Wyoming and South Dakota

Went on a three day road trip up North and missed the rainy weekend in Fort Collins.  Jerry has a good weather luck charm!  Highlights of the trip were Devil’s Tower in Wyoming where Close Encounters of the Third Kind was filmed.  Hugh tower coming out of the ground in Northern Wyoming.  Made it to Spearfish South Dakota for the night and then did a whirlwind drive to Sturgis (already selling tee shirts for the big motorcycle rally in August).  Lots of saloons and souvenir shops.  Had breakfast in Deadwood where Wild Bill Hickock  was killed.  Lots of casinos and a very western theme, basically one long street.  Did a drive through of Rapid City which has a metal sculpture of 38 different presidents, one on each street corner.   they plan to do all of them at some point.  It was a quick drive through but easy to recognize some of them.  Nice little tourist attraction.  Some beautiful drives down through the Black Hills and on to Mount Rushmore.  Definitely worth a visit to see the sight but to learn some of the history behind the faces.  Then on to Crazy Horse which is the face of what will be a full mountain carving of Crazy Horse on his horse.  The family working on this huge structure has been doing this since 1948.  The father, Korczak Ziolkowski, was commissioned by the Native American tribes in the area.  He had 10 kids, 7 are still working on the mountain.   Very interesting story and sight.  I would be typing all day to tell it but we would recommend putting a visit to the area  on your to do travel list.  We ended the day with a drive through Custer State Park with herds of bison roaming.  We were almost out of the park when we finally spotted the herd.  Spent the night in Hot Springs and went to the mammoth bone pit Sunday morning.  Again very interesting history of how so many mammoths ended up in that pit.  We were home by 3:00.   Saturday included a walk to a very pretty water falls

 

March 2012 update

Life in Fort Collins has been good.  It’s a beautiful  city of about 140,000 people.  We’re part of the Newcomers Club which has about 400 members of people who have lived in Fort Collins for under 4 years.  You become an alumni at 4 years and have to figure out other social opportunities.  The club has plenty of coffee, lunch, dinner, movie, theater, book club, game night events that you could possibly want.  Also lots of hiking and biking.  It’s all volunteer run and very well organized.

We’ve been fortunate for our first winter in CO.  It’s been mild with several snow falls but none that last very long.  That didn’t please the skiers but for those of us with Tucson blood it was fine.  We’ll think about skiing next year.

We’ve had our grandsons visit several times.  Tate our 7 year old loves to bring his bike since he lives in the mountains and Fort Collins is mostly flat.  There is a lovely botanical garden right behind our  home that has a great section for kids.  They were disappointed when winter came and everything had to be cut back, but it should be beautiful again soon. 

We’ve been having 70 degree days for the last week and continuing into next week.  Can’t complain about that!!  The daffodils are coming up in our little patch of dirt by our home.

Jerry still has a work contract in Tucson so he is there fairly often.  I’ve been back a couple of times but never enough time to see all the friends that I want to see.  Hopefully I will catch up soon.

No major trips since our last posting of Canada except for our three week drive to Myrtle Beach in South Carolina (just got back a couple of days ago).  We got a new Toyota hybrid Camry which got 40 mpg.   The point of the trip was to take our time driving across country and stop where we wanted to.  Points of interest was Memphis (visited friends) Gatlinburg TN which was a surprise.  It’s like Branson with all the big shows and miniature golf parks etc.  There is at least a 10 mile strip of very reasonably priced hotels and, of course,  show after show.  Saw a really really funny show at the Comedy Barn.  We weren’t expecting that much but laughed a lot! 

Had really great Mexican food at a place called Papa’s and Beer in Ashville North Carolina.  Who would have thought!!!  The ordering trick in the South is to remember to say unsweetened  tea.   More than half of the ice tea is sweet and I mean really sweet.   Fortunately we remembered.  Also discovered ice tea at McDonalds.  1 buck for a large, sweet or unsweet!!  It was pretty good and a lot cheaper than Starbucks.  Another note of interest, didn’t notice a lot of coffee houses and Starbucks.  Most of the Starbucks were located in grocery stores. 

We had a nice Timeshare in an area south of Myrtle Beach.  I’m glad we were there in the off season, can’t imagine what it is like in the summer.  It was plenty warm and a lot of humidity.  Should have taken a picture of my curly hair.  I don’t normally have curly hair. 

We did a lot of shows which were abundant in this area as well.  The performers were quite talented.  One show was the Legends with people who sang famous people’s songs.  the person who did Whitney Houston was great.  Of course, they had an Elvis.  Every show like this does an Elvis.  He was pretty good too.

Besides eating, we did a lot of walking which helped with all the eating.  Nothing like fresh seafood.  Had it at least once a day.  On the way back we stopped in New Orleans just for lunch at the Redfish Grill.  We remembered the fish very fondly but especially the chocolate bread pudding.   YUM!!!