Day 15 - Shootin' Buffalo

Yesterday, we told you that we were going to shoot Buffalo today and that's what we did!  But, first, I have to take care of business that I forgot to do yesterday.

   Our dear friend, Bob Mead called us yesterday, after we had visited Mt. Rushmore and notified us that his likeness was on the back side of the mountain, so we went to the back side of the mountain, because I had to see this!  Well here is the picture, below.  What do you think?  Those of you who know Bob, do you see the likeness?  I recognize a few of the lumps...  What do you think?  Huh?

Bob Mead

Does this look like Bob Mead to you?  <(;-o)

  OK, Bob, we Love you!  Wish you could be here with us!

   So, Buffalo Shooting?  Actually, we were taking pictures of Buffalo statues in the town of Custer, S.D.  We didn't get all of them, but we got enough to give you a good idea of the atmosphere on the corners and in front of some of the businesses in town.  Below are a couple of the ones I like.

These were commissioned by the Custer Community Arts Council as a fund raising project for the Arts.  Every year they would ask for donations and commission a work based on the number and amount of the donations.  It turns out that almost all of the Buffalo are due to one woman's donations.  We couldn't get her name.  Evidently, she wants to remain anonymous.  Anyway, we thought they were worth the time to document and pass on to our friends.  What do you think?  Which ones do you like the best?

The Dignity Star Quilt pattern

This one is my favorite.

More Buffalo Pictures, here.

   One more fun item that Dinah just loved, so we had to take some pictures and share with you.  It is below.

   Bob, we thought about you when we saw this.  You probably saw these when you used to drive Winston in the old days!  It's just like the old Motor Courts that you used to see on the side of the two lane roads that crisscrossed the States once upon a time.  Isn't it great!

Tomorrow, we become gypsies again and travel to our next destination in Montana.  We visit the Battle of the Little Big Horn Territory!

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Day 14 - 1880 Train Ride / Train Museum

   Well, here we go!  I know this is getting to be repetitive for those who have been reading this blog, but today's weather was awesome, again!  We have been so blessed on this trip.  Now is truly a good time to be here in this territory.

   Today, we went to Hill City, to visit the Train Museum and to ride the 1880 Train to Keystone, S.D. and back.  The train museum was first and it was small, but very informative.  I saw a few things I have never seen or noticed, before today.

The first view of the outside from the parking lot.

Dinah viewing a period dress and the Velocimobile to the left.

   I did not show a picture of it here, but there was a timeline shown on the wall all the way around the museum with the history of the steam engine and train transportation.  There was a period caboose, along with other memorabilia.  The trains that are being used in service and some on display on the grounds were used in some very famous movies.  Too many to list here.

  They had an impressive display of miniature trains with dioramas to scale that were quite impressive.  There were at least three trains that were operating as Dinah discovered.  You press a magic button and everything comes to life for five minutes.  Really neat.  I can't help it.  I'm like many men who are frustrated train enthusiasts.  I've always loved toy trains!

Dinah discovered the magic button for us to watch the trains!

A couple of the trains.

  One little note that we learned about from the custodian of the museum had to do with signals used on the railroad.  When we were leaving the caboose, Dinah noticed that the box over the door had a label that read "Fussee" on the left and "Torpedoes" on the right.  Our curiosity got the better of us and we called the curator to help us out.  He explained that the "FUSSEE" was like a little flare that they would use to warn any oncoming train of danger or something on the track.  But, "TORPEDOES"?  He explained that those were like little charges of dynamite that they would lay on the track so that when the engine rolled over them it would make a huge bang and alert the engineer to trouble ahead!  He politely explained that he couldn't have any examples laying around as it would invite mischief!  You think?  Great guy, great story.  It was a very interesting museum.  You can see more pictures, here.

If you look over the door, you'll see a little box labeled fusees and torpedoes!!

   The next item was the main event.  We picked up our tickets at the office and since we had an hour before the train left, we went and had lunch and the depot snack shop.  I had a pulled pork sandwich (Sorry, no pics!) and Dinah has a chili cheese dog (her favorite).

   We took a few pics of the grounds and got in line and boarded when they gave us the go ahead.  We sat in one of the open air cars.  No windows, just open sides.  A few pictures are below.

Leaving the station!  What a day!

The open air cars.  They had cars with windows that were more period correct, but we opted for this car.

We saw probably a dozen or so deer and fawns along the way.  All white tail.  They said we might see mule deer, but we didn't.

These are original telegraph poles from the 1800's that still have old wire and insulators on them, but not in use anymore.

   Below is a good shot of the engine swapping ends of the train for the return trip to Hill City.  The engineer sat on the window sill all the way back to Hill City.  Dinah thought this was really something and kept trying to get a shot of him with the train moving, but we didn't get one, so this is the best we have.

Engine that took us to Keystone and back to Hill City.

Well, that's about it.  We were tired again when we got back to Hill City, so we took our time with a nice quiet ride back to the campground and a quick nap!  I'm getting used to these afternoon naps!!!

   More Train Ride Pictures, here.

   Tomorrow, we are going to go into town and shoot some buffalo!!  I'll explain tomorrow! 

LUV 2 U All!!  Until tomorrow!

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Day 13 - Mt. Rushmore

   Today, we once again had excellent weather for our day at Mt. Rushmore.  It's a beautiful drive up the mountain to the memorial.  The terrain and scenery are really breath taking to us.  We parked and started our walk up to the entrance to the memorial.

This is the first view of the memorial from the parking garage.

   I was impressed with the walk up to the closest view of the memorial.  There were these massive walls which defined separate areas of the entrance without walling them in.  The initial wall held the information center and welcome center.  The next wall housed the gift shops and restaurants and ice cream shops.  The third and final wall housed the display halls and viewing area and amphitheater.  There was a nice museum which detailed the people and tools that built the monument and history of the development.  The pictures don't do it justice and I'm glad we came to check this off our bucket list.

We had lunch at the restaurant at the memorial and met some very nice people who were visiting from Missouri.  We kind of ran out of steam and decided to head back to the camper.  You can see the rest of the pictures I took here.

LUV 2 U All!  Until later!

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Day Twelve - Crazy Horse Memorial

   Wow, what a day!  We had a beautiful day again.  The weather has been outstanding.  We headed over to see Crazy Horse Museum which is just a few miles from our campground.  It's is quite a museum and memorial.  It is not a state or government run organization, it is totally funded by private funds and entrance fees and sales at the museum.  Chief Henry Standing Bear asked sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski in 1939 by letter to come to the Black Hills and help him create a memorial to the great Lakota Leader Crazy Horse.  Korczak accepted and created the artwork that started the efforts to build the memorial.  It is quite a story.  Korczak worked by himself on the mountain building steps, scaffolding, etc. to drill and blast his sculpture out of the mountain.  You can read the story online, so I'm not going to regurgitate it here.

   We spent several hours viewing artifacts and learning about the foundation and the fate of the Lakota Sioux at the expense of the American government and all the broken promises.  Chief Standing Bear said "The white man made many promises, but he only kept one.  They said they would take our land away from us.  They did."  One white man asked Crazy Horse, "Where are your lands, now?" and Crazy Horse responded with, "My lands are where my people are buried."  They gave Korczak the inspiration for the pose of Crazy Horse on horseback pointing at the lands where his people are buried.

   We got to watch a presentation of native american dancing of "The Jingle Dance", which is supposed to be a healing dance based on the stories that it is based on.  We had a nice lunch at the "Laughing Waters" restaurant, which was on the grounds of the museum.  There were many of the original sculptures that Koczak had created which were additional testament to his incredible talent.  Below are just a few of the pictures we took.  More are on line, here.

The white marks on the rock are the outline of the head of the horse.  The ear is 40 ft. high!

The is the sculpture that Korczak created to show what the memorial would look like when finished.

This Lakota family were historical singers and teachers who have traveled the world teaching about the Lakota traditrions.
We were fortunate to see the mother and daughter, perform traditional dances and explain them.

This auto greeted us on our way back to the truck.  47/48 Caddy??!!  Beautiful machine.  Just for the car lover's reading this!

    We were exhausted when we returned to our campsite.  I hope all of you reading this are enjoying the pictures and small stories of our adventures.  LUV 2 ALL!  We'll be in touch.  Tomorrow we go to Mt. Rushmore!!

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Day Eleven - Custer, S.D.

   We had another great day for traveling.  Mid 70's in the morning, mid 80's in the afternoon with 50% humidity and clear blue skies.  The terrain was pretty easy going until we got to Rapid City.  The terrain took an obvious turn to hilly mountainous terrain with alot of high altitude pine forests and steep hills.  I have posted a few pictures below of the scenery, but there are more here.

We will be resting the rest of today and heading out tomorrow to see the Crazy Horse museum and mountain carving.  If we have time, we will probably find an antique store or two and get the truck washed.  We will wait until Monday to visit Mt. Rushmore and points beyond.  There is much to see and do here in Custer.  We'll keep you posted.  Below is a picture of our current campsite at the Custer Mountain Cabins and campground.

LUV 2 All!  We'll let you know how our day goes, tomorrow.

Day 10 - Trip to Chamberlain, S.D.

Today, we went on a day trip to Chamberlain, to check out a couple of antique stores, a quilt shop, and a museum.

Chamberlain is about 25 miles back east of our campsite.  The weather was good again, today.  It was 82 and sunny when we left.  By the time we got to Chamberlain, we were hungry, so the first order of business was finding lunch.  We were concentrating of Main street and Dinah spotted a likely local bar and grill called The Anchor, so we dropped ours and went inside.  I had a cheeseburger, again and she had a BLT which arrived with no Bacon at first, but they were very apologetic and brought her a healthy serving to finish her sandwich.  Both sandwiches were delicious.

Testing another Cheeseburgerr at
The Anchor in Chamberlain, S.D.

After lunch, we decided to walk since all of the shops we wanted to visit were on Main Street, except the museum.  We visited a couple of nice small antique shops and perused their wares.  We didn't see anything that we wanted to pack back to Alabama or have shipped.  Our next stop was the quilt shop and the proprietor was a wonderful older lady who was very attentive and helpful.  She told us about "Dignity", which we had totally missed on the way into town and our first trip past town.  I'll get to that in a minute.  We bought some fabric from her and thanked her for all of her help and left.

Our next stop was the Akta Lakota Museum and Cultural Center just outside of town.  We spent a long time viewing the exhibits and learning more about the Akta Lakota Sioux tribe and their history with the US Government.  We took many pictures and I have created an album for you to view, here.

Our last stop in Chamberlain was to visit the rest stop at exit 263 where you will find "Dignity".  A 50 ft. statue of a native Indian female figure. See the pictures below and more here.  This statue was awesome in it's size and beauty.  It stands on a hill over looking the Missouri river and the valley beyond at the Lewis and Clark Information Center at the rest stop.  This statue was designed and created by Dave Lamphere.  This was made possible by a gift from the Norm and Eunabel McKie family from Rapid City.  Dave says that "his intent was to have the sculpture stand as an enduring symbol of our shared belief that we are in a sacred place and that we are all sacred." Amen, Dave!

Tomorrow, we head out again for our next stop, Custer, S.D. and the Badlands.  We will be visiting Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Monument and other great sites.  Until then, we LUV U ALL!  We hope you are well.  We are having a great time!  Shalom!

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Travel Day, Thursday to Kennebec, S.D.

   We had another great day of travel weather.  It started out a little wet with sprinkles of rain as we were tearing down and getting under way.  But, we quickly out ran the rain and into sunny weather.

   The roads were pretty amazingly flat in northern Iowa and Southern South Dakota.  After we reached Sioux Falls, S.D. we turned due west on I-90 and we quickly got into the rolling hills and rising terrain heading towards the badlands of South Dakota.

   Below are a couple of pictures Dinah took of the countryside that we went through on our way here.  We were impressed with the lack of trees and the abundance of just grass!!  There was corn and soy beans like the rest of the states we have passed, but West of Sioux Falls, the plains started expressing themselves.

Beautiful Rolling Plains

This is a field of Sun Flowers!!

   Out stop today is in Kennebec, South Dakota.  There is not much here, except a good place to stop and rest.  We will go exploring tomorrow and see what we can find to make our day of rest a little more interesting.

   Below is a picture of our current camp site in the Kennebec KOA campground.

Our campsite in the Kennebec KOA campground.  Pretty nice place to stay.

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Day 9 of our Retirement Trip - Onawa, Iowa

Today, we went to downtown Onawa, Iowa to explore our temporary home.  We initially planned on going antiquing, but the local shop has failed and closed for good.  So sad...

So, we went to see what there was to see.  Low and behold, there was a quilting shop on main street thru town.  So, we had to stop there and Dinah had a grand time searching their inventory while I started up a friendship with the owners' husband Gerald.  After the normal discussion about the weather and facebook, I discovered that Gerald has rebuilt a 28 chevy.  He proudly shared his photos of the car and we talked for a long time about our cars and our friends cars.  It was very nice being with them.  Dinah did find some goods to take home and we parted ways to continue on our adventure.  Below is are some pictures of the shop and the main street.  It's a beautiful little town.

When we left the quilting store it was time for lunch and we wanted to find a local restaurant.  The RV Park owner had recommended "The Suds and Jugs", so we wanted to try that.  It was downtown, also.  Just down the street, actually.  So, we left the truck where it was and walked.  It was a beautiful day ourside.  It was sunny and 74 degrees with a slight breeze, no clouds.  Just wonderful.  The pictures below show the restaurant and the food.  It was better than most national burger stands and the people were very friendly.

Dinah in front of the SUDS & JUGS.

An example of their menu.  Very Good.

Waiting on the food.

   After lunch we went back to the car and on our way found a consignment store that looked interesting, so we went in and looked around for a while.  Dinah found a muffin cooking plate for the microwave and she bought that.  By this time, we had just about run out of things to do, so we headed to the grocery store to stock up for the next week of the trip.  We then stopped for gas at the local Sinclair Gas Station and this was not significant in itself, but just down the street I noticed that an ancient cinema that was still in existence.  It was showing "Atomic Blonde"!  Outside the cinema was a statue of a large dog.  We had seen several of these around town and did not know the significance of them.  They were all painted and decorated differently.  After doing some investigation, it turns out that they are called the "Loess Hills Dog" Project.  It's not what you might think.   According to the web:

   "This statue is one of over 3 dozen decoratively painted “Discovery Dogs,” a public art project created in preparation for the 2004 “Lewis & Clark Expedition” throughout Siouxland."

“Loess Hills Dog” is a 5’ tall fiberglass portrayal of Seaman, Meriwether Lewis’ Newfoundland that accompanied the party on their exploration over a century ago. The statue was done by Darren Maurer."

There were several of these statues in Onawa, one in front of the cinema and one in front of the "Fiesta Grocery Store" where we replenished our supplies.  One other thing...  We were taken back in time as they still had a young man bagging groceries for you and taking them to your car and loading them into your car!!  Very nostalgic!

A couple of different versions of Seaman, below.

Click here for more info on the statues.

This guy was at the cinema.

This guy was at the grocery store.

If you would like to see the other pics we took today while roaming Onawa, click here.  I hope you are enjoying this blog.  LUV 2 All!  Til our next post...

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Tuesday, Onawa, Iowa

   We had another great day of travel weather!  We moved from Bevier, MO. to Onawa, Iowa and the On-Ur-Wa RV Park.  There is a picture below of our new site.

During our drive, today, we saw something that neither one of us have ever seen in real time.  Wind Mills, the super size kind!  These were a few miles West of I-35 and 3 miles East of Stewartsville, MO.  See a couple of pics below.  Dinah snapped these with her phone as we were moving down the road.

   Monday, we stayed at the camper and watched the eclipse online using the NASA broadcasts.  They were really great!  We got to see the eclipse 5 separate times as it moved across the USA.  It rained all day yesterday and all of last night, so we didn't want to get out in it and fight the crowds, etc.  I think we made the right decision.

   We are going to take it easy the rest of the evening and rest for tomorrow.  The day tomorrow holds some antique hunting and maybe a trip to the casino!  We'll see if we are feeling lucky and want to commit $20.00 to try our luck.

We hope everyone back home is doing well.  Til our next post.  Love 2 U All!

Sunday, Disney Magic!

   Today, we had a very casual morning again.  I'm loving this retirement thing.  The Disney museum does not open until 1 PM, so we ate lunch in the camper and headed out afterward to the museum.

   The museum is housed in a Train Station that dates back to early 1900's.  The clock below was used to set the time for all the area that was served by the trains of the day.  If you worked for the railroad, you were given a watch that was synchronized with this clock and you had to return every 30 days to get your watch re-certified or you were fired!!!

   Our tour guide had some fond memories of Huntsville, Alabama.  She used to bring diving students to Florida every year and they would stop over in Huntsville.  She remembered a story about the kids having breakfast at a waffle house and being served grits with their breakfast.  None of them knew what they were and were skeptical about eating them.  She said a large black man with a meat clever stood at the door and told them that noone left until they ate their grits.  She said they scarfed down their grits like they were pudding and the legend was born.  She said every year after that they all wanted to eat at the waffle house!

   The town of Marceline, MO. is the town that spawned the magic for Walt and Roy Disney.  I had no idea how ignorant I was of their history until this tour.  Walt loved and adored the town of Marceline and gives this town credit for much of the creativity and inspiration in his work.

   Their were many stories of how Walt and Roy built their unique relationship during their formative years.  Roy was always the one to worry about how to pay for Walt's ideas.  Roy was the one that always made sure they had money growing up.  He would find them odd jobs to do and he would let Walt goof around while he worked.  Our guide told us one story that Roy was fond of telling.  When Roy was a teenager, he got a job for them to clean a horse drawn hearse.  Walt told everyone later that Roy did all the cleaning and he laid in the back and played dead.  Just one example of Walt's dreaming, acting and creativity being honed for the future.

   I had tears in my eyes during much of the tour hearing these stories of how Marceline shaped and molded Walt into the person he became.  He use to tell his artists that they needed to work together the way the Marceline community came together at Harvest time to bring in the crop so that the whole community would thrive.

   I have taken some pictures during the tour and some taken by Dinah.  A few are shown below and the rest will be available via a link at the end of the post.

Dinah, of course, in front of the museum.  

The clock mentioned above.   


     

This was our guide.

Dinah and I really enjoyed this tour.

Click here to see the rest of the pictures.

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