Day 49 - Putt Putt and the Journey Museum.

Hey tour guide, let's play putt putt after breakfast. Ok KW, it's looks like a nice day.  

 

CJ ready to putt. 

KW ready to putt

 

Mrs tour guide, wait, I haven't gotten my ball out of the cup yet. wait, wait, wait. 

 

Great, I did say wait. Can someone help me up?

 

Ok, who's next?

We are now at the Journey Museun. Awesome place. 

 

Mrs tour guide is the rock lady. Our next trip will probably be on a dig some where. 

 

 

Watch out tour guide, there is a dinosaur about to eat you. 

 

Hey tour guide, can you name the planets?

 

 

TTFN:

Labor Day Origins:

Dedicated in honor of the worker, it is also appropriately called the "workingman's holiday". 

The first Labor Day was celebrated in New York City on September 5, 1882 and was started by the Central Labor Union in New York City. 

In 1884, it was moved to the first Monday in September where its celebrated today. On June 28, 1894, the U. S. Congress proclaimed it a national holiday. 

The Journey Museum:

The Journey Museum and Learning Center is a museum in Rapid City, South Dakota, with 7 acres of gardens.  It is set up as a journey through the history of the Black Hills starting with the Native American creation story, moving into the 2.5 billion years of history in the rock record with the geology exhibit, paleontology, archaeology, Native American inhabitants, and concluding with the pioneer that traveled west.

Political Cartoon:

 

Day 48 - The Crew goes to Cabela's

Hey tour guide, we would like to go to Cabela's today. We hear we may have some ancestors there. Ok KW, round them up and we'll go.  

Hey tour guide, they look like they have been stuffed. KW, they have been. When you get old that's what they do. Whoa there tour guide, I don't think I like that. KW, you already are stuffed. 

 

Ok tour guide, it's time to go. Ok KW, I need to get gas in the jeep first. 

 

Well today was used for rest, relaxation and laundry. Tomorrow is another day. So.  

TTFN:

Day 47 - Visit downtown Rapid City

No National Parks, Historic Sites, Monuments, etc today. We will be goofing today. Yes KW, you goof everyday. Ok KW, group photo. 

 

After breakfast we are off to the Ellsworth AFB Air and Space Museum.  Very nice and free.  Great planes and exhibits. 

 

 

 

Let's kick the tires and light the fires, big daddy!! 

 

Hey tour guide, looks like Mrs tour guide is a natural in the cockpit. 

 

Next stop, Black Hills Harley-Davidson. We are going to pick up our new trike.  Oh ok KW, you have never embellished any story. No trike this trip.  

 

Hey tour, I think we will pass on the antiquing. You Olders go and enjoy the old stuff in the old stuff store

 

. 

Groupie with President Reagan.  Downtown Rapid City SD has Bronze statues of all 43 past Presidents. 

 

 

President George Washington. 

 

 

TTFN:

City of Presidents. 

Visitors to historic downtown Rapid City are greeted by the City of Presidents, a series of life-size bronze statues of our nation’s past presidents along the city’s streets and sidewalks. 

The City of Presidents project began in 2000 to honor the legacy of the American presidency. Each of the sculptures is privately funded, and the pattern of placement was chosen to maintain a coherent structure and eliminate any sense of favoritism or political gain. 

Painted Bison. 

 

 

 

 

Ok, this one is not painted, yet. 

 

Day 46 - 2 long 1 short 1 long

We are off to ride the 1880 Steam Train. It is a 1926 Baldwin Steam Locomotive 2-6-2. Starting in Hill City South Dakota to Keystone. 

 

What do you talk?
What do you talk?

You can talk, you can bicker.
You can talk, you can bicker.
You can talk, talk, talk, talk
You can bicker, bicker, bicker.
You can talk all you wanna,
But it's different than it was.

Gone with the hogshead, cask and demijohn. Gone with the sugar barrel, pickle barrel, milk pan,
gone with the tub and the pail and the till. 

Yes sir, Yes sir. 

Cash for the merchandise.
Cash for the buttonhooks.
Cash for the cotton goods.
Cash for the hard goods.
Cash for the soft goods
Cash for the fancy goods.
Cash for the noggins, and the piggins, and the firkins.
Cash for the hogshead, cask and demijohn.
Cash for the crackers, and the pickles, and the flypaper.

Yes sir, Yes sir. 

But he doesn't know the territory. 

KW, what are you doing? The tour guides brother was going to play Professor Harold Hill in the Music Man. After rehersal, He caught his class ring on the gutter. He had to have his ring cut off. He lost the job. He still remembers all his lines. One of my favorite musicals. Yes sir, Yes sir. 
 

Salty Sam was tryin' to stuff Sweet Sue in a burlap sack.

"If you don't give me the deed to your ranch I'll throw you on the railroad track!"

And then he grabbed her...
(Help he grabbed me, help!)
He tied her up...
(Here we go again... same routine... tyin' me up...)
He threw her on the railraod track,
(He's throwin' me on the railroad track!!!)
The train started comin'
(Ohhh! Here comes the train! Here comes the train!! Help! ... Help! ... Oh!!! Help help!... help...)

And then...and then...
And then along came Jones
Tall thin Jones.
Slow walkin' Jones, Low talkin' Jones.

Hey tour guide, how bout this one. I gotta million of em. Maybe we could take this on the road. Ok fine, I give up, you just appear to have no rhythm. I got Rhythm, who could.  ok ok, 

 

Ok tour guide, now where to?  Jewel Cave National Monument. Caves?  KW doesn't do Caves. No sir, No sir.  

 

Mrs tour guide and B get to stamping. 

 

 

Hey KW, now we are off to Wind Cave National Park. Another cave, sorry, as I said, KW don't do caves. 

 

Mrs tour guide and, whoa, just a minute. Who is that stamping. Sorry KW, Mrs tour guide met him at Jewel Cave. We decided he should continue the Most Excellent Adventure. We forgot to introduce him to the crew. Everyone, this is BH, he is a Bighorn Sheep. Ok, I guess it's ok. Welcome to the crew BH. 

 

 

Hey tour guide, this is one of the tunnels in the cave. Now you know why I stay far away from caves. Hey wait, there is BH again. Well, KW, you don't do caves. 

 

Bison in the road. They are big and bad. Don't go near them and wait for them to get off the road. 

 

Coyote. 

 

More crazy Prairie dogs. 

 

TTFN:

Jewel Cave National Monument. 

With more than 132 miles surveyed, Jewel Cave is recognized as the third longest cave in the world. Cave tours provide opportunities for viewing its wide variety of stalactites, stalagmites, draperies, and frostwork, flowstone, boxwork and hydromagnesite balloons.

Wind Cave National Park. 

One of the world's longest and most complex caves and 28,295 acres of mixed-grass prairie, ponderosa pine forest, and associated wildlife are the main features of the park. The cave is well known for its outstanding display of boxwork, an unusual cave formation composed of thin calcite fins resembling honeycombs.

Day 45 - Devils Tower

Dog pile on the rabbit! Dog pile on the rabbit! Dog pile on the rabbit!  KW, what are you doing?  We are playing Dog pile on the rabbit.  We are watching a buddy of mine on cartoons. It a Hare Grows in Manhattan.  Well, you all need to get ready to leave. Ok, ok, Th-Th-Th-Th-Th-... That's all, folks.

 

Now this is ridiculous tour guide. One life preserver for six of us. Alright everyone, out of the raft. This is just not safe. 

 

We're off to see the devil. We're off to see the devil. Hi Ho Hi Ho we're off to see the devil. KW, what is it tour guide?  We're not going to see the devil, we're going to see Devils Tower in Wyoming. Well dang, I wanted to Shoot him with a silver bullet, drive  stake in his heart, hold a cross in front of him. KW, he is not a Vampire. Oh ok, I'll be ready for him. I'll have my Bible. KW, it's good to carry your Bible, but this is a National Monument. Ok, ok, let's hit the road. Better let Mrs tour guide drive. She drives fast. Hey we made it. That was fast. I told you Mrs tour guide was fast. 

 

Mrs tour guide is really fast. She's already stamping. She's a stamp, stamp, stamp, stamp, stamping machine

Watch her get down, watch her get down As she do, do, do her thing. Right on the scene. She's a stamping machine.  Ah come on tour guide, you just don't Understand genius.  Well, it could be a good song. 

 

KW's turn. I am a stamp, stamp, stamp, KW, what, please stop. Ok, ok.  Not a musical bone in his body. He probably can't even give me the beat. KW, alright, fine. 

 

Ok, where's the devil?  let me at him. I'll clobber him. KW, it is a National Monument.  Oh, ok, I remember now. 

 

 

Hey Mr tour guide. Yes KW. I see you have started Usies again. Well KW, we are the tour guides. 

 

Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. The shadow knows. KW you sure do have a vivid imagination. 

 

Hey tour guide..... Hey tour guide.... Now where did he go?  Wholly cow, Mrs tour guide, is the tour guide climbing up there?

 

All right you wise guys, let's get moving. We have a long way to go and a short time to get there.  That's right, all the way up. 

 

Hey tour guide, do you think she made a touchdown? No, but she climbed too high and needed help getting back down. Many thanks to the young man who helped me help her down. 

 

Native American's offer prayer ties to the Great Spirit for blessings.

 

Hey KW, yes MG, where are the rest of the Most Excellent Adventure crew. They are in the back napping. Guess we wore them out. 

 

Prairie Dog showing off for us. 

 

 

TTFN:

Devils Tower:

Devils Tower National Monument is one of over 400 parks in the National Park System. On September 24, 1906, Devils Tower was established as our nation's first National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. 

Buffalo Jump:

Long before the arrival of horses to North America, native people hunted bison on foot, stampeding these massive animals over steep cliffs so they would fall to their deaths. This method of hunting was dangerous but the rewards could be enormous. A single jump could feed, clothe, and shelter the people for a whole year. Much planning went into this perilous endeavor.

 

Walking, Walking, Walking:

May 20, 2016 we started walking to get 100 miles by December 31, 2016 to receive a special National Park Services patch from Thomas Stone National Historic Site. The walking did not have to be only in parks. We did our 100 miles in six weeks. Today we just completed 200 miles.