Archives for 2013

We all had a nice quiet rest day today, did some computer work, watched a few movies, generally relaxed most of the day, except for putting a lot of stuff away in anticipation of our move tomorrow.

Well, the day arrived, and we were met with the perfect combination of clouds and sun, even though the forecast had been predicting a 30% change of rain. It was going to be a bit warm, but we figured in the forest it would be cooler, and we were right. After breakfast, we walked down to the water trough, then to the horse trailer just a few more steps away, and got saddled up, booted (with my new Cavallos that I had picked up at the post office in Keystone on the way in, having lost one in the Badlands earlier in the month), and on our way by 11:00. We headed up the Centennial Trail (the same one we travelled on up in Ft. Meade), climbing through some rough rocky terrain (so happy we had boots on!) until it flattened out a bit on the other side and we enjoyed some long stretches of fairly easy trail where we trotted quite a bit, through narrow meadows, across brooks and streams, climbed a few more rocky stretches, until we reached the well-marked turnoff to the Mt. Rushmore monument, crossing into national park boundary where the trail got very challenging, lots of rough stretches of rocky trail, until we arrived at the end of the line, where we met up with a half dozen other riders, including the four women parked next to us at the horse camp. With Hubby staying behind, I walked over to the monument for a closer look, wandering through the visitor center and taking lots of pictures so Hubby can enjoy them later. I think I’ll suggest we drive back here so that Hubby can see it in person. We’ve been here once before, very briefly, back in ’87 or ’88, and it seems they’ve added a lot since then (if memory serves, which it may not : -), and I know he’d enjoy the extensive exhibits on how they build it. They were also playing a recording of the MLK “I have a dream” speech, since it’s the 50th anniversary this week, which added a certain atmosphere. After wandering around a bit, I walked back to the trailhead, where Hubby and I had a quick lunch, took a few pix with Mt. Rushmore in the background, then headed back up the trail the way we had come. With several stops for well-deserved grazing on some clover along the trail, we made it back by about 4:00, dumped a few buckets of cool trough water on the horses to cool them off, got everyone settled in for the night, enjoyed two movies back to back before heading off to bed.

No luck getting an internet signal this morning, except to download some of my email (though not all). Had an easy breakfast, and afterward, the camp host came by to say that we didn’t need to move the horse trailer all the way out of the campsite, that we could move it down next to the manure dumpster, which is only about 100 feet away! Fabulous! Now we don’t have to unload all our saddles and other equipment, we can just walk the horses down, as usual. Fantastic! We got a few last minute items out of the trailer and moved it down there after breakfast, with Hubby in a much better mood now, he wasn’t looking forward to having the horse trailer so far away. I still couldn’t get on the internet, but I had to make a phone call, so on the suggestion of one of our departing neighbors, I climbed up the hill to our west, which did indeed, produce two bars on my phone, enough to make a phone call. Hubby spent the day repairing one of our collapsible rain barrels, as we had discovered a few leaks, and wanted to put a new cock on it. He found an old can of that rubber sealant stuff, you know the one they spray onto a screen that has been fitted into the bottom of a boat? He figures that should fix it up, fingers crossed! I did some writing and resting, and kept making attempts to get on the internet, so far no luck! That’s okay, this is the slowest week of the year anyway, except between Christmas and New Years! No one will miss us this week!

Didn’t worry about an alarm this morning, as according to everything I’ve seen, it’s less than 60 miles, and isn’t supposed to take that long. Nevertheless, we were packed up and moving by 10:30, stopping at the interstate rest area to use their dump (I love it when that happens!), Tractor Supply, and RV store next door to pick up a 10′ hose, Flying J just up the service road for propane, Perkins down the road for breakfast, Wal-mart for shopping, the Keystone Post Office for my general delivery mail (though they officially closed at 2:30, it was already past 3:00 when we got there, but when I knocked, the lady was kind enough to give me my mail), gas at the only station in town for generator gas, then finally on our way, much later (as usual) than we had planned. Then we started twisting and turning up Iron Mountain, mostly 15-25 mph, with sharp curves, tunnels with 12’2″ clearance we barely squeaked through, and a few lovely signs warning large vehicles that travel on this road wasn’t recommended for vehicles over 40′ (yeah, right). Saw some lovely views, and even though it’s only about 5 miles from Keystone to the campground as the crow flies, it was much longer by road, and we ended up arriving around 4:00! This campground is just one large loop, but the center is fenced off so it’s unusable and the sites are essentially just parking along the edge of the loop, no back-ins, and only room for one vehicle. There were nice big round pens for each campsite, so we quickly got the horses squared away. Since the site next to ours wasn’t going to be occupied until tomorrow, we left the horse trailer in it, since all of our stuff for horse care was in it. It seemed we would have to park the van and trailer outside the campground on the side of the road, so we decided to break out a little canopy that we had bought years ago and never used, and put it over the picnic table. Between that and the awning, we figured we’d have enough room to keep all our horse food, saddles, and everything else we would need, so we wouldn’t have to run all the way out to the horse trailer for stuff. It actually turned out to be pretty easy to put up (despite the instructions recommending three people!), we managed to do it pretty quickly, and it did create a nice covered “porch”. It was hot enough that Hubby broke out both generators so we could run the air conditioning for awhile, though fortunately the temps dropped well into the sixties by the time we turned them off shortly after dark. Had just enough of an augmented cell phone signal to check my email and do a little web surfing before I lost the signal again. Got the satellite up and running (though the receiver hard drive crapped out, so we only have live TV, yuck!!!) but we found an old Clark Gable, Yvonne DeCarlo, Sidney Poitier film that was perfect, with no commercials, so the evening turned out to be quite nice.

Apparently all of the walking around yesterday helped Hubby’s back, because he woke up this morning feeling pretty darn good, so we decided to take a short ride today, as we really hate to leave a place without riding at least once! I had found a mountain biker’s trail map and created a loop that was half Centennial Trail, half the biker’s trail, programmed it into the GPS and off we went! Passed a family picking wild plums, which I’d never seen before, and the mother gave me one to try. Small, with a big pit, and the skin was pretty astringent, but you could tell the fruit was going to be lovely with a few days of ripening. Reminded me of my persimmons back home, very astringent when eaten slightly green! We headed across a meadow on the clearly marked Centennial trail, having to go through several gates along the way, then a steep climb up the hill to a beautiful view of the freeway and the Black Hills to the south and west, and several places with a good view of Bear Butte, THE landmark for this valley, a geographical anomaly that looks like a giant sleeping bear in the middle of the plains, visible for many, many miles, probably why they chose to build a fort near it, so the troops could find their way home! Rode along the ridgeline for awhile, before coming back down the hill on a longer, gentler slope. Got a little unsure when we reached the road, but stayed on the Centennial trail, and following my GPS, went around a little pond where a young couple was sitting, then headed back up the hill again, though not as steep or long. Eventually we came to the top, which was mostly meadow, and finally came to the turnoff that took us away from Centennial and on to the biker’s trail, which was really more our cup of tea anyway. A fairly narrow, single track trail that hung onto the side of the hill for quite a ways, until we came around to a nice long meadow where we had a nice canter, then a switchback to take us parallel to the utility lines, then finally right back to the Centennial trail, and to camp. All told it was just about two hours, a perfect length for Hubby to see how his back went. He survived! We did some chores afterward, though, in preparation for our departure tomorrow, and by the time we settled down for the evening, he was a bit achy again, though no where near as bad as earlier this week. Just glad we had a chance to ride here, and to discover a number of other trails and grasslands for next time!

For the first time in four and a half years, when I reached for my bottle of water for a drink this morning, I didn’t suffer a twinge of pain in my shoulder! I’ve been suffering for so long, I’m not even sure how to deal with it! I sure hope this is hre to stay! I’ve been working on it almost every day, with miniscule progress that I sometimes wonder is doing any good, but apparently it has, because this is a major breakthrough! And what a great way to start my birthday! Hubby feeling much better, so we decided to do some special things today and try taking a short ride tomorrow. After a leisurely breakfast, we drove down to Ft. Meade to tour the grounds and stroll around their very comprehensive museum, which filled us in on a lot of the history of the area as well as the fort. Afterward, we drove down to Deadwood for a car show festival they were having down there, had dinner at a wonderful little restaurant (and former brothel) called the Deadwood Social Club for a fantastic dinner, (with a piece of cheesecake for my birthday dessert) walked the streets to view the cars, listened to a little music from the live stage, then headed out so that we got home just before the sun went down, and took care of the horses which were patiently waiting for us. Settled down for the remainder of the evening, though our satellite receiver died again, and the hard drive crashed, but we managed to get it on enough to watch live TV. Ordered a new one, due in Keystone on Wednesday. Indulged in a little brandy before getting to bed, after a fabulous day! Hoping to get a ride in tomorrow.

Hubby starting to feel better, I gave him a nice massage and we’ve been doing some stretches to relief what has now become a bout of sciatica. Felt much better by the end of the day, looking forward to doing some other activities tomorrow!

Another day of rest for Hubby, more computer work for me!

Spent the day working on logistics for future destinations and letting Hubby rest.

Hubby still having trouble moving around, so we spent the morning resting, though in the afternoon we had to take a trip into Sturgis to receive and send a fax so that he could claim a replacement hearing aid. We stopped at the Chamber first, and a very cheerful woman there suggested I go to the City Offices, which we did, and they were extremely helpful. We had a very nice chat with the ladies there while we waited to exchange faxes. A quick useless trip to the post office, then back to camp where we rested the rest of the day as well. Horses spent half the day on their anchors, half on their highline. Cleanup involves collecting manure and putting it in the dumpster provided, easy enough when you have the right tools, and we do! Relaxing evening for all!