South Dakota Family Vacation Part 3

My South Dakota Vacation Trip Report Part 3 or Trey or the Third One

The days planned Challenges Activities are as follows-

• Jeep Tour of Custer Park (real up close and personal with Buffalo)
• Do the Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone
• Holy Terror Mini Golf after dinner adventures in Keystone
• Stroll the 2 blocks of down town Keystone and gap and wonder at endless tourist trappy stores

It’s 7:30 am and the whole crew is just about to rise. Hurray! We are now sleeping in an hour later! Mountain time adjustment here we come!

Before breakfast while DH is showering and DD is snoring, I unplug the camera from the battery charger and get out the 400 page camera instruction book. I notice that the date stamp is not on pix when I review them. So I start to go through every setup menu on the camera, as shown in the instruction book and then manage to set the date. However, as I’m going through a setup menu to see another feature, I initialize my CF card, by mistake.

OH $hit!!!! WARNING!!! DO NOT Do this!!!!!

This erases all your pictures. Yeah, it looks like the 1^st day’s photos are ….history …. or should I say Memories? And it looks like this incident is the start of a crappy photo day for me. You’ll see why later in the report.

As I sat there stunned and containing the urge to hit myself in the head with the camera, DH comes out of the shower and appraises the loss. He then calmly offers to back to MT Rushmore for retaking pictures. We have a 7 day reentry pass. And since we are going back to the Crazy Horse Memorial for laser light show, we can get some more daylight pix there too. What a trooper!!!

For rest of the trip I am reminded (at least every time I am taking a picture) NOT to play with the camera Menus. Geesh! I live to play with technology!!! I live to learn to erase stuff!!! Maybe there is an opening on the Bush Whitehouse staff for just this kind of skill. It WAS done before with erasing tapes….LOL.

After breakfast, as we approach our white mini van (it’s the law in Naperville to own a white mini van) a show is starting. People are gathered around another mini van gaping. There is a rattlesnake under the driver’s side of the van. The hotel maintenance person comes out and whacks the critter good. And kills it. He offers it as a souvenir to the stunned women driver. She replies with something that I didn’t quite hear but it begins with F. Probably repeat Fudge or something like that.

I tell HD “Isn’t this great? We’re already seeing today’s WildLife! He ignores this and asks if I’ve erased any pictures yet. I say “What pictures? Are we on vacation or something?”

Off we roll on our way to the Jeep Tour.

No pictures were erased yet, because no pictures were taken yet.

The Jeep Tour is in Custer State Park. Since we don’t know how long it will take us to get to the Jeep Place we leave early. Yep, we get there early. Go figure, the same distance that we drove the day before took us 1 ½ hrs to reach this spot. Now it takes us 45 minutes. So we stop at the Norbeck Visitor Center and do the museum there again and walk around.

The center is ½ block away from the Jeep tours. Our tour time is for noon. It is about 11 am and it’s 98 degrees in a cloudless sky. Yeah, but it dry heat! LOL. Killing time in 98 degree heat is NOT vacationing, it is HELL.

Jeep Tour – Upclose and Personal with Big, Stinky, Scary, In-Heat Bison

The Joy of Visiting the Visitor Center

Close Enough for You Folks?

What You See When Sitting Behind the Jeep Driver

AC Says "It's My Turn to Drive Now"

Some of the Critters that we saw and some of these pix are actually taken with our camera!

• We leave and go to the Jeep Tour place and put on extra sun block, bug spray and drink some ice water waiting for the tour to begin.
• The tour is in station wagon type Jeeps, something like a Jeep Cherokee but longer. In the Jeep is the driver and room for 8 people. There will be another family of 3 besides us on our tour.
• Our driver is Jim from Golden CO (the place where they brew Coors BTW).
• We sit in the middle seat bench sit behind Jim. AC is at the left window, behind Jim. DH is in the middle of the bench and I’m to his right side hanging out of the window of the Jeep, trying to take and not erase any pictures.
• The other family is a grandmother and grandfather with their grandson. They are from Nebraska. NE guy sits in up front next to Jim. He introduces himself and his family. He says that he is a pig farmer and that he likes to hunt. His wife and grandson sit in the back short bench seat, behind us.
• Off we go for 2 hours plus of wild life viewing, especially Buffalo.
• Jim takes the park roads at about 65 mph. Jim tells us that the Buffalo herds are all on the other side of the park today. He is really rolling now to get us there. Air blast time from the windowless Jeep, especially from those who are trying to take and not erase pictures.
• As he drives, he shouts info on all kinds of stuff as we roar down the windy roads: Park history, the recent forest fire, animals, driving the parks, bikers, people TSTL who go inside the buffalo herd to pet them and get gored, Harley accidents, drought conditions etc.
• We notice that all the bikers in the Park were from Iowa. No kidding! Ok, there’s one from Mn.
• As we roll, we see wildlife and the NE hunter guy says “Let’s see who can spot more critters, the guys or gals.” You’re on! Little does he know that the AC is part Eagle, which part we can’t say. She spots most of the stuff way before you can even see it. Yeah! We’ll win you suckers! Immediately AC starts spotting mule deer, antelopes, turkeys, buffaloes, prairie dogs and horses. And Lots of mini-van too! The crew in the back seat only spots a bird or something. The guys are so out-classed, even the hunter is pissed.
• Jim takes us to a gated area and down a dirt road right into the middle of a freaking buffalo herd! Really the beasts are CLOSE. This part is awesome!
• One Big Bull passes so close to the back of the Jeep it looks like he’ll scrape us. The crew in the back almost jump into the middle seat with us. AC is pretty scared. The grandson in the back is turning white, and grandma doesn’t look too thrilled either.
• I am taking pictures like crazy and even do a movie. The bulls are grunting and the cows are pretty much ignoring them. But Jim says that they are still heat, so watch out. And no, there has never been a goring on any Jeep tour (he thinks, well at least not his tours anyway-LOL).
• We learn way too much about bison, but the worst part is the smell and flies. The calfs are cute though….
• Back out of the gated area we journey further into the park onto dirt back roads. Jim takes us to where he thinks antelope are and there they are. We see lots more stuff and critters all over these back roads. And of course AC sees most of them first.
• This was a great tour! If you have the opportunity to take this tour – Do Not Miss It- GO!!! You Do get up close and personal with buffalo and see things that others don’t.
• In the mini-van, after the tour, I review all my wonderful pictures, and Geesh no pictures were erased I tell ya! (et tu, Butus?)

As we are exiting the tour, this is when I think the 2^nd photo crappening er happening occurred. My camera bag, just a shoulder strap thing, was open on the floor of the Jeep and some extra CF cards bounced out. Yep, lost about $50+ of CF cards. (2 cards). Thank goodness I had downloaded all pictures before the trip. I didn’t notice that we were missing the cards until we were back at the hotel.

Oh $hit A-Gain! Note to self – put anything that can be lost inside of my backback purse and nail the backpack into my back for safekeeping.

Next up is a really important thing- Food! HD and AC are starving from all that nature viewing. We head out of the park and go hunting for lunch. Along one of the highways Old Eagle-Eye and I guess Eagle-Nose, spots a pizza place. This is in Hermosa (I know this from the receipt) we are the only ones in the place at 2:30 pm but they DO serve pizza. We have a mighty fine pizza, because the owners are from NJ, where they really know how to make pizza. And AC gets her pizza fix for the day. And we get out of the heat for a little while longer. Everyone is happy so far, even though it about 110 degrees. Yeah I know, “But it’s dry heat” yadda, yadda.

Big Thunder Gold Mine in Keystone

This attraction is in the bustling city of Keystone. It is an old abandoned gold mine that was not very productive. The owners got about 1-5 oz. of gold in 17 years. The real riches were to be had when it turned into a tourist attraction. It is across from another abandoned gold mine- Holy Terror Mine (a very productive one, but due to water problems is no longer mined since 1928). Holy Terror is named for the owner’s wife- Holy Terror. Ha-Ha- Slapping all the Male Chauvinist now…

The last Ore Cart The Real Mine Holy Terror Mine Now Abandoned

AC has told her friends that she will bring them back gold that she has panning from a real gold mine. Will see about this…

• At the mine we take the tour and buy 2 pans to pan for gold
• We have to put on hardhats-AC picks the pretty yellow one and DH and I chose white
• The tour is really short because the mine is really small and they do that old bit of turning off all the lights – AC loves this part
• The mine is a relief because it is 60 degree in side and 110 outside, so I do not care what it’s about as long as we stay in the mine for a bit
• Do not make jokes about the 7 dwarfs while walking into the mine because the whole tour will turn on you. (really this is from my personal experience there, but no pictures were erased in the brawl)
• The tour ends with a stop in the mining museum, lots of equipment and BAD jokes from the guide ! He points out that everyone should take a piece of gold ore – Oh boy! another souvenir rock – this time as part of the show, no extra charge.
• Then we receive instructions on how to pan for gold. Not too hard, cause I’m an expert in doing dishes and pans with water in em are my life I tell yah!
• We are given pans with rocks and the planted fool’s gold already in them and go down to the panning area and start the fun.
• We stand in the hot sun for 1 hr panning. I find almost all of the fool’s gold in the pan. AC is ecstatic cause now we have 2 vials of “real” gold, with 4-5 flecks of fool’s gold in each.
• HD is a flub at gold panning. You see dear, you must have patience and a can’t try to flip the pan and splash everyone – Ha, Ha, very funny! Take that- and we splash muddy water all over ourselves- A real souvenir in our clothes from the warm smelly water.
• At the mandatory gift shop stop- AC buys some cute stone animals and I buy postcards. I buy post cards everywhere including the hotel, because I use them in my photo book, kinda like scapebooking with photoshopped pix, and actual stuff from the trip like, tickets, postcards, etc. I actually do send some of them.
• Even though the tour and mine was nothing special, panning for gold was fun and we had to drag AC away from the gold panning troughs.
• I learned that I was born to be a gold panning miner! Too bad, I found out so late in life and wasted all that money on a college ed-u-mut-cation.

Holy Terror Mini Golf And after dinner adventures in Keystone

When got back into our not so white mini van (it’s the law in Naperville to drive a white mini-van) I heard the now familiar 7 dwarf miner song “Hi Ho, Hi Ho, I wanna go, I wanna go Swimming!”from AC. So Hi Ho, Hi Ho, it’s back to the hotel we go. AC is bummed because no kids are in the pool and only spends 10 minutes there. Oh Great! We get to rest exactly 10 minutes.

Next up is a really important thing- Food aka Supper in Keystone. DH is funny, he likes to eat more than snacks while vacationing. Silly man , who needs food when you can souvenir shop or erase pictures?

So after a bit we go to Key (the locals call it Key, and I figure that we’re locals now because we’ve been there 2 whole times LOL) and by pass the Mexican place and the biker bar. We eat at a Buffet style place that has a peg board game on each table. Jump the peg, until you have only one remaining. If you can leave only one and no cheating (No Navy SEAL stuff allowed here) you are supposed to be a genius! AC gets to one in 3 tries.

My best is 2 remaining and DH is about the same. We are pretty tired and don’t eat much, which causes DH to say when he sees the bill “Go back and eat more than salads, we need to get our money’s worth”. At the checkout we try to buy a peg board game and the cashier doesn’t add it to the bill and then sees his error and gives us a set for free! Thank YOU!!! We will play this peg board game constantly on the trip from now on.

We walk the 2 blocks of touristy shops in Key. They all have more Harley’s from Iowa out infront. By this time AC is determined to get a Sturgis muscle T-shirt or something with a Harley on it. I say we’ll see (that my way of putting off saying NO Freaking way!). We DO find a place where she can get something - an ice cream and sweet shop. There we get the 2^nd freebee of the day- free samples of candy. AC gets her sugar fix for the night and day with cookie dough ice cream and blue rock candies. (Yuck!)

Ok, really exciting stuff so far tonight on the trip- Harleys, touristy shops, Iowa, ice cream, candy, food, free stuff. Well, contain yourself , because the next part is gonna be even more interesting! Mini-Golf at Holy Terror Mini-Golf.

This course is in Key after the 2^nd traffic light (there are only 2 traffic lights there). The course is set around and on a mountain mine type motif with water and troughs and stuff. It is after 9 pm and we are the last customers of the day.

It is impossible to play this course, because it is so steep and we are not related to Tiger Woods.

You put your ball in the tee area and it rolls off. You have to hold the ball with your food and try to hit it into the impossible cups on the slanty holes. Oh such fun! We just kick a few balls in the holes, to feel like we can actually do it and to hear the sound of the ball dropping in the cup.

But Wait ----Here comes the Exciting Part!!!! As we work our way up the course, we look down at the last couple of holes, and see a mule deer coming out of the woods. It walks cautiously, almost in slow motion. Then right behind it, comes 2 more. They pause and then walk onto the course and start drinking. Well the customers, forget about playing impossible golf and watch the mule deer for about 10 minutes. From the golf course owner, “the deer come every night to drink and usually they are here earlier.”

OH Deer ( I had to say that). We finish the course slowly watching the mule deer come and go and wait out the daily rush hour of folks coming from the night lighting at Mt Rushmore..

It’s back to the hotel to talk and dream about the day’s stuff. I bring out the postcards. I’ve brought some printed labels and postage stamps, so they are done, without thinking. Everyone gets the same post card – a Mt Rushmore one and they all say “Having FUN in SD. Saw 4 presidents and 1 Crazy Horse” Did You get Your’s Yet?

Being the Mother from Hell. I force AC also write a postcard to her 2^nd grade teacher- She scribbles having fun in SD (only I can read her writing – it’s in AC code of course). I secretly do a post card from us to us, just for fun. (I’m the fun one in the group here and best of all NO pictures were erased!)

After showers (we stink from the heat) it’s lights out er I mean keep the lights on until AC falls asleep and I get up to turn those suckers off. The Check list: Plug in camera for recharging and make sure the shoes are out of the way so that I won’t trip over them as I turn out the room lights.

So You There You Are.

You Actually Made It Through Part 3- You Qualify for the TV Show Vacation Survior!

You Coming Back for More?

Sure You Are!! -Cause You’re Hooked Like a Mule Deer on this Stuff by Now Aren’t You?

See You for Part 4 of the Trip Epic – posted whenever I can finish it up. And I really need to get the WHOLE thing done before Christmas 2007.

For another tripping view of this post, vacation on over to my Yahoo 360 Vacation Part 3 is Insanity blog.