It Was HARLEY a Vacation...Day 4

Tuesday, August 30 - We woke up to another perfect day. We wandered around Hill City for awhile until it warmed up a bit for riding. This buffalo statue was at an intersection in town and it was so cool I had to take a picture of Bryan by it. Then a bit later we wandered into an art gallery and we're looking around. There was a clay model of a life size wolf in the gallery. A sculpture in progress. A lady walked up and started to explain the process to us and what she was doing etc. Turns out she was the artist who had done the buffalo. Suffice it to say she is very good!. 

Hill City is the site where "Sue" the t-Rex was found and also "Stan" the t-Rex. There is a dinosaur museum there but we didn't go to it. Some other time.

We got back on the bike and headed up the road to Deadwood. This is the town where Wild Bill Hickock was killed. 

Bryan and Wild Bill.

We like to watch a show called "Gunslingers" and they have featured just about all of these famous Cowboys and Killers. So it was fun. Then we ate pizza in a bar on the Main Street and after we were done there was a "Wild Bill" actor outside the bar telling people to come and see the story of his murder. So we wandered in and watched that. Then they told us to go outside and watch the capture of Jack McCall after he shot Wild Bill so we went out and watched that. When they arrested Jack they walked us all up Main Street and around the corner to the courtroom. It was right across the street from our hotel "The Franklin" built in 1903. Very cool old hotel.

 So we went into the courtroom and had to pay $6 to see the end but it was worth it. It was so hilariously hokey it was amazing. They knew they were hokey and were just so funny! They used people from the audience for the jury, the witnesses and chose a little girl for the sheriff. She took her job very seriously!! Apparently they put the show on every evening in the bar, street and courtroom. 

We have had so many people say "Deadwood is just a gambling town! We don't go there." Well yes every hotel is a casino but there is also lots of history there and you don't have to gamble! So we enjoyed it throughly.

It Was HARLEY a Vacation...Day 3

Monday, August 29 We packed up and headed around the bend from our motel to the Mammouth Site in Hot Springs. It was really amazing.

Apparently it was an ugly hill in Hot Springs and a developer decided to build condos on it because it was an eyesore. As his equipment began to dig he saw bones and stopped the digging and called in palentologists to see what they had found. It was mammoth bones so he gifted the land to be excavated and to date they have unearthed 122 tusks and many many bones. The dig is now enclosed in a climate controlled building because the bones are remains of animals that fell into a hot spring so in essence they were cooked and therefore brittle. Really amazing to see all the skeletons and pieces in place. They can't remove many because they are so fragile so they lay where they are found for the most part. 

It is still an active dig. Pretty amazing.

Also among the remains they excavated the remains of a short faced bear. Suffice it to say he was huge. If he stood on his hind legs his reach was about 14 -15 feet. 

After that we headed up the road toward Hill City. On the way we passed through Pringle, SD. Stopped to get a picture of the sign for Trey and Jayme since it's their last name. Not much there except a cult compound...for polygamists...on we went.

After that we stopped in Custer for lunch and to look around a bit. Later in the afternoon we headed up to Crazy Horse Memorial. The grand daughter of Korczak Ziolkowski, the man who began the memorial, attends our church and she works up at the memorial for her family in the summers. She had invited us up to get a personal tour of the mountain. It was amazing!! Everyone should go! Her family is still in charge. Her mom is joint CEO with her sister and her uncles and cousins are in charge of the sculpting. All of it is funded privately. It is an amazing museum and future college and med school for Native Americans. Alisha took us in a van up to the face. 

The four faces of Rushmore would fit on the upper part of the hair behind the face. 

Here we are ready to go to the top! That is Alisha, with us.

Blasting area...Hence the hard hats...

There are mountain goats that hang around with the workers and have been since 1948 when Ziolkowski began this work. Crazy Horse pets. 

I was standing right beside him on his extended arm. There are sensors all over him that read the movements of the mountain to help them know the best conditions for blasting. They are currently working on the finger. 

Looking from the face down toward the visitors center.

Standing on the forearm area looking back at the face.

Just such a special gift from Alisha and her family getting to go to the face.

There is supposed to be a feather on top of his head but when the sculpture was moved once (because it is just plaster and can't get wet) it hit the building and broke off. The finished mountain will have a created feather made from rocks that were blown off the mountain. There used to be a tree growing right where the feather will be but her uncles and cousins had to take it down and remove the roots because it was going to create issues with the head. As the sun was setting we headed in to Hill City for the night. We found a restaurant that only had 2 items on the menu but since it had a waiting list and came recommended from our motel owner the night before we thought we would try it. The Alpine. It was a good choice. Bacon wrapped filet, baked potato, Texas toast and a wedge of lettuce with ranch dressing. The other choice was pasta primavera. It cracked us up. But it was delicious. And day 3 was in the books.

It Was HARLEY a Vacation...Days 1 & 2

A very generous friend loaned us his Harley Davidson so we could go on a motorcycle trip through the Blackhills. 

Saturday afternoon, August 27 we headed down the road to Broken Bow. The weather was perfect and we were ready to get going. I had to deliver a cake and cookies for a birthday party so we dropped the car off with Ashley and headed out.

We got to Broken Bow about 6:30 and had supper with Rod and Shelly and spent the night there. 

Sunday, August 28 we headed out at about 9 a.m. Gave the air a little time to warm up. Again another perfect day. As you can see we drove in some pretty heavy traffic in the Sandhills...

Our destination goal for Sunday was to get to Hot Springs, SD. We got there in the late afternoon and found a motel to stay in. We had decided to not make any reservations anywhere so we could just stop and stay wherever we wanted instead of feeling like we had to make it somewhere. Much more relaxing. We found a motel, cleaned up and went to find some supper. Then we saw that the motel included free mini golf with a stay so we played a round. Bryan beat me soundly! 

I did, however, get the first hole in one so there is that.

Then he got one on the 18th. 

It was a fun way to end the day.

Horseshoes...Good Luck.

A year ago we found some old horseshoes that are actually for playing horseshoes. So we thought we would put in a couple pits for that. Didn't get done. So this summer Bryan decided that we needed to just pick a spot and get it done. Turns out that there was a chunk of pasture right behind the pool that was nice and flat. So he pulled the fence out in that area and put in the sand pits for Horseshoes.

We had to Google the measurements. Just not information we both knew off the top of our heads...weird.

Lots of prep work on Saturday. I did help by mowing the area that we had chosen. Then I started mowing the lawn and just as I was about done the mower broke. So pause with the horseshoe pits and he set to work fixing the mower. Always so amazed at how he knows how to do stuff like that. Amazed and grateful. I finished the lawn by push mower. Sometimes I forget how big our lawn is until I do that. The part that I missed with the riding mower was about as big as most people's lawns haha.

Then on Monday Bryan and Trey went and got some sand for the pits and he put that in. Then on Tuesday we put the stakes into the ground and got the horseshoes out and tried them out. Bryan got a ringer! So we had to document that. The first one in the newly created pits.

Yesterday he put all the fence posts into their new spots and will put the wire back on when the mud dries up a bit.

Now I must say here that we did play a game last night. We were playing to 12. I was up 8 - 0 and he came back and I only beat him 12 - 10. 😏 Then we played on up to 15 and he beat me 15 - 13. I had forgotten how much fun it is. Ready for the big leagues...

First Day Of School

Today Ashley started school! A class at UNL to be exact. She's taking "insect biology" Tuesdays and Thursdays. So proud of her for learning new things and stretching her horizons. 

She even took a first day of school picture! And one of the building that her class is in. 

A Gift from the heart

On Sunday, August 21 I was given 4 jewelry boxes by a family who knows what grief and loss are like. Taylor, her sister Tia and their dad, Galen gave each of us (myself, Bobbi, Ashley and Jayme) a silver necklace with a silver charm on it. The charm is an exact miniature impression of Letti's footprint from her footprints taken at the hospital.The back is engraved with her name. 

The girls, Taylor and Tia, are girls I have met through Esprit. Taylor was 9 years old when she survived the car crash that took her mom's life and the life of her 14 month old brother. We have had some good talks and cries over the years and when Letti died Taylor asked if they could have these made for us. I can't even express how much it means to me. Such a loving, thoughtful gift. She is 4 months old today. 

Camping (At Home)

August 21&22:

Trey has Mondays off, Jayme isn't working anymore and they have Poppy so...they decided to go camping down at the pond. So Sunday after church and lunch, Poppy came home with me...

Glamour farmer... Sidenote: this little tractor was and still is such a great purchase! It gets used so much and just keeps working! It is so fun to see little kids get to drive on their own! I'm sure that it make them better drivers when they get older! 😀

Bryan had just gotten done doing some trimming around the yard and she said "I am going to get Grandpa Bryan a Popsicle to eat with me on the step!" So sweet.

We cleaned up the paddle boat and tried on the life vest but weren't too thrilled about it. Then she realized in order to ride in the paddle boat it had to be worn. Ok no problem!

When Trey got off work they came out and set up a tent. It was such a beautiful evening! No wind, cooler temperatures and very few bugs. 

What a sweet little family. Then we took an "American Gothic" photo,

This one makes me laugh. 

We lit the fire and I had cut up some veggies and made some meat skewers to cook down there. Bryan had made a wok to use on our campfire cafe set up so we wanted to try it. We cooked the veggies and some shrimp in that.

Ate our delicious dinner, went on another paddle boat ride then we made s'mores for dessert. Then it was time to go to bed. Bryan and I did not sleep in the tent. 

Poppy was pretty excited about the whole thing. 

Monday morning up at 7:15 and cooking by the fire! Actually breakfast at the fire is just a great meal.

It was cool enough that we needed sweatshirts! That is lovely in Nebraska in August. Quite a bit windier that morning.

The bacon caused a little grease flare up...oh well, Bryan was on the job.

Blueberry pancakes, bacon, coffee and hot chocolate out by the pond in the early morning. So fun.

Then Trey had to take Poppy in for her very first dentist appointment ever. Jayme and I packed up the stuff down at the pond then we sat and talked. When Trey and Poppy came back he and Bryan went to get some sand for the horseshoe pits that Bryan put in. Jayme and I sat by the pool a bit and Poppy played Supergirl as a restaurant owner driving a tractor... Busy girl.

Camping at home was a success!