Life on the road

From Hot Springs, South Dakota Angostura Reservoir


When I walk around the campground I often think back to the time when I had two weeks for vacation and generally took one week and went somewhere.  As nice as those vacations were, they were always tinged with the reality that I had to go back to work and to "the real world."  My remembrances are reinforced on Sundays and Mondays.  For Sundays it is when we see a lot of people packing up and pulling out of their camp site.  For Mondays it is noticing how few campers remain.

Then for so many of those who have to get back to reality, the cycle begins all over on Wednesdays and Thursdays when the campgrounds begin to fill up again. 

We don't experience those thoughts anymore.  Now when we leave our camp site it is with the wonder of what will we see next.  Will it be something unique?  Will we meet a new friend?

Similarly, most days are unstructured.  Today was one of those days.  We packed a picnic lunch and went back to Custer State Park.  We wanted to see the Crazy Horse monument and we did from a distance, but we declined to fork over $20 to see this work in progress up close.

  
{Downloaded from Google images}

After our quick look at Chief Crazy Horse we stopped at
Lake Stockade and had lunch on the shore.

(Objects adjacent to the mirror are bigger than they seem.) 
On the way home we came across this huge bison.  I was 
putting the camera away when he 
bolted and galloped in front of the car.  Bison can move very
fast.  Signs all over the park caution visitors against getting 
out of their cars near buffalo.

Yesterday we spent some time in nearby Hot Springs. There are many building constructed from limestone quarried nearby.  These are elegant and grand structures.  This is the schoolhouse that housed grades 1-12 from 1893 through 1961.  Today it is home to a museum filled with artifacts from early life in this frontier town.  It was built at a total cost of $23,550.

Stay tuned.