Friday, August 29, 2025 A Spur of the Moment Kind of Day

 

Friday, August 29, 2025 Spur of the Moment

I have trained my humans all from the power of my stare.  If I stare at my food bowl, they feed me.  If I stare at the windows, they lift the covers.  I have learned to use this power for many things.  Humans can be so easy!

With the forecast calling for rain, we did not make any plans for the day.  When we woke up and it wasn’t raining, hmmm…. Maybe we can get 9 holes of golf in.  I ran up to the pro shop and they gave us 20 minutes to get ready and on the tee.  So, on the spur of the moment, we did it.  Spouse felt rushed the entire game.  We hadn’t even had much coffee.  It was barely 7 am.  I felt rushed the first hole, then was able to adjust my brain.  We played with a father/son duo.  And the son had some horrible shots, so we felt quite comfortable with them!  They were our people!

The Elks golf course is a nice course with lots of strategy.  Trees hang over stupid places, water weaves its ways all through the course, and they have some bunkers that are challenging to avoid.  The greens lied.  My evil twin was out at first, but then I showed up and momentarily vanquished her.  She popped up a few times through the 9 holes.  Course knowledge is always helpful, but I gotta say, the best hole I had I totally botched every shot, and because I didn’t know what I was doing, it worked.  We were on a 97 yard par 3.  You have to hit over a stream and up a hill.  I can do this… but I didn’t…I am such a spazz!  I hit over the stream, hit the hill and ricocheted into the rough.  My chip shot was terrible, pulling it and leaving me in the rough.  My next chip shot was even worse!  I totally hit the wrong side of the green, the ball was moving too fast… but wait… the ball went almost all the way up the hill, did a slow uturn, and rolled to within 1 inch from the hole. I don’t think I could have done this if I knew the course… And, by the way… I sunk the putt!

On the 7^th hole, we felt our first raindrops.  It was light, but we didn’t know how bad this was going to get.  On the 8^th hole, it rained a little harder for just about 2 minutes, then stopped, allowing us to finish the round.

When we got back to Artie, our neighbor in the RV park gave us his pass to Custer State Park.  We have been there before and really liked it, so on the spur of the moment, we headed that way. The skies were ominous, but we will be in the truck, so no big deal.

We ended up coming through the east entrance, which we hadn’t done before.  Like the bike trail, you see things differently when you go the other direction.  We stopped at Summer White House for Calvin Coolidge.  It is a lodge, and it was nearing 11 am and we hadn’t eaten. Cool place with some interesting architectural features.  Then exploring the park, down one road, up the next.  We see an occasional lone buffalo.  We decide to take a dirt road (Red Valley Rd.).  There is a prairied dog town so we stopped. 

Prairie dogs are the cutest critters on the planet.  They have a very complex society.  We sat in silence listening to them ‘eep eep eep’ each other.  Then one would do this hi 5 yippee flip and I wanted to kiss their little faces off. 

We head through the rolling hills and find a herd of buffalo.  They really control the buffalo population so that the grasses are not overgrazed.  I guess that explains the buffalo chili and buffalo stew at the restaurant!  They are massive creatures, and it is nice to see them on their home turf after mankind nearly wiped them out.  If it wasn’t for some zoology center in New York who rescued some of the original herd more than 100 years ago, they would be extinct.  They donated 14 buffalo to the state park to grow a native population.  Based on DNA tests, there is teensy tiny bit of cattle in them, but they are basically the same as their ancestors.

As we weave through the dirt road, we cross into Wind Cave National Park.  More prairie dogs, and some rain drops.  Lots of them.  Lightening… and now it is pouring!  The prairie dogs jump into their cozy burrows, and we head onto the main road.  The visitor center at Wind Cave is quite nice.  Wind Cave is full of corridors and rooms.  It has yet to be fully explored as it is too big.  All tours for the cave were booked, so we couldn’t go in.  We walked to the entrance and the rain started, so back we went. 

We weaved our way though Custer, and Hill City, then headed home.  Rain drops here and there.  And lots of people coming into the area for the holiday weekend.  LOTS OF PEOPLE!

We stopped at a store for groceries…  LOTS OF PEOPLE!  Glad we are hunkered down at the elks for the holiday.