The Weekend in Custer

The first rattle out of the box yesterday morning was me, getting ready to join the McFalls and another couple, Reve and Susan, on a hike. Jim declined to join me, due to a twisted ankle that hasn't quite healed up yet. The McFalls promised it would be a fairly easy hike, so away I went with my Leki poles and a couple of bottles of water. Easy, hah! Well, I'm sure for those folks who are in shape, it wasn't a bad hike. I did survive it though, and I'm glad I went. I wish I had pictures, but I decided I didn't want to deal with the camera.

After we finished the actual hiking trail, which was near Stockade Lake on the western edge of Custer State Park, we walked the road around the lake for quite a ways. That's when I wish I'd had the camera. Luckily, it is not far from where we're staying, and I promise to get some pictures to post before we leave. It is just beautiful! We saw large bird nests at a distance, and acutally made out a couple of young birds. They may have been Osprey.


The rest of the day was spent at home, working on family history research and taking short walks with the dogs. Jim made a pot of white chili, which we enjoyed with salad and rolls.


I've been hearing from some of my friends about the Wii Fit game, and how much it's helping them get and stay motivated to exercise. I think that would be ideal for motor home living, so I've been looking around for one. The Wii game systems seem to be fairly easy to find, but the Wii Fit balance board and game are next to impossible to find, unless you just happen to hit a store on the rare day they have them in stock. I've been watching eBay, but they are going for nearly twice the retail price and I'm not that desperate - yet. I thought maybe the Best Buy in Rapid City would have some in stock. Since we needed to make a trip up there anyway, we decided to go this morning.


I cooked breakfast, and then we loaded the dogs in the car and headed out for the 40 mile trip. The Best Buy was out of the games, go figure. But, the sales clerk said they had some a few days ago! Oh well, I'll keep looking. Jim wanted to look for some new shoes, so we went to the mall and he found his shoes.


We needed to scout out the location of the rv dealership, Midstates RV near Blackhawk, where we'll be heading to have our slide solenoid replaced. We found that and then went downtown to the Prairie Edge shop. I wanted to see that 70 tons of beads. Wow, that's a lot of beads! If you have occasion to be in Rapid City, I think this is worth a stop. It includes a trading post and fine art gallery in addition to these special beads. It's located at 6th and Main. We picked up a couple of gifts and then came back home.

This statue is across the street from Prairie Edge. The plaque at the bottom of the sculpture states, "We are all related".

On our way home, we stopped at a local rock shop. I've been wanting to dig for garnets here, and we'd been told the owner of Scott's Rock Shop might be able to give us some hints. The owner's daughter was working today, and she told us the way to find garnets here is to pan for them. So, we bought a small pan and decided we'd try it. She told us that a lot of people go to Hazelrodt Picnic Grounds. Off we went. We found some pretty little rocks, but whether they're garnet remains to be seen.

We did strike it rich with beauty though! The reflections of the trees in this still water are pretty amazing:

A white tail deer, posing for us:

We are enjoying some very beautiful days. I'm closing today with some of the words from a Rascal Flats song Linda and Howard played at the RV Dreams Rally. The name of the song is "My Wish" by Steve Robson and Jeffry Steele:

"My wish for you is that this life becomes all that you want it to, your dreams stay big, your worries stay small!"