Day 39 - Friday - a quiet day and Day 40 - Saturday - Custer State Park

Day 39 - Friday - a quiet day and Day 40 - Saturday - Custer State Park

Spent Friday morning around the RV catching up with the business of life, then drove into Custer and walked around the town center.  Ended up with ice cream and (for me) a slice of amazing raspberry-rhubarb-jalapeno pie at The Purple Pig, which has become a favorite.

On Saturday we spent most of the day at Custer State Park - one of the largest state parks in the US.  It's not the size that makes it special, though, it's the diversity of terrain.  It stretches from the Black Hills into the Western prairie.  I already talked about the other worldly scenery in The Needles area, but for today we followed the Wildlife Loop Road, which lived up to its name.

As we traveled the road, we saw a herd of over 70 bison, a pronghorn, numerous prairie dogs and even some wild turkeys.  And we were able to witness the transition from the Black Hills, which Vicky says would be called mountains in the Eastern US, to the grasslands - at first on rolling hills and eventually to the never ending flat lands.

We stopped at 2 visitor centers - the first was a small one on the wildlife loop with a timeline of development in the area.  It was staffed by 2 ladies who, we found, were from Arizona.  They and their husbands volunteer in a different area each summer.  They work 3 days a week and get free RV camping in return.  They told us how it's done, and we are considering doing that next year.

At the main Visitor Center we watched a movie about the animals and plants of the park and a lot of the history of the area, and then spent time investigating the exhibits, one of which demonstrated clearly what happens if you approach too close to a bison (fortunately without the bison charging at you).  We also talked with a ranger who showed us exquisite jewelry she had made from elk and deer antlers (Which she aid are very hard to saw!) and a technique (which I will try) for transferring photos onto wood.  Apparently you can take any antlers you find in the park, since the animals are done with them.  Vicky also picked up instructions on how to make a pine needle basket.

We were getting hungry so we headed over to the nearby State Game Lodge, one of 4 lodges in the park.  This one was built in 1922 and still has the original fireplace as well as the room used by President Calvin Coolidge as his summer White House in 1927 and the adjoining room used by President Eisenhower in 1953.  We were there foe dinner, though and it didn't disappoint.  I had a buffalo tenderloin - perfectly cooked and about twice as much as I could eat, so I have more of the treat to come.  Vicky went for an unusual dish - elk osso bucco, and reported that the meat fell odd the bone.  Having boxed up half my buffalo steak, I had room for a "salted caramel pot de crème", which was as smooth as it sounds and melted in my mouth.

This perfect day wasn't over though.  Also in the park is the Black Hills Playhouse, a summer stock theater that's been around for 73 years (one more than me!)  Today was the second night of their season and we enjoyed a relatively new play - Tokens of Affection - that deals with how adult children react when their parents announce they are getting divorced after 37 years and each moves in with one of the children.  It was at the same time hilarious and touching, and being a romantic comedy, everything turned out OK in the end.  The actors, according to their bios, all had university degrees in acting and gave us good insights into the motivations of the people they were portraying.  This was our second local theater of the summer and, as they say in sports, we are 2 for 2.  A great ending to a memorable day.

Their next play is The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, which I directed at high school in New Zealand.  If we're still here on Friday June 22, we will definitely go to it.