We're now a full eight weeks into this experiment, this trek, this adventure, this road trip. As expected we're starting to feel the urge to get back to the home pastures. But there's more to do and we will do it before the lawn gets mowed at home.
This may be a bit out of chronological order but here is the latest. It’s a long haul between the last visit and the next so we split this drive into two shorter jaunts allowing a bit of time for napping, checking emails, getting some paperwork done and writing two entries into the blog.
Our hope Monday morning as we left Rapid City was to see the Custer State Park bison. We swooped south, followed the “backest” of back road and only saw one by the road and four or five up a ravine in the distance. We’ll settle for a prairie dog town, a scattering of deer, some prone horned antelope, a singleton wild turkey and lots of rocks that camouflaged as wannabe wildlife. Despite the lack of bison the drive was so much like home.
Late midday we arrived at the home of a dear high school friend of mine, Tim, and his sweet wife, Ree. Even though we’ve driven by Belle Fourche a time or two before, times that were rushed for one reason or another, this was the first visit in this home after about 50 years since we saw them in the earlier home in Hebron. Ree is a music major and has three keyboard instruments – an upright piano, a harpsichord, and a “new one on me,” a butterfly grand. It’s smaller than a baby grand; it’s symmetric with two covers that open for louder sounds on both sides making it look like a butterfly. Who would have known?
I needed to call ahead to another classmate (Melodie) adjusting the next day’s schedule who was a good friend of Tim’s but had not seen or heard from Tim since graduation. I put the phone on the table with the speaker on and told them who was on the phone. What a delight it was to hear them reconnect after 60 years. This will be a highlight in this trip.
We drove three hours, one hour from Melodie and Al’s home, and found a parking spot with our favorite truckers and fellow RVers in a WalMart lot in Sheridan, Wyoming. Melodie was a classmate in high school. I remember Tim’s father taking him, myself and Melodie to see a movie in the neighboring town when we were in high school. It was El Cid. Melodie went on to college and married Al whom she met there. She continues to teach as a substitute while Al who operates a radio station has recently purchased an old vacated Ben Franklin store which they are remodeling to house a half dozen boutiques. Their dream is to revitalize the old downtown of Hardin, Montana.
We swung back a few miles from Hardin to tour the Little Big Horn Battlefield, a National Park. We love our old-person free National Park passes! This park was very nicely laid out and displayed with headstones scattered throughout the hillsides where soldiers and warriors died. It was a major clash of cultures and so many young men on both sides died.
Now we are soaking in the sun after several more hours of driving, parked in our favorite chain of camp sites – WalMart.
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