Bayard - the prairie dinner

The campground at Bayard



Horses adjacent to our campsite



The silliness begins with a toast



Starting the fire in the rain



Marsha and poncho at the bar



The rain continues



Covered wagon ride in the rain



Marsah on and off the wagon



Steaks are on



Marsha coming back from checking up on the cook



The grub - steak, green beans, potatoe and bread, and



home made ice cream





Getting ready for the sing-along



Every sing-along has to have a lead singer



Some of our "fellow travelers" singing along



Marsha singing along



Sunset on the prairie after the storm.


Date: Sunday, August 1st
Day: 79
RV Miles: 6,714
Location: Bayard, Nebraska (About 600 yards North of Chimney Rock)
Elevation: 3,757

This morning was really hectic. There were black storm clouds rolling in on Rapid City from the Northwest and Larry hurried everybody up so we could break camp before it started raining. We rolled out of camp about 8:45 just as a few raindrops started to fall. The black clouds chased us South along US Route 79 but never quite caught us. When we crossed the Nebraska state line, the sky cleared and it turned into a beautiful day.

The campground we are in is rather eclectic. It only has 7 campsites and we are the only RV here. As you can see by the pictures we are parked in a wooded area just South of the North Platte River. This location is right on the old Oregon Trail next to Chimney Rock. We even have an old Pony Express Station site about 200 yards from our camper.

This place is a little different. It is out of the way, it is unadvertised and because of that it is delightful. The primary business here is cooking rib eye steak dinners wagon train style.

Marsha and Larry got a little silly this evening. They opened a bottle of wine and toasted their last official vacation stop. By the time they headed to dinner, Marsha was wearing a crooked smile and walking with a bit of a list. As Larry tells it, she had two or three more glasses of wine before dinner at the open air bar. (Larry is unsure of the count because he is unsure of the number of beers he drank.)

Right before dinner they had a cloud burst but everything proceeded pioneer style. They got a ride in a real covered wagon. Notice the picture of Marsha on the wagon with her wine glass. (Only Marsha could be on and off the wagon at the same time.) They had about 45 people here for dinner and the really good smells drove Sasha and me nuts. Larry and Marsha confirmed that it tasted good as well.
After dinner, they had a campfire sing-along.

When they got back, Marsha went face first into bed and hasn’t moved since. Larry was slightly more cooperative and I did manage to keep him conscious so I could interview him for the blog. I don’t think Sasha and I will see either of them before 10AM tomorrow morning.

Deadwood - Sturgis

A shot of Deadwood's Main Street

Date: Saturday, July 31th
Day: 77
RV Miles: 6,514
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Elevation: 3,217

Want everyone to know that Sasha and I are alright but there seems to be something going around. Today Marsha felt “off” and slept in really late. In the afternoon we all piled in the car (no more doggie day care for us) and took a driving tour of Sturgis and Deadwood.

The Sturgis motorcycle rally starts next weekend and the town is getting into rally mode. They have huge tents set up all over town selling T-shirts, biker cloths, bike upgrades and do-dads and just about everything imaginable.

Deadwood was an 1876 gold rush town built in a canyon filled with dead trees, hence the name Deadwood. It became one of the most infamous western town inhabited with the likes of Calamity Jane and Wild Bill Hickok. Lower Deadwood, known as the “Badlands,” housed saloons, gambling halls, opium dens and bordellos. Wild Bill Hickok was shot to death in one of those saloons.

Deadwood burned to the ground twice and got washed away in a flood before 1900 when its population was set at about 3,500. Larry didn't take many pictures because Masha wasn't feeling up to walking the streets in the 95 degree heat.

As Larry indicated yesterday, we are headed to Bayard, Nebraska tomorrow. For the life of me, I don’t know why, but he says we will all enjoy it. Stay tuned.

Doggie Sick Day

Date: Friday, July 30th
Day: 76
RV Miles: 6,514
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Elevation: 3,217

This is Larry and I wanted to let everyone know that Max couldn’t make his blog entry for Friday because he and Sasha were sick. Max was tossing his cookies and Sasha had the runs. Marsha and I are guessing that it has something to do with the doggie day care.

To let the dogs have a quiet lazy day to get back up on their feet Marsha and I decided to do nothing and change our plans a little bit for Saturday. Marsha spent the day reading and I started the task of organizing the almost 3000 pictures we took.

It is Saturday AM right now and the dogs seem fine. We didn’t get to bed till late so we won’t see Marsha until about noon. Once she gets up we are going to take the dogs to Deadwood and do a drive-through on Sturgis.

Tomorrow we are headed to a place I am sure everyone has always wanted to go: Bayard, Nebraska.

The Badlands

B1-B Bomber at the Air and Space Museum



B52 on display



A prairie dog at the Prairie Homestead



Marsha inside the pioneer sod home



Marsha checking out the outhouse



This and the rest of the pictures of the Badlands speak for themselves




















Date: Thursday, July 29th
Day: 75
RV Miles: 6,514
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Elevation: 3,217

After the i-phone alarm clock fiasco yesterday, Larry, who wanted to get up at 6AM, set the i-phone alarm for 7AM. Guess what, it went off at 6AM but the phone said it was 7AM. And the black-out curtains in the bedroom worked. Sasha let everyone sleep. Larry was so happy he got to sleep in till 6AM. He told me he couldn’t remember the last time he was allowed to get up AFTER sunrise.

Even this late in the vacation we are still scoring firsts. Last night was the first time since we left Indianapolis that we did not have to turn the furnace on at night, and it was the first time we had to let the air conditioner run all night. We scored a photographic first today, but more on that later.

Well not much to say about today. Sasha and I went to doggie day care . . . Again. Larry and Marsha went off to see some pretty neat stuff.

Their first stop was Ellis Air Force Base, which is only about 5 miles from here. They have an Air and Space Museum along with a Minute Man Missile Silo Tour. Next they went to Wall to see Wall Drug and for some reason they both forgot to get some pictures. That’s the photographic first I was talking about. So far they have taken 2,892 pictures. Is it possible they are starting to suffer from some physical malady such as “shutter finger” or “chronic photo fatigue syndrome?”

After Wall Drug they headed for the badlands and stumbled across two attractions they didn’t expect. First was the National Minuteman Memorial and second was a Prairie Homestead which is listed as a National historic site.

The homestead was pretty neat with a preserved pioneer sod home dug into the side of a hill that was build in 1854 and used continuously until after 1909 . I saw the pictures and Larry said they had hundreds of prairie dogs around that place. I told him Sasha and I could clean that up in a day or two but he told me that that wasn’t necessary. Drats. And, finally they got to the Badlands.

Tomorrow will be the town of Deadwood, more Black Hills and possibly a visit to Sturgis. (The motorcycle rally starts Sunday.)

Mt. Rushmore

Marsha at Mt. Rushmore



Crazy Horse Monument



Marsha at the "Eye of the Needle." Note the body language, "Larry you are getting all dirty. The picture is not that important. Get up, you are embarssing me."



Larry at the Iron Mountain Summit



Larry at the summit trying to figure how the heck to get down.

Date: Wednesday, July 28th
Day: 75
RV Miles: 6,514
Location: Rapid City, South Dakota
Elevation: 3,217

As planned we drove from Garryowen to Rapid City on Monday. It was a fairly uneventful trip that I mostly napped through. I woke up every so often and each time I did the scenery had changed. In Montana is was rolling hills. One time I woke up and it was desert, another time mountains, then pine forest then rocky hills then wooded hills. Seemed like lots of changes for a 300 mile drive.

In general, Tuesday was another non-event, a vacation-from-the-vacation day, with the humans doing chores like laundry, shopping and stuff like that. Sasha and I put the day to good use catching up on our nap time. I say non-event even though Sasha stepped in “it” twice, just like I was in the doghouse Sunday for my roadrunner race, Sasha drew unfavorable attention to herself on two counts.

First, I think Sasha finally pushed Larry over the edge when she woke him up at 5AM sharp. I say this because after Larry and Marsha returned from shopping they had some special curtains that block 100% of the sunlight and hung them in the bedroom. I think they are hoping that if Sasha can’t see the sunrise maybe she will let Larry sleep. Let me tell you that bedroom is darker than the bottom of a coalmine at midnight now. Marsha seems pretty happy with this, so Marsha may have been the brains behind this not Larry. Marsha does seem to hate sunlight in the morning. Perhaps that is a reason she liked Forks, Washington so much.

Well they didn’t get a chance to test the new curtains this morning thanks to AT&T. Larry and Marsha have taken to telling time by looking at the time on their cell phones and everything was alright until they went to bed. Larry knew that today was going to be a busy day and wanted to leave camp by 8AM, so he used his I-phone as an alarm clock setting the alarm for 5:30. (That would give him 2 hours to fix breakfast, feed Shasha and me, go on patrol, wash the dishes, pack a cooler and wake Marsha up.

It seems that the time signal from AT&T got messed up in the night and slipped an hour. When Larry got up he was surprised to find that the sun had not come up, but he persevered with his morning routine even when Sasha and I protested about being woke up so early while it was still dark. The plans for the day included dropping Sasha and I off at doggie day care and when we got their Larry thought it should have been about 8:30 AM, but instead it was 7:30.

So let me summarize this. In order to prevent Sasha from waking Larry up at 5:00 (so he could sleep in) they bought and hung curtains. Then for the first time on the vacation Larry sets an alarm (because he thinks he has thwarted Sasha) he gets up at 4:30AM. Isn’t he brilliant? Now, tell me who is the dumb animal?

Doggie day care was great. We met a lot of nice dogs and we played and talked all day and boy am I pooped. Sasha has already crashed on the couch and as soon as I get this posted I’m gonna join her.

The second Sasha incident occurred after dinner. Larry and Marsha had a nice dinner of grilled steaks and a bottle of wine. I think the wine got the humans because they didn’t clear the table right away. But, the smell of the steak got Sasha. She finally figured out that if she jumps up on the dinette seat after the humans get up she can lick the plates. She only got a half a plate licked before she got caught. Nonetheless she was so full of herself for figuring that out she was insufferable the rest of the night. I told her that she wouldn’t be able to fool Larry or Marsha more than once or twice and she didn’t believe me.

Well this morning right after breakfast, Larry headed back to the kitchen counter to get another cup of coffee and lickety-split Sasha was on the dinette seat headed for Larry’s plate. As I suspected, Larry saw her move and quickly spirited the plate away. I wish I knew how to use a camera because the look on her face was worth a million doggie treats. She was not a happy camper.

As for the humans’ day they, in order: went to Mt. Rushmore, drove up Iron Mountain Road, drove the Needle’s Highway and finished up by seeing the Crazy Horse Monument. Over dinner I did hear them discussing one incident at the summit of Iron Mountain.

At the summit, they have a scenic overlook, but the overlook really isn’t at the summit. The overlook is about 40 feet short of the summit with the last 40 feet requiring a moderately complex climb up a pile of rocks. Larry, immediately climbed the pile of rocks. Larry said he “scrambled up,” Marsha said he “teetered his way up.” Larry said Marsha gave him her best ninety-eight-dollar-your gonna-hurt-yourself-look. Marsha said she was just watching. Larry said the felt it was best if he crabbed his way down. Marsha said he crawled down. (See Picture). I will let you be the judge as to what happened.

Tomorrow Sasha and I get to go to doggie day care again while the humans head off to the badland.

Little Bighorn Memorial

The monument atop "Last Stand Hill" marking the mass grave of over 200 of Custer's men.



Part of the memorial to the Indians who died in the battle.



View of Last Stand Hill marking the place where the last 43 soldiers, including Custer fell.



The marker showing the place where General Custer fell



The family on a evening stroll across the prairie

Date: Sunday July 25th
Day: 72
RV Miles: 6,244
Location: Garryowen, MT
Elevation: 3,242

Today was a non-event for Sasha and I and that’s probably a good thing. The humidity was about 50% and it was 95 degrees in the sun and if you stood in the sun it would burn you to a crisp in about 10 minutes. Sasha and I decided to say in the air conditioned RV while the humans went to visit the Little Bighorn Battlefield Memorial.

Larry told me he had been there about 15 years ago but didn’t get a chance to see much. At the time he asked one of the rangers where was the memorial for the Indians. The ranger said he didn’t know. Well they now have an Indian memorial at the battlefield, after all it was the Indians who were attacked and Custer was attacking the women and children. Larry said he was surprised by the size of the battlefield and that the battle was a running battle that covered over five miles of prairie and lasted two days.

While they were walking around in the sweltering heat us dogs relaxed in air conditioned comfort. Now, tell me again who is the dumb animal?

On another front, Sasha’s love life seems to be totally OK. I was sure Cooper was playing her. Since we left Gardiner, Sasha hasn’t lost a beat and I asked her about Cooper and all she said was, “Who?” Well it looks like she was just playing the game, flirting and leading Cooper on. Bitch!

I also think I am in Larry’s doghouse right now. Each morning when Sasha wakes Larry up at 5AM the first thing he has to do is to take Sasha and me outside so we can make sure no one is lurking around the RV. We usually use this time to go potty. This is different than going on patrol. On patrol, Larry keeps us on six-foot leads and we march three abreast with me on the left and Larry in the middle. However, for the first go-outside of the morning, Larry puts us on variable length leases. Mine goes all the way out to 35 feet. This morning on our first go-outside I spotted a road runner. Larry was looking the other way and didn’t see the rascal. Well I did what every self-respecting bird dog – lab mix would do - I challenged the road runner to a race and I was doing really good for the first 35 feet. Well it looks like my fifty pound weight running at road-runner speed is more than Larry’s 180 pounds can handle. I spun him around, dropped him to his butt and drug him a few feet before he stopped me and the road runner got away. Since there may be ladies reading this blog, I will not repeat what he said.

Tomorrow we head East again to Rapid City, South Dakota. Larry is a little sad about that since this will be the end to the scenic mountains and wide-open spaces. I think he got addicted to scenery out west. I asked Larry what he planned to do in Rapid City and he just said, “Wall, Deadwood, the Badlands, and Rushmore.” Looks like we will be there for a few days.

Note: Sorry I didn’t get this posted earlier, but we had company that kept us up till 11PM and then we had to break camp early and head for Rapid City. This post was completed in Rapid City about 6:30 Rapid City time.

Garryowen

Date: Thursday, July 24th
Day: 71
RV Miles: 6,244
Location: Garryowen, MT
Elevation: 3,242

We left Gardiner about 9:30 and after a 230 mile drive arrived in Garryowen, Montana. So it seems I had the question wrong. It was not who is Garry Owen, but where is Garryowen? Here is where it gets complicated. Garryowen, Montana is located about 4 miles South of the main battlefield where Custer and the 7th Cavalry met their fate on the Little Bighorn River.

The town of GarryOwen was named after an Irish pub song, Garry Owen. General Custer heard some of his Irish soldiers singing / playing the song and he liked it so much he made it the official regimental song. The song / tune is still the official song of the 7th Cavalry Regiment (they are air cavalry now). I think you will immediately recognize the tune.

This link will take you to a youtube video clip that plays the tune that I think most humans would recognize. (Double-lick on the link to listen/watch. When you double-click on the link it will replace this window. Use the "Back" button to return to the blog.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htmyaOYu8wA

This link will take you to a youtube video clip from the movie “They Died with Their Boots On” that sorta tells the story of how it became the official song of the 7th Cavalry. (Double-click on the link to listen/watch. When you double-click on the link it will replace this window. Use the "Back" button to return to the blog.)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4m7RPjQxjmA&feature=related

I think the humans are going to visit the Little Bighorn Battle Memorial tomorrow. Sasha and I will probably not get to go, but we can hope.