Departing from Mike's work at 4 PM got us into Sioux Falls, SD just before 10 PM. Stopped at Mankato for dinner at Perkins (Tom says don't order the open face meatloaf sandwich).
We're at the KOA for the night. We picked it so we'd have some TV and full hookups for showers in the AM. It's $37 well spent. We wanted TV so we could catch the last part of the presidential debate and then CNN afterward.
Saturday, September 27, 2008
Kind of a slow start to the day, but, hey, we're on vacation! Finally got on the road just after 11 AM. The KOA was fine for an overnight, but wouldn't want to spend a week there. You can almost reach out your window and touch the next rig!
Driving…..driving………more driving……
Did I mention that South Dakota is flat? And boring. And it's flat..
Finally arrived at the park. Hey, South Dakota isn't flat anymore!! The grasslands and farm fields have been replaced with tall hills and lots of pine trees. We checked in at the gate, got our one week pass for the park and headed to the campground.
(Note: We took a lot of photos on this trip. To many to put on the blog, so here's a link to Google Pictures to see some of the photos we took. )
http://picasaweb.google.com/5thwheeltales/CusterStatePark
The reason we're here is for the buffalo roundup and the arts festival. We'll, wouldn't you know it, we passed the arts festival area on the way and Tom was ready to stop and shop right now! Then, as we rounded a corner a mile or so down the road, we came across a wild life jam. (For those of you who haven't experienced Yellowstone Park, a wild life jam is a special kind of traffic jam. It occurs when any sort of wild life appears next to the road. All traffic comes to a halt, people park where they shouldn't, and jump out with cameras to take pictures of the animal(s). Since these roads have little to no shoulder, it leads to cars blocking the main road. In Yellowstone, it can be so bad that they dispatch Rangers to the site to manage the traffic.) Anyhow, our wild life jam was a big bull buffalo no more than 50 feet from the road! Quite the sight!
Sunday, September 28th, 2008
Slept in as usual. Had to get up in the middle of the night and turn on the furnace. The temp outside was 44 degrees and it was down to 55 in the camper. Just to cold to sleep comfortably.
Finally got out of bed at 9:20. Made coffee and took a walk around the campground. The sun is up over the treetops and occasionally there is a warm, actually, very warm breeze the comes along. It feels great but what a surprise. It's like opening an oven door. Wham! Warmth. Then it'll die down and get cool again. Never experienced anything like that. And as I sit here writing this, it happens again from time to time.
The terrain is hilly with lots of red pine and outcroppings of rock. It's really quit nice. Our site was easy to get into (Translation: I got it on the first try.) and we don't have any neighbors on our side for several hundred feet. We do have one directly across the street. We have electric, which is surprising considering how rocky the landscape is, but no water or sewer. No TV reception, but we've got our Sirius satellite radio. Sure do love that thing! We were able to listen to the presidential debate on CNN as we drove on Friday night. Very nice!
Looks like it's going to be a picture perfect day. No clouds in the sky, warm breeze blowing and the smell of campfires in the air. It just doesn't get any better than this!
10:09 PM
What a wonderful day!! Another WOW day, as Tom would say.
First stop was the arts festival. Tom found a buffalo wood carving that he really liked, but we don't have the wall space in the camper for it. Plus, I didn't know how I would mount the thing so that it didn't fall down while we were going down the road.
We each had a buffalo burger for lunch, finished up looking at the vendors and then headed out for the Needle Highway. Wow! What a drive. We got some fantastic pictures of the granite needles but the drive is a story in it's self. We went through three single lane tunnels that were JUST wide enough for the truck. We had to fold the mirrors in on all three.
From there is was on to Sylvan Lake. We hiked the entire perimeter of the lake. What a great hike. The temp was cool, the wind was light and the sun was shining. Had just a terrific time.
From Sylvan Lake we drove over to the Sylvan Lake Lodge and had dinner. Great food! I had buffalo tenderloins wrapped in smoked bacon with a Lakota sauce. Mmmmmmm. Perfection! Tom had the rib eye steak (beef). Another meal done to perfection.
With our tummies full, we headed down the highway to drive the wildlife loop and see where we would be going in the morning for the roundup. Of course, on the way we came across a herd of buffalo. That just made the day for Tom. We pulled off the main road onto a service road, parked, took tons of pictures and just watched the buffalo. A very cool experience.
Back at the camper we had our first opportunity for a campfire. It was great. The sky was clear, the wind was light, and the stars were bright. We just sat and watched the fire, watched the stars, and listened to the wind in the pine trees. What a joy. As Tom pointed out, we are very blessed to be able to do these sorts of trips, and to live this lifestyle. Very, very lucky, indeed.
Monday, September 29th, 2008
We started the day at 6 AM! On a vacation day, no less. Actually, we had no choice. The parking lot for the buffalo roundup opens at 6 AM and the access road closes at 9 AM, so you had to be on time. We allowed an hour to get there and our plan was right on the money. Three miles out from the parking lot we hit bumper-to-bumper traffic but it moved along and we were in the lot and parked with plenty of time to spare.
Once the roundup got started it was quite a sight. Not only were there cowboys on horses, but SUVs and pickup trucks that were herding the buffalo. It looked like it was going to be a slam dunk with getting them all into the corral in one shot when all of a sudden a bunch of them broke away and made an end run around the cowboys. Of course the crowd cheered and off went the cowboys in pursuit of the renegade buffalo.
It took several attempts before they finally got the renegades herded back to the corral. A big cheer and applause went up as the last buffalo crossed the gate into the corral. It really was fun to watch. Tom loved it. Absolutely loved it.
We walked down to the corrals and checked out the chuckwagon lunch that they were serving but decided to pass and head on back to the camper and have lunch there.
After lunch we just enjoyed the great weather. We sat outside and I worked on the blog and Tom worked on his school assignment (which is due tomorrow!).
After dinner we sat outside and enjoyed another campfire and the bright, beautiful stars.
Tuesday, September 30th, 2008
Well, it's back to driving, driving, driving. And Iowa is still flat! After 12 hours we finally made it home. But we'd rather be in the Black Hills!