August 8, 2000
Will it never end? The constant roar of the constant stream of constant motorcycles (perhaps 90% Harley-Davidson) past our Road Abode. At the end of 3 nights of this I know somebody who will really need a nap. But more on that later.
Don't know why, but the Hart Ranch has their own little Bison herd.
And it seemed to be productive as well. Barb spent a fair amount of time enjoying the big guys.
We got to renew our friendship with Gene Reed, and meet his bride of 4 1/2 years, Gladys. What a couple they are. Kept us in stitches telling how they met after each loosing their spouse, how he "courted" her and all that. It is so good to be able to be so comfortable with someone so quickly. Must have something to do with the common bond of Christianity, eh? We discovered that they like us are active with Crown Ministries, and Gene was ready to send us off to someplace to teach a leadership class until Barby reminded us that we're taking this year off. Nice to know there's a chance we can be useful someplace in the future. For the time being, we're still trying to adjust to the fact that we aren't just on an extended vacation and don't have to answer the bell on Monday morning.
Because lots of bikers were already in the area for the 60th Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, we thought we'd go to Sturgis and see what the town looked like as it was getting ready. This is a "before" shot of Main Street where all the social activities take place. The races and hill climbs are at different venues. Rapid City will be the location for the main Harley-Davidson show, and most the smaller towns in the area are gearing up for the crowd that has been estimated to be 600,000 or so. Hard to believe.
You know, with a title like that you'd think it would be worth $6 each to see some pretty fine work, right? Wrong. Well, maybe not. Lets put it this way. Our expectations based on all the billboards and the title of the place were not met by a long stretch of the imagination. However, the display was fascinating and we enjoyed it, it just wasn't the kind of exhibit we'd expected. A Denver Chiropractic doctor had a knack for carving characters depicting the old west. He was an inventive sort, and many of the figures were articulated and by either pushing a button or dropping a wooden nickel (handed out at the entry point) into the appropriate slot, they'd perform whatever task they were depicted for. Like I said, interesting and kind of fun, but no example of national proportions. The gift shop, on the other hand, did have carvings that were priced in the hundreds of dollars, and many looked like they were of the highest caliber of work. We decided that for now, we'd look askance at any more big-deal tourist attractions. We'd already decided to forgo the "Reptile Gardens" in spite of it's extensive attractive advertising. Ditto for "Bear Country, USA" and several others. There is just too much natural beauty and excitement in this part of the country for us to spend money looking at contrived things.
Having said that, when we left the Hart Ranch RV Resort, we drove the 30 or so miles south to the Flintstones RV park. But we didn't pay to get into "Bedrock City" to ride the train or take advantage of whatever else was in the theme park part of the facility.
Quite a contrast to the level of maintenance at Hart Ranch, but adequate nonetheless. the views are terrific!
In keeping with the theme, these are the restrooms.
And this is the train I was talking about. Cute, but not for us.
A lot of our time here was spent "getting organized. My computer desk is to the left, and Barby has the rest of the place. I'd give her the computer desk, except her filing system all over the floor would still be the same and I'd go nuts. The file drawer I built under the TV is lighter as a result of her work, and now she can find anything in there. When I was in charge of filing, I could usually find what I wanted if I had enough time. She's much better than I am at this kind of thing, and now that she's not working she's taken over both filing and the checkbook. Now maybe I will be able to go fishing!! (Don't bet on it.)
But it wasn't all paperwork. We finally cracked the Christmas package from my older brother Ken and his wife Nancy, and enjoyed some Oreo milkshakes. Thanks, Ken & Nancy!
On the next to last day at Flintstones, we went to do the laundry and run a couple of errands. And already the town was getting full of bikers.
As Barb is quick to point out, there are more and more women with their own bike, and doing a great job of handling them besides. The woman is the one coming in to park. Can't tell by the length of hair or number of tattoos any more. One guy said he was so old that he could remember when the guys had the tattoos and the women had the earrings.
And then, since we were out and about anyway, we thought we'd play tourist like everybody else. And the stickers in our window are evidence that we paid our fees to get into Custer State Park, and the motorcycles you see in front of us is typical for this time of year. These roads and the scenic beauty of this area makes it a natural for motorcycles, and I'll have to admit that more than once I felt envious.
Custer State Park is the second largest State park in the U.S., and purportedly has the largest herd of Bison in the U.S. as well. These aren't them. These are Bighorn Sheep. At first I thought they were Stone Sheep like we'd seen on the Alcan Highway because they are brown, but upon checking further in the guide book, it confirmed that they were Bighorns.
This is about as close as I've ever been to a wild Bighorn. And that raises a philosophical argument. How "wild" are these guys, anyway? There were at least 15 motorcycles and several cars of people and we were all taking pictures, walking up and down the road, and these sheep couldn't have cared less. "Wild" to me means that in the presence of humans, the wildlife is gone. Poof. Like the animals do when I'm hunting or just hiking. I'm not sure I like calling park animals wild any more than I do zoo animals. What's the difference except mobility? And veterinarian services. Which the park Bison get, by the way. Don't know about these critters. Comments?
Aha! The herd! Maybe not all 500 of them, but the largest batch we'd ever seen.
And there's Barb taking pictures of things smaller than she is.
Tiny Tim tiptoeing through the tulips it ain't, but this critter sure looked happy. Took a while before she brought her head up so Barb could take the picture.
RV'ing is more exciting for some people than others. This guy had pulled off, the kids and mom were playing in the dirt and bushes, and dad was inside watching TV. Because the TV antenna was up and only 1/2 of it was still there, I thought I'd stop and see if help was needed. He was waiting for the brakes to cool as he'd lost them on the last grade!
Well, with the engine lid off, what'd you expect me to do, ignore it? At least my hands were still in my pockets! I gotta quit wearing those shorts. This is the second time Barb's taken pictures of me with my hands in my pockets looking at some roadside disaster. At least this time it wasn't our rig! He'd already made contact with the rental agency where he got the rig, and a mechanic at a nearby shop, so we left and I didn't even get my hands dirty. Nice pockets! By the way, I'm a little envious of Barb's artistic talents. She's usually the one with the good ideas of where or how a picture can be taken. Like the one of George's nose at Rushmore. She had gone into that little hole and seen the possibilities and then made me go in for the picture.
Over the hill and hit the brakes.... hard.... hoping the bikers behind are paying attention. They are.
And everybody stops.... and makes remarks about family resemblances I'm sure. These are the only animals that are in the park that visitors can feed. It's supposed that these guys are descendents from the abandoned or escaped miners donkeys.
And while they didn't charge admission, they did put on quite a show. Going from car to truck to motorcycle mooching whatever they could.
They were mostly donkey colors, but there was the extra hairy one that had a patchwork of colors.
The prime reason for the shot was to remind us of where we were/had been, but the architecture of the building was unusual and worth a shot itself.
See what I mean? Hard to imagine some burearat approving the plans for this visitor center, but I'm sure glad they did. It looks stout enough for winters for sure.
And there around a corner we're being watched. Big fella. Seems the older bulls get ornery and they get left alone during the round-ups. Except for the rut they'll stay alone apparently, avoiding even their colleagues that they ran around with as younger bulls. The Bison has an interesting social structure, and one that makes all kinds of good sense. Buffalo Bill was credited with shooting lots of them, and he was also one of the first to realize that the killing had gone on too long and is largely responsible for us having any Bison today. Story is that he captured about 500 of them and preserved them on some of his own property for the express purpose of re-introducing them to the wild someday. Well, the "wild" went away and Bill died, but the Buffalo is still here. Unlike cows they'll eat a large variety of vegetation and they only need water every 3-5 days. Cows need water daily, are not smart about eating and will easily eat poisonous weeds, and like to hang around the watering trough. Bison will range up to 10 miles a day just during normal feeding activity and are a lot less damaging to the grasslands.
After the jaunt around the wildlife loop of Custer State Park, it was only logical to see what all the fuss was with "Wind Cave National Park" so we went the 8 or 10 more miles to find out.
Since I don't do caves and Barb didn't feel like spending the $ to take the tour, we wandered around the grounds a bit, learned about how limestone caves get formed and then
found an unusual (for us) bird nest. The sign says "There Are Birds Nesting In This Ashtray, DO NOT USE THIS ASHTRAY, (Another Is Provided To The Right), Please Do Not Disturb The Birds". That explained the little bird sitting on the edge of it when we came up to it. At first I was prompted to say something smart about the bird using the ashtray, as it had a twig or something in it's mouth that it flew off with. Well, I guess it was using the ashtray, just not as intended.
And since we're playing tourist, might as well stop at the Mammoth Site and see what that's all about.
And this is one tourist trap that isn't. Barb's trying to look big by sticking her hand in the air. We feel we really got our money's worth - again I think it was $6 each to get in.
For some reason no one there could explain, the bigger one is called a Columbian Mammoth, and for obvious reasons, this one is called the Wooly Mammoth. Considerable size difference, and apparently they were both here at the same time.
That's Barb on the far left. The rest of the group are on the official tour which we'd just finished. They're all listening on a phone headset to the docent who is conducting the tour. And this truly is the site where the bones of these mammoths are being unearthed. Along with all kinds of other animals, some of which we still have roaming around this area like the coyote, pronghorn antelope, and all kinds of smaller animals. Apparently what happened was that a sink hole appeared, and filled partially with water. When the animals came to drink, many of them slipped on the steep bank, fell in, and couldn't get out. This occurred over a period of time, and about 50 mammoths in all accumulated before the sediment eliminated the hole. Then the surrounding earth eroded away, leaving the hard packed sediment as a bit of a hill. A housing developer bought the land, and one day a bulldozer driver found a bone. Fortunately the drivers son was studying archeology and got excited about what had been found. The land owner/developer agreed to a 3 year moratorium on development so the site could be explored. A non-profit private group was formed, eventually the land that contained the site was sold to the group for the same price the developer had paid for it, and then a building was erected over the site and the excavation has been going on ever since as money and time allow. We were told that since all work is done by volunteers, the only time the professors (paleontologists) and students have is the month of July and we just missed them. We really felt like the way the project is being conducted is the way it should be done.
The workers, all volunteers, have named the different skeletons. At least the ones that are more-or-less complete.
Many of the bones are left in place and the earth removed around them. The building is temperature and humidity controlled to slow the deterioration. There are plans to build onto this building and do some reconstruction there. With the exception of a bear skull, all the bones we saw are the actual bones. The bear skull was a fiberglass reproduction because the actual skull is in some university for study. They cannot be sure which bones belong together unless the skeleton is pretty much intact because the sediment leached all the DNA out, thus making matches impossible using that method.
And I'm tired and it's time to go home.