Location: Spearfish, South Dakota
Date: 24 May 2023
We pull into the driveway and are met by Mark's cousin Luke and his wife, Sara. They welcome us, and Luke hands us the keys to the apartment above the garage. "It's yours for as
long as you want to stay. The only caveat is that you'll have to move back into your camper for a week or so in August because my daughter's family will be here for the Sturgis motorcycle rally."
August? We're not planning to be here that long!
"We'll, we want you here for however long you can stay."
What a welcome!
We all go for a walk along the creek and into town. He says " You have three choices. We can eat at a nice little Latin place, a restaurant next to a brewery, or get a pizza."
Being big fans of Mexican fare, we choose the Latin place. It's really delicious - one of the best meals ever!
After dinner, he says "You have three choices. We can go get homemade ice cream for dessert, or we can go to the brew pub for a beer, or we can go to a dive bar and see who's playing there tonight."
Being a bit knackered from our drive, we choose ice cream and a walk home. That is some of the best ice cream ever!
Luke keeps giving us choices in groups of three the whole time we're there. Invariably, whichever choice we make, it's the right one.
For example, one evening we choose "Music at a bar in Deadwood" and are treated to a visit to "#10 Saloon", a veritable museum of the Wild West. This is the saloon where Wild Bill Hickock was killed, as evidenced by his "death chair" on display over the door. There's poker in the next room, and the band is taking requests. Every request taken is played - from country to AC/DC to blues and everything in between - these guys know them all. People are up dancing, and the joint is jumping! Being the lightweights that we are these days, we
stay for a few beers, enjoy the band and the people watching (there are some real characters here) then head back home early and call it a night.
On Friday, choice #2 leads us up into Spearfish Canyon for a beautiful drive and hikes to 2
waterfalls. Over the ages Spearfish Creek has cut an incredible gorge through the mountains. What beautiful scenery!
On Sunday, our three choices are all to attend Sara's birthday party at the park. We choose #1
and, once again, it's the perfect choice. We help set up and meet many of Sara and Luke's family members and have a wonderful time. The kids play in a sandy eddy in the creek. We don't (think "snow melt"), but the kids, like kids everywhere, seem impervious to the cold water. Things wind down, everyone chips in to help clean up, and we all end up back home in our preferred napping spots.
Our next choice (we can't remember which number it was - they're all starting to run together by now) is to borrow a car and go see something called "Devil's Tower". On the way there, we
pass the Aladdin Mercantile, Wyoming's oldest general store. Intrigued, we park and walk in. The proprietor asks if this is our first visit to which we reply " yes". He says "Well, feel free to look around. If you want a drink while you shop there's a self-service bar over in that room there, and go upstairs if you like and look at our antiques. Oh, by the way, the highway sign says "population 16" - that's true, only 16 people live in this town, but I'm not one of them."
What an interesting store - words can't do it justice, so we've posted some photos on the blog.
Devil's Tower. If you've never heard of it or never been there, you owe it to yourself to visit. You may recall it from Steven Spielberg's 1977 film "Close Encounters of the Third Kind".
It is the first US national monument, and is sacred to many native Americans. Again, words can't do it justice. We don't even think photos can. Until we stand there taking it in, we had no idea how powerful something like this could be. It's no wonder that it's sacred to so many. We walk around it and feel very small and unimportant and incredibly human.
As we walk, we begin to see people climbing the 400+ foot rock. Tiny little people hundreds and hundreds of feet up sheer cliffs. We learn
that it is very highly regarded by rock climbers, as well, with lots of ascents, some with names like "Assembly Line", "Brokedown Palace", "Rock Suckers", "Sunshine Over The Driskill Nation", and "Old guys in Lycra". We both agree that there is no way on God's green earth we'd ever climb up there.
As much as we've been enjoying playing "three choices" with Luke, its finally time for us to get back on the road. Luke & Sara are flying to New Hampshire for Memorial Day weekend, so we
take the opportunity to haul anchor the same day they leave and go do some real boondocking up on Mt. Roosevelt where, among other things, we see (and go up into) the first ever monument to president Theodore Roosevelt.
More in the works,
Mark & Julie
