MAMMALS, MOUNTAINS, MUSEUMS

Mammal #1..Buffalos Abound...notice the tiny little legs on the other side...sweet wee one!

 

Mammal #2...Prairie Dogs...Such cute little critters!

 

Mammal #3...White Donkeys...They were standing so still, I thought they were statues!

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More donkeys...Vannie got up close and personal with these. I'm sorry, but I'm staying my distance.

 

Now...Mountains...Yep...they are really there.  I first I thought 2 had fallen off, but then I realized they are kind of in the back and are looking to the side. Do you see them?

 

Guess who?  Check out the background. 

 

Going very slowly through one of many tunnels.  Only one car at a time.  This one was especially special with that view coming out the other side.

 

And Museums...Pioneer Historical Museum in Hot Springs, SD

 

Check out these steps to get to the museum...I knew I couldn't haul my fat a--, oops, I mean haul myself up, so I waited at the bottom.

 

The Parlor

 

Dishes

 

Sewing Machines

OK...north on hwy. 87, through Wind Cave National Park (did stop at the gift shop and V and D looked around), turned on 16A through Custer State Park and on up to Keystone, SD.  The mammals we did see!  The buffalos were the most amazing.  They were everywhere.  Mamas, Daddies, Babies!!  And they were in the fields, on the side of the road, in the middle of the road...you could say they were the "King of the Road."  In fact, I witnessed a big daddy buffalo in the middle of the road staring down 2 Harleys.  The guys on the Harleys finally decided they needed to turn around and go the other way.  That buffalo looked like he was about to charge!  He moved over to the right lane and I crept by very slowly.  I know I was bigger than him, but he looked a whole lot meaner.

The green fields were absolutely gorgeous.  They were gently rolling and looked like they were covered with Astro turf.  Every blade was perfect!  Then there was the prairie dogs...bobbing their little heads out to say hello.  The donkeys seemed to just come out of nowhere.  They were so friendly.  Some people on a tour bus were feeding them oranges.  That seemed a little illegal, but I just kept my mouth shut.

The presidents....V and D have been talking about Mt. Rushmore for weeks.  I have listened to facts about George, Thomas, Theodore, and Abraham till I'm blue in the face...guess I could say silver.  The big bad wolf would make a field day out of these guys...the better to smell you with, my dear (20 foot noses), the better to see you with, my dear (11 foot noses), the better to eat you with, my dear (18 foot mouths).  WOW!!! All I could think about was Cary Grant holding on to Eve Marie Saint hanging off the side of one of the faces in the movie, North by Northwest...can't remember which face.

The museum...Vannie said the Pioneer Museum was outstanding.  It was in an old school building similar to the one where she went to school...Bernice High School.  As she went through the rooms, she was reminded over and over again of her school.   Especially those wide wooden staircases and wooden floors and tall windows and black chalkboards and the principal office.  Each room in this museum was dedicated to clothing or dishes or medical equipment or sewing machines or musical instruments, etc. etc. etc.

I've rattled on way too long ...Today we headed to Hill City, SD.  The weather is a little messy.  V and D are cozy as a bug in a rug inside me at the moment.  They just returned from "happy hour" with the other Airstreamers in the group.  We are all parked in a half circle...makes me think of how the covered wagons circled around the campfire.  Gosh Darn, I'm feeling like a real pioneer!