A Day in Deadwood

After watching the HBO series about Deadwood, I felt like I knew this place intimately. So, it was really a lot of fun to actually visit the town, all of which is designated as a historical landmark. In the picture above I'm standing with one of the re-enactors in front of the site where Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down by Jack McCall during a card game.


Today the town is a mecca for bikers. Next week almost 60,000 bikers will come to Sturgis and Deadwood for their annual rally.


We visited the Broken Boot Gold Mine on the outskirts of town where Trevor and Tyson panned for gold and actually found a few flakes.

My high point of the day was going to one of those photography places that dresses you up in old-timey clothes and takes pictures that look a hundred years old. What a hoot! We couldn't wait the couple of hours it was going to take to get the pictures, so they will mail them to us.

In spite of the many casinos and bars, we all liked Deadwood.

Balloon Landing

Hot Air Balloon Ride

Got up at 4:30 to drive to Custer, SD where we met the people from Black Hills Balloons. They pumped them up and six of us climbed in one balloon and 12 people went in the larger balloon (shown above).


I never realized how hot those propane burners can get when your head is only about 12 inches below them.


This is the only picture we got of us actually in the balloon. We asked this guy to take it and he couldn't quite figure out how to work the camera. But it's a kind of cinema-verite, I think.

We did fine until the landing which was pretty rough. The pilot would see a spot to put the balloon down and then the wind would shift. As you probably know, you can't steer balloons; they go up or they go down. But when we eventually put down in a pasture, we hit hard, were dragged a few feet, went back up, slammed down again, and a third time. When it was all over, Julie and I were at the bottom of the pile of passengers.

No damage done, however. We thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I'll post a video of the landing later for those of you who like your blogs suspenseful.

Julie Makes it 50!

Julie lacked one state of having visited all 50 states: North Dakota. Because there's probably not a lot of reason for us to ever get back to this part of the country, we drove from Rapid City about two and a half hours north so that Julie could accomplish one of her life goals.

Honestly, this is about as far inside North Dakota as we got, but, hey, it counts.

I've never seen country like that we drove through to get to the North Dakota border. Just picture a ribbon of road stretching absolutely straight to the horizon across rolling grass hills. The only thing I could think of to describe the geography was the surface of the moon if it was covered with grass.

A Day at Mount Rushmore

Actually (as Trevor would say) it was half a day because we got rained out at lunch time. The morning was bright and beautiful but, as you can probably see above George Washington, the storm clouds were moving in. As we ate lunch the rain started. At first it looked like the Presidents were crying, but after 10 minutes or so of cloudburst, it looked like they were victims in some slasher movie. Great dark streams smeared their faces.

I'm standing with Adam, my son-in-law, who has been kind enough to do most of the driving on this trip.

I'm not sure Tyson and Trevor thought looking at big stone faces was much of a big deal. They couldn't wait to get back to the swimming pool at the hotel.

Where the Buffalo Roam

At Custer State Park we got to see bison up close and personal. Adam took this picture. I don't know what I was laughing at. But some cowboy had a home where the buffalo roam.



Went to Wind Cave in the southern Black Hills. Here's Adam, Trevor, Tyson, and Jill after emerging from the 4th largest cave in the US. Julie was in line to buy tickets to a tour that wasn't very physically demanding. Well, the guy in front of her was the leader for a youth group and he got the last 40 tickets for a tour of moderate exertion. So, Julie gets tickets for the next scheduled tour which just happens to have a lot of steps to climb. Now even though we're underground, it's still about 3800' elevation. I thought I was going to be the first person to die in Wind Cave after climbing 98 steps. I thought it was ironic that I couldn't get my wind in Wind Cave. But things leveled out long enough for me to recover some lung function and I was able to continue.

Ended the day with a chuck wagon cookout where they load you in wagons and haul you out into some wilderness canyon where they cook steak and beans. The food was wonderful. But the bumpy ride back to the lodge after two helpings of beans didn't exactly make for a silent sunset in the woods.

Maybe Better Than the Original, Toto

I love the thunderstorm sfx with their hands at the beginning and the music is pretty awesome. This is a group from Slovenia.

Update on the Destroyed House: Part 3

As you can see in the picture, they're rebuilding on the lot where the old house stood. I'm anxious to see what kind of place they're going to put there. I think it was someone's summer house. Most of the houses over there are summer homes. Imagine having the wherewithal to just tear down a 3500 square foot house to build another like kids building sandcastles on a beach.

Four Generations Fauxtograph

With this skill, maybe I could get a job at the New York Times.

Erik Meets the Greats

Erik, this is your great-grandmother, Lois.


He's gotten used to Mamie.


Here we are at the Line Camp Steakhouse. Erik was not allowed to eat any steak.


This picture is actually a four-generation of Barnett men picture. Of course, I'm not there because when everyone else was ready for the picture, I had to be at church getting ready to play on Sunday morning. Wait ... I have an idea. Check back for another post.

Priest and Parishioner Come to Blows

Imagine our surprise when our get together with church friends erupted into fisticuffs. Here's our rector punching away. Well, he's actually playing Wii Boxing.


My friend, Hainds, decides to have a go. It's a pretty good workout.


For some.

Katie in Bows

I couldn't believe when I last picked up Katie from the groomer. They put bows in her hair!


Somehow it didn't really look right. Kinda like decorating a tank.