September 4, 2014 Thursday

Today was a day for chores.  Lib did the laundry and I had to call an RV Repair service.  The problem was part of my emergency breakaway brake system was missing. I noticed during my check while hooking up at the park.  I think I stood on top of it when washing off Cream Puff and broke off a piece of it.  Fortunately, I did not break off the part that locks your brakes!  It was no problem and the repair took only about 30 minutes.  

Travel trailers have these breakaway brake systems in case the trailer pulls away from the tow vehicle.  If that happens the breakaway brakes automatically apply brakes to the trailer wheels and the trailer stops…hopefully safely!  It is something we don’t want to check out.

After laundry we went into the town of Custer City, about 20 miles away.  There we had cell service and we found a coffee shop in an old bank that was chartered in 1880 (charter still on the wall) that had wifi.  We had lunch and coffee and caught up on our communications.  We have loved the Black Hills but have been hampered by the lack of communication.  But, we caught up on our emails and two days of the blog.  We were in the shop until they closed at 3pm. 

When we came back to Cream Puff, Lib made a delicious dinner of spaghetti and I got into a book on Custer.  Larry McMurtry’s book, Custer, had been recommended to me by a neighbor RVer. McMurtry is the guy who wrote Lonesome Dove and his book Custer is excellent.  In fact it was so good I almost finished it by 10pm.  I could not put it down.  Of course, it helps your enthusiasm when you know you are going to the battlefield in a couple of days. 

Bottom line of the book: Custer was a seeker of publicity but not a good soldier.  He was prone to make up battle plans on the fly and did exactly that at the Battle of Little Bighorn.  He was supposed to meet up with two other regiments before he attacked but he pushed ahead to find the Indians early.  In fact, on the day of the battle he had pushed his force of men 83 miles and they were dog tired when the fighting started.  President Grant actually admonished Custer for not following the agreed upon plan and for losing 250 men. 

Will probably learn more about Custer when we visit Little Bighorn on Saturday and Sunday. 

September 5, 2014  Friday

We had heard there was an old train that still runs and takes passengers to a nearby town, Keystone.  We got tickets a couple of days ago and took off to catch the train at the Hill City train station.  The train was right out of the western movies.  In fact, the train has been used in several movies.  (There is Hollywood again!)

Loading water in the steam engine before departure

Unlike Hollywood, the train is the real thing.  Its called the 1880 train and that is when it started.  It was primarily used to serve the mines that sprang up after a Custer-led expedition into the Black Hills in 1874 found some gold near what is now Custer City.  This created a rush of miners, saloon keepers, Madam’s, etc. to the Black Hills.  The problem: We had signed a treaty in 1868 with the Sioux and the Cheyenne Indians giving them the Black Hills in perpetuity.   But that was before we knew there was gold there!  So the solution was to move into the Black Hills and kill all the Indians.  This is why Custer was on his expedition to Little Bighorn in 1876. 

The steam locomotive that is still in use was built in 1913 and the railroad cars we rode in were built in 1916.  At some points we moved only about 5 miles an hour as the steam engine strained to go up the steep grades.  Going down grade we probably only went about 15 mph. 

Engine 104 steaming upgrade

A rail car built in 1916

On the two hour train ride (one hour to Keystone and an hour back to Hill City) we saw a lot of wild turkey and some deer but no buffalo. 

After the train ride we came back to Cream Puff, walked Maggie and had some lunch.  Then our plans had been to drive over to Custer State Park.  Again, some neighbors had recommended that we go there if we wanted to see buffalo.  We saw Pronghorn Antelope, deer, wild turkey, and buffalo.  The buffalo’s often walk slowly across the roads and they have right-of-way.  We were not so lucky to find them on the road and had to take photos of them at a distance.  But, we hope to see them up close in Yellowstone.  And, we hope to NOT see Grizzlys up close in Yellowstone!

Custer State Park is beautiful and there are some good sights of the Black Hills.  The highest peak is about 7,200 ft (That is about 300 feet lower than the RV park we stayed in at Estes Park).  It is the highest peak east of the Rocky Mountains.  We are only a little over a hundred miles east but we are east of the Rockies. 

Views of the Black Hills in Custer State Park

Lib at an overlook in Custer State Park

There are plent y of hairpin turns in the park.  Speed limits are often about 20 mph but only an idiot would go faster.  There is a rather severe penalty for going over the side the road!  Also, our GPS, Rhonda, is for RVers and she warned us not to take this road due to narrow tunnels.  We kept going because we weren't pulling Cream Puff behind us.  When we came upon the tunnels we realized why Rhonda gave us the warning!

Fiona completely filled up the tunnel!  I had to pull in the side mirrors.

Going through the tunnels you play a cat-and-mouse game with vehicles coming the other way. Whomever is first, the other has to back off and wait outside.  So once you get your nose in you need to go!  We saw tour buses in the park.  They had to use another road!

Finally, we came upon the buffaloes.  As I said, we were a long way from them.  Our neighbors had been to the park the previous morning and had photos of the buffalo almost in their window.  The whole herd happened to be crossing the road when they visited the park. 

 

Maggie didn't think much of the buffalo at a distance.  This is how she spends a good bit of the time when we are in Fiona..asleep.  But she is 91 in human years.

We saw some Pronghorn antelope but didn't get a good photo.  We see wild turkeys everywhere.  In the park, two turkeys were sparring with each other..wings spread out and dancing around each other and they were in the middle of the road. When we pulled to a stop by them on the highway, they walked over as if to say, "Yeah, what do you want?"  I suppose they are used to people because there is no hunting in the park.  In our part of the country, turkeys are very skiddish and you rarely see them.

We thoroughly enjoyed Custer State Park.  It is a place you can spend several days and not get bored.  

I took a photo of the RV Park we've been in at Mt. Rushmore.  It fills up every evening with all sorts of RVs.  The RV Park itself is huge; has a miniature golf course, horseback riding, log cabins, restaurants, etc.  Here is a photo showing the amount of land at the park.

Cream Puff is in this photo with about 50 other RVs

While we were at this park, another couple in an Airstream pulled in about two spaces from us.  We talked to them daily and would swap experiences of where we had been during the day.  Erika and Robert live in Cocoa Beach, Florida.  Robert retired in 2009 when he sold his Arnold/Orowheat bread franchise. Like us, they bought an Airstream, a 27', and started traveling.  For the last five years, they have boarded up their home in Cocoa Beach in May and head for the Northwest mountain, cool-country.  They like Estes Park, CO, where we were last week, and the Black Hills of South Dakota but they have been all over.  They are leaving here when we leave, on Saturday, and they are slowly making their way home via stopping by to see their children and grandkids in Michigan and Lexington, KY. They plan on being home each year sometime in October.  Just like we met people when we were in sailboats, it is fascinating how people choose to live their lives.

Robert and his 27' Airstream

And a final photo of Cream Puff and Maggie at the Mount Rushmore RV Park.  Next, we are off to Montana to see the battlefield of the Battle of Little Bighorn.

Maggie prefers to sit outside; there is a constant stream of people walking their dogs in RV parks