Wild Bill's Gravesite

20s or 30s Era Filling Station

Deadwood, SD: Back into Deadwood this morning. Had breakfast at the Iron Horse and then checked out the Adams Museum. After that we went from one casino to another and gambled away. I lost some. Mike was up about $40. Not too bad. Back to Costner’s place for a late lunch. On the third floor of his place is a fine dine restaurant—Jake’s. We went up there to check it out before we left. A beautiful, really fancy dining room with a huge skylight and a great view of Main Street Deadwood Started out sunny and clear this morning but most of the afternoon it was cloudy and cool. Stayed in the casinos most of the time anyway.

Old ad on an old building...

Deadwood Courthouse

Kevin Costner's Place--Diamond Lil's

Thu, 6/19:

Deadwood, SD: At about 3:00 a.m. we had another thunder storm with hail. Some of the thunder is quite impressive as it bounces off all the mountains and canyons. And when the sun came up it was a clear, sunny day. At least for a while. We had a fire last night but Mike had a hard time with it because the wood had gotten wet. The girl from the site across from us was out walking their puppy with her two kids and they stopped by for a while. After the fire we played rummy and then read for a while. I’m reading “Brother Odd” by Dean Koontz and Mike is reading the “Water for Elephants” book. We left our campground in the Black Hills at around 11:00 and arrived in Deadwood at about 12:00 noon. We’re at a KOA with water, electric, sewer, cable, and wi-fi for only about $33 a night. And we have a great site.

After we got set up we headed into Deadwood. The whole town is on the list of historic places. And of course there are a lot of casinos now. But when they came in they did a wonderful job of restoring these old buildings. And because of the casinos they were able to invest $6 million in the historic cemetery. It must have been in pretty bad shape. Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane are both buried there. Wild Bill was shot in the back of the head while playing poker in the #10 saloon. He was holding all black aces and eights—called the dead man’s hand to this day. I didn’t realize that the gold mine here was the biggest in North America and second biggest in the world. The shaft goes down 8900 feet! And to get all the equipment down there they had to disassemble it and take it down the shaft and then weld it together at the bottom. In the 1980s they closed down the mine because the price of gold at that time was less than it cost to take it out of the ground. The EPA made them disassemble all the equipment and take it out. Cost around $100 million. It’s still closed and there’s still a lot of gold down there.

We went on a little tour of the area and then went to Kevin Costner’s place—Diamond Lil’s—for dinner. What a nice place this is. The whole casino and restaurant are filled with costumes from all his movies and pictures depicting some scenes from the various movies. Played some slots. Then back to the campground. Will probably watch TV until we’re comatose.

Mountain Goat and her "kid"

Wed, 6/18/08

Black Hills, SD: At around 4:00 a.m. we had another thunder storm with lots of hail. The guy across from went off on his bicycle this morning when the sun came out for a while. And then BAM! another thunder storm. Hope he’s okay. We’re going into Hill City to do laundry, work on the computer, and buy some groceries, so we don’t care how bad the weather is today. Had wanted to bike the Mickelson trail which goes for 105 miles up to Deadwood. It’s a gravel trail like the Katy Trail in Missouri and goes through some really pretty areas. We could bike into Hill City or Custer. Our own fault though. We didn’t do it when we had the chance. We leave tomorrow for Deadwood—a short drive of about 50 miles is all.

Mt. Rushmore at night

Stockade Lake

Bad clouds that kept following us around...

Tue, 6/17/08

Black Hills, SD: This morning was pretty warm when I stepped outside. And all these bushes around us have started blooming with these pretty white flowers and they smell so good. Mike started a fire and we hung around for a while. Got talking to the people across from us. These guys came in a couple of days ago. They have the cutest cairn terrier puppy. Played with him for a while. We planned on going to Sylvan Lake and walk the trail around it. Told Mike we’d better get going since clouds were rolling in. I packed some food and drinks in my pack and we headed over there. It was looking threatening, but we started out anyway. We got about halfway around and the trail started heading up on these huge boulders. Started sprinkling and heard some thunder, so we decided to turn around. Good thing we did. It had turned to hail by the time we got back to the truck. Had lunch in Custer and then drove over to Stockade Lake and walked around it for a while. The nasty looking clouds followed us. Another beautiful lake though. I love the Black Hills. They are so beautiful. Headed back to the campground and shortly after we got there it started raining. I got my keyboard out and put batteries in it to see how it would sound. When I bought this new keyboard I didn’t know you could use it with batteries. Comes in handy when we’re not on electric. Played for a while and then we got ready to go over to Rushmore for the evening show. The ranger gives a talk, they show a movie and then they illuminate the sculptures. They have a large amphitheater under the sculpture and a stage and movie screen. It was okay, but too long for kids. A clear, beautiful evening..

Mon, 6/16/08

Black Hills, SD: This morning early it started raining, which turned to SNOW, which tuned to sleet, then hail. Lovely. There was still some on the ground when we left for breakfast at 10:00. Went to the Best Western restaurant for breakfast so we could use their wi-fi. Worked on computer stuff for a while and then we headed back to the campground. Kicked back the rest of the day.

Sun, 6/15/08

Black Hills, SD: Another pretty day today, so we decided to go to Mt. Rushmore. Pretty impressive—especially Borglum, the guy who designed and created it. He started it when he was 60. We walked the trail on the bottom of the carving. Lots of steps, but some great views of the sculpture. After walking around we hit the gift shop and the café for some drinks and then headed back to our campground. Stopped at Horse Thief National Forest campground on Horse Thief Lake. Pretty area, but not too many sites for RVs. The Black Hills are beautiful and rugged. On the way back we saw a mountain goat and her kid. Drove into Hill City and sat in the Laundromat and got on the Super 8 wi-fi. Think we’ll go back to the Mangy Moose for dinner tonight.

Sat, 6/14/08

Black Hills, SD: An absolutely beautiful day. Had a fire in the morning and then sat around reading and soaking up the sun. Beautiful blue sky and no clouds until later in the evening. Had burgers and four-bean salad for dinner. Played rummy. I’m reading a great book my friend, Amy, let me borrow—“Water for Elephants”. It’s about the circus. Read most of it today.

Sioux War Dance Video