KOOL DEADWOOD NITES 2012

Deadwood held their annual car show this weekend....Kool Deadwood Nites.  We went over Saturday morning hoping to avoid some of the crowd.  Oh my gosh.....we barely found a place to park.  All the parking lots close by where full.  We ended up parking at a city lot by the Post Office...about 4 or 5 blocks from Main Street.  We walked from one end of Deadwood to the other. There were classic cars everywhere.  Dale even found his old Roadrunner.  Well almost his was a 69 and Blue. This one was a 68 and olive green.  We spent about 4 hours walking and looking...heck we even saw Elvis...hehe. 

BLACK HILLS TRAIN RIDE via 1880 Train

We took the 1880 Train ride from Hill City to Keystone.  What a gorgeous ride.  The scenery was very pretty.  We saw some deer along the way.  We happen to schedule our ride on the day they were having their 55 Anniversary party.  So free cake and punch and live music prior to our ride.  It was alot of fun and I definately recommend it to anyone that likes trains.  We also visited the Days of 76 Museum in Deadwood.  It's a brand new museum only open a few months.  It houses some GREAT stuff including a large assortment of horse drawn equipment. Buggies, stage coaches, fire equipment.  We had a great day!!

BUFFALO JUMP August 24, 2012

Between Beulah and Sundance, Wyoming we found the Vore Buffalo Jump. They found this historic site in 1970 while they were excavating I-90. They knew it would take along time to process their find, so they covered it over and in 1995 the University of Wyoming started examining this "find".   They discovered a span of time over 300 years ...amounting to 22 jumps.  From 1500 to 1800 Native Americans would use these types of jumps to collect the meat they would need for the year.  In the earlier years they did not have horses or bows and arrows.  They would chase the buffalo over the hills edge,  They would butcher and process the buffalo right on the spot. Sort of gorey, like nothing we've ever seen before.  Layers and layers of bones.  The University of Wyoming is still excavating. They are trying to raise enough money to have a state of the art Visitor Center.  Right now it doesn't look like much when you drive up to it. Just a little building about 10x10 and 2 porta potties.  There is a building at the bottom of the hole in the ground but you can't see it from the parking lot.  The building at the bottom of the hole is to protect the excavation sight.

A few days prior to our visit to the Buffalo Jump we visited the High Plains Western Museum, here in Spearfish.  There were live buffalo in the pastures in front of the museum. They had information and artifacts about how cattle was moved from the south up through this area. They had old guns, wagons, a stage coach, blacksmithing equipment anything needed during the westward expansion.  We have really enjoyed our time here in the Black Hills. There is so much to see and do.

STURGIS MOTORCYCLE RALLY 2012

Spearfish, SD, where we're currently volunteering, is only 22 miles away from Sturgis, SD home of the big Motorcycle Rally.  We have noticed the increase in motorcycle traffic in the past week.  The other day I counted 251 bikes on our way home from Wal-Mart, which is only 2 miles from us. The campground across from us is totally sold out.  Tents in places there was never tents before.  They've added picnic tables and porta potties to accomodate everyone  We don't need alarm clocks...the bikes start reeving up around 6am. Several organizations around here have fund raisers providing breakfast from 6-noon. So I'm guessing our biker buddies are off to get breakfast at 6am. Soooooo we decided to cross something else off our bucket list and went to The Rally today. As we were leaving town we noticed quite a few bikers at the Spearfish Perkins Restaurant.  The parking lot was filled almost totally with motorcycles.   We whimped out and went in the morning.  That was a good thing, it was VERY crowded.  We've never seen so many motorcycles in our lives....all in one place.  Everyone was very well behaved....but let's not forget it was 10am.  We did see a woman with red glittered butterflies covering her nipples....no shirt.  She was 50ish  rather daring for a woman that age I thought. We won't call her cute.  There were lots of old guys....lots of tatoos.  In front of one of the Tatoo Shops was a young lady without a top....just artwork.  It was really very nice.  I'm thinking the must put some tape over the nipples before airbrushing her  because it was very smooth looking.  I tried to get Dale to have his picture taken with her but he wasn't going for that.  Honestly she was really cute.  She was making a mint though, she had all sorts of money tucked into the waist of her shorts.  She WAS wearing shorts, by the way. We found a bike we really liked.  It had power steering and a stereo. I think we should call it Bumblebee.  The only problem is it won't fit in our truck or trailer.  We saw a few odd things...like the truck pulling a flatbed with all the important things on it, a popup trailer and 6 motorcycles.  I'm really glad we went.  We had a good time.

Hill City, Jewel Cave, Devils Tower 7/27/2012

What a busy 3 days off we've had. On Wed 7/25/12 we got our So Dakota drivers license.  Then Thursday 7/26 we dropped off the paperwork to get our vehicles registered in So Dakota, as well.  So it's official we are So Dakota residents.  After dropping of the paperwork we drove to Custer and had lunch at The Purple Pie Place.  It had been recommended to us by a visitor while we wee in Texas. They didn't stir us wrong. Dale said it was the best rhubarb pie he'd ever had.  After lunch we drove to the National Woodworking Museum there in Custer....what a great place.  Then on to Jewel Cave.  The longest cave in North America.  On our way home we stopped off in Hill City, what a fun place.  We're going to go back there.  Sturgis motorcycle rally is starting in a few days so we'll probably be sticking around the house.  However Dale has been saying we might take a drive over to just check it out.  Haha...I know he's wanting to check out the Biker Chicks.  Parking will be the main issue.  There are so many people that come into the area for the rally that there is just so much traffic at all the tourist attractions.  On Friday 7/27 we went to Devils Tower about 60 miles from us here in Spearfish.  It was a great drive.  What we saw of Wyoming was very pretty.  On the way back we stopped off in Aladdin (pop 15) there was a 100 yr old general store there...and of course the "Liars Bench"  I made sure to get a picture of  Dale sitting on the bench:)  then on to Belle Fourche. We stopped off at the Center of the Nation and Tri State Museum.  Very interesting.  However I have to stay the most impressive thing was our visit to Devils Tower.  It wasn't as big as I was expecting...but it was definately a Close Encounter not to forget.

Sturgis, Spearfish Canyon. The Sights we've seen the week of 6.24.2012

There is lots to see around here.  This week we went to Sturgis....just 22 miles away and visited the Sturgis Motorcycle Museum and Hall of Fame. It was very nice.  Dale loved seeing all of the old bikes.  Today we took a drive through Spearfish Canyon.  It was beautiful.  Lots of pine trees and running water.  We drove by Bridal Falls and took a little side jaunt to see Roughneck Falls.  Bridal Falls didn't have much going on but Roughneck was very pretty.  We continued our drive to Lead which is home to the Homestake Gold Mine.  That is one big hole in the ground.  They were having a Car Show so we checked out all the cars.  Dale's favorite was a purple 1949 Ford.  He wants one of those (haha).  We continued down the road to Deadwood.  That is definately a place we'll have to spend more time at.  Maybe during the week when it's not so busy.  It was so crowded we couldn't find a place to park at the Visitor and Information Center.  We did drive down the main street of old downtown.  Yep....gotta go back there.  Not the first week in August, though.  That's Motorcycle Rally week and I'm thinking that place will be CRAZY.  We are enjoying our "summer place" it's a little hot (108), we're hoping that won't be the norm.