Lead, SD to Deadwood, SD - Tuesday, August 31, 2010

In the morning we ate breakfast in the campground's restaurant decorated with pictures of motorcycles, campers and advertisements. Picked up a newspaper about this year's recent Sturgis motorcycle rally. At this year's rally, Pee Wee Herman was auditioning for extras in his new movie on his bike adventure.

After breakfast we drove into the Lead to the Black Hills Mining Museum. The museum covers gold mining and the economic development cultural/social history of Lead. Kathy found a telephone operator's panel.

The museum was in an old Piggly Wiggly Grocery Store. Some ex-miners had converted the basement into a simulated mine. A young man guided us on an interesting tour explaining the history of the Homestake Mine and the process of gold mining mixed with jokes, e.g., alcohol is not allowed in the mine because everyone is a minor.

The Homestake Mine is the deepest mine and the second largest producer of gold in North America . It goes down 8,000 feet below the surface. The mine closed in May 2001. (Google pictures)

Now the mine is being converted to look for neutrinos and dark matter particles. The new lab is called the Sanford Underground Laboratory at Homestake. At this time they are draining the mine of water. By May 2009, the water was drained down to 4,850 feet.

The 4,850 foot level was the central clearing level when the mine was in operation. This level contained the mine's most extensive and sophisticated railway and communications system and many major workshops. Each day, miners went to this level first before proceeding to the level where they would work for the day. The Sanford Underground laboratory is going to put their first detectors at this level.

After the tour, Kathy and I went to look at the big mining hole in the middle of Lead. Homestake started as a surface mine. The surface mine continued off and on until 1998. The hole is 1,200 feet deep and a half-mile across. It is big.

One the way our of Lead, we stopped for lunch at the Pizza Lab. Kathy and I had three kinds of pizza: ranch vegetarian, pesto tomato, and a thai chicken pizza. We agreed that the thai chicken was the best. Though the place is a really good pizza place, Chris was disappointed that they had not emphasized the "lab" theme. You can see the kitchen from the front. They could have had bubbling beakers and tesla coils sparking between the kitchen and front. (Video of a tesla coil playing 2001: Space Odyssey) The servers could dress in lab coats and laugh maniacally, i.e., like a mad scientist, when they served your pizza.

We drove the short distance to Deadwood. After finding our campground, Kathy and Chris took the trolley in to see a murder of Hickok in the #10 Saloon (video) and the Trial of Jack McCall. (video) The shows Kathy and I saw were more relaxed than the ones recorded in the videos linked to.

Fifteen minutes before the trial began, the main actors in the trial including Jack McCall played music. The music was humorous. My favorite was "Ghost Chickens in the Sky" to the tune of "Ghost Riders in the Sky." The audience helped by making chicken noises after each line and in the chorus of "Bwaak Bwaaa Bwaaa" instead of "yeppie yi yo, yeppie yi yeaa." (video by Sean Morey, the writer of the song) (Other Sean Morey songs)

Spearfish, SD to Lead, SD - Monday, August 30, 2010

Spearfish's city campground is beside the DC Booth Historic National Fish Hatchery. The first thing we did this morning was tour this historic site.

When the whites stole these hills from the Indians for the gold, the whites also discovered the streams are a perfect environment for trout. Trout are not native to the Black Hills because the fish can't get here on their own. So the federal government sent D. C. Booth to establish a program for seeding the streams with trout. Over the next 30 years, Booth built a hatchery that provided over a million tiny trout a year to streams in the Black Hills, around the country and even Europe. In the picture, Kathy stands in front of a bronze statute about restocking a stream.

One of the most interesting exhibits on hatchery grounds were the fish railroad cars. The government had 10 railroad cars specially designed and built to transport tiny trout across the country. The car had a dozen of wooden fish tanks, plus facilities for the room and board of a crew of five people. These railroad cars were discontinued in 1947 with the building of more hatcheries across the country, more and better roads, and the development of better trucks for transporting stock fish.

The historic hatchery still stocks some trout even today. Though they now release fewer numbers, the fish are larger, the size is called "catchable." We fed the fish.

Our next stop in Spearfish was the workshop art gallery of Dick Termes. Termes creates six-point perspective spherical art called Termespheres. Since visiting his workshop, we have seen a number of them hanging around the Black Hills. (Google images of Termespheres)

We left Spearfish through Spearfish Canyon. We saw Roughlock Falls
and one place where they filmed the Black Hills scenes of Dances with Wolves.

Roughlock Falls has changed a lot since Kathy first saw it as a child; it's even changed a lot since she began taking her own children to see it! Where once we climbed down the bank to the stream and then walked in the water to go under the Falls, you now can not even go down to the stream! There are now fences and viewing platforms around the Falls. The banks near the falls are now pretty much straight up and down and there is a lot more vegetation everywhere.

It's still a beautiful little falls; quite photogenic. But part of the magic is gone now. It was always fun to walk in the freezing cold water (in our tennis shoes) and struggle up the rocks to find shelter in a "cave" under the Falls. I hope our grandchildren will still get to see Roughlock Falls, but I regret they won't get the same fun experiences three other generations of the family had!

Near Cheyenne Crossing, we found the road and Hanna campground Kathy remembered from her childhood visits to this area. She also camped here with her children.

We camped five miles from Lead.

Dickinson, ND to Spearfish, SD - Sunday, August 29, 2010

When we left Dickinson we traveled east along I-94 until be saw a sculpture called
Flying Geese. This marks the northern end of the Enchanted Highway south to Regent, ND. Along the highway, the fields every 5 miles or so contain large, often amusing, sculptures of mostly steel welded together. Beside each sculpture is a parking lot for people to stop and take pictures.

The lower picture is one of our favorite sculpture of an aquarium out on the plains. Kathy is pretending to be the little diver at the bottom of the tank. At the bottom, Chris looks at the panties of a farmer's giant wife.

The Enchanted Highway is the inspiration of artist Gary Greff. He had the idea of using large sculptures along this highway to draw tourists 25 miles south to his hometown in Regent. It works. Lots of people drove the highway, even on a Sunday morning, stopping at each sculpture to take pictures. We also talked and got to know each other. Visiting each other over and over again at each sculpture, several carloads formed a cohort driving down the road. At the end of the road in Regent, some of us again met in the artist's ice cream parlor and souvenir shop and talked some more. Kathy and I sat at a table talking to a couple from Georgia. One of the other families was from Minnesota; the wife had grown up in Concordia, Kansas!

We then drove south to Spearfish, South Dakota. We camped in the city's wonderful campground. We were camped near a very nice running stream. Off and on we have commented about camp showers. On this trip, we have suffered some of the small showers little bigger than coffins. We have also had the good fortune to use some really nice showers. The showers at the city campground in Spearfish are the best we have seen.

Medora, ND to Dickinson, North Dakota, Saturday, August 28, 2010.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park was the first thing on our agenda for Saturday. We first visited the Visitors' Center, viewed the exhibits, and watched a video about Teddy Roosevelt's time in the Medora area.

We then drove the loop for the scenic tour. We only visited what is called the South Unit. The area is considered badlands and has a stark kind of beauty. It is not as empty of vegetation as some of the Badlands National Monument. Prairie Dog villages appear regularly along the loop drive. Early in the day, they appeared far away from the road. Later as we neared the end of the loop we saw them very near the road. One had even been killed by a passing car. At the end of the loop, we finally saw bison. They were graving and resting beside the road (they are not fenced). We stopped to admire them. They ignored us. One handsome horse wondered by, but we don't think it was part of the wild horse herd. Probably just an escaped domesticated animal. (More Google images)

From Medora, we drove along I-94 to Dickinson, ND. Their motto is "Explore the Western Edge." Dickinson is home of the Dakota Dinosaur Museum. This is a small museum with a nice collection of dinosaur and other animal fossils and minerals wonderfully displayed. Their mineral collection offers several interesting examples of objects that look like fossils of animals and plants, but are not. One looked like the skin of a dinosaur. Another looked like a fish.

We stayed the night in Dickinson and ate dinner in a nice restaurant. We both had a very tasty garlic soup. Chris had an expensive rack of lamb. And Kathy had an appetizer. The piped in music played Frank Sinatra and similar songs.

Ceylon to Medora, North Dakota, Friday, August 27, 2010

In the morning, the park caretaker came along to collect money and chat. Then we drove to Montana.

The US customs agents took all our uncut tomatoes, one green onion and the mountain ash berries (on right) we had picked up in Boissevain, Manitoba. We had not thought that the food in our refrigerator might be an issue. It all had been in the camper since Great Bend but, of course, we couldn't prove that. It is interesting that sliced tomates were OK.

We reentered the US in the northeast corner of Montana. We drove east into North Dakota to Medora, near Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

Medora's history focuses on two major events. The town is named after the wife of a French aristocrat/adventurer, de Mores, who attempted to start in 1883 a cattle business and packing plant to ship meat back east. Theodore Roosevelt also came here for adventure and later to overcome depression over the loss of his wife and mother in 1884. Theodore credits this area into forming him into a man who could become president. So both men were in Medora at the same time and knew each other.

From this inspirational past, the town has slid into mere tourisms, i.e., shops, restaurants, one stage theater, museums, and two campgrounds. In the evening, we went to the Medora Musical.

We were expecting a musical telling the history of Medora. What we got in the first half was music with no real story. The singing and dancing was very professionally performed, but the lack of a story made the event comparatively meaningless compared to the inspirational story we expected. This was a 45th anniversary show which may have replaced the story-telling show we had expected and would have preferred. Why would tourists care about the 45th anniversary of the show? This reminds me of the time Bob Hope did a "Thanks for the memories" show in front of the University of Florida undergraduates. Since the students had no memories of Bob Hope, their behavior showed that they didn't care.

The second half of Medora Musical was much better. Acrobatic clowns, the New York Goofs, were amusing. This was followed by a skit about Theodore's Rough Riders' charge of San Juan Hill. This portion of the show was very sentimentally patriotic, very much in the spirit of Theodore's own enthusiastic nationalism.

We did not partake in the western delicacy popular in Medora, pitchfork (steak) fondue.

Indian Head to Ceylon, Saskatchewan, Thursday, August 26, 2010

This morning we drove north of town to see the Bell Farm Round Barn. Actually, the current attraction is a reconstruction of the original barn. The barn is stone and served as a stable for the large farm. The original was built in 1882.

The barn is more of a museum inside now, with only one stall as an example. However, the panels containing history of the area, the farm, and the owner were well done and interesting about the settlement of this part of Saskatchewan. The farm eventually failed and the owner, Bell, moved elsewhere.

After visting the Barn, we went south of town to the Prairie Farm Rehabilitation Administration (PFRA) Shelterbelt Centre. We were especially interested in seeing any shrubs they are growing because we will be planting new shrubs in front of our house this year. We really didn't find a variety that looked like what we want, but did take a few pictures of possible ideas. We also picked up a few brochures and enjoyed looking at a model of the suggested arrangement of a farm with well-planned shelter belts. It was quite interesting. This summer we had to remove three trees on the north side of the house, so it gave us some ideas about what to do in that area.

We then drove west and stopped in Moose Jaw to visit the Saskatchewan Burrowing Owl Interpretive Centre (SBOIC)First opened in 1997, the interactive interpretive center was developed adjacent to an abandoned racetrack surrounding the native habitat of several wild nesting burrowing owls. The Centre is also home to any wild Burrowing Owls that may not be released into the wild due to injury or loss of migratory ability. We were told that the original wild burrowing owls in the area have not returned at this time; this may be because the city is developing more around that area.

We enjoyed our tour and observing the owls. These owls are very small and nest underground. Although called Burrowing Owls, they do not actually dig their own burrows. They use burrows that have been dug by prairie dogs, gophers, or badgers. At the Centre they actually live in constructed burrows using flexible pipes. However, there are prairie dogs living there also and we saw some "visiting" the owls in their cages. The staff member that was showing us around said the staff have to refill holes near the cage walls made by the prairie dogs often so that the owls can not escape. Since most of the owls currently in residence can not be released because of their past injuries, this is a concern.

They are very small birds and their coloring certainly blends in and makes them difficult to spot sometimes, even in their cages. Three of the owls are imprinted on humans and are used in programs outside the Centre. You can see a short film about some of the Centre's activities and the owls here.

Our next stop was Rouleau, Saskatchewan, location for the Canadian TV comedy, Corner Gas. This is the show we have been watching on DVD in the camper each evening. We like the songs at the beginning and the end of the show during the credits. The song at the end is part of "My Happy Place"; the full song was originally done by The Odds. Here's the part used as the Corner Gas closing theme. Folks in the Great Plains, whether U.S. or Canada, will enjoy!

In the show, the town is called "Dog River." "Dog River" is painted on the grain elevator across the main highway from the town and easily seen from the Corner Gas station/convenient store and Ruby's Cafe, the main locations for show. All these buildings could be seen first as we approached the town from the northwest. We picnicked at Corner Gas and took pictures.

While we were there at least two other vehicles stopped, people got out and took pictures.
After taking the pictures, we drove into town. The local bar and one store sold souvenirs. We bought some.

Then we drove south to Ceylon, Saskatchewan, just short of the border. We camped in the city park.

International Peace Garden to Indian Head, Saskatchewan, Wednesday, August 25, 2010

We woke up to our first day of camping in Canada! We really were impressed with the campground at Adam Lake. It had lots of trees, good separation between campsites, and showers and electricity.

First order of business was to return to tour the International Peace Garden. The entrance is actually on the border between North Dakota and Manitoba. We had to go through Canadian Customs the night before, but did not need to on our return.

The International Peace Garden is a 2,339 acre botanical garden "devoted to World Peace, along the world’s longest unfortified border". The atmosphere while walking in the garden was quite "peaceful". Visitors can walk up one side of the main garden area and then back down the other side. Along the way there are a number of special structures: the Carillon Bell Tower, the Peace Tower, the Peace Chapel, a 9/11 Memorial, and a new Interpretive Center. (PDF map)

The Peace Tower consists of lots of concrete featuring four huge slabs (columns 120 feet high) representing the immigrants' aspiration when coming to both the United States and Canada and the other bonds between the two countries.

The Welcome Center seems to be brand new and isn't even quite finished yet, although it is open for business.

In Chris' opinion, the managers of the International Peace Garden seem to have a strong understanding of the garden part. There are lots of colorful flowers in a variety of pleasant arrangements. Their understanding of the peace part of their name seems more doubtful. Here are two observations.

The Peace Chapel is the place where the garden managers can most clearly express their thoughts about peace because inspirational quotes are carved on the interior walls. (YouTube video of quotes) The quotes are very thoughtful and inspirational. I really did like them. But this is a Peace Chapel. Shouldn't the quotes be about peace? When the quotes were being selected for the chapel walls the selector(s) seem(s) to have forgotten the main theme half way through and just started picking quotes they liked. For example:

"Does't thou love life? Then do not squander time, for that is the stuff life is made of." - Ben Franklin.

"Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you." - Jesus. This quote may or may not be about peace, but Jesus said several things that definitely are about peace, e.g., Matthew 5:9, 5:38-48 and 26:52. Aren't these passages more relevant?

The Interpretive Center's gift shop sells wooden toy guns. This itself is not a contradiction because some claim the intimidation of guns causes peace. But, this garden on the "world's longest undefended border" symbolizes a peace created by trust between two nations sharing a common belief in democracy. Therefore, selling guns at this gift shop is ironically amusing. It would be appropriate to sell toy guns at a peace monument on the border between North and South Korea.

After leaving the Peace Garden, we again had to go through Canadian Customs to re-enter Manitoba. Our plan was to head for Brandon, Manitoba, to catch Trans-Canada highway 1. [as an aside, I think Brandon Manitoba sounds like a great stage name for someone. How about you?--Kathy]

While passing through Boissevain we first stopped to get tourist information. This community has many murals painted on buildings around town and a giant turtle welcoming visitors (remember the Turtle Mountains?). We ate lunch at a new facility that included food and snacks and gifts. It was nice and the folks there were very friendly. The café part had books on shelves all around the large room. It was very nice and homey for two librarians on the road!

We caught the Trans-Canada Highway at Brandon and headed west toward Saskatchewan. This would be the first time either of us had been in that province.

We had discovered, while reading some of the travel brochures, that Indian Head, Saskatchewan, was were a Canadian TV program called Little Mosque on the Prairie was filmed. After reading about it and watching some clips on the Web, we have decided that we are going to interlibrary loan the series to watch. It seems like it might be fun.

So, of course, we decided to stop in Indian Head to see the "mosque" from the show. After driving around fruitlessly searching we went to the city office to ask about this. (Yes, the library was closed!) We discovered that the church building in the show was actually just a façade and had already been taken down for the season (they film in town during July and August each year). The helpful lady in the City Office pointed out where it usually stands during filming.

We decided to stay in Indian Head at the KOA campground. We also ate supper at the Craft Tea Elevator Restaurant. Kathy was excited because they serve breakfast all day (the omelet was very good)! Chris had good liver and onions.

When we first began camping in Canada, our night-time DVD viewing has included episodes of season one of Corner Gas, another Canadian TV show. We have enjoyed watching the show which seems similar in spirit to Northern Exposure. Take a look at the first season, episode one opening scene on YouTube.

We hope to visit the town where it was filmed later on the vacation, so we watched more episodes before we bedded down for the night.

Custer, et al -Tuesday, August 24, 2010

We began the day with tours of some of the sites at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. This park contains a calvary fort, infantry fort, and Mandan village called On-a-Slant because the village is on a slope down to the river. (Map) (Google Images)

General George Custer and his wife, Libby, were posted at the cavalry fort. Custer and the 7th Calvary left on May 17th, and marched West to their deaths at the Battle of the Little Big Horn on June 25th, 1876.

We began the day with a tour of Custer's house. A gruff Sergeant Johnson (in 1876 character) took us through the house (Virtual tour). The time is 1875. The house was very comfortable. Custer and his wife had made a number of modifications to the usual officers' house plan. Libby had added a bay window on the south side of the parlor. That evening the Custer house was hosting a dinner party. The group of Custer's extended family and their spouses would gather at the house at 7 pm. for music, singing, and dancing. At 8 pm the dinner bell rang and everyone moved into a dinner of roast beef and vegetables. Vegetables always included Custer's favorite, onions. Custer loved onions and would even eat them raw.

Another building at the fort is one of the barracks. The design of the barracks is similar to the infantry barracks at Fort Larned, but the back kitchen and dining area are much larger. One side of the barracks was dedicated to the men of the 7th Cavalry at the time of the Little Big Horn. The cots, arranged perpendicular to the walls, are lined up and down the barracks with an aisle in the middle. At the foot of each cot was a light blue wooden box, i.e., soldiers' footlocker. The lids are up and in each lid was a short biography of a 7th cavalry soldier at the time of the battle. Many, of course, died at Little Big Horn, but not all. Several had been posted on other assignments. Kathy observed that many were immigrants.

The Mandan village, On-a-Slant, is near the fort. The Mandan lived here from mid-1600s to the mid- to late-1700s. In other words, they had abandoned this village before Lewis and Clark came through in 1805. This village is located on a peninsula cliff overlooking the river. The river and ravines on two sides protected the village on three sides. A wooden palisade protected the fourth side. At its peak the village had 75 circular earthlodges.

Today's On-a-Slant has five earthlodges constructed by the CCC during the 1930s under the direction of a Mandan spiritual leader called, if I remember correctly, a Corn Spirit. The earthlodges are 20 to 40 feet in diameter and 15 to 20 feet high. (See pictures at the bottom of the page) Extended matrilineal families, i.e,. the female head of household, her husband, her daughters and their husbandsand children, about 10 to 15 people, occupied each earthlodge. Inside, a large fire area is in the center of the lodge. A hole in the ceiling lets the smoke out. A large wooden wall in front of the door forces air to approach the fire from two directions. This encourages the smoke to go straight up through the hole rather than filling the lodge. Our guide said that in another earthlodge without the wall blocking the door, the air rushes in and pushes the smoke toward the walls, filling the lodge with smoke.

We also visited the infantry post on the hill near On-a-Slant. This is now basically the three reconstructed blockhouses. Chris climbed to the top (3 floors); Kathy quit after the second!

After leaving Fort Abraham Lincoln, we drove north to visit another Mandan village called Double Ditch and then north again to the Lewis and Clark Interpretive Center with Fort Mandan. (Virtual tour of Fort Mandan.)Fort Mandan was built by Lewis and Clark's men to survive the winter of 1804-5. It is a triangular in shape and appears quite cozy, for a frontier fort.

We traveled north again to Rugby, geographical center of North America. Since we travel to Lebanon, Kansas (the geographical center of the 48 contiguous U.S. states), often, it seemed that we should also visit here.

Since the International Peace Garden did not have any campsites with electricity, we crossed in to Manitoba, Canada (yes, we remembered our passports!) to the Adam Lake campground at Turtle Mountain Provincial Park and Forest. It has very, very nice campsites. We were quite happy.

"Go North Middle-aged Campers" -- Monday, August 23, 2010

Today was "drive across South Dakota from south to north" day.

We didn't do much "sightseeing" today, although we saw a lot of the two Dakotas. Amazingly enough, much of it looks a lot like Kansas! I think we will feel that way a lot on this vacation, since much of our planned itinerary is in Prairie states and provinces! Luckily, I find the prairies beautiful in their own way; they may not be dramatic, but they have a peaceful aspect.

North of Pierre, South Dakota, and beyond, we discovered more and more cultivated sunflower fields. They are usually so cheerful as the flowers turn to face the sun. We did see one field that seemed to be depressed; the flowers drooped and faced away from the sun. Obviously something going on...

In the morning we were on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Mission and Antelope are two towns that actually seem to be one. We stopped in at the local university bookstore to check out what they had. The name of the university is Sinte Gleska University.

We enjoyed looking at the textbooks and other books they have and, of course, could not leave without buying some. They had one Don Coldsmith book!

The campus seems to be scattered in numerous locations around both Mission and Antelope.

We also went to the large grocery store at the edge of Mission. It seems to be very new. They have a deli that serves at lunch and the line was quite long.

Most of the rest of the day was spent with one or the other of us driving. We ended the day outside Bismarck-Mandan, North Dakota, at Fort Abraham Lincoln State Park. The campground was very nice, with good separation between spots, although you could see all of your neighbors. Luckily, there weren't many that night!

We spoke to a retired couple from the east coast about their camper. We really thought it looked good for the type of camping we do. We have no interest in driving a huge camper around and basically just want a place to sleep. That's why our Roadtrek has been great.

This couple has an Aliner camper. It is a small pop-up camper that is very easy to set up. They like it because of the ease of set up and the fact that it has a low profile while driving. After years of having my kids help with setting up our Jayco pop-up camper it was a shock when Chris and I began to use it. Two middle-aged folks take a lot longer to set one up than four teenagers with Mom helping! The Aliner looks much simpler for a couple like us. You can see a short video about setting up the Aliner here.

After enjoying a shrimp cocktail supper, we ended the day watching some DVD episodes of Rome, House, and started season one of Jeremiah.

Great to Valentine, Nebraska -- Sunday, August 22, 2010

We spent the night in Valentine, Nebraska.

From Great Bend we drove to Russell, west on I-70 to Grainfield, Kansas, north into Nebraska, following highway 83 to Valentine.

We stopped at Hays to purchase a new convex circular mirror for the driver's side mirror. I also purchased eyeglass holders for the sun shades and a compass. Kathy purchased a colorful new top.

We ate lunch in Buffalo Bill Park in Hoxie. The spot was shade, but a bit of a disappoint because we say no buffalo nor Bills.

We drove through Nebraska's sandhills. Kathy says they are like Kansas' hills around Wilson except the Nebraska hills are more rounded like breasts. She thinks their breast-like appearance should be incorporated into a tourist attracting slogan. I suggested some phrase like "as big as you think."

Valentine, Nebraska is near the Valentine National Wildlife Refuge. The only wildlife I saw where birds flying overhead. There are supposedly lots of campgrounds up and down the nearby Niobara River, especially east of Valentine. We are in the Riverside Campground on this river.

Nearby is the Bryan Bridge. It was built in 1932. It is a one-of-a-kind cantilever truss bridge, held together by a pin in the center of the bridge. Designed by a Russian immigrant, Joseph Sorkin, his design was selected because it is "aesthetically compatible with the surrounding environment of the Niobrara River Valley". The American Institute of Steel Construction declared this the "Most Beautiful Steel Bridge of 1932 in Class C", the first bridge between Wisconsin and the Pacific Coast to receive such an award".

In the evening, we watched an episode of Rome and two episodes of House.