Custer State Park

We fell in love with Custer State Park when we visited in June. We are now back camping in the park. It is really neat to look out your window and see buffalo grazing close to camp. They provide interesting movies for the campers at night. Last night we saw "Where the Buffalo Still Roam." We visited two caves, Jewel Cave and Wind Cave, on Saturday. We will be staying here until Thrusday morning. Then we will leave and head towards Colorado.

When the two brothers who found the cave saw the shinging rock, they thought they had found a cave full of jewels: thus the name, Jewel cave. Jewel cave is the third largest cave in the USA. It have over 130 miles of mapped tunnels. How many more miles exists they do not know. We had to climb over 730 stairs to see the 1/2 mile of cave that is open to the public.

The greenish looking stuff on the popcorn, is caused by the bacteria that people bring into the cave with them.

This is called popcorn. Can you guess why?

If you look towards the bottom, you can see where the rock separated almost like a geode.

Picture inside of Jewel Cave. Look close, see anything that reminds you of bacon?

Picture inside of Jewel Cave.

This is a picture of part of the ceiling in one of the chambers of Wind Cave located in Hot Springs, SD. This cave has over 100 miles of mapped tunnels. They do not know for sure exactly how many miles of tunnels are in the cave. Every little hole may lead to another chamber. President Rooselvelt made this a national park. Below you can see just a couple of the many picture I took inside the cave.

This is called boxwork. Wind Cave has a lot of boxwork inside of it.

View of part of the ceiling inside Wind Cave.

We stopped at a stockade outside of Custer, SD. This is the view looking out the gate.

Inside the stockade.

Close view of the stockade poles. What do you think the triangle hole was used for?

View from the outside of the stockade.

We had a visitor looking down upon us while we were on a picnic. They put a tag on the deer which allows them to keep track of their movements.

Buffalo are very numerous in the park.

There is a colony of Praire Dogs close to Wind Cave. We were able to snap a picture of a few of them. How many can you see?

We were able to see some wild burros on our trip on the Wildlife Loop. They say the burros like to eat anything you give them.

Current location

We are currently in Forest City, Iowa awaiting some repairs at the Winnebago Factory. We took the factory tour on Friday. There are about 6 other rigs parked next to us. Last night, we got the guitar out and played music for the folks. We are going to do so again tonight. You guessed it, not much to do in Forest City. We are the youngest couple at this location. We are having a great time meeting all the folks. We spent yesterday afternoon washing the rig with a bucket of water. Winnebago provides free electricity for those waiting for repairs so that is a blessing in the hot weather. After repairs are finished, we will be heading for South Dakota. Hope everyone is enjoying the blog.

Branson trip

Wow what a trip. We saw the Delene Show, the Duttons, the Prestley's, the Baldknobbers, The Paul Harris show, Ray Stevens, three Imax shows, Goldwing Express, Allen Edwards, Dixie Stampede, and visited Silver Dollar City twice all in 6 days. Now we need a vacation from our retirement. We were off line for a week as we were camped under the trees at a Corp of Conservation Park in Branson. We are currently camped at Holt, Mo for the night. We will head out tomorrow morning for Forest City, Iowa to visit the Winnebago Factory.

We went to the Ray Stevens show.

This is Delene. She puts on a great show. This was the first show we saw. Her comedian is Hardly Worthit.

Comedian named Hardly Worthit. He says he puts his pants on just like any other man. He sure was funny.

We stopped at Blue Springs while we were visiting Eureka Springs. It sure was beautiful. I would love to visit again in Spring or in the Fall.

The Cherokee Indians stopped at Blue Springs.

Blue Springs was just gorgeous. I would love to visit in the spring time when the flowers are really in bloom.

Sign under the bluff.

Indians and settlers camped under this bluff.

Sign in front of the tipi.

A tipi

There were many butterflies in the gardens at Blue Springs.

Another view of Blue Springs.

Pivot Rock. Had to take a walk to get here. Sure was beautiful.

Church made out of glass. People still worship here.

This is called the Natural Bridge.

Sign next to the Berlin Wall.

10 foot section taken from the Berlin Wall.

This is called Christ of the Ozarks. Quite a large statue.

A replica of a well at Bethleham. The women would meet here to draw water and just talk. The would put their pictures on top of their heads and walk down the stairs to the water.

Mary meets you at the replica of Bethlehem and tells you about the inn and her journey to Bethlehem. She is pointing to the stalls used by the travelers to keep their animals in at night. On her left is a common oven to be used by visitors at the inn.

This is the way the rooms at the inn would have looked like. A person would have to bow down in order to enter. The width is very narrow. The purpose was to keep the Roman soldiers and thiefs from entering the rooms during the night.

The table set for the last supper in the upper room.

Replica of the death of Christ.

The empty tomb.

Replica of a boat that Peter and Andrew would have used to fish. Jesus would have been in this type of boat when he calmed the Sea of Galilee.

Once a year, the Israelites were told to build this type of shelter and live in it for 40 days.

The replica of the Ark of the Covenant which would be found in the part of the tabernacle that only the high prient could enter.

The priest would take the sheep or bull that was offered as a burnt offering to this altar outside the tabernacle. He would put blood on the four corners and then burn the entire animal of this altar.

This is a replica of how the Israelies would put their wheat and then throw it up in the air.

In Egypt, the Israelites were told to kill a lamb and put the blood on the door post so the avenging angel would pass them by and not kill their first born.

Replica of a type of well where Jacob first saw Rachel.

This is a replica of a pagan alta.

The Israelites spent their time in Egypt making bricks.