Few days of rest 9.30.10

Apologies again for my disappearance into the world of no wireless......We had a good run there for a while but the past few days have been very hit or miss.  Well, mainly miss.  Then I had an oops moment when this entry accidentally got published without my intro commentary here.  Boy oh boy, the things that can go wrong.....


Anyway, here I am, back online for the moment.  Who knows what tomorrow night will bring, but we'll hope for the best.


Now, back to South Dakota......(I can't quite believe I'm still writing about SD when, believe it or not, we're all the way in Maine right now!  You'll get those details eventually.....)


Oh, and I had a special request to date the entries.  That is, to note the date the happenings of each entry actually occurred.  So from now on, I hope, you'll be seeing the approximate date up there next to the title.  If I remember.


Time to hang out again!

After our l-o-n-g drive from Devils Tower to Rapid City and after two consecutive days of major sightseeing, we were due for some down time.  That downtime came in the form of a cute bistro that provided some nourishment and some wireless!  We enjoyed two days worth of taking our sweet old time in the morning: Eating, reading, shooting homemade bows and arrows, and enjoying the beautiful canopy of fall foliage here at our campsite in the Black HIlls of SD.





Here's 'our' cute little bistro with its new but old fashioned cafe/soda fountain.  We spent a good 5 hours there the first day and a couple more the next.  The kids had plenty to do.  The place had games, a book swap shelf, an old pac man game (!!), and several other forms of entertainment.  We also brought our own entertainment for the kiddos as well as some goodies they picked up at the National Forest visitor center on the way here.  S & I had a whole lot of catching up to do online and on the phone, since we were cut off from both at the campground and in the general area.



On our way to Custer we stopped by the visitor center I mentioned to get some info.  There, we met a man who had quite a story to tell.  He had lived in CO and worked in a high tech job for years.  Finally, after some serious health issues he called uncle and walked away!  Yes he had/has a family.  Nonetheless, he walked away from job security, a great salary, and his white collar 'status' all in the name of escaping the rat race and saving his life in the process.  Now he lives in Custer with his family and works 15 days a month at the coal mine in Gillette as a truck driver, making a pretty decent salary too, and couldn't be happier!  In fact, his wife just started working there with him.  Such a small world and a thought provoking story......


OK, so we did do *some* sightseeing at least on one of those days.  We read about this place -






And got a good laugh out of it :-).  The building was moved to its current location from somewhere else in town.

Right behind it is the good ol' Y with the coolest Y building I've ever seen!



Granted, there's no ice rink in this one, but they say it's the largest log building in the country.   Don't know anything to confirm or deny that claim....

We also got some kicking practice in while there.  S later came back for a martial arts class in the evening.  He's a big martial artist and this has been his first opportunity to do it since hitting the road.



Another brief stop was the open museum behind the old courthouse.   They had various artifacts including a blacksmith shop, printing press, all sorts of wagons including one you could really get your hands on -


And then there was this sign -

Given what the sign says, I wonder how many illegal hangings occurred in Custer County.......

Crossing the street we came across this little house -


The very first building erected in the Black HIlls.  Ominous for those living here then......Dr. Flick built it himself for his family to live in when gold was first discoved.  However, when it approached completion the Dr. agreed to leave, along with many other miners, following the army's orders.  Yes, at first the government did try to keep the area white man free, but as we know, that didn't last too long.

It was a cute little house, very Little House on the Prairieish.



Heading back home again on those two days of calm we also enjoyed some peaceful evenings with kids making their own comic books (inspired by the Smoky the Bear comics they got at the National Forest visitor center) -


And even kids *asking*, yes asking, to sit down and do their 'stuff' -



By the light of our lantern.  We try not to use the generator unless we absolutely need to.

I love traveling and seeing great things, but down time is just as delicious!