9/28/09 Mount Rushmore framed in State Flags!! What a huge undertaking and simply unbelievable to imagine that most of the work was done with dynamite, strategically places and then fine tuned with chisels!
9/28/09 Strange place. A friend lent us a map of the area with some tour books that other friends had lent to them (our friends are coming here next spring!) They had this place circled, we saw a few signs on the road for it, and just a few with no more explanation than this on them. There's an energy force here, no one claims to know what it is, people have come to test it with instruments thinking it may be magnetic pole, but not consistently. Whatever it is - it was very cool - a strong pull you can feel with several experiments they do with you. Felt the energy and bought some beautiful etched crystals, some with candles, to use to start my meditation area - with the quadrinity in mind!!
9/28/09 Not the best picture, but so cute, a bunch of baby cubs were piles together sleeping in the shade in the "babyland" area of the park.
9/28/09 Great omen to the Native Americans, to have a white buffalo. Everyone in the Black Hills were excited when this one was born, or so we were told! Such strength and calm.
9/28/09 Leader of the Pack! At Bear Country, we didn't see any other bison on our trip in South Dakota. You can usually see them roaming free in Custer Park, but on Monday they rounded all the bison up - for vaccinations, tagging and thinning out the herd, so there were none to be seen there.

9/28/09 "Say What?"
9/28/09 Deep in concentration.
9/28/09 Taking a mid day nap!
9/28/09 On lookout!
9/28/09 Two cubs in a tree - just the best picture!

9/28/09 We went to Bear Country, a drive through animal park, got a kick out of this bench!!
9/27/09 Ok, this one cracked us up, especially with Bear being in the traffic control business!! They had orange flags on poles to carry with you along side the sign (it was so dark the flags didn't come out) that you could put in the sign at the other side of the street for the next person to use! Not sure if it protected those from drivers who had imbibed to much, or saved the drivers from pedestrians who did so!!
9/27/09 Main Street Deadwood. It's a National Historic Site - so many casino's now. They say a part of the money earned from gambling goes to keep the town's appearance as a historic town, but much of the old flavor is gone - almost every window you look into you see slot machines.. I know they played cards in Wild Bill Hickok's time, so maybe it's more true to the place than not!
9/27/09..... and it has become an antique store!! Very sad for me. A reminder that life always changes - best to embrace the change and no, I did not buy anything in the store!!
9/27/09 This was a bar that I visited in 1983 as a Bond Manager with one of my agents. We drank a bit of beer, played a lot of pool and had a great time with the locals!! We finally found the place meandering around what is now a gambling town.....

9/27/09 You cannot imagine how much hay we have seen!! This was one of the largest single piles we saw. You can tell winter is coming - it is everywhere (and I just love the way it looks!)
9/27/09 The forest is encroaching on the Tower. The weather, the driving rain that gets into the creaks and crevices, freezes - and makes the cracks larger. Lichen starts to grow and seed fall and trees grow. It's is an amazing tribute to the strength of nature and living things.
9/27/09 Bear and I in the shadows of the southeast side of Devils Tower. The camera was resting gingerly on a rock and a timer was used!
9/27/09 Devil's Tower, in it's magnificence.
9/27/09 This quote spoke to me. Mother Teresa a great woman giving all of herself to help mankind. The power of nature growing without saying a word. A skill I am striving to learn - to grow in silence.

9/27/09 This is the northeast side of the Tower, the columns on this side are more rounded.
9/27/09 Here we are standing inside one of the columns that have fallen off the Tower. Scientists believe the last column to fall off the Tower was 10,000 years ago!

9/27/09 In the trees around Devil's Tower are prayer bundles. The Tower has profound sacred significance to native peoples. Over twenty American Indian tribes have a cultural connection with the Tower. Among these are the Arapaho, Cheyenne, Crow, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone.The brightly colored pieces of cloth that are hanging in the tree are referred to as prayer cloths, prayer bundles, prayer ribbons, prayer ties, and prayer flags. They are physical, symbolic representations of prayers and are here by American Indian people as part of their religious ceremonies.

9/27/09 A little hard to see, but there were birds flying overhead and their wings were silver in the sunlight. They would leave the top of the Tower and fly out, and then fly right back to the Tower. It was magical, like a game.
9/27/09 Ok, where's Waldo? There are climbers on the Tower, three actually. See if you can spot them. HINT: close to the middle near the top/at the top? We spoke to a woman sitting calmly on a bench, telling us her son, daughter-in-law and husband were up climbing!!! Nerves of steel!

9/27/09 View from the base of Devil's Tower looking southeast. It is God's Country here.
9/27/09 Devil's Tower in all it's glory. In the middle of the wide open spaces it gives you pause.
9/27/09 Another Prairie Dog, from Prairie Dog Town at the base of Devil's Tower, one of the few refuges left for prairie dogs in the country. They used to be from north to south in the great plains and now only have 2% of the land they once occupied!
9/27/09 Prairie Dog Alert! Whatcha looking at?
9/27/09 Truman, nervous about visiting Devil's Tower.

9/27/09 That is Devil's Tower in the distance, close to 10 miles away!
9/27/09 Here's the information on Devil's Tower, also known as Bear's Lodge by the Northern Plains Indians. No relation to this Bear! Formed 50 million years ago. Truly remarkable.
9/27/09 There are some big towns here in Wyoming!! It's rugged country but beautiful as far as the eye can see. We came out of the Black Hills National Forest in SD, on our way to another section of it in Wyoming to see Devil's Tower.

9/27/09 What a great welcome sign!! Forever West, you gotta love it!
9/27/09 Belle Fourche, SD - Yes it is the center of this great nation!! Including Alaska and Hawaii it the geographic Center of the Nation!! Just north of Spearfish, SD.

9/26/09 Heading into the Black Hills for a few days - beautiful country and many things to see!

9/26/09 Here's one, pulled over to wait for the rest, from the back. Bear thinks they tried to get off the exit for something to eat, but couldn't make the turn at the exit due to their length - so they were all just getting back on the highway.
9/26/09 Leaving Wall, SD - we saw these semi's with propeller's for windmills. There were three of them! Very BIG!

9/26/09 The Big Guy at Wall Drug!!
9/26/09 Tacky, tacky, tacky - and while it's a destination, Wall Drug seems like an example of American marketing to the fullest. I think most of it was made in China. It was disappointing for us, but the homemade doughnuts made the trip worthwhile!
9/26/09 Giant Jackalope, anyone for a ride?

9/26/09 This was an interesting jute box, like a player piano, but it played all sorts of instruments, from the banjo and guitar to the tambourine!!
9/26/09 Here's the infamous Wall Drug!
9/26/09 We are in Wall, SD. Home of Wall Drug. These are the signs that were outside our RV window when we parked to go inside. The drug store was behind us.
9/26/09 As we're leaving The Badlands National Park to the north, a house on the edge with layers and layers of fossils - a beautiful sight at high noon.
9/26/09 The happy vacationing couple!

9/26/09 Here's a great overall view, looks like the moon's surface to us!
9/26/09 YIKES! Yes, we watched where we walked!! Especially Bear, you know his love of snakes!
9/26/09 The Badlands looking North - to see how the terrain starts to go back to Plains.
9/26/09 Looking back North from the Badlands.
9/26/09 Prairie Dogs??