Black Hills, SD

Sunday August 18, was a do nothing day.  We hung out here at the CG, a little bike ride around the base and then headed into town looking for parts for the grill.  We stopped at Ace Hardware, another Ace Hardware, Sears (Starbucks in the same mall, yes we stopped), Wal-Mart and one or two more hard-ware stores....no luck on the part.  As we were leaving Wal-Mart, stopped to do a geocache, done and found, and Brad zipped across the street to 'Runnings', it reminded me of a tractor supply store.  First off we found him a pair of jeans, a dog toy and then the grill part......yea.  By this time it is 6:00 and we are tired of shopping so head home to get Rudy out of his cage and put the grill together.  Well Rudy was fine, but the burner was not our size, too big.  So left overs for dinner and off to bed and back to Deadwood tomorrow. 

 



Old rink used as dog run

Monday we got up, kind of just moving slow.  It was about 11:30 until we were ready to hit the road....change of plans, we packed a lunch, Rudy and decided to head into town to check out a couple of the local parks for a picnic and let the dog run.  We stopped on our way to return the burner, then off we went, heading through town checking out the walk of Presidents.  Just before we got to the park, the dog got sick, ugh, we cleaned that up, cleaned up for lunch and enjoyed the park were we stopped, sometimes it's just fun watching the people.  We walked around there for a while, then headed down the road to another park that has a dog run and a geocache.  We found, what looked like an old outside hockey rink, that is now used as a dog run, but the park itself is an off leash park.  We ran Rudy for a while, did the geocache and checked out some of the old ruins in the park.  It ended up being an old  US Geological Survey Gauging Station that was washed away in a horrendous flood in 1972?????  We hung out there until about 5:00 then decided to head home.  Poor Rudy, just laid on the front floor of the car and never moved.  Got home, making dinner and the poor dog got sick, again, again and again. 

 

Tuesday we got up and the poor dog is miserable, lucky for him Brad got up twice last night and changed out the towels and cushion in his bed, no better Tuesday morning.  Well what can you do, we stayed home, took care of Rudy as best we could, did a couple of loads of laundry, then decided to text Len to see what we could do.  Len was great, he called to see what was going on, checked on his weight, then called in a prescription at Walgeens (sorry Lynne and Chris).  I left shortly thereafter, did my stops at Wal-Mart, Walgreens, Runnings and the grocery store, then headed home.... but not before I did a geocache (August is national geocache month, at least one a day).  By the end of the day we are both going stir crazy, hopefully tonight and tomorrow will be better.  Rudy has gotten his pills, no food, so no more being sick....and a peaceful nights sleep.

 



Hill City Art Work

Wednesday we got up and Rudy was doing a little better, a bit perkier and hungry, but we aren't to feed him, so just his meds and off we go, heading to Harney Peak.  We got on the road about 10:00, after packing water and snacks.  We only had a light breakfast, thinking we would stop on our way for a decent breakfast/lunch, and ended up stopping at Hill City.  No restaurants open until 11:00, so we just start walking around town and about 11:30 stopped at the 'Bumpin' Buffalo Bar and Grill' for lunch.  Not a bad place to eat, but then we made the mistake of walking around town some more, lots of craft and junk stores, finally heading out about 1:00.  It is still about 30 min. until we get to our distention, on a very windy road with some beautiful views.  We finally get there about 1:30 and decided to head to the top of Harney Peak....no joy, a 5 hour round trip and we don't have enough time.  We decided to head up the path anyway see how far we can get (setting our time 

The arrow points to an old fire
tower, our destination on Sunday

1.5 hours).  We actually were just over half way up when the alarm rang....so down we go, I want to go back (planned for Sunday).  The hike down was a little faster, but then we ended up walking around the lake for a while and checking out some of the other things at the bottom.  After that we headed home, but a geocache stop in Hill City then time to buzz down the road for Rudy's sake.  We get home, walk the dog, steaks for dinner and off to bed by 10:00. 


We are 60 miles from
Wall Drug, repurposed
the old Water tower
for a new town.

Thursday we got up and Brad got on his rabbit trail of phone calls, paper and computer work, research, one of those days, but by 1:00 I was ready to get moving...off to do our cache for the day, which led us to an interesting land mark and then off to the commissary for supplies.  We did manage to get a little bike ride in, first to the rec center then over to pick up our water filters at the mail room.  We just had burgers and perogies for dinner, not fancy but good, and are trying to plan a hiking trip for tomorrow. 

Thanks for the visit,
Diane and Brad