Slow Sunday

Yesterday, Mark and I never did make it to shul.  We just couldn't get ourselves moving.  The dogs got me up at 4:50, and even though I slept fitfully on the living room couch until nearly 9:30, I never felt like I was rested.  Mark stayed home with the pups while I went to Debbie's house for Mah Jongg. It was great fun, and we each won two games.

Today is starting off slowly, also.  I got up at 6:30 with the pups (Thank you, Trillian and Ozma), and I have stayed up since, playing on the computer and texting Lowell from Italy!  Mark just came downstairs at 9:30.  I hope he's well rested!

Today's plan is to see the new Disney Planes movie, the sequel to the first one.  We might even get out of walking the dogs if it rains.  They don't like walking in the rain, so that means they do have SOME sense. 

This morning I had a surprise text from Lowell in Italy when I woke up.  He texted me "Hi from Italy" at 6:15 a.m.  They are seven hours ahead, so that was 1:15 in the afternoon for them.  We texted back and forth for nearly two hours while they were in a wifi hotspot at a wine tasting and restaurant.  They are having a lot of fun!  They liked the Italian wines better than the French ones they tasted yesterday.  In fact, they just shipped a lot of that Italian wine home at exorbitant costs!

Meanwhile, here are pictures from the next two days of our trip, days five and six.  These days covered Jewel Cave, Hot Springs, Wild Horse Sanctuary, Mammoth Site, and Evans' Plunge.

First thing on Shabbat morning, we took a drive back towards Hill City.  We stopped at Lake Sheridan, which was manmade. 

We passed a small, private herd of buffalo on the way.

Next stop

Getting my passport stamp, as always.

Picture of the cave as currently explored.  The visitor center is the the longish black dot at the top left.  All the red and yellow spaghetti is miles of caverns below the surface. There is some speculation that if this cave and Wind Cave were ever fully explored, they might indeed be connected and one MONSTER sized cave.

Walking down the stairs to start the Roof Trail.  The caves are all down below where we are walking and extending for miles outward.

Scenic overlook on the trail

Continuing the hike

Ah, hiking is over.  Back to the pool to swim a little.

Doing tricep exercises!

A one block walk from our motel to this restaurant for dinner.

day six: This is about a half hour drive south from Custer.

The old part of the town is mostly made of sandstone buildings.

Because it was Sunday, the visitor center and jail were closed.  We actually got to go in them the next day though.

The Wild Horse Sanctuary was our first main stop of the day. It is thousands of acres and about another 30 minutes outside of Hot Springs.

There are many huge herds of feral horses here.  We saw four of the big bands.  These are Spanish mustangs.

The strip of dark hair down their backs shows the Spanish ancestry.

Mark was thrilled to be standing out on the high plains with wild mustangs!

Another band was paint ponies and quarter horses.

The herd was running down to the pond to drink and play in the water.  Beautiful!

On this land are some caves with ancient petroglyphs from Native Americans as well as carvings from more recent cowboys who camped there.

This foal was in a band of American wild mustangs.

Next up in Hot Springs is the Mammoth site.

These pictures barely do it justice for the size of it.

It is still an active dig site, currently down 65 feet.

Mark looks pretty small next to the picture of a Columbian Mammoth.

The Wooly Mammoth looks like Mr. Snuffleupagus on Sesame Street.

Again, it's hard to get the scope of how big this place is.  The mammoth skeletons have been left in place. 

Thousands of years ago a sinkhole opened up, filled with water, and trapped the mammoths when they tried to drink from it. 

There is another room of exhibits attached to the site.

Final stop of the day in Hot Springs.

This giant "book" is on the cliff wall opposite the building. I doubt if you can read it, but the Lakota and Cheyenne Indians fought over the use of this natural hot spring.  The Lakota won on what has become Battle Mountain.

Eventually Mr. Evans bought it (or acquired it somehow, who really knows?) and named it Evans' Plunge after himself.

Originally it was just a huge rectangle inside a wooden covered structure.  People used to be told by their doctors to go here to soak in the warm mineral water for a rheumatism cure.  Now it's been jazzed up with a kiddie area that has been artificially made more shallow. There are two big slides, monkey rings to try to go across, and rope swings, as well as water volleyball and lap swimming areas. It was amazing and a lot of fun.

There have been two hot tubs added as well as a steam room, sauna, weight room, locker room, gift shop, and snack bar.

Under the water are smooth, natural rocks.  The temperature is always 87 degrees.  I could feel the slight current in the water since it's naturally flowing in and out all the time! 

Then back to Custer for a late dinner at another restaurant.