Tuesday June 5, 2012-Custers Gulch RV Park

Today is supposed to be our last day of exploring and sightseeing in the area. We left this morning to drive to Rapid City and then to drive the "Badlands drive", but we got a late start and decided not to drive over a hundred miles to see more scenery like some that we'd already seen. We decided to make the Needles Highway drive but first stopped off at the Fort Laramie stockade.

 This is the entryway into the fort. The buildings in the center and on the left are reproductions and the ones on the right are originals.

 As you can see, the original buildings have fallen into disrepair and are fenced off from entry.

This photo shows two styles of roof, one a lot roof and the other a sod roof with grass growing on it.

This shot shows the original style of rifle opening in the fence. Also notice that small logs are used to fill the gaps between the larger logs that make up the fence.

After completing our exploration of the stockade, we went toward the Needles Highway. We stopped off the the gate into the Custer State Park to inquire about the very narrow tunnels. One of the gatekeepers was kind enough to measure the truck and that was the main reason that we decided not to drive through the tunnels. We had already paid our entry fee, so we took the drive to the first tunnels and turned around and came back out. See THESE photos of the area including the tunnels.

We drove back into Custer and stopped off at the Purple Pie Place for a snack before running a couple of errands and returning home. I guess we needed a down day because we were tired, having been on the go for the last few days. We leave here the day after tomorrow, so it was good to just go home. Stella used the afternoon to get some clothes washed, so it wasn't a wasted day.

The wind came up late in the afternoon and we were buffeted around by very small whirlwinds or mini tornadoes. We had not put our awning out in a few days but our neighbors had left theirs out and it got damaged. It was an electric awning and they had left and the door was locked, preventing anyone else from going in and lowering the awning. I can only hope they learned a lesson.

Remember a couple of weeks ago when I told you that I would have some good news? Well, I finalized it tonight but I still can't talk about it. I will be able to share this news with you soon, and will as soon as I can. It's good stuff, trust me.

So long.