Guess what we did first thing
Monday morning? I’ll give you 3 chances
and the first two don’t count. That’s
right – we washed the motorhome! In
fact, our campground selection for Sunday night was solely based on if they
allowed RV washing. Many places don’t. We called 4 campgrounds before leaving Cody,
WY until we found one.
Sunday was a long drive to South
Dakota and our stop was just 45 miles into the state – our 14th. The Internet REALLY CAN make anything look
good, and when we pulled into the campground, we looked at each other with a
little apprehension. Nonetheless, we
unhooked the Jeep and checked in for 2 nights.
The guy said he wasn’t quite sure if the electric worked on some of the
sites, so to follow him and he would take a meter out and check. That was our first clue this might not be the
place for us. Mike would rather run off
the generator than connect to a questionable power source. Getting back to the site, we had to straddle
a large section of the dirt road that washed out. Strike two.
Once on the site, we could not get the RV to level (and that is
important). The third strike gave us the
excuse we needed to say that we just could not stay here.
We headed back down the road,
found a place to pull over, and began making phone calls to other
campgrounds. By this point, it didn’t
matter if they allowed us to wash the RV, we were tired and just wanted a place
to stop for the night. A campground
called No Name City, ten miles back east, said, “Come on in”. We were pleasantly surprised when they had a
level site, allowed washing, and it was a couple dollars cheaper per night than
the other place. After the first night,
we decided to stay here 4 nights and do all our day trips from here.
Oklahoma is not the only place the
wind comes sweeping down the plains. It
blows right through the Black Hills, too. which made washing the motorhome a
challenge. Several times I was downwind
of the water spray! And if I had a nickel
for every person that came over to us each time we washed the RV and said,
“When you are done, you can come do ours”, I could pay for this trip!
With Mike’s 3-step process of washing the RV
and the Jeep, and by the time we got cleaned up, it was late afternoon when we
set out for Devil’s Tower. This National
Monument was about
1-½ hours back east into
Wyoming. There really is nothing else
in the area, so you
go just to see the impressive
tower. Well worth the drive. You can see the formation from miles
away. In fact, Mike spotted it on Sunday
while we were driving east on I-90. When
it comes to nature, Wyoming lays claim to two “firsts”-
Yellowstone is the first National
Park and Devil’s Tower is the first National Monument.
The info guide says there are
three theories on how the Tower was formed, all variations on ground shifting,
underground magma and erosion. Indians
consider the Tower to be sacred ground and there is a voluntary ban on climbing
the structure in the month of June to allow Indian tribes to hold ceremonies
undisturbed. They view climbers as
defiling the sacred spot. We walked a
trail around the base, which is huge boulders piled on top of each other.
The three-mile drive from the
ranger check-in point to the tower is Prairie Dog City. At first I thought the critters were statues
out in the grass. But they are real, and
they are all over.
On a tip from good friends Chuck
and Mary who grew up in South Dakota, heading back we got off the interstate at
Spearfish and drove the Scenic Byway through Spearfish Canyon. This drive goes right through the Black
Hills. Did you know the Black Hills are
not black? They are rock hills (when you
are as short as I am, I’d call them mountains) covered with Ponderosa pine
trees. The needles on the pine trees are
flat and turned up to catch the sun’s rays.
From a distance, the hills look black due to the dense growth of the
pines. On the drive we saw a waterfall,
deer, followed a river, and got close-up to the rock that makes the canyon a
really pretty drive. There were log
cabins (some quite nice) here and there, and we decided the owners must love
hunting, fishing, snowmobiling or just plain nature because they are out in the
middle of nowhere. But it’s a beautiful,
quiet nowhere.
Kevin Costner filmed “Dances With
Wolves” just several miles from Spearfish Canyon.
The canyon drive left us about 10
miles from Deadwood, so we headed there.
It was dark by now, so I didn’t get any outdoor pictures of the main
street. And one of the attractions – a
reenactment of the shooting of Wild Bill Hickok – doesn’t perform on Mondays.
We would have been too late anyway, I think.
We could still imagine Deadwood back in the late 1890’s. Most of the building on the main street are
original. One, the Franklin Hotel is
just a few years younger than The Irma in Cody.
The Franklin has been meticulously maintained, from the polished
woodwork to the tin ceilings to the gleaming chandeliers.
Deadwood today is quite different
from a few years ago. The downtown is
about 3 blocks long and houses over 80 gambling sites. (that’s got to be more than Las Vegas!) Every
restaurant, every hotel had a casino.
Most occupy a small area. But
walking into each place was interesting to see the interior of these old
buildings. The souvenir shops were the
only establishments that didn’t have slot machines. A percentage of the gaming revenue goes
right back into preservation and restoration of Deadwood, and the town is
thriving on tourism. Things seems a
little slow, but we were told that starting mid-June, just about every weekend
there is some event or festival or western something going on.
An email reminded me of two things
from the Cody Rodeo I wanted to mention (thanks, Dave!). You’ve all seen at major sporting events
where they bring people out of the crowd to attempt a field goal at football
games or a free throw at basketball games.
Well, at rodeos, they have Boot Kicks.
Six people were called down and given a cowboy boot. The winner was the one who could get it to
fly the farthest. (it was a girl!) Then
they have all the kids, 11 and under, come out to try to snatch a ribbon off a
calf’s tail. Probably because it was $5
night, but there were over 100 kids!
They let two calves loose, and the race is on. Kind of like flag football. Those calves can run fast!
More exploring South Dakota next!
the hills are rock under all the pine trees.
Deadwood - Where Western Legends Were Born
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