Here it is already, Thursday. The last days have flown and I'll give you a quick rundown of the events.
Monday, September 4, 2006:
I woke up Annie at about 7:00 A.M. She wasn't really that thrilled.
We had one heckova breakfast at the Super 8 (cereal and toast). They really went all out for us then. Although we did see an interesting group of people, who were all eating together. We had the token 2 big women (for Big R, of course), complete with trashy tattoos, and inappropriate clothing for a public outing (one of them was wearing a lingerie top. *Vomit*). With them was a Mexican girl about 20 or so. Then, the weirdest of all, there was an oooooooh sooooo Asian couple with them. One big happy family, I guess.
We took off for my old hometown that morning. Wow. Some things never change.
I got to see the 2 one room schoolhouses that I attended for 5 years. They are now hunting cabins, because the schools closed down a few years ago, due to lack of kids. What a surprise, because there is absolutely nothing out there. Nothing. Grass, grass, and more grass. Sprinkle in a few cattle here and there, and you have South Dakota. But I digress.
We made it to my friend's house, where we were going to stay for the night. She is a very nice 70 year old widow lady, who lost her husband about 15 years ago. Very sad, but she is a very nice, and funny lady. I got to see some people that I haven't seen since we left 16 years ago. I didn't get to see any of my old friends though. And I didn't really care. I mainly wanted to see my old house, and the schools.
Annie and I got the grand tour of the small town (which has a total of 4 houses in it). We even got to see the fire trucks for the volunteer fire department. That was actually kind of cool.
Annie and I took pictures of a very, very small Lutheran church, located by itself on a hill. It does have electricity, but no running water. Where do people go to the bathroom? In a fully-functioning 100% pure outhouse. Seriously. The church has, if everybody attends, 15 people in it. WOW.
We did get to see my old church, which I was very glad. It hasn't changed one bit, except they added on a small part, that has 2 classrooms in it. Since nobody locks their doors around there, we got to go inside the church. Annie was quite impressed. It's kind of sad, because the church doesn't have any kids in it. None. There are two age groups: those that are in their 70's and 80's, and those in their 40's and 50's. No kids. Sad, really.
Tuesday, September 5:
I woke up Annie at 7:45 A.M. She wasn't really that happy.
We got up that morning and went into "town". That's what they call it there, because the closest town is about 15 miles away. We got some more supplies, and I showed Annie the old place. Interestingly, quite a bit has changed there. It was good to see it though.
We reloaded on supplies, and gas (the next closest gas station was going to be about 80 miles away) to head out for our next adventure: Spearfish Canyons.
But on the way, we decided to take a trail that I happened to see. It took us to nowhere, which was exactly where I wanted it to take us. On the trail, there was a large mesa, or butte as they call it there, that Annie decided to climb. She got about 1/2 way up it, and I decided to catch up to her. We eventually made it up it, with a little encouraging from me. She did a good job of climbing up it, and avoiding any rattlesnakes that might have been lurking. The view from up there was breathtaking. We even saw a herd of cows.....not that we'd ever seen those before. I even did the last scene from "Dances With Wolves," where the Indian (feathers, not dots) friend calls out to Kevin Costner's character. (As an aside, we actually saw the place where they filmed that scene in Spearfish Canyons. Pretty cool).
You have to see Spearfish Canyons. Seriously. Just head south our of Spearfish, and you'll drive right through them. It's breathtaking. I had been there twice as a kid, and I remembered quite a lot of it too.
It started getting late so we decided to find a place to camp for the night. Now mind you, Sweet Annie has never been camping before. Ever. Where do I take her for her virgin camping experience? To a "primitive campsite." That means there is no running water, no showers, no electricity, and you get the privilege of going to the bathroom in an outhouse. Annie really loved that.
But to Annie's credit, she did great. She even liked the experience. We met a really nice couple that was in the campsite next to us. They let me use their axe, gave us lighter fluid, and even let us use there mad crazy fire/lighting thing. Let's just say that it ran on diesel fuel, and would stay lit for 40 hours. Pretty cool.
I made a campfire, and started cooking our dinner of cheeseburgers, hash browns and green beans. We then proceeded to enjoy some S'mores, which are almost required eating, whilst camping.
That night, the temperature got down to 38 degrees, so needless to say, it was a tad chilly. Annie made it through though, with minimal complaints. It was pretty cold though, I have to admit.
Wednesday, September 6:
We got up that morning and took it nice and easy, although Annie wasn't really thrilled at the time we woke up (around 7:00 A.M.). I cooked us breakfast burritos, and we broke camp, which actually didn't take us too long.
We then hiked down a trail to see a beautiful waterfall. We took a few pictures down there and then headed to Hill City, in the Black Hills, to make it for our 1:15 steam engine train ride.
We had a little time to blow in Hill City before the train, so we had lunch of sandwiches (for about the 5th meal of the trip) and other assorted food items. It was actually pretty nice, as we found a little picnic table near the train station.
It was a good thing that Annie made reservations for the train ride, because it was very full. The trip was 1 hour in each directions, with a 15 minute stop in between. I'm very glad that we went on it, because it was pretty relaxing, and it's a very interesting way to see the Black Hills. Going at 10 mph is a nice speed when you are enjoying the scenery. It was so relaxing, that I even took a very short nap on the way back to Hill City.
After the train trip, we headed to our cabin, which was at the Rafter J Ranch. I highly recommend it if you ever go to the Hills. It was there that we encountered a little rain, which lasted just long enough to get the ground wet, and then it stopped.
By the time we finished unloading the truck and getting things in order, it was dinner time. I made us a nice batch of sausage and sauerkraut. Mmmmm. We sat in front of the campfire that night, and had another round of S'mores.
We did manage to hear every word of a girl's conversation with her new mother-in-law. They were 2 cabins down from us, but considering how loud people talk on their cell phones, it seemed like she was right next to us. We had a good laugh though.
Thursday, September 7:
I managed to let Annie sleep in that morning (7:45 A.M.). Again, she wasn't exactly thrilled about getting up that morning. We showered, and packed the truck up again, for the days adventure.
We decided to see Mt. Rushmore first. I have seen it twice before, in the late 80's, when I was a kid. A lot has changed there (the monument hasn't, of course). They have some very nice buildings and other assorted architectural things now. You can even walk down on a trail that leads you "right under their noses." Annie even picked George Washington's nose. Figuratively speaking.
We finished that up pretty quickly, because there is only so much that you can do there, and continued on the day's adventure.
Next up: Bear Country. Bear Country is a wildlife park that you drive through. It was really pretty cool. We saw quite a few different animals, and of course, plenty of bears. They even had a Grizzly pair, (the male's name was Tank).
I met the man that wrote the biography of the guy that started the park. The author was a very nice man, and he even baited some of the animals so that they would come up close to us. I got a bunch of really good pictures of the bear cubs and wolf pups. Awwwwww. Annie had a great time there, as that was the place that she MOST wanted to see. It was nice to see her so excited and happy. I really enjoyed the experience too. It was a nice change of pace.
After that, I decided that we might as well see Crazy Horse Mountain, since it was on our way to the campground. I guess it's good to see, but I don't necessarily recommend it. The monument is barely finished, and I figure that it will take about 100 years more or so to finish. Seriously. They only have 5 people working on the mountain currently. FIVE FREAKIN' PEOPLE!!! To put the mountain into perspective, the entire Mt. Rushmore monument would fit into Crazy Horse's head. It's that big. Only now, you can only see the face. That's it. One dude that worked there said that it will take about 8-10 years just to finish blasting away the bulk material away from the horses head. Then, I can only imagine, it will take about 15-20 years to finish the horse's head. Then they'll have Crazy Horse's face, and his horse's head finished. Wow.
We paid $8 to take a bus ride close to the base of the mountain. That was pretty neat though. You could also pay $125/person to take a van ride up the the top of the mountain. Right under his nose. Annie and I thought that was a bit much, so we decided to decline.
While we were stopped on the bus trip, Annie and I saw 3 doe, which were completely content to munch on assorted shrubbery about 20 yards away from us. That was pretty cool.
So I'd see it if you have extra time in your Black Hills extravaganza, but only if you have the extra time, although the museum is pretty cool, if you have the time.
We then found our campground, and decided to stay in a "sleeping cabin." It pretty much consisted of a bed (which was a bunk bed) and a very small table. That's it. We took it because it was only $30 for the night (it did have electricity and a/c so that was nice.).
We had just enough time to drive through Needles Highway, before the sun set. It is a very pretty drive, and we had a good time driving through the wicked, twisted road. We drove through 3 one lane tunnels, but we didn't get to play chicken even once. Bummer. I did get to give Annie a scare or two by pretending to almost drive us off a cliff. Good times.
After our Needles Highway experience, we decided that we hadn't had enough of Crazy Horse, and opted to see/experience the Laser Light Show. It pretty much consisted of some lame graphics shown up on the mountain, backed up with even lamer music. All in all, Crazy Horse gets a thumbs down. Sorry. It could be so much more, but I think that it's lacking soooooo much.
So after experiencing that wonderful light show, we headed back to our "sleeping cabin." Long story short: I cooked tacos (NOT fish tacos), we ate, and we passed out.
Friday, September 8:
We set the alarm for 6:30 A.M., which Annie was REALLY thrilled about (I wasn't really thrilled about it either). We got ready, packed the truck, and headed out to Sylvan Lake, to walk along it during the early morning light. It was very nice, and very peaceful. I talked to a couple of retired men that were fishing. They weren't catching anything, and they were just fine with that. I think that they were just plain happy to be alive and fishing. Not a bad way to spend a morning.
The lake was glass, and I got some pretty cool pictures of it. There was even a wedding going on in an old church along the lake. Awwwwww. Big R, you're next.
We then drove through Custer State Park. Let me just say that I saw one of the coolest things I'd ever seen there. We were driving along, when all of a sudden we saw an Antelope buck, all by his lonesome. Only this one was about 75 yards from the road. I stopped the truck and shut off the engine. We waited and he proceeded to come to within 30 yards of the truck. Truly amazing. For those of you that don't know, antelope are very nervous. Before that day, I had never been closer to them than 100-150 yards or so. This was very, very cool.
We continued along and came upon a herd of asses, and I don't mean Big R and his friend. It was a herd of donkeys. Annie made me stop, so I did. She practically ran out of the truck, when she suddenly stopped. She stopped because an ass was rapidly walking up to her. She got pretty scared and started backtracking, with the ass continuing along toward her. She looked at me with a look that said, "Help me!" when I told her that they weren't gonna hurt her. She calmed down and then proceeded to make friends with all 15 or so of them. It made me laugh watching her with the donkeys. She was like a kid in a candy store.
I finally coaxed her from the asses, and we continued on our journey. We saw two pretty large bison herds, and we stopped and watched them for a while. There is something calming and nostalgic about watching those animals. It kind of makes you wish that you lived 150 years earlier, to witness the HUGE herds of them, tatanka that is.
Annie was quite thrilled at the sight of them too, as was I. We then proceeded to finish the tour of Custer State Park, which pretty much consisted of lot a pretty scenery.
We then set out to see the Badlands of South Dakota. I have one word to describe it: Beautiful. It was truly amazing. We spent about 3 hours touring the Badlands, stopping randomly to see/shoot pictures of it.
Along our drive, we came upon a very large prairie dog town, which Annie just LOVED. She even managed to get one of them to come right up to the truck. I mean right up to it. So close that if you opened the truck door and stepped out, you would have squished the little guy. It was pretty cute to watch the lil' varmet as he stood on his hind legs.
We then traveled along the road seeing a lot more of the Badlands then most people normally see (Because of my stellar map-reading skilz, I inadvertently sent us on a backroad tour. Exciting.).
Since all of this was so beautiful, and that all of our pictures were faded because of the harsh lighting, I really wanted to stay to see the sunset. We had finished touring the Badlands by 4 P.M., and that would mean that we would have about 3 hours to blow before sunset. I asked Annie if she would mind if we stayed until then, and she, like the doll that she is, said no. You see kids, we were supposed to head back to Texas that day, and by staying until after sunset, that would put us about 4 hours behind.
I even bought her dinner at the local diner, where Indians (feathers, not dots) served us a good, "just like Mom used to make," dinner. We then prepared for our hike into the wilderness for our photo shoot.
Long story short, it was awesome. We were in the middle of nowhere, just the two of us and 6 deer. It wasn't long before 3 of the does walked to within about 20 yards of us. It was surreal. Then the sun started setting, throwing reds, pinks, and purples onto the sky and the Badlands. We shot a bunch of pictures and had a great time. Until Annie saw the rattlesnake skin.
Rugh row shaggy. She hasn't spent a lot of time in the "wild", so she didn't really realize that the snake wasn't still attached to it. About 10 minutes later, I finally convinced her that they weren't gonna kill us. She did realize that snakes shed their skin, but this particular one looked really life-like to her. Poor Annie.
We finished our photographic safari, and started heading back south. We made it about 2 hours before I couldn't drive anymore, because I was about to pass out. We ended up staying in the Comfort Inn in Valentine, Nebraska. Sweet, sweet loving was had there, I can assure you.
Saturday, September 9:
We left Valentine, NE that morning around 9:15 or so. It's a long drive to Oklahoma City from there, especially when you are anxious to get back home. Long story short, we made it to Oklahoma City around 8:00 P.M. that night. We found a nice hotel that was off the beaten path a bit, but it was nice. It was nice to take it easy for a night, and not have to worry about anything, and just relax.
Sunday, September 10:
We got up that morning and headed out to the OK National Memorial. It's amazing. Very sobering. The memorial is really well done. They even left the plaza of the Federal Building, which was on the other side of the bomb blast, so it was left unscathed. It's surreal. You end up seeing door and staircases that lead to nowhere, because the building simply isn't there anymore. I HIGHLY recommend going to see this.
We then went to the museum there. Unbelievable. It's pretty hard to not shed a few tears there. They start you out on that day, before the attack, and then proceed to take you throughout that day and the years after that. It's amazing.
We made it back to my house by 6:30 P.M. What a trip.
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