A tin cup or a gilded goblet, a hut or a castle, wobbly bicycles or a Bentley -- to wherever and by whatever means, my love, our journey is splendid, our cup is full.
We both hate to realize how long it has been since we last updated our travel blog, and we'd like to assure everyone that we're alive and well --- but working 40 hour weeks really puts a crimp in doing much of anything else, including blog updates.
We both love our jobs as entrance gate attendants at Custer State Park, but with the recent good weather and the start of the summer tourist season, we've been pretty tuckered out when we get home at night. Even with the longer days and warmer weather, its tough to fit much else in other than work. Here is a picture of me with one of our Custer State Park "friends" at one of our entrance gates . . . .
We have made time to see a few sights around our base in Custer --
The Mammoth Site near Hot Springs -- this is a really great paleontology excavation where significant finds have been made, mostly of wooly mammoths -- additional detail at mammothsite.com
Maybe we could move here if things really get bad . . . . .
We also visited Jewel Cave National Park, just west of Custer. We should know by now that cave pictures just don't turn out, but we tried anyway. Here are a couple of the only ones that turned out -- guess you've got to see the cave for yourselves !!
This formation kind of looked like a US map (at least we thought so) . .
Our good friends Al and Claire from Texas came and spent a week with us just recently, and Claire graciously cooked most of the dinners for us while they were here (and parked right next to us here at the Wheels West RV Park) -- what a treat!! We spent as much time with them as we could, as they re-visited all of the Black Hills sights that they had seen several years before. We're hoping to see them again later this summer.
Exploring at Sylvan Lake - Al and Claire with Elsa the wonderdog
At the lookout overlooking Custer, SD
On a hike around Stockade Lake not far from our campsite
Of course, just about the time the weather turned and we could get back on our bikes, the activity here picked up, and we're finding it harder and harder to get even minimal riding in. We haven't worked this many hours on this type of a schedule recently, and our cycling has taken a hit. Fortunately we're getting a fair amount of exercise with the job (we don't just sit in a booth and take tickets), and we're both eating well -- we just need to make the time to get out and see the country.
Not much else is new in our lives -- although one of us did reach an additional milestone: Mandy recently filed for her Social Security benefits which will begin arriving in October.
Speaking of other milestones, we'd also like to give our heartiest congratulations to our good friend, Paul Danhaus, who today finished bicycling's Race Across America (RAAM). Paul was the only 60+ male entry (winning his class) -- and finishing the 3000+ miles from Oceanside, CA to Annapolis, MD in 11 days 10 hours. More on Paul's great accomplishment at pauldanhaus.org
An additional note: Just as we were getting ready to post this update, our Cradlepoint router went out, so we've been without internet access for 48 hours. A quick call to technical support at 3G Store, where we bought the router and Verizon USB "aircard" diagnosed the problem -- somehow the router had failed. They arranged for a replacement one from the manufacturer which should arrive in a few days. We've really enjoyed the on-line access that this system has given us, and the service we've received from the 3G Store -- we'd highly recommend them to anyone who is looking for a reliable mobile broadband system.
We arrived here in South Dakota's Black Hills on May 10, after a quick drive up from central Texas. We pulled into Wheels West RV Park between Custer and the west entrance to Custer State Park late in the day, and on Monday checked in at the park headquarters. Our orientation and training for our summer jobs as Entrance Gate Attendants began Tuesday morning.
We will be seasonal employees of South Dakota Parks, and will work 8 hour shifts at one of the 5 entrance stations to the 71,000 acre park (it's the second largest state park in the nation, after Anza-Borrego Park in California, a hundred miles west of us in Yuma).
Wildlife is one of the big items here at CSP -- the biggest draw is a large herd of buffalo (about 1200 head), which are allowed to roam relatively unencumbered anywhere in the park. The park also supports Big Horn sheep, Mountain Goats, Elk, Deer, Wild Burros, Prairie Dogs, Mountain Lions, and numerous other wildlife -- all of which are pretty used to humans being nearby (well, maybe not the Mountain Lions . . . . ). The largest wildlife issue the park has to deal with is keeping the people a safe distance from the bison/buffalo -- the same issue that the NPS has to deal with in Yellowstone with the bears.
Our orientation and training consisted of about 50% classroom work, with the other half consisting of introducing us to all the lodges and facilities in the park (which are run by a concessionaire) - and to the significant tourist attractions near the park -- Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, Crazy Horse Memorial, Jewel Cave, etc. The bottom line was that our orientation was a week and a half of tours and visitations inside and outside the park -- tough duty to take.
We're now through Memorial Day weekend, and are working full time at our entrance station duties. The weather this weekend did not cooperate with the people expecting to have summer start this weekend, so we probably won't be working our butts off -- but that's good as we're still getting all of our facts and procedures straight.
Here are a few of the pictures of the sights we've seen over the past week or two --
Crazy Horse Memorial -- we were able to take a very special tour out onto the ledge which will be the arm of Crazy Horse -- and were able to get right under the face. Later in the week we went back for a blast of over 100 tons of granite off of the lower part of the monument.
This picture shows the current state of the memorial in the distance, and in the foreground, the carving of what it will eventually look like. We went out on the large ledge to the right of his face, which will be his arm.
These are several of the close-ups we took of the face while out on the arm -- it was really a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Here is a sequence of the dynamite blast which we got to see . . . this is from about 3 miles away.
Overall, we've been most impressed with the Crazy Horse Memorial -- even more than Mt. Rushmore.
Of course we got a few pictures of the park's wildlife. . . .
Here is Greg at one of the entrance stations we work at -- this one is at the West Entrance to the park.
We did our obligatory visit to Mount Rushmore -- pretty impressive!!
These views are from the drive along the Needles Highway in the northwest portion of the park. The highway goes through several very narrow tunnels and ends at Sylvan Lake -- which you may recognize from the recent Nicholas Cage National Treasure 2 movie (which tried to make you believe that the lake is just behind Mt. Rushmore).
We're planning on doing lots more exploring of the area, and will update with pictures as soon as we can -- but working 40 hours per week is putting a crimp in our time for right now.
We're finally in the Black Hills for the summer, but we've needed to cover quite a bit of ground since we've last updated our readers. We'll try to hit the high points of the last several weeks . . . . .
We left Mesa on May 1st, heading for Liberty Hill, TX, and hoping to arrive before the birth of our newest granddaughter, which was expected to be Monday the 4th. Good weather and favorable prevailing winds enabled us to make the journey to the Hill Country in two days, and we were able to be at the hospital on Monday morning when granddaughter Gillian Mae made her entrance. She weighed in at 7 lbs, 11 oz, and was 20 inches in height. Mother and daughter came though the event with flying colors.
While we were there, we were also able to celebrate our grandson Tristam's 12th birthday. We had the party just after their soccer game -- you can see both Tristam and his sister Kaila in their red uniform shirts.
We were also able to get in some grandparent time with our granddaughter Chloe who was only weeks old when we last saw her in October.
We also had the opportunity to see our friends Al and Claire in Bastrop - - and we spent a wonderful afternoon at their place along with our friends Mary Sue, Dave, and Linda. Claire was anxious to show off her new motorcycle, and we made tentative plans to have them visit us in the Black Hills later this summer.
Grandpa and Garrett also made some time to trim some tree branches so that the motorhome would fit down the driveway -- and to take some time to work to get his legs in shape for cycling . . . . . .
All too soon, our time in Texas had to be brought to a close, and we needed to say good-bye to our sons and their families (until this fall) and head north to our summer job at Custer State Park.
We left the Austin area on Friday the 8th after our too-short stay, and put the pedal to the metal to get to South Dakota by Monday morning. After overnight stops in Amarillo and then at Cherry Creek State Park in Denver (with Mandy's sister Penny and her husband Rex, who are camp hosts there), we arrived in Custer, SD late Sunday afternoon.
Since leaving Mesa, we'd compressed our travel in to 5 "road days" and had covered a total of 2280 miles -- which averages out to 456 miles per day -- way too much, but unfortunately necessary given the circumstances we found ourselves in. Fortunately, we had no mechanical issues or adverse weather (although it was pretty ugly between Denver and Cheyenne on Sunday), and the Phaeton was very comfortable for those long road days.
We are now set up for the summer at Wheels West RV Park just outside of the west entrance to Custer State Park. We are in the middle of our week-long orientation and training sessions for our summer seasonal positions as Entrance Gate Attendants at the park. We've been very impressed so far by the Black Hills and the surrounding area, and the park staff we'll be working with, and are looking forward to exploring further this summer.
As soon as we get more settled in here, we'll be posting additional pictures and detail of this wonderful area - one of the great perks of our job is that all employees get VIP passes to virtually all of the attractions in the area (and there are plenty!), so we'll be publishing more info on the Black Hills than you'll probably want to see.
