we slowly creeped along the roughly 7 mile trip. We got to our parking place, grabbed our chairs and the camera and tried to figure out the best place to view the herd. I snapped a few pictures and then attempted to film a video with my Nikon. Dummy me, I forgot to charge the battery. So I had my phone as a back up. Normally the Governor of South Dakota, Kristi Noem, would lead the herders on horseback. Unfortunately, she recently had back surgery so was unable to participate. However, she did walk her horse around the crowd and made an appearance. As an outsider, I think she is doing a great job.
Back to the roundup. As we were coming in, once we crossed the cattle grate, you could see hundreds of bison just mulling around and several cowboys/cowgirls keeping watch. This was one of two staging areas. It was awesome. In the viewing area, you’re basically watching the herd go by. You can hear the thundering of the hooves. Well, not this year. This has been an abnormal summer. Sunny, hot and drier. This year they had to take it easy on the bison so as not to push them too hard. They did come running by but not thundering. It was kind of neat to see the large cloud of dust and approximately 1,400 bison in one place.
The Buffalo Roundup is a 3 day event. At another location in Custer State Park, they set up an arts and craft fair. The day of the roundup, they also have cowboy pancakes for sale at the north and south viewing areas. We were too late for these. Then between the two viewing areas, they set up the corral where they herd the bison into. They are checked for health issues, some are tagged and then some are sold. The reason is that the park can only sustain about 1,000 bison. Also at this corral, you could purchase some BBQ. It would of been a very long walk and it was starting to warm up so we opted not to go. So we went home. In addition to our pictures and video, I have put the link to the YouTube video of the 2022 Buffalo Roundup. It's hard to believe our time here is over.
September 29, 2022
Our last day of work. Nancy summed it up when she said that we were the first ones here and helped open the camp. By leaving two weeks before the campground closes feels like we are not finishing the job. It was a wonderful time. Maybe one day, we’ll come back to camp here. Not work. Just camp.
September 28, 2022
Leslie and Bill worked our Monday and Tuesday shifts for us so they could leave today.. We work their Wednesday and Thursday. This gives them the opportunity to leave early. Exciting day is the fact that this is the last day we will have to clean bathrooms. It really isn’t too bad. The projects are done. The only other thing to do is to wrap firewood.
September 27, 2022
We only had a couple of items on our list today. The first order of business was lunch at Burger & Bun. We went there our first week here and absolutely loved it. The only problem was that it is only open 11:30 AM to 2:30 PM. It is very small and seating is very limited. We wanted one last bison burger before we leave town. It was as awesome this time as the first time. We had purchased some wonderful breakfast link sausage and thought we had gotten it from the meat market in Hot Springs. So we wanted to get some more and headed to Hot Springs. Along the way, we passed by the Coolidge Mountain Lookout,. It was an interesting drive. We wound our way up a narrow gravel road on the side of a mountain. There was just enough room for two cars to pass. Once we got to the top, the views were well worth the drive. Looking north you could see the Crazy Horse Memorial. Someone said you could see Mount Rushmore also but I could not. Looking east you could actually see the Badlands. We descended Coolidge Mountain and went on our way to Hot Springs. It was a nice drive and we got to see some wildlife. We got to the meat market and their stock was very limited. They explained they were between seasons. Additionally, they haven’t carried link sausage in over 5 years. It must have been Dakota Meats in Rapid City. While in Hot Springs we stopped at 2 Cows Creamery for some ice cream. It was okay. We headed home.
September 26, 2022
Today is packing day for us. We have a list of items to do. We have picked up a couple of new items so we have to find room for them. We also have to check tire pressure in the RV tires and the truck spare. The truck tires were just done last week when it was serviced. Have to get the TPMS and the Garmin charged and ready for the road. We have the carpet to roll up and stow, etc. We worked long and hard today so tomorrow we can goof off. We will work Wednesday and Thursday and that will complete our contract. It has been a fabulous and memorable summer. So happy we did it.,
September 25, 2022
We worked the morning shift today. However, Cathy and Belinda are packed and loaded and are leaving for the beet harvest. It has been a great summer to get to know them and hang out and have some good times. We had a lot of fun with them. We’ll hopefully keep in touch and maybe meet again some day. Safe travels friends.
September 24, 2022
Today is a very unusual day. A friend of ours and his wife are in town for the Buffalo Roundup. They are a week early so they will miss the Roundup this year. However, Nancy and I will spend the evening with Steve and Lisa. Steve was one of the first people I met when we moved to Indianapolis in 1975. Steve and I both worked for Precision Fire and Safety and then we both got on Carmel Fire on the same day. It has been several years since we’ve seen them. They came to our place around 3:00 PM and we sat and talked for a while. We then ventured to Hill City to dine at the Alpine Inn. As we had an hour or so to wait, we ventured over to The Twisted Pine for drinks and a meat and cheese board. We eventually go into The Alpine Inn. Dinner was fabulous as usual.
The night was still young so we opted to try a new place in Custer, The Old Pine Social Club. It is a bar that has axe throwing. And we found out they had Bocci Ball and Hammerschlagen. We spent a couple of hours there. We started by playing Hammerschlagen. It is a game of hammering a 16d nail into a block of wood with the point end of a rock pick hammer. You take turns and only get one strike per turn. It is a lot of fun. Then we turned our attention to axe throwing. The owners went over the safety rules and how to properly throw the axe. The biggest safety rule is that you must wear closed toe shoes. Steve and Nancy didn’t have any. So the owners let them borrow Crocs. Still closed toe and they met the insurance requirements. They gave us each 5 practice throws. It took a while to get the hang of it. but it was a lot of fun. Steve got a couple of bullseyes, as well as I. Nancy had one also. Lisa was having a hard time with the game but she was having fun. It was a great evening. We had the chance to talk to the owners also. Great people. I hope their business thrives.
September 23, 2022
For today’s adventure we are heading back to the Badlands and surrounding area. Our first stop is Badlands Harley Davidson. This is the last of the Harley dealers in the area. I said I wasn’t going to buy a shirt but they had the coolest design that I couldn’t resist. The next stop is Delta 09 Minuteman Missile Site. This is an actual missile silo used during the Cold War. It had a missile sitting in the silo. The ground cover was slid away so you could see how it was. There is a clear dome over the silo so you can see down inside. It was very interesting to me. This is an era that I grew up in. This is one of three sites that tell this story. The second site is Delta 01 where you actually go down into a silo to see the Ground Control Room. I called too late and we could not get a reservation. They were closing by the end of September. The third site is our next stop, the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site Visitors Center. We had briefly stopped here before but Nancy did not go in and I didn’t sit and watch the movie. The movie actually told the story of the Minuteman sites and how they were manned and launched if necessary. It was very interesting to hear about the “close calls” we have had through the years. It really reminded me of the movie “War Games”.
We left here and drove down into the Badlands again. Our next stop is the Ben Reifel Visitor Center. The last time we came through was around closing time. This time we didn’t stop at the overlooks as we had done that the first time. I find visitor centers to be educational and helpful. We walked around the center enjoying the story of the Badlands. It was now lunchtime so we went next door to the center to the Sage Creek Cafe(?) and had lunch. It was a beautiful day and we were going to eat lunch outside at one of the picnic areas. Well, in the Badlands it is always windy. So we wound up eating lunch in the truck.
The next stop wasn’t actually a stop. It was a drive. A drive on the Sage Creek Rim Road. It is a gravel road about 17 miles long and has some breath taking scenery and a good chance to see wildlife. What they never tell you is the road is a gravel washboard. The views are lovely! After about 15 minutes of the ride on a washboard road in a one tone 4X4 truck, Nancy said we needed to get off of this road. We found the available opportunity and headed up to Wall. From there we picked up the Interstate and found our way home on smoother roads.
September 22, 2022
Today is our second trip to Deadwood. There were a couple of things that we didn’t get to on our first trip. Like before, we went to the Deadwood Visitors Center. The plan was to get trolley tickets and get off and on as we needed to. Today they only had one trolley running so the times were greatly lengthened. We opted to drive to a parking garage in downtown Deadwood. It was actually the same cost as two trolley tickets. From the parking garage we could easily walk to our destinations. Our first stop was Deadwood Harley Davidson. It was one of the five area stores for the Sturgis / Black Hills Rally. My goal was to get a poker chip from each one. I also happened to pick up a shirt or two also. As it turned out, next door to the Harley store, was the place where we picked up our bus for the Kevin Costner Deadwood Historic Tour. It was a one hour tour of Deadwood and the Mount Moriah Cemetery. It was narrated by our driver who was awesome. Some facts we had already learned from our prior visit. We drove through town with a few stops to see buildings, etc. We eventually wound up at the cemetery and we had about 10 minutes to walk up to the graves of Wild Bill Hickcock , Potato Creek Johnny, and Calamity Jane. On the route to exit the cemetery we stopped again to view the town from an awesome lookout point.
After we got back we took another walk for about three blocks to the Adams Museum. It was a collection of items the Adams Brothers collected over the years. Most dealt with Deadwood’s history. They also had the original gold nugget discovered by Potato Creek Johnny. From there we decided it was lunch time so we walked about 3 more blocks to Jacobs Brewhouse for a bite to eat. We ate our late lunch and walked back to the parking garage.
Our next stop is Kevin Costner’s Tatanka. It is a small museum -esque dedicated to the story of the bison. Kevin Costner has a connection with the Black Hills as it was the filming location for Dances With Wolves. The movie set can be seen at Fort Hayes, outside Rapid City. He purchased land outside of Deadwood to build a large luxury resort hotel with train, etc. That never materialized. It was going to be called the Dunbar Hotel, his character name in the Dances With Wolves movie. He did have large bronze statues made and set at Tatanka depicting the Native Americans in a bison (buffalo) hunt. We watched a brief video on the history of this statue and the land and then went outside to walk around the statues. It was very impressive.
The afternoon was over so we departed Deadwood and took a short ride through Lead. Not a whole lot to see, especially a little after 5:00 PM. We headed home to pick up Bree. Tonight was going to be the last night that the 6 work campers would meet at the Custer Beacon for a night of cards, fun, and drinks. Cathy and Belinda were leaving in a couple of days and followed shortly by Leslie and Bill. We closed the Beacon down one last time and said our farewells to the staff at the Beacon. We got to know them as well this summer. Our time in the Black Hills is coming to an end. It has been wonderful.