A Buffalo Love Story

One last buffalo picture. On one of our buffalo outings, we were watching the bull snorting to his love. I was standing on the seat of the car with my head stuck out through the sunroof trying to take a video of the buffalo. I located my favorite buffalo couple and started talking to them.

The beginning of the video is one bull chasing one of the females but stick with the video because I move over to the couple that is just sitting there. He is snorting at her and as I talk to him, I start giving him hints as to how to impress her. And he listens to me!!!

So just watch this video to the end.

Hope you enjoyed this video.

We leave Custer on August 1 and head for St. Louis. We will be there for over a month and will spend time visiting with Barb's mom as well as with my brother , Larry , who will fly in from New York and with Barb's cousins, Sue and Deb, who will fly in from Greeley, CO.

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

Buffalo at Custer State Park

Elk

Last night we saw 30-35 elk just grazing out in field. Really wonderful to see them. My only regret is that they were so far away and it was almost dark out that I could not get any good pictures.

Any photographers out there want to suggest how to take pictures when it is dusk. What settings should I use?

Love and hugs,
Linda and Barb

Custer Wildlife: Pictures from yesterday

One of the wolves..........a timber wolf named Khan


Baby mountain goat.

Daddy and baby.

Pronghorn.

Another cute couple.






Sniffing the air...........



Posing.






Mama and baby on the road.

Love and hugs,
Barb and Linda

The Wolf People

I do not know much about The Wolf People. From what we can gather, it is an organization whose goal is to preserve the wolves. The main organization is in Idaho, where they have over 5000 acres where the wolves run free and are protected.

There is a smaller , much smaller, newly opened, version here in the Black Hills. We found it on one of our drives yesterday. They have two wolves that they have raised since they were babies. Right now they are in a very small pen. The caretakers are working on enlarging the pen and will do so as they have more funds. Anyway, we were able to go see them and as you can see from the pictures they are very friendly................hmmmmmmm.

We spoke at length with the owners who actually do go inside the pen and play with the wolves. They even let their grandchildren go inside. Their belief is that since they raised the wolves from babies, they are familiar with them and they feel quite safe. He did say we could go in, but nooooo, I don't think so.

It made for an interesting experience and we wanted to share it with you. Does anyone know anything about the Wolf People??

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

WE SAW BUFFALO AND MOUNTAIN GOATS

We certainly had a wonderful adventure yesterday. The buffalo were everywhere..............and they were beginning the mating season. We spent 4 hours in the park following the herds and were amazed and thrilled to watch the males select their females. The males would wander around the herd, sniffing the females, and then when they decided, they just followed them. And I mean followed...............they stayed right with them whereever they went. If the female sat down, the male sat down next to her. When the female got up to walk, the male walked right along side of her..............and you can believe, no other male could get close.

What was even more interesting is that the females still had their babies from the previous season...................And so the three of them just spent the time together. A cute , very big, family.

The herds were immense................there were hundreds of buffalo all over the entire area, including walking across the roads. I managed to squeeze through the opening of the sun roof (it was tight in a few places, as you can imagine). I was then able to get some great shots and some good videos . I do not know how to include videos in this blog but if I figure it out, I will include it.

And then to make the day more perfect, we saw mountain goats.

WE HAD A GREAT DAY!!

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

Yesterday, thunderstorms and hail in the area changed all of our plans...........or at least, we decided to change all of our plans.

Instead of going to search for elk, we stayed home and played gin rummy...............and as usual, Barb beat me.................

Then the rain stopped, it was cool outside, so I made a roaring fire ............... we sat out there until 8:00 pm .............. dinner was late ............

Today, we leave early , at least early for us, to go to the wildlife loop.................we are on a buffalo and big horn sheep hunt.

Love to all of you,
Linda and Barb

Viewing Pictures and Writing Comments

Just an update as to procedures for this blog.

If you would like to enlarge the size of the pictures, you just need to click on them once.

If you would like to write comments to Barb and me or make comments about any of our commentary, just click the comment button. It will not post instantly..................I will receive an e-mail notifying me of a comment and I will then accept it.

So let us hear from you.........

Linda and Barb

A Typical Day in Custer

Today is a typical day in Custer.

We were awake by 7:oo am and read yesterday's paper. Each day we read the previous day's paper since there is no delivery of the USA Today newspaper and we are not energetic enough in the mornings to go out to get a paper. Depending on the weather we will either sit inside or outside, read the paper , drink coffee and plan the day.

Each day does involve an outing. Today by the time we read the paper, chatted with neighbors and showered , it was almost noon. So we decided to spend the day sitting under the pines, reading and relaxing. Then we drove down the hill to the office to use the internet, checking emails and writing on the blog, checking finances, etc. And most exciting, is that Barb is learning to use the computer. She had started downloading her pictures from her camera and editing the file. AND, she will start checking e-mail and writing responses. HOOORAY FOR HER!

So our day's outing today will be this evening. We will have dinner early , drive through the wildlife loop at Custer State Park and then drive to Wind Cave National Park to search out the elk. Two nights ago, we saw 4 elk, two of which were huge bull elk with 10 point antlers. But it was too dark to get a good picture.

Another alternative for a typical day, would be what we did yesterday. That is, we drove all day and then by the time we arrived home, we were able to have a campfire...............and eat a late dinner.

So all in all, this is a wonderful place for us and we are having a great time.

Love and hugs,
Barb and Linda

A Day's Drive to The Town of Rochford and to Spearfish Canyon

Yesterday we traveled to Spearfish Canyon which is about an hours drive from Custer. Of course , it took us about 3 hours to get there.

We left Custer about 10:30 am and traveled through Hill City where we picked up a gravel road taking us to Rochford.

The downtown area of Rochford is one 3-way corner with a restaurant, the Moonshine Gulch, on one corner and a gift shop, called the Rochford Mall, on the other corner. As for as the third corner, well, I am not sure what is there. And that is all there is of Rochford..............the highlight of the town is that the Moonshine Gulch makes the best hamburgers!!! We drove about an hour on the gravel road surrounded by the Black Hills National Forest. It was a beautiful drive and we were starved by the time we got there.

If you notice the decor of the restaurant is not what you would call "fancy".............the ceiling is covered with caps and the walls are covered with all kinds of stuff/junk.

And we just had to take a picture of this sign that was on the wall.

When we left Rochford, we headed toward Spearfish Canyon.

Our favorite views in Spearfish

are the waterfalls

and the flowers.

Barb and I find these all day drives to be invigorating; we love seeing the beauty of the Black Hills.

Love and hugs,

Linda and Barb

Our Travel Plans for this Summer

I have not updated our plans for the summer since I first wrote it in May. Many of the plans stayed the same but some have changed and some are still indefinite. So I will fill in comments/changes in this color . Hopefully this will keep you current as to what we have done and where we are going next.

Several of you have asked for our summer plans so I thought I would post our itinerary here on the blog.

May 18-24: Zion National Park. Stayed at the campground in the park. See pictures in blog commentary.

May 24-30: Bryce Canyon National Park. We will stay in Panquitch, UT, about 20 miles outside the park. It is one of our membership parks. See pictures in blog commentary.

May 30- June 10: Mt. Pleasant, UT. We are not sure what is in Mt. Pleasant. It is a small town in the mountains near lakes and mountain hikes. We just wanted a place to see scenery and vegetate for a while. Plus it is one of our membership parks and we thought we would check it out. This turned out to be a great place to spend time and as you can see in the blog commentary we even experienced snow peaks.

June 10-June 17: Henefer, UT. This town is in a valley on the east side of Salt Lake City. It is supposed to be an absolutely beautiful area plus it is a membership park also. We stayed at East Canyon Reservoir. It was a lovely lake with shoreline consisting of only camping sites and fishing sites. No residential areas which was very nice and made for a pristine view.

We decided that since destination for July is Custer, SD, that it would be fun to stay at the different membership parks in Utah. Just call this research!

June 17 - July 1: We will meander through Wyoming. We do not have any reservations or definite plans yet, but will probably go back to Ft. Bridger for a few days. We were there two years ago and really liked the area. We did not go to Ft. Bridger; instead we went to Casper to visit friends and then to Ft. Robinson State Park in Nebraska.
We decided to get to the Black Hills earlier than planned and so stayed at Hart Ranch for a week. Hart Ranch is located just south of Rapid City and about 30 miles from Custer.

July 1- August 1: Big Pine Campground in Custer, SD. We have gone to this campground in Custer for 8 years and are excited about returning. Remember, we are Custer residents and are really just returning home. We have been here for two weeks now and loving it. See pictures in blog commentary.

August 1-August 21: Leave Custer and travel towards St. Louis. No plans yet.

August 1-10: Travel to St. Louis so that we can arrive by Aug. 7. On Aug 8 , Linda will fly to Las Vegas to see Susan who is celebrating her 40th birthday. She has arranged a weekend celebration with 6 of her friends in Vegas and I am flying in a day early to be with her and Robyn before the friends arrive. Since I have not seen her since Barb and I flew to Brussels last winter, I am really looking forward to this.

Barb will be staying at a resort campground near St. Charles which is very close to where her mom lives. This will give her time with her mom while I am gone.

August 10-21: We will move to Robertsville State Park, about 30 miles outside of St. louis. Babler has a 2 week limit on stays so we cannot go there until the 21st.

August 21 - September 5: Babler State Park in St. Louis. Linda's brother, Larry, and Barb's cousin's, Sue and Deb, will come to visit for a few days during this period.

September 5 - 20 : No plans yet We will return to Robertsville for this two week period. During this time we will spend several days at the Renmore (our condo in the city) to get rid of stuff that we left there. I will be scanning all of the pictures in our photo albums and putting them on CD's. That way we will not have to worry about where to store albums. We will also clean out all of the rest of the stuff (tools, cleaning supplies, boxes) in the storage locker in the garage. Plus we will begin to get rid of the clothes that we do not wear that is in the upstairs closets. All of this will probably take us quite a few days but will feel good when we are finished.

September 20 - October 4: Return to Babler State Park in St. Louis.

October 4 - November 1: Leave St. Louis and head back to Apache Junction for the winter. No travel plans yet.

We will post updates and pictures of our travels.

Love to all of you,
Linda and Barb

Link to Satellite view of Big Pine Campground

I thought it would be neat to attach a link so that you can see from the satellite view where we are camped. The indicator for the campground on the satellite map is not correct. The white road that leads to a circular road is the entrance to the campground and we are parked back up under all of those big pine trees.

[Click on the link below]

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=l&view=map&q=big+pine+campground&near=custer,+sd&hl=en&om=1&ie=UTF8&ll=43.749366,-103.641023&spn=0.001907,0.004989&t=k&z=18&iwloc=A

Custer Wildlife Pictures

Thought I would just post a few of the wildlife pictures we took the other day while driving through Custer State Park.




These are three baby Pronghorns.....
. If you look closely, you can see two prairie dogs standing up in the background.
















As we were leaving the park, we saw these bucks with 6-8 points each. What a site!!!














This mountain goat was one of 5 or 6 that were just walking down the road.

Love to all of you, Barb and Linda

June 10 - July 1: From Mt. Pleasant, UT to Custer, SD

We left Mt. Pleasant after 10 days and headed 120 some odd miles north to East Canyon Resort, which is about 30 miles east of Salt Lake City. We did very little siteseeing there. We spent the days reading and watching the hummingbirds on our bird feeder. We had to fill the feeder every day. There were hummingbirds on the feeder all day long and would let me sit within 3' of them and take pictures.

We also drove into Salt Lake City to visit our friends, Robyn and Sherri. We had never been to their house before and were very impressed with it. I especially loved their garden. It was beautifully designed with sitting areas and plants. We sat and talked with them for a few hours and had a great time.

After Salt Lake we headed towards Casper, WY. Our friends, Terri and Karen, who we met in Custer, SD, live there. We met them in Custer, SD, two years ago when they were looking for directions. We have kept contact with them and , in fact, visited them in Casper last year.

On the way to Casper, we stopped for a night so we could go see the Martins Handcart exhibit and the Independence Rock. Both of these areas were part of the Mormon trail. The handcarts were the means of transportation that the Mormons used as they traveled from the east coast to Salt Lake City. While traveling , they discovered that they had left too late and the cold weather got to them before they arrived. Their leaders found a valley they could stay in during the snow storm that protected them from the elements and cold. Rescuers came from Salt Lake area and carried them across the river to safefy. This area is now protected and we were able to tour it. There were many Mormon volunteers from the area who gave us the information and stories and the history.

Independence Rock is a huge boulder that the Mormons etched their names into. It was this rock that they used as a siting to be sure they were going in the right direction and it represented their independence.

We spent two days in Casper visiting with Terri and Karen. It was nice to see them again. During the day while they were working, we took a drive up to the Casper Mountains.

Our next stop was Ft. Robinson State Park in Nebraska. It is a beautiful state park. It is on the site of the fort where the soldiers protected the travelers from harm as they traveled.

From Ft. Robinson, we headed to the Black Hills and spent a week at Hart Ranch, just south of Rapid City. We used this week to work on the motorhome. We gave it a good washing including the roof. Barb spent an entire day up there washing it since it had not been washed in over a year. Our neighbor across the way was an RV repair person. We talked to him about caulking the few cracks on the roof. He went up there with Barbara and found many more than we thought.

We asked him if he would repair and he replied, "no, I do not like to do that but I will teach you how." And he did. Barb spent that day in 90+ degree temperature on the roof, pulling off the old caulking and recauking the areas that needed it. She did a great job and I am very proud of her.

And finally on July 1, we arrived at Big Pine Campground in Custer, SD. Not only is this our favorite place to stay in the Black Hills, it is the place where exactly four years ago we decided to become full timers. So this is our "full timing" anniversary.

That's all for now.

Love and hugs to all of you,

Linda and Barb