Boy's Day

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Today dawned another beautiful day. I was incredibly happy to be waking up in our cabin rather than in a hospital - even if said hospital was located in the beautiful Black Hills. I was really stiff and sore and any wrong movement almost sent me to my knees but at least I was ambulatory. Steve and I were a little slower getting around this morning and by the time we got to the “chow hall” the boys had already held several conversations with other vacationers. They are so chatty! I think anyone within distance of their voices is fair game. I really like to see that, though. Neither one of them are at all afraid or hesitant to have a conversation with an adult. And they can both hold their own. They don't converse like many kids their age. We definitely have a couple of people persons on our hands.
I hated to say goodbye to the cabin but we needed to be on our way. Custer, which is the same town the hospital was located in, was where we needed to get my prescription filled. So off south we went when we really needed to be headed north. But that was okay. We drove by Crazy Horse again and, this time, after seeing a printed picture of it Steve was able to make out the face and arm. We could also see the markings on the stone where the horse's eye and ear would be. Kinda cool. Maybe it will be a little farther along when we bring the girls back in about 10-12 years!
Our plan for today was to do a loop through Sturgis, Deadwood, Lead and Spearfish, after stopping outside Rapid City at the Petrified Forest, and then ending up in Spearfish for the night. Today was a boy's day from first to last. Not really anything exciting for me except in seeing my guys excited. We had missed one petrified forest site close to the Badlands due to time constraints so CJ was happy to be going to this one. I don't think it lived up to his expectations. He was imagining the remnants of an actual forest with trees, though petrified, still standing. What he got was a nice 1-mile hike through an area where much petrified wood had been found and moved to new positions. Prior to taking the trail we watched an informative video about how wood is petrified. I couldn't sit to watch it so I'm going on secondhand reports when I repeat info from the video that explained the wood needed to be underwater for a period of time. Because we were at elevations of around 3300 ft. we all decided that the petrified wood supported the Biblical perspective of the great flood. None of us were buying the line that these artifacts were millions of years old. So we didn't embrace their scientific views but the views from the top of the hill were magnificent. We got some great pictures.
Our next stop was (drum roll, please) Sturgis, South Dakota home of the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The boys were so excited I thought they would wet themselves! Steve has long wanted to come for the Rally and used to talk with Cliff about it. Well we were a couple of months early for the rally but it was still special to him to be in Sturgis. The town itself is very small. When the rally is going on I think they probably up their population by 1000%. It was lunchtime as we drove in and though I have been packing a picnic everyday I had forgotten to buy more meat yesterday (other events sidetracked me, you know). So we were all hungry and looking for a place to eat.
Now, Sturgis is probably pretty tame 51 weeks of the year but we didn't want to take chances with the boys. I didn't really do my homework about places to eat in Sturgis so Steve stopped a policeman (isn't it supposed to be the other way around?) to ask his recommendation. He sent us off to the Knuckle Saloon. Another first for CJ, Jake and I as none of us had ever been in a biker bar before. Steve...well, we won't talk about the old days. Anyway the saloon, though empty of patrons, was full of motorcycle memorabilia. License plates were nailed to the walls all over as old signs, bicycles, and biker-related items hung from the ceiling. The boys were able to play a game of pool while we waited for our order which was a lot of fun for them. Our waitress included the boys in her conversations with our table which was really nice. And the food...amazing. The portions were huge, the burgers juicy, and the fries were that perfect blend of crispy on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Yummy! I could have stayed longer to see what the dinner menu consisted of but the boys were ready to head to the motorcycle museum.
Even I thought there were some pretty cool bikes there including a replica of the “Easy Rider” bike. In the lower level they had a nice exhibit about women and motorcycles. One of the bikes at the museum had a lot of chrome and every inch of the chrome was engraved. It was beautiful! However, I got my fill of motorcycle stuff long before the boys did. Finally they were ready to leave but didn't want to go far. It was the Harley store they were interested in now. Everyone got a souvenir from here as well. (I'm not sure we're going to have room in the van for us when we head home!) Finding what we wanted was harder than we thought it would be. We were trying to find Harley items from Sturgis that didn't say Rally on them. We couldn't have Rally shirts because we weren't there for the Rally. Finally we found what we wanted and were on our way headed to Deadwood.
Deadwood is a pretty cool town. It has many original 1800's buildings that were beautiful! It's very touristy though and really caters to the gamblers. I'm sure we could have found more to do that didn't involve gambling but it wasn't that big of a deal. The boys were wanting to do some swimming again so they were fine with moving on. Spearfish was our final destination for the day and where we had hotel reservations. To get to Spearfish you have to go through Spearfish canyon. OHMYGOSH! It was amazing. The road followed the river as it weaved through towering limestone cliffs. Having done my research I knew Roughlock Falls, located on a side road, was reputed to be well worth the drive. Once we found the side road I closed my eyes to “rest” for just a minute or two (remember I'm still on drugs). Without two sets of eyes we missed the turnoff and wound up miles past the falls. We had to go back out the way we came in so we tried again to find it. Second try and we found it with no trouble. Let me tell you it was so worth the time it took to find it. There's no way pictures could do it justice. Heading on toward our accommodations for the night we passed Bridal Veil Falls, so out of the van we went for more pictures. Thank goodness for digital. I could never have as many rolls of film developed as I have taken.
We finally arrived at the motel where we had reservations. Now, I rely heavily on Tripadvisor.com when trip planning. But there just wasn't much information on places to stay. So let me give you some trip planning advise. The Travelodge in Spearfish, SD is a hell-hole! Really, it's awful. But we had reservations with a whopping fee if canceled within 24 hours of arrival so we were kind of stuck. In hindsight I wish we had just taken the hit and gone elsewhere but we didn't. An abbreviated list of problems? A portion of the roof by the pool had caved in earlier this week due to the heavy rain. The furniture in our room had been arranged so that when you opened the door the first bed was right there. I mean RIGHT THERE. (At least it would save time if you were really, really tired. You could literally open the door and fall in bed.) The air/heat unit in our room had no knob on it. I could spit more moisture that what came out of the shower head. Ugh!
Now add to this situation one woman who was in pain, needed to do laundry, and go to the grocery store; two boys who had been in and out of a van for several days and were so anxious to swim that they left food wrappers all over the room; and one man who really needed to check business voice mails and set up building deliveries and who had no cell phone reception. What do you have? One seriously tense evening. Never have I been so glad for everyone to go to bed! Ahhh...peace and quiet. And tomorrow. The hope for tomorrow to be a better day is strong. Tomorrow we see the mountains. Real mountains. With snow, I hope. I'll let you know, okay?

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Comments

[elena]

uh..
so wow...at least there were no trails to travel today. I can't believe you're hurt.

[shawn]

Nice pics.
You take some really good pictures. There are some good ones at blackhillstravelblog.com - please check it out if you're interested in some of the things going on in the Black Hills.