Southern Hospitality in South Dakota

July 29, 2012

Yesterday was a lazy day at the Arnold house.  When we got up, we decided to go for a walk across the road from the RV park, into the National Forest.  The property across the street has a beautiful creek, French Creek, running through it, probably what brings the deer out of the forest.  (The past few evenings, sitting in the yard, we've been watching the deer in the fields nearby.)  We walked up a hill into the trees and eventually we found a two track, rutted road, which we followed all the way back to the main road, America Center Rd.  Walked home along the road.

Custer camped here.

Across the street there is a property for sale.

Pvt. Pommer's grave

In the front, there is a grave with a headstone for John Pommer, a Private in the 5th US Cavalry.  He died October 3, 1876.  There is also a bronze plaque stating that Custer camped there in July 1874.  Apparently, this little section we're in was where he camped during the Civil War.  Kinda cool.

When we got back from our walk, we spent some time cooling down, then I fixed us some lunch.  Back to the recliners for a nap, which was interrupted by a knock on the door....our neighbor, Ken, inviting us for dinner Saturday night.  How cool!  They were fixing a southern dinner for some friends and invited us to join them.  Of course we said yes!

Ken

After a quick trip to town for some groceries, we came back to the rig and waited for dinnertime.  The food was great! Our neighbors, Ken and Barbie, fixed up a truly southern meal.

Barbie and Ken - really!

We had meatloaf, with a sweet BBQ sauce, turnip greens, black eyed peas (home grown and cooked by their friends, also present, Ralph and Sidney), small potatoes, corn on the cob and sliced tomatoes from the local Farmer's Market, 2 kinds of cornbread and for dessert, banana pudding.  Wow....the food, plus the fantastic hospitality of these people, made our evening special.  One other couple was there, Merle and Linda, who are actually work camping here, at the Lodge in Custer State Park.  They will be staying here until October.  Merle and Linda have been full-time RV'ing for 4-1/2 years.  They sold everything and hit the road and have no regrets so far.  Sounds promising for our future outlook!  The 2 other couples are friends with each other and live in Houston, TX.  They just like to take long RV trips, for months at at time

Sidney, Barbie and Cubby, the Pomeranian

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Ken and Barbie left this morning. We were sad to see them go, as we seemed to have so much in common and the few evenings we spent chatting went by way too fast.  We haven't laughed that much in a long time.  Jim was at his best, one-line zingers going a mile a minute.  I'm sure we'll stay in touch.
 
Another low key day today.  Jim is working a little and I am doing housework....damn it......

 

Our Wheels West RV Park campsite

First Day in Custer, SD

July 26, 2012

We are in Custer, South Dakota at the Wheels West RV Park.  Arrived yesterday afternoon after an uneventful ride from Glendo.  Custer is a small town and has a lot of tourist attractions.  There are several caves in the area, as well as Custer State Park, Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments nearby.

Wednesday we arrived at our RV park around 2:30 p.m. and got parked and settled in.  After we got the rig set up, Jim rested for a few minutes.  We never ate lunch so I had a snack.  Jim opted to wait for an early dinner, so we drove into town to explore a little.  Drove from one end to the other (didn't take long!) and checked out where the grocery store was and found a restaurant for an early dinner.  In fact, we were the first customers of the evening!  They had just reopened for dinner when we showed up at the Cowboy Cafe on Main Street.  Our next door neighbor recommended it to us.  The decor was interesting - all western, saddles, boots, hats.  Cute.  We just had burgers and Jim had to try their beer on special...Mississippi Mud....he didn't know it was an entire quart of beer!  (He drank all of it!)  Since it rained pretty much all evening, we stayed in and watched TV.  Got a call from our son, Alex.

Custer State Park

 
This morning, our destination was Custer State Park.  I packed us a lunch and we were on our way.  The park is a few miles away from our RV park, so in no time we arrived and were faced with a decision....day pass, 7-day pass or annual pass.  Since the annual pass was $27, and we will be here for 2 weeks, we chose the annual pass.  Our intention was to drive around the area and pick places to come back and explore.  Our first stop, an overlook off the main road, was a nice, short hiking opportunity.  After we looked at the view, we hiked into the forest there.  Along the way, we ran into some workers felling trees along a stretch of power lines.   Otherwise, we had the woods to ourselves....stretched our legs and enjoyed the 180 degree views.

Walking along the road

Pronghorn

Begging for carrots

We spent the better part of the early afternoon driving through Custer State Park.  We drove the Wildlife Loop, which covers dense forest as well as beautiful grasslands.  Along the way, we spotted Pronghorn antelopes, prairie dog dens, fairly tame burros and of course, herds of bison.  The burros are very friendly and will eat out of your hand.  They surrounded the cars on the road, which brought traffic to an abrupt halt.  We saw them sticking their heads into vehicles....finally figured out people were feeding them.  I grabbed some carrots out of our lunch and offered a few to a couple that stuck their heads in our window.  When I ran out of carrots, they ran out of interest and moved on to their next target. Jim and I enjoyed the unusual interlude.  When we came across the bison, it was a different story.  There are signs all over the park warning that buffalo are not friendly, and we would see people getting out of their cars to take photos.....not us!  Just rolled down the windows or opened the truck door for a better angle.

Among the "needles"

Approaching the "needles"

We ate our lunch at Fish Hook picnic area, which was a nice, shady spot with a few picnic tables near a stream.  Jim spotted a few nice sized Rainbow trout. Just a really relaxing spot to eat. Then we continued on our way. There are many spots we plan to come back and explore further.  Driving on the Needles Highway was fun, if a bit hairy.  The road is so narrow and there are several SMALL tunnels.  In one tunnel, we ended up scraping our side mirror against the side of the tunnel....that's SMALL.  But the views were fantastic and the "needles" were worth it.  They are these pointed rock formations that are spectacular. Loved the drive.

The model

The actual mountain carving

Around 2:30,  we were headed toward Crazy Horse Monument so decided to stop in.  It was $10 per person to get in - kinda pricey - but we did it anyway.  It was interesting, learning the story of how this mountain sculture came to be.  The sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, started the project in 1948, at the invition of Chief Standing Bear, and the project continues to this day.  The sculptor died in 1982, and the work is being carried out by his wife, Ruth, and seven of their children.  It is wholly funded by donation and admission fees.  So far, only the face has actually been fully carved, but the horse Crazy Horse is sitting on has been blocked out by blasts.

 
Did some grocery shopping on the way home...wow, expensive town....ate dinner, then went back to Custer State Park with our long camera lenses to try to snag some photo opportunities on the Wildlife Loop.  Saw some deer, some Pronghorn, not much else.  But, took a side road that was gorgeous and I was able to get some close ups of the Pronghorn.  The end of the evening found us in front of the trailer with "toddies" in our hands, enjoying the chill of the evening, the half moon in the sky, and a chat with our neighbors, Ken and Barbara (honest!) from Texas.

Denver Week

July 22, 2012

This week was spent in Englewood, Colorado, just outside of Denver.  We stayed in a mobile home park that also rented RV spaces....kinda quirky.  It is a 55+ community, NO DOGS.  They were very clear about that! They had a lovely community clubhouse with pool tables, free bread from the local market 2 days a week, a really nice swimming pool....none of which we took advantage.  This entire week consisted of 95+ degree days, not conducive to spending much time outside at all.

Jim worked on his software for the first 4 days we were here.  The second night we were here, we had dinner with a friend of mine, Peggy, that I worked with at Topform.  She and her husband, Frank, moved here two years ago when Frank took a job up here.  I did some grocery shopping and found a Costco to stock up my wine cabinet.....among other things!  Mostly, I stayed indoors with Jim, in air conditioned splendor.  The last few days of our visit we did do a little sightseeing.

Hornbek Homestead

Pantry

Friday, the 20th, we drove to Florissant Fossil Beds National Monument.  That area is interesting.  We saw 35 million year old petrified redwood tree stumps.  That area used to have a huge petrified forest until tourists started going there in the 1800's and early 1900's.  The logs and stumps were carried away by the people who visited. That didn't stop until the area became protected by the U.S. Government.  Now, there are a few remaining massive stumps.  Really awe inspiring to see.  There is also a preserved "Homestead" called the Hornbek Homestead. The house is still standing and partially furnished (it was fully furnished but all of the original furniture was stolen!  What kind of jerks do that?). Jim and I spent quite a bit of time there. The house was unlocked so we were able to walk around inside and grab some photos.  I love that stuff!

The line

Saturday, we went to Golden, Colorado, to go on the Coors Brewery tour.  Waited in line for 45 minutes, then got on a small shuttle bus that traveled around the blocks surrounding the brewery and the driver regaled us with local color.

The Brew Kettle

Then we were dropped off at the entrance to the brewery where we embarked upon a "self-guided" tour, which included the use of an audio "tour guide in a box", which we hung around our necks.  I have to say, I was disappointed with this tour.  Not having an actual, live tour guide made the tour pretty boring.  Got to the lounge, drank 2 out of 3 free sample beers, and left. On our way home, we stopped at "Listen Up", an audio store, to listen to some book shelf speakers.  We are talking about replacing 3 of the speakers in the trailer surround system with ones that actually sound good!  We'll see.

In the Lounge-Free Beer!

Sunday we headed to the Garden of the Gods in Colorado Springs.  What gorgeous rock formations.  It was way too hot to do any hiking, so we just drove through the park and plotted our return trip sometime some other season!  We would love to hike in and around these formations and do some early morning photography.  They are so beautiful.  This picture was taken off the balcony of the visitor center there.

Garden of the Gods

We are leaving tomorrow for Glenco, Wyoming, to stay a few nights and try to get in a visit to our friend, Laurie, in Casper.  From there, we move on to Custer, South Dakota for at least a week to do some sightseeing.

Days 12 through 16 Durango

July 16, 2012

We got into Durango Thursday afternoon and had a major problem with the space we were assigned.  Our rig is way too big for the space width and length. It took us two hours to get the rig into the space to where we could open all of our slides, but that put our door directly opening out right into a tree. There is no help for it, this is the only way we can fit. Sucks. Jim pitched a fit on Thursday but there was no manager on duty.  We had to wait until yesterday and I was waiting when the office opened at 9:00 to see the manager. Jim had left to go run some errands, so I dealt with it.  I took photos of the door situation with me and showed them to the manager. They had no other spot to put us in, so he gave us an $8.00 per day discount. Jim was still not happy. Also, we really wanted to stay at the park and visit with our friends from Rio Rancho, NM and Topform. So, we stayed.


Friday Jim spent most of the day trying to get his first air compressor to work with the duallys. We went to hardware stores, Home Depot, etc. to find parts. We also went to Wal-mart and did some grocery shopping.
Bought some ribeye steaks and burger meat for dinners while we're here in Durango.

Friday night everyone got together for dinner.  We brought our steaks and cooked them on Rich's grill. When they were done, I went over to our trailer and heated up some wild rice and corn on the cob. We topped the steaks with Mancheco cheese and green chili and boy, they were wonderful.

Our spot at the Durango Riverside RV Resort

Day 16 at 10:30 a.m. and we were on the road to Denver.  We left Durango yesterday so late that we needed to have a stopover somewhere in between.  Otherwise, we would have been getting into the RV park at 8:00 or 9:00 at night.  Not advisable or preferable.  Too hard to park, set up, etc. We spent the night in Buena Vista, CO at a park we will surely not go visit again, Arkansas River Rim RV Park. If you are in the vicinity, avoid that one...no amenities at all, a sand parking lot. Not cheap either - $37.00 for one night.

View along Hwy. 285

Our trip to Durango was fun for the most part.  It was great to see our Topform friends again! Dean and Debbie DiMaggio, their son, Derrick and his girlfriend Kristy,  Shari and Rich Misbach, their son, Brian and his friend, Joe and some new friends they introduced us to, Vince and Angela Valdez and their children, and Chuck and Kelly Evans and their daughter and grandchild. We had a wonderful visit on Friday and Saturday nights with all of them.  The whole group went out to dinner together on Saturday to Steamworks Brewery in Durango.  Food was good. I had the burger and Jim had the fish tacos.  The boys were sampling all the brews and feeling no pain! Jim and I saved our drinking for when we got back to the RV Park....cheaper and we know we're gonna like it!

For Margo

The un-fun part is that we are having issues with the tire monitoring pressure system Jim bought and installed.  He has been having a hell of a time getting it all to function properly. He was still messing with it on Sunday morning and left to go buy parts twice.  Finally adapted the 2nd air compressor to work with all the tire fittings, however, the compressor would not put air in the tires! (found out later that the TPMS fittings were blocking the air flow). Anyway, the park handyman came and offered his larger, shop compressor.  Jim took the truck over there and filled the offending tire and we were on our way.

Day 7 Saturday

July 7, 2012

We spent day 7 doing some fun stuff - took a trip to town to take a close up, walking view of the town.  We stopped at the Junction Restaurant for lunch, where Hwy 84 meets Hwy 160, aptly named.  Not great food, but edible.  Standard coffee shop fare.  Took Hwy 160 to Pagosa Springs and found a parking spot right on the street.  Very surprising, considering how packed this town has been all week.

One false move and I'm history!

Floating the day away.

We wandered up main street, poking our heads into various establishments, mostly boutiques and antiques and restaurants, tourist-y types of businesses.  When we got to the end of the main row of stores, we crossed the street to the river side and came through the craft show that was going on.  Again, cute, tourist-y items for sale.  I was tempted by a candy booth of course, and bought some english toffee-type candy and some fudge. We were walking past the "Springs Hotel" and I noticed a huge chess set on the lawn, with some folks playing a game. Fun!

Jim and I stopped to watch the people tubing down the river. Looks like lots of fun, but also a little work for the thrills.  Once they hit the bottom of town, they turn around and walk their tubes uphill, back to the beginning of the town where the best rapids are. They travel down the river for about 1/4 mile before they trudge back up.

I don't know if this is fun or scary!

There is also a carnival in town, the small, traveling kind, with some "thrill" rides, a fun house, pony rides and midway games.  Jim and I walked through, watching the kids on the rides. I snapped a few pictures, practicing some action shots. We were trying to stay ahead of the storm. This entire time we were walking, we were dodging raindrops and lightning.  Finally giving up, we headed toward the truck.  It started to rain harder just as we got there.

We have been wondering about a road we've seen a lot in our travels through town, Piedra Road.  It heads north of town, out into the National Forest. Finally satisfied our curiousity and drove out about 25 miles, through some of the most gorgeous scenery we've seen in Colorado to date.  So many breathtaking views, I couldn't photograph all of them.  Decided to head for Piedra Falls, but never made it. By this time, the rain had begun in earnest, so before we reached the falls, we turned around.  I made Jim promise we would come back one day next week on a sunny day, without the mud!

Gorgeous views abound.

Day 4 Wednesday

July 4, 2012

Mr. Clown is happy to be here!

Day 4 was another low-key day. I'm still battling hip issues, so we decided to take a drive and have a picnic.  We drove out along Highway 160 toward South Fork.  The weather was up and down, hot for awhile, then we would hit thunderstorms and showers and the temperature would plummet. 20 degree swings all day long. We stopped at the grocery store on our way home to get the fixings for green chili stew. We're going to make a batch tomorrow.  Can't wait!  Love that stuff and we need a green chili fix. 

When we got back to the trailer, the skies decided to open up.  Leaving the groceries in the truck, we ducked around to the front of the trailer to climb in.  We were both thoroughly drenched by the thundershower. We went for the groceries after the deluge
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Our picnic took place along Forest Road 725 off of Hwy. 160.  We drove in a short distance and found the most beautiful little creek right along the road. I took dozens of pictures, none did the scene justice.  I would love to go back and try again!

The best picture I took all day happened right up the road from the trailer park on the way home.  We saw this man sitting on a contraption, riding behind 2 horses.  Looks like he is mowing or baling hay- I couldn't tell which.  I liked the reminder that technology isn't always better than the old fashioned way to get something done. See for yourself!

Hope you all had a wonderful 4th of July!  Jim and I had a nice, relaxing day. 

I call this the hard way!

Day 3 Tuesday

Day three of our adventure is not very adventurous at all!  I have not been feeling my best, hence we have not done much of anything. I'm having an issue with my hip, could be a touch of sciatica.  Needless to say, no hiking for me.

Yesterday, we took a drive in the late afternoon, toward the Colorado side of Navaho Lake.  Beautiful views but wrong time of day for photos, so none are included. Boo! We made a big loop and came back to Pagosa Springs through Bayfield, along Highway 160.  On the way back, the skies opened up and we had a marvelous thunderstorm most of the way home.  Lots of lightning, big raindrops, that wet-pavement smell....nice after all the heat we've been experiencing so far this summer.  The rains definitely helped all the fires going on up here in Colorado as well.

Big doin's tomorrow in Pagosa Springs.  Craft shows, rodeo, carnival, fireworks......I think I may have talked Jim into going and experiencing small town 4th of July festivities. (Crossed fingers!) We haven't done that since early in our marriage when we spent the 4th of July in Ennis, Montana, and Jim drove the tractor that pulled our "float" in the parade, in the pouring rain! Our niece, Celine, rode in the boat that was the "float". That was fun, if you weren't Jim or Celine! (It also depends on how my hip is feeling and how far I can walk.)

We took a walk late this morning around the RV park, along the river.  I stretched out my legs.  It felt good to walk around without too much pain.  We saw tons of butterflies, again, wrong time of day for picture taking, but we plan to go over to the river early tomorrow morning and give it a try. I'll post some pics if we are successful.

Hope to have more exciting things to share as time goes on.  Until then, daily life is just that.

Day 1 Sunday

July 1, 2012

Day one on our new journey started off pleasantly enough. The temperatures here are a lot cooler than they were in Bernalillo, New Mexico, where we stayed for the past 3 months, waiting for our full-timing adventure to begin. We are in Pagosa Springs, Colorado until July 12th

Today is my birthday and Jim offered to cook me breakfast.  (Up until now, I have done most of the cooking.) After the smoke alarm went off, and the fans were turned on, he started over....the resulting breakfast was very good!  We discovered that dried crushed green chili has a low heat threshold. Live and learn!

We have no cell service here at The Last Resort (http://www.lastresortrvpark.info/ )and very limited internet access.  I will get this posted when the opportunity arises.  Other than those inconveniences, this park is a nice place to sit a spell....there's Buddy, the goat, for entertainment, along with the chickens, ducks and turkeys.  We also have several horses in the paddock across from our spot. Very picturesque, right on the Blanco River. T.K. and Stacy, the park's owners, are very nice and accommodating.  We stayed here last year in late September and were impressed enough to come back this year.

The town of Pagosa Springs is about 20 minutes north.  Hope we don't spend too much time there!  With the 4th of July holiday this week, the place is a zoo! Had to do a little grocery shopping yesterday and couldn't wait to get back to the park, even though it, too, is very crowded.

Planning a few weeks worth of hiking, picnicking and picture taking...can't wait to begin.