A Mighty Wind

A mighty wind blew across the prairie on the last day of our first full week of nonstop travel as we head to Alaska. And a mighty cold wind it was. Had it been a tail wind, I probably would have had to run with the engine brake on. No such luck, as for most of the day, the wind hit us head on. I was happy to figure out eventually that it was the wind and not some mechanical problem that was retarding our forward momentum so much. Never had it quite this bad! But we pulled into Rapid City, South Dakota where we will slow down and absorb some R&R for a while. Rapid City is a great city. Some have asked why take R&R here. Because there is so much to do within shooting distance of the working ranch we are staying on for this holdover stop. Mt. Rushmore. Custer State Park. Crazy Horse Memorial. Boot Hill and Deadwood. Bear Country USA. Sturgis (where they have the huge motorcycle rally and a big museum). The Badlands. WALL Drug. Spearfish Canyon. Needles Scenic Highway. Lots of world famous caves. Gold mine tours. Black Hills Gold "factory" tours and jewelry outlets. Devil's Tower (Wyoming). Even a GPAA mining claim for members is nearby. And a whole lot more. Besides, the city is excellent for strolling and some of the shops are the "best in class" you will find anywhere, like Prairie Edge Trading Company, where you will find authentic Native American buffalo robes and hide dresses and tools, and ceremonial artifacts and jewelry. Clicking on this link you will receive a native American tongue greeting.

The last of the snow is melting in the hills, despite the cool temperatures that seem to be hanging on. Heavy, heavy rain last night will surely help to finish it off. The Prairie Puddles, as we call them, that look like lakes but are only melted ice and snow that hasn't yet been absorbed into the thin prairie soil will be getting bigger before they get any smaller. The ducks love them! The thunder storms that accompanied the rain that came through last night made the coach, which is sitting on a concrete slab with the jacks down feel like a cell phone on "vibrate" mode on a glass coffee table. Interesting, neat, and a bit unnerving all at once.

Lots of pronghorns (the "antelope" of the old western songs) and pheasants everywhere, but what we enjoy seeing most in this part of the country are the herds of buffalo. People ALWAYS ask me how I get so close to open range buffalo for my shots. I have, but don't use for this, a telephoto lens for my Nikon. That would be like shooting porcupines at close range with an assault rifle. If you want my secret for great buffalo pictures, CLICK HERE. You won't be sorry you did! But, please, this is a trade secret, so keep it to yourself for personal use only.

On the way here, we passed the Laura Ingalls Wilder homestead. When we passed here in 07 en route to Alaska, we did a piece on Little Coach on the Prairie. Linking back to some of theses posts will keep me from having to photograph all the same things again. "Newer is Gooder." As I write this, we are traveling this path approximately a week earlier than we did for for 07 trip. Shortly I hope to begin a post segment called "This Time Two Years Ago." Please watch for it, especially if you plan travel to Alaska any time soon(er) or later.

I mentioned the wind coming in fast and furious! Now I am just smart enough to know you don't pull the mask off the old Lone Ranger, you don't mess around with Jim, and you don't spit into the wind. But that song was playing heavy on my mind as I (tried) to walk around the coach for an inspection at one pit stop. I decided to spit WITH the wind. Just for fun. When last I saw "IT", it was already three miles away and going over the grass horizon line.... And speaking of FAST, we'd like to welcome aboard about a thousand new readers in just the last three days, who came to us through links from Mike and Lou Busby at www.chickengold.com and from an article Chris Guld placed on her personal blog (Blogging To Alaska), her Geeks On Tour site, and her widely followed writings on RV.NET (Blogging To Alaska). Hope you will all find something of interest here and ride along as we venture back to our most magical place on earth- Alaska! Our thanks to our dear friends for their support and encouragement!

The view from our RV pad at Hart Ranch, a 13,000 acre working cattle ranch just outside Rapid City, SD, where they rustle rv's as well as cattle.