Roughlock Falls

When in Western South Dakota, one should make sure that Spearfish is on the “must see” list. Spearfish is a town on the north edge of the Black Hills, about 100 miles and 90 minutes north of us. The area is known for its beauty, clear creeks, waterfalls, and hiking. We intended to start out with a 3-mile hike. When we got into the area, we met a park official who talked us out of the hike. I’m not sure we made the best decision when we decided to skip that hike.

Spearfish Falls

We decided to move on to the waterfalls. There are three in the area. The most impressive are Roughlock Falls and Spearfish Falls. The entire area is stunningly beautiful. The creeks are perfectly clear. It was common to see people fly fishing, hiking, and of course taking pictures. It is easy to tell this is one of the most beautiful areas of the state, because there are many extremely upscale vacation homes in the area.

Studebaker Surrey

Our next stop was a museum in town. We saw many items that made us wonder why anybody would want to see them, such as various horse saddles. We saw a stagecoach that was used on the Spearfish – Deadwood line, one of the last stage coaches in regular use. We saw a surrey with a fringe on top, made by Studebaker. But the surprise find of the day was an Edison cylinder player, which I found way cool (and Danita ignored).

Edison Cylinder Player

The most interesting place we visited was the Termesphere Gallery. The artist is Dick Termes. His education was entirely in fine arts. But what he does is highly mathematical. He paints what one would see if standing in the middle of the room and slowly turning in a full circle. But he paints it on the outside of a sphere. He starts by precisely marking 6 points on the sphere: North, East, South, West, Up, and Down. Then he paints so each scene uses the correct vanishing points. It’s a precise mathematical transformation, done without formal math. One views the work by suspending it from the ceiling and using a motor to slowly rotate it. It’s very strange to view. Several of them are mind-blowing. Rather than try to take a picture, I’ll visit the website from time to time.

Since we didn’t do our hike, we had some extra time and decided to watch the movie “Dunkirk”. It was quite a strange experience. After watching 20 or 25 minutes of the movie, the picture went black. After a minute of sound but no picture, I went out to the lobby, saw the manager, and told her what happened. She acted like she knew what she had to do, so I went back to the theater. After another couple of minutes, the theater lights went on, the manager came in, and announced she would give us refunds. It was ideal for us. After seeing the first 1/3 of the movie, we decided we didn’t want to see the rest of it.

Bear Butte

Bear Butte

When we went to our hotel, we found a severe case of road construction in the middle of the town’s major interchange with the Interstate. There was no traffic control. The SD drivers were taking turns, one at a time, through 4 intersections within about 1/4 mile, and being very cautious about what they were doing. It was astonishing to see. Anywhere on the East Coast, the result would have been gridlock as every driver tried to force their way through. It took over 20 minutes to get through the mess. Danita had a nice swim, and the desk clerk told us how to bypass the traffic. We weren’t able to eat at the restaurant we wanted. Most days of the week, they are open for lunch and dinner. But on Mondays, they are open only for lunch. That’s pretty much the way things are done around here. There’s no predictability, rhyme, or reason. And information on the Internet isn’t updated to what they’re doing this month. It’s all part of the adventure!

Bear Bute

This morning we took a drive over to Bear Butte. This is a stunningly beautiful area. We intended to walk to the top of the butte, but weather was iffy. You can see the clouds in the pictures. We experienced occasional light rain. One never knows when light rain might turn into a major thunderstorm in the Black Hills. The first 1/2 of the walk went up a saddle peak almost as high as the main peak. We decided to enjoy this view and return to the car.

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Glen and Mom

I spent this week in West Palm Beach, visiting Mom and Glen. Mom fell and broke her arm. Then Glen fell and shattered his arm. Dani went down to visit, followed by Gayle. Glen’s son Alan and his wife Rosemary came back from Europe and went down to visit. Now I am visiting. Dani plans to come down Friday. Gayle might visit again, depending on how Mom and Glen are doing.

Mom is doing much better since she got her arm out of a sling and got permission to drive again. She has problems with her PT exercises hurting her arm. But she’s getting herself around very well. She has a nurse visit twice a week to check her and help with her shower, and a PT visits twice a week. She had been feeling overwhelmed because she was so far behind on her budget and hadn’t been able to do those daily activities that we all find so satisfying. We got her budget patched up, and she’s had time to do some of the things she enjoys doing. She is feeling much less stressed.

Glen is in Morse Rehab center. He’s doing remarkably well. He isn’t strong enough or stable enough to walk, so he is either in a wheelchair or in a bed all the time. His arm is still in a sling, so he can’t move himself anywhere. There are lots of patients and not very many staff. As a result, Glen spends a lot of time waiting (as do all the patients who can’t move themselves). Glen is doing his exercises and eating his meals. He is getting stronger and has been able to stand. He will see his bone doctor in about a week. He’s hoping to get permission to get rid of the sling and start using both arms. This will be a major improvement in his mobility. Morse will hold a review of Glen’s progress Wednesday. We’re all looking forward to hear the results of that.

I’m going back to Jewel Cave tomorrow morning. It’s more-or-less an 8-hour flight with a 2-hour layover in Dallas. I don’t mind long layovers at all. I would much rather spend several hours in a nice airport than worry about making my connecting flight. Dallas is a very nice airport. I’ll be back at work Thursday, conducting cave tours and climbing 723 steps two or three times a day in a 49-degree cave. It will be a refreshing rest after a week in hot humid West Palm Beach.

Iron Mountain Rd

We had a heck of a rain last week. There was damage to some of our trails. Water was pouring down the steps to our visitor center so wildly that it wasn’t safe to go up or down the steps. Power went out in our facility. We have backup generators and can get people out of the cave with our elevators. But we don’t allow anybody to enter the cave while power is out. There was lots of confusion, as the powers-that-be tried to decide when the power would go back on, which tours to cancel, etc. In addition, our internet is not on backup power, which meant we could take information for a refund, but we couldn’t actually issue a refund for people who paid with credit cards (which is most people). It all turned into a lot of extra work for the ticket sales folks.

Iron Mountain Rd

We did simple things this weekend. Yesterday we drove scenic Iron Mountain Road. It had pigtail bridges. Two single-lane bridges and a couple of view points gave framed views of Mt. Rushmore. We also played put-put, visited some attractions, and in general had a good time.

Today we drove up to Rapid City and did some chores. Even on vacation, one needs a haircut. The surprising thing is that there aren’t enough car dealers for the population in this area. I know this because one needs an appointment to get an oil change at the Honda dealer. Most dealers won’t even make an appointment for an oil change.

Pigtail Bridge (from the Internet)

We even managed to see two movies this weekend – Spiderman and Wonder Woman. Both were good, but we enjoyed Wonder Woman a little more. We saw Spiderman at a theater in Newcastle, WY (24 miles away). This is a quiet little town with no tourist attractions at all. But they do have one movie theater. It has one screen, they change their movie once a week, and they show the movie once a day at 7 PM. I can’t imagine how they can afford to show a movie as recent as Spider Man. The show we attended had about a dozen people. We paid $17 for two tickets. The guy that owns it must be donating his time and his personal fortune to the city.

The summer weather here is great. High temperatures are between 80 and 90, but humidity is low. Even 90 degrees feels tolerable n the shade. In the evenings, lows are around 60 to 65. We don’t have, and don’t need, air conditioning in our apartment. We use fans to cool the apartment at night, and close it up during the day. It is quite comfortable.

We went adventuring and had a great weekend. Highlights included a dinner at Desperados Restaurant. The food is only OK. But the prices were reasonable, and the restaurant name fit right in with the Black Hills ethos. We played mini-golf, saw local art, and even went to an amusement park. The park would be considered small by any East Coast standards, but it was a lot of fun. Danita and I went into a bouncing-seat simulator, wearing 3-D glasses and shooting at robots. (Don’t shoot the good guy humans!). With seven of us on the ride, we came in second and third. Not bad for a couple of old fogies.

Brule

For evening entertainment, we went to a concert by the Native American group “Brule”. And we saw our first rodeo. We’ll probably never understand how they score points at bareback horse riding, bronco horse riding, and bull riding. But I’m convinced that cowboys have to be totally nuts to ride a bull. Speaking of being old fogies, we were offered rides from the parking lot to the venue at both the Brule concert and the rodeo. Of course we accepted. The cart was a little bouncy on the gravel at Brule. I took off my hat and pretended to be riding a bucking horse.

Art – Painted bike – in the Dahl Exhibit

It’s back to work for us. We have to work 4 days in a row before we get more days off. How sad!

We did an overnight trip to Deadwood this weekend. I’m finally getting over my cold, with only a mild cough. But Danita is a full week behind me, so we’re still taking it easy.

Mt Roosevelt Friendship Tower (built by Teddy Roosevelt’s good friend Seth Bullock)

Deadwood and Lead were where most of the gold was found in the Black Hills. Deadwood is well known for being a rip-roaring mining town with characters including Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, Preacher Smith, and Potato Creek Johnny. The town is filled with tourist traps, kitch, and such. The town has had many ups and downs over the years. They solved their most recent “down” by being the first town in SD to allow gambling. Today, most hotels and restaurants have casinos. (Or maybe the casinos have most of the hotels and restaurants?) Today, gambling exists throughout western SD, with small casinos everywhere — even gas station / convenience stores. Either way, it’s nice to see the town doing well. It’s also depressing to see a casino when entering almost any establishment, complete with a completely empty series of machines with flashing lights. Or even worse, one half-drunk working a slot. I suppose most gambling occurs at night. We wouldn’t know for sure.

Wild Bill Hickock’s Grave Marker

We spent some time looking for a restaurant in Deadwood. In desperation, we finally went to the visitor information center and asked if there were any restaurants that weren’t a casino, a hotel, or having live music. It turns out there is one — Harry’s Wild West Spaghetti. “Harry” is the person who started the local radio station and ran it for 35 years. He was Italian, and loved having friends over for spaghetti. His daughter and her husband used his recipe to start their restaurant. One gets a choice of 3 pastas, 3 sauces, and hamburger, sausage, or chicken. It was good spaghetti. We hadn’t found it for themselves because they didn’t have a web site. We had a delicious dinner. With their name, it was natural that they had “The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly” on a continuous loop, with the movie soundtrack as their background music. That inspired us to watch the movie on Amazon when we got back to the hotel. It turns out to be very long (almost 3 hours) and somewhat boring. Our hotel had a beautiful “infinity pool”. Danita enjoyed the pool, but she couldn’t swim because it was very popular with the kids.

Homestake Mine Locomotive – from the Baldwin Works in Philadelphia

Danita visited her second gold mine. This one was large enough that I was able to do most of the tour. (I left a few minutes early, when the passageway got a little too small and some of the kids a little to antsy.) Our last stop was in the town of Lead, where we saw the visitor center for the Sanford Research lab where Dr. Ray Davis found proof of Neutrinos, winning the Nobel Prize. The lab is still active today.

Cool Clock Works with Controls for a 16-bell tower

Moon at Sunrise from our Deck

We had another week of feeling poorly. Danita and I were both coughing away. By Sunday, Danita was actually starting to feel sick. Monday, we decided to go to the medical clinic in Rapid City (only an hour away!) and see what the good medical people had to say. They decided we have a virus and there’s not much they can do for us. They gave us some Tessalon Pearls which are supposed to help with the coughing. We did some shopping and went home. It wasn’t much of a day, We spent the rest of the day reading library books.

At Sylvan Lake

Tuesday we felt a little better and decided to go to one of the lodges in Custer Park for Breakfast. The breakfast was just so-so, but it felt good getting out. After breakfast, we took a one-mile hike around Sylvan Lake. We didn’t see any wildlife, but it’s quite a beautiful area. It was an easy walk, well within our capabilities. It felt good being out in the sun for a little while. After our walk, we drove on Needles Highway. We stopped at several lookouts and even did a little easy walking. On the way home, we stopped at the local burger place and had some amazingly good hamburgers.

Rock Window at Sylvan Lake

Today was our big day out. We went back to Rapid City and visited a couple of local museums. It rained during the day, but we managed to be either in the car or in a museum every time it rained. The original plan was to see a Rodeo this evening, but we headed home home early and had dinner at home. It’s early to bed for me tonight. I’m still coughing, and we have 4 days of cave tours coming up.

Cathedral Spires on Needles Highway

Our first confirmed Elk

I got a cold this week. I was feeling kinda OK Friday, kinda not OK Saturday. By Sunday I was pretty down. I actually told the lead ranger I couldn’t do my scheduled patio talk and took a nap instead. I’m feeling better now, but of course Danita is coming down with her version. It’s a strange experience living in this area. Many of the restaurants are closed in the winter. In the summer, the good ones are mobbed. So it turns out the locals almost  never get to eat dinner out. Go figure. We’ve given up on eating dinner out in Custer. Fortunately, we get up early so it’s easy to get a nice breakfast when we want.

More Custer Buffalo

We had a laid back weekend. Monday we took an early drive through Custer Park and saw some more wildlife, then went to a breakfast brunch. Tuesday we went back to Custer for the 4th of July parade. It was about half an hour long, but it was fun to see the fire trucks, veterans, and kids going down the street. We went back home, then went back to Custer in the evening for the fireworks. It was a nice show.

Alpine Toboggan

Today we went to Keystone. We started with some mini-golf. Danita visited a gold mine. (I tried, but the shaft was way too small for my comfort.) Then we decided to ride an overhead tram. While we were riding up, I saw people coming down in a toboggan. We hadn’t plan to ride it, but it looked like a lot of fun so I upgraded my ticket to take the toboggan on the return trip. I had so much fun that I took the whole ride a second time. Danita was happy to watch.

Danita in Minuteman

We started out visiting the local air and space museum. We took the bus tour so we could see the Nike missile training simulator. We also went the inside of the missile silo trainer. The missiles originally had mirrors on them. They used a system of mirrors to align the missiles with the North Star. The guides learned they could use that mirror to make it look like a visitor was inside the missile. The museum had several aircraft outside. There was no signage or explanation. The only thing they had was a paper map that one could use to figure out which plane we were seeing. I can’t blame them too much. We were visiting a strategic bomber air base with working B1B bombers. Still, a little signage would go a long way.

Beechcraft Twin

My favorite aircraft was the C45 Expeditor, AKA Beechcraft 1800, AKA Beechcraft “Twin”. I thought this was the aircraft in Casa Blanca. Then I learned it was actually the very similar looking Lockheed Electra. Then I learned it was really a scaled down model of the Electra. All that aside, this was a true classic. In it’s day, it held the record for the longest production run.

Big Horn Sheep at Bear World

We spent Monday afternoon at Bear World. This is a drive-through zoo. It was a lot of fun and we saw a lot of animals. One of the things we do at Jewel Cave is give patio talks. These are aimed at children visiting the site, waiting for their cave tours. Danita does an “Animal Furs” talk. It’s surprising how many children insist that bears live in this part of South Dakota. After all, they saw them at Bear World.

Boxwork

Sunday we drove in a different direction and visited our sister cave, Wind Cave. This was the first time I tried to take pictures inside a cave. Not surprisingly, even good cameras have a problem getting good pictures while walking around a cave. This came out as well as any. It’s a picture of Boxwork. It was fun seeing how different two caves with the same geological history can be. The ranger did a wonderful job leading the tour.

Mammoth Site

Monday afternoon we visited the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. This was a cave that collapsed, making an attractive-looking sink hole. Unfortunately for the mammoths, the soil lining the sinkhole was very slippery clay. Many mammoths entered,  none escaped. As expected, there were lots of bones from animals of the day. We were surprised to learn that what we saw represented less than 1/3 of the dig.

B52 Stratofortress

The weather here is rather freaky. We’ve been experiencing mostly cool days (highs in between 60 and 70 / lows in the high 30s). We definitely didn’t bring enough warm clothes. We’re getting by, but we really thought it would be warmer in the summer. At 85 degrees, yesterday afternoon was our first warm day. We were planning to eat dinner at a burger joint. While looking for a parking space, we saw the entire block was filled with people waiting to get inside. We were trying to decide what to do when the wind suddenly kicked up. We decided to drive home (about 12 miles). Dirt started blowing across the road, making it hard to see. Then the rain started. Without warning, the rain got so heavy that I couldn’t see the road. There was a wide shoulder, but I didn’t dare pull over because I literally couldn’t see where the pavement ended. I stopped the car and turned on the flashers. That was fine, nobody else could see either. After a few minutes, there was a lull and a string of us pulled over. The temperature dropped to 55 degrees. After about 10 minutes, the rain tapered off enough that I could drive. I didn’t go over 45 on this 65 MPH road. Neither did anybody else. It was quite an experience.

B29 Superfortress

1880 Train

We had a nice, relaxing weekend. That’s a good thing because I was exhausted at the end of our work week Sunday. Monday, we took the 1880 train. They have steam trains, but they are all oil fired because coal-fired trains are illegal. They burn used motor oil. Afterwards, we visited several small museums in the area.

Crazy Horse

Tuesday, we went to Crazy Horse. They have an extensive visitor’s center. After 50 years, only the face of the carving is done. We chose not to take the bus ride up to the statue. This picture is from a website. We had dinner at the Purple Pie Place. Their dinner is basic but good. The Chicken Pot Pie is excellent, as are their desert pies.

It is the 4 of Diamonds!

Tuesday evening we went to a magic show. The magician picked Danita to assist him with a card trick. You get a bonus picture of this. The magician is a good illusionist, the show is very family friendly, and everybody had a good time. When we came out, the sky looked very dramatic.

We’re having a computer shortage. My computer stopped working, so we’re sharing Danita’s computer. The part Dell needs is on back order, so it seems I won’t get my computer back this month.

We subscribed to Netflix to get some video entertainment in the evenings. I don’t know why anybody subscribes to them. I haven’t found a single good streaming movie. Every time I find a movie we might want to watch, it’s either not listed or it’s listed as DVD only. I haven’t found a decent way to search for streaming movies in Netflix. I can’t believe the service is that bad. For now, we’re watching “Orange is the New Black” and reruns of “The Flash”. Neither show is riveting, but it gives us a couple of hours of down time in the evening.

Dramatic Sky

I hope this finds everybody doing well.

Interior – Population 67 or 94?

We spent most of our two days in the Badlands. We stayed at a roadside motel just outside the park in a little town named Interior. How small is Interior? That depends on whether you enter from the east or the west, apparently. We had quite a good T-storm the night we were here. Lightening was very frequent, but mostly from cloud to cloud. Thunder was continuous. We got about an inch of rain. The hotel owner told us that this was not a very bad storm. It’s not unusual to get hail, with 70 MPH winds.

We had a delightful 2 days driving around the area, taking short hikes, and listening to ranger programs. I’ll let the Badlands speak for themselves.

White River — “Too thick to drink, too thin to plow”