Riding a Silver Horse into the Sunset

Joe: (this is what I wanted this whole day to say, but V wrote a ton. We are so far behind in blogs!)
Today was so awesome that it was indescribable. So, look at the pics. Later bitches!

Vanessa: (please comment at the bottom of this blog, give a J for if you liked Joes post better, or give a V if you liked mine. Thank you, and god bless.)

Long day! We woke up pretty early to skip out on the bill (sorry national park system! I’ll pay you back somehow when I have a job). Then we started out on the trip the park ranger from Mt. Rushmore planned for us. I loved every second of it!

We went to Custer National Park, and drove through winding roads that went up the Blackhills. There were forests of pine trees scattered with all sorts of unreal rock sculptures that made me feel like I was on another planet. George Lucas missed out by not adding this scenery to one of his planets, because it was fantastic! Then at the bottom of the hills as we were desperately heading for a gas station… yeah, you see where I’m going with this… we ran out of gas.

So AAA sent out a truck and gave us some gas to get us to Custer to fill up some more and get some food!

Awesome part of Custer other than it’s a cute small town… they love Buffo like Cleveland loves guitars.

Then we were onto Iron Mt. Road where the guy who built the road framed Mt. Rushmore with 2 tunnels!

Then after that it was onto the pig tails.

I should have taken videos, I was just overwhelmed. “What are the pig tails?” Joe asked the park ranger. “You know what pig tails look like right?” Joe mimicked little spirals with his hand. “Exactly that. That’s a trick they use to gain altitude.” He answered as if he had to explain… oh simple tourists. So we hit the pigtails (2 of them) where we spiraled down the mountain side.

After that… Deadwood!

This one’s for you Paul and Laura (they Love/Like the show, kinda like Coldstone… Love it, Like it, Gotta Have it! Yeah, I’m tired, give me a break). For Paul’s wedding gift I bought the only Deadwood (HBO TV show) memorabilia the town had!

There was one store with posters and stand ups of the characters from the show, and all they had inside was a tiny magnet! It was of one of the girls though, and it said something about desire is a dangerous thing… so it’s kinda wedding themed right? Yeah, I went to the tourist center and got him some pamphlets to make up for the lame gift. Then I took pics of the town, so here’s part 2 of your wedding gift Paul!

BTW, that says that Wild Bill Hickok (dunno if he is on the show or not, but I bet he has to be… why did I always refuse to watch the show with them!) was buried 300 ft. above this spot.

Then, more driving… more driving… into the sun… not as cool as the Bonjovi song makes motorcycles sound. Riding a steal horse into the sunset hurts the eyes; I guess that’s why he left that part of being a cowboy out. But, coolest thing, we made it all the way to Devils Tower!

We stayed at the tower late to get into the park’s campground late… b/c… yeah, we don’t want to pay for that one either. We ended up being the only vehicle at the tower other than a white car. When we got to the campsite we started to set up when Joe noticed that the numbered post had a receipt for last night and tonight on it still. “Are they coming back?” he asked me. “For $10 a night, they better be back.” I told him, so we had to move the tent. The next morning, I saw the white car parked at the spot we started at. What were the odds that we picked the only empty site that was paid for? Well, I guess the answer to that is 100%.