August 19,
2017
My humans
will not let me roam free. Sheesh, just
because I ran a couple of times doesn’t mean I shouldn’t be allowed to go
outside. I will fix them. I won’t even beg to go outside today. They will be sorry…
Spouse slept
in while I went for a nice walk. I
started out in the woodsy campground, but soon realized this would bore me to
death, so out onto the highway I went.
They have really big shoulders on which I can walk till I can cut over
to another more quiet street. And once I
did, it was really quite pretty. Lots
of bird houses posted on trees and fence posts.
As I was walking back along the highway, a pretty buck started bounding
towards the street. I screamed and waved
my arms! NO! Don’t do it!
Apparently, it worked as he stopped and hopped past me, then jumped a
fence back towards the meadow. It will
live another day, and some motorist will not be traumatized by hitting this
beautiful buck!
Spouse was
finally awake when I got back. After a
good breakfast, we headed towards Mt. Rushmore.
We have been there before. We are
quite overwhelmed by all the tourist come ons.
Come to the Bear park, come to the reptile garden, the zip lines, the
helicopter rides, the train rides, the roller coaster… GIVE US YOUR MONEY! Mt. Rushmore is right outside the town of
Keystone. It is a western tourist
town. The last time we were here, it was
September and most of the town was already closed for the season. This time, the tourists were coming out of
the woodwork! We checked out a glass
blowing outfit… beautiful stuff. The
glass blower was acting as if somebody just killed his puppy – Mr.
Personality. The glassworks were
stunning but extremely pricey. As we
headed towards Mr. Rushmore, the same gazillion cars that were in line to get
into the Devils Tower the other day were now in line to get into the parking
lot for Mr. Rushmore. Uh… never
mind. Let’s just take a photo from the
street and move on. Been there, done
that!
We continued
on the backroads, leaving the crowds behind.
The Black Hills are absolutely gorgeous.
The pines and rock formations are mesmerizing. We decided to go to Custer State Park. Spouse groused at paying $20, but it was so
well worth it. We entered from hwy. 87
near Sylvan Lake. The rocky spires form
a pathway that is extremely cozy for driving.
A family of mountain goats greeted us as we checked out the Needles
Highway. There is a tunnel to pass
through that is wide enough for only one car so you have to wait your turn. I decided to walk through the tunnel and
photograph the truck coming through. It
is only about 100 feet, yet as I got halfway through, those same gazillion cars
that were trying to get into Mt. Rushmore started coming through and I had to
press myself into this little groove in the granite so that I wouldn’t get
crushed!
The highway
hairpins around on a tiny road through ‘the needles’, rocky spires that dance
around you. It is breathtaking, and it
channels my inner monkey as I climb around in stupid sandals. I have better shoes in the car, but nooooo, I
didn’t change into them. Climb I
did. I got to one point coming down when
I thought my sandals were going to fall right off my feet, but somehow, I
managed to get down.
After a stop
at the visitor center, we took the wildlife loop. We leave the pines and the rocky spires
behind for the plains. Here, there are antelope, deer, buffalo and the cute
little prairie dogs. When we stopped to
look at the buffalos, the prairie dogs serenaded us with their little yips and
barks. I know they are rodents, but they
are sooo cute.
Leaving the
buffalo, we took a little hike towards a creek.
We thought it was a little hike, but it turned out to be much more and
we were not prepared. Yes, I still had
my stupid sandals on, and we had no water, so we just stopped at a lookout
point and enjoyed the stream from there.
Besides, we were told there was lots of poison ivy by the stream. Along the trail, the rocks glistened with
pyrite. Ok, a few might have been
relocated…
YIKES! We need to get back as we have a meeting for
the golf tourney! Food and wine and good
folks… After all, that is the reason for
this whole trip!
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