6/19/2021

Majesty and Mayhem. . .

We are winding up our time in South Dakota.  The intense beauty of Yellowstone and Glacier was matched in majesty and other worldly splendor by attractions here.  Of course, us, being us, had our unique form of ‘what the heck?” moments.  Picture this: We Boomers head off to Sylvan Lake in the Black Hills, planning a nice walk around before the guys do a big hike to the pinnacles.  Off we go on the flat path-- both Jo’s in sandals.  Around the bend, ‘level’ becomes up-and-down on sharp rock and craggy holes.  Beautiful yes, but “why?” are our hiking boots and walking stick in the trunk of the car?

Now let your imagination ascend to the heights where vast vistas spread out before the triumphant Ray and Chuck.   Breathe in the majesty of God’s creation.  Then the ladybugs swarm in!  Ray says it was hard to talk with a mouthful of ladybugs – knowing Ray, he tried anyway.  Undaunted they head down, passing sights like “Little Devil’s Tower.”  Rest stop: Chuck sits on a stump, and Ray gave him some plastic to sit on, since the stump seemed a bit pitchy.  Too bad – unbeknownst to him, some other tree already did the deed.  Rest stop over: Ray watched Chuck hike off with a sheet of plastic stuck to his butt!  Mayhem!

Meanwhile, Joanne and I went to see the Wind Caves, or the Jewel Cave.   Why we also decided on the Reptile Garden – since neither of us really like snakes – is a mystery!  We make the drive to Wind Cave National Park, saying ‘hi’ to the pop up prairie dogs—so many.  Tour tickets all sold out.    “We got up at 5:00 AM” to stand in line” the woman behind informed us.   We learned:  call ahead to the Jewel Cave. Sigh, same story.  Back to Custer to eat lunch and contemplate our journey to the serpents.  After our bagged lunches, Joanne is munching a nice juicy Bosch pear. Next:  “My mouth feels funny,  its tingling. . . “   Needless to say we aborted the snakes, she took some Sudafed and  and went back to the RV for a nap!  Mayhem. 

The next day, all four of us saw the Wind Caves. . . spectacular, and like no other caves any of us have ever seen! Worth getting up early and waiting in line!!   We saw Rushmore at night.  Inspiring, but don’t fall for the open-till 11PM-go-late-less-people hype.  The traffic was horrendous, and the lighting is awful.   Our esteemed patriots look flat and washed out-- or perhaps they caught COVID.    We got a daytime shot on the way out of town though.  The Needles driving loop (think of your vehicle as the tip of a needle threading through a tiny hole in the mountain with other needles coming at you from the other side of the road) beautiful AND it may require nerves of steel as you face off with other cars ---or a Mountain goat!   The wildlife loop strangely lacked many creatures other than the very busy prairie dogs.  Cute little critters like the ones all over the Wind Cave National Park.  We speculate that they, in fact, were the cave diggers . . . or maybe they are aliens.  Either could be true, right? That night,  I played with pictures that I hope one day will show up on this BLOG while Joanne, Ray and Chuck went to the Crazy Horse memorial to see it and a laser light show.  Most of all of these activities – Majestic in some way.

Yesterday, Chuck and I drove through the Badlands after meeting up with Ray and Joanne in the quaint totally cutesy town of Wall . . . yes, we did the stupid tourist thing at Wall Drug knowing full well the marketing flimflam, the whole thing was.  Ray said the 5-cent cup of coffee was passable and the doughnuts were pretty good.  The Badlands are hard to describe – maybe Bryce meets the Grand Canyon meets Arches, and a few more places mixed in --- Pictures and/or Vids  will come if we ever get somewhere with decent internet! 

We passed into Central time and the Badlands majesty was quickly punctuated by our arrival at the crazy quilt “Betts” trailer park in Mitchell, S.D. Trailers parked every which way, kids running and bicycling all over the place. . . what 10:00 quiet time curfew??   Ray and Joanne had the RV all set up – bless them!  Ray had entertained the truckdrivers to our right by opening the outside fridge, having to dance amidst the flying, spurting carbonated beverages that flew out at him.  See majesty and mayhem!

Today, I will sit by the office and try to post this.  Then we plan to see the “Corn Palace” on the way out of town.