Best Western Pioneer Lusk

... locals came in they were attended to immediately. I'm wondering if Fred's Colorado sweatshirt may have had something to do with it... The food was decent, but seemed to take forever to be served and then it was hard to get the
waitresses attention again – she was too busy with the locals....Also the Cherry Pie I ordered came out looking like someone had dropped it on the floor and then scooped it up again, it was all broken up and slapped on the plate, no cream ...

We have not had much luck with the weather here in South Dakota. It seems that Mother Nature has decided to skip Autumn and to instead go directly to Winter. We wanted to take the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway while we were here and decided to give it a try today. We had driven this route during our visit two years ago and it is by far one ...

... the difference in the pictures since this friend was actually a part of the round up.

We've also included a link to the state park and this annual event. It is definately something everyone should plan on attending at least once - it is truly a unique experience.

http://www.sdgfp.inf o/Parks/Regions/Custer/round.htm

On this day, we packed up camp and headed to the Black Hills. We went through Wind Cave National Park where we sighted our first buffalo, Tatanka. We couldn't believe our eyes. We had gotten used to seeing cows. This particular one was big and fluffy in the head. We could barely see his eyes. His horns came out of his head, shiny and curvy. He wasn't doing anything but standing there like a statue. He was ...

... about the artist Gutzon Borglum, the history behind the monument, as well as the significance behind the presidents we stood there in awe over. We learned that President Washington was originally going to be the central focus with Jefferson to his left and Lincoln to his right, but the rock ended up dictating the order and number of presidents Borglum would sculpt. Washington (our 1st president, for those of you who might be rusty in the subject of US ...

... we saw lots of pictures and articles about the Wounded Knee II, the American Indian Movement (AIM) and the conflict in the Reservation at that time, and the standoff against the FBI. It was inspiring and reminded us of our more activist days. We overheard elderly ladies speaking in their language, probably reliving those days. We left with a deep sense of experiencing history.

After leaving Pine RIdge, we only got as far as the Angostura State ...

We hit the road with no set agenda. Our destination was Yellowstone but we knew it was a really long drive. When planning the trip we hadn't been able to find a suitable stopover point so we were playing it by ear. It was quite a nice feeling just to be driving and see where we turned up.

Wyoming was wide open plains with ...

... we were, we headed out...to Walmart...for a few of the items that we couldn't live another hour without. While in Walmart, we realized that we wouldn't make it to Hill City, SD by nightfall if we stopped for lunch. So, we bought soup and sandwich supplies and dined in our luxury coach...in the Walmart parking lot. (While everyone must have been wondering what rock star was traveling through town on "that crazy bus," little did they know it was just us...white ...

... and you didn't have a bunch of big rv's turning it into a big parking lot. And Beaver Creek was very basic, and it was full when I got there but I found a spot to park. But this was the magic time of the year-Sunday and the end of the weekend. By the time it got to late afternoon I was the only one still there. It was me and the woods and a little streamlet.
After ...

... Cave http://www.nps.gov/jeca/index.htm , as the site says Jewel Cave at 146 miles is the second longest cave in the world. One of the things that is nice about it is that they try to keep it from becoming like many cave tourist attractions and protect the integrity of the site.
After my tour there it was getting on toward evening so I stopped at the Moon Camp Ground in the national forest for the night.