AUG 22

We got an early start as there would be 314 miles to cover today.  At least we would be off the wide expanse of rolling interstate.  What we found was that Wyoming Highways are pretty wide and rolling in their own way.  We took a break at the only "rest stop" on our route at Independence Rock.  This was about the half way point for pioneers headed west and they usually arrived here about the 4th of July.  They tell us there are a lot of names carved in that rock, but we were really more interested in seeing our camp grounds for the night and watching all the people climbing up the rock just made us hot and tired.  It is 130ft tall and 1900 ft long and it really was impressive sitting out on a flat plain.  Danny said it looked like Ayers Rock in Australia, maybe a little.  But that was our last stop in Wyoming.

 We crossed the continental divide about 4 times today, and each one had a different elevation, guess the road sort of zigged and zagged across the divide.
















Finally, we have arrived in South Dakota,  CaptDan was dozing a lot today and I suggested that he watch for the state border sign for me....He saw it and hit the button on his phone and took a burst of 9 pictures, this was as clear as he got....Then he went back to sleep.  It was a long drive and I was really glad to see Hot Springs South Dakota.  We got checked in at the local KOA and this is a really nice park, quiet, not real level, and we did need Todd to come down and prune a few branches so we could pull out the slides, but it is cooler then we have had for awhile and no road noise.




Aug 23

A peaceful night and the park has a grill serving pancakes and eggs for breakfast, yeah!  no cooking and we take off for Wind Cave.  CaptDan has never been in a cave before and I love them, so hopefully he will like this and we can explore many more on this road trip to anywhere.  Wind cave is really big!  but the tour we take is just over a mile and it feels really nice and cool under ground.  The most common formation in Wind Cave is the box formation, and this was the first time I had seen that, not surprising as 94% of the box formation in caves is in Wind Cave.  This is a really different cave for me and I find all caves to be a special treat.

Boxwork is made of thin blades of calcite that project from cave walls and ceilings, forming a honeycomb pattern. The fins intersect one another at various angles, forming "boxes" on all cave surfaces.  It is believed that the calcite formed around fissures in the gypsum crystals and then when the softer gypsum weathered away, the calcite box work was left to stand alone.  

I believe CaptDan is loving caves as much as I do, yippee!

Aug 24

We have a busy day planned today.  Jewel Cave is first and as the weather has clouded over and cooled down Butter goes along for the ride today.  We make the 10:30 tour at Jewel Cave and CaptDan sees how very different each cave can be. Jewel cave is much wetter and so there are some small stalactites and the corresponding stalagmites and flowstone.  These are formations I have seen in many caves.  The big difference in this cave is the Calcite Crystals.  Its like the walls of the cave were totally encrusted with the calcite crystals and everywhere the layer has broken off you see the crystal formation.  Then you start to look at the walls differently.

Calcite Crystals (the broken piece is about 2ft across)

Fun in the dark!

After Jewel Cave we head north and find a place for lunch, caving is hard work.  The Cowboy Buffet sounds like hardy fare.  Well this is a surprise, it is a buffet, but it has an Asian table, a Mexican table and an Italian table, and I think the cowboy table is the meatloaf, meatballs and mash potatoes and gravy....well it is good food and very filling.

We are ready for the next stop, The Crazy Horse Memorial.  I was here 19 years ago and am trying to figure out how much progress has been made.  When we get closer I realize they have blasted away a whole lot more around the base, and the museum is much bigger.  We watch the film about the memorial and then just sit and listen to a member of the Lakota tribe talk about their belief system and do a demonstration of the hoop dance.  What we really like is the chanting he has playing so we will be looking for that as we peruse Amazon.

Next stop, Mount Rushmore, but enroute we see a Mountain Goat.  There is a bit of a traffic jam and a ranger trying to keep all the tourists back so we just slowly drive on by and pull into the parking lot for Mt. Rushmore.  What is there to be said.  Again I was confused at the changes, but eventually I found the old viewing platform and it looked like I remember.  It was time for an afternoon treat and they had ice cream, so we took a rest and some refreshment before the last leg of todays planned trip.  So the goal today was a big loop with the last leg going around Custer State park to look for buffalo...  Now we had seen 1 buffalo the day before and heard about the herd that stopped traffic last night in the park, so we figured we had a good chance if the light held.  First we found a prong horn antelope and while the Capt was trying to get his phone set to camera I was watching a beautiful big buck slowing walk across the hilltop.  We say one guy stopped taking pictures of a lone buffalo and with his car pulled over we really couldn't see much so we moved on with a firm belief we would find our buffalo.  

WE DID, we turned off on a dirt road and up a hill there was a small group grazing.  Finding the right place to turn this dually around is always a challenge so I didn't proceed further then the first pull out.  We watched for a brief time and got turned around before the cars behind us caught up and we headed back to the main road as it got closer to dusk.  We still had a ways to go to be able to exit the park so we come around a corner and there they are, crossing the road, on the road, all around us, we just sit there and watch, and even Butter seems to know better then to set up a fuss.

Take a look at Buffalo Roam

August 25 is our last full day in Hot Springs and there are 2 things on the must do, first we are off to the Mammoth Site.  I had been here 19 yrs ago and really wanted CaptDan to see this place.  We spent about 4 hrs, taking the tour, watching a movie and just wandering the site.  It is all enclosed in a building and work is going on to expose and examine the remains of, at this time, 62 Columbian  mammoths 2 wholly mammoths and 2 giant short faced bears, along with numerous other floral and fauna which fell into the giant sink hole and couldn't climb out.  

After that excursion we went back to a local brew pub to try the deep fried deviled eggs and have a couple of beers.  Perfect before heading home and picking up our swimsuits for a dip in the Evans Plunge.  The springs that the town is named after.  They are really not too hot springs and the pool is a very comfortable 87 degrees.  It felt wonderful and was just the perfect activity to prepare us for the next day and our trip to Rapid City to get the grey tank repaired.  We think, We hope.