South Dakota to Colorado

Craig and I had such a good time getting to know South Dakota.  We don't normally get to sight see, but we did a pretty good job of it for a couple of weeks.  We headed down the road through Wyoming into the Denver area.

We went right down I 25 through Denver.

Tana's family of six lives in Aurora, CO.  They all left the night before we arrived for a vacation in Florida.  They needed help for a couple of days to watch their home and dogs.  We arrived for our Volunteer Jobs at Cherry Creek State Park a few days early, so we had free time to spend with Sammy and Mocha.

Sammy was very entertained by TV one night.

They had a late, deep snow in the Rocky Mountains and you an still see some snow.  We used to think it was great if there was snow through the 4th of July.

Craig picked up the family from the Airport on Sat. Our grand daughter, Kyra, left at 6am this morning for a missions trip to Alaska.  Barry is doing well after his surgery and he goes back to work tomorrow.

We moved from our temporary spot to the Volunteer row yesterday while it was about 97 degrees.  We went out today and finished getting things set up.

Last year we worked the Entrance Gates.  This year we are going to be cleaning the Swim Beach area.  We have been trained and worked some today.  Below will be our ride for the next couple of months.  The large tires help to get through the sand on the beach.

The spots are very large in Cherry Creek State Park and we have even more room in the Volunteer spots.  This is our side yard.

Home Sweet Home for a while.

Patio area

We have one more morning of learning our job and then we will be on our own sharing the work with one other woman.  We should still have plenty of free time to spend with the grand kids.

Hope that all is going well for you!!

Blessings,

Kathy

Cascade Falls, Mammoth Site and Pony Soldier RV Park.

We took one day to go and see the sights around Hot Springs, South Dakota. We stopped to enjoy Cascade Falls.

A mile or so down the road from the falls is the Wild Horse Sanctuary.   It was on a gorgeous piece of property.  We talked to one of the workers there and she was from Valporaiso, Indiana.... small world.

They also raise Quarter Horses to sell to help with the cost of the non-profit place.

We drove back into Hot Springs and went through the Mammoth Site.  It was interesting and they have preserved the site where the bones were found when a guy was starting to excavate an area for a housing development.  It's still a work in progress.  They theorize that the Mammoths fell into a hot spring sink hole over the years.

We also went to see Evan's Plunge.  They have built a building over the Hot Springs.  We decided not to spend the $12 a piece to go in.

Fall River

This morning, Friday, we headed on down the road to Wyoming.  We had to find a place that wasn't booked up for the weekend.

We feel more like pioneers here.  What a fun place.  There's a museum here that we went to today.  All sorts of artifacts from the area.  Lots of Indiana heads and all sorts of animal skins and skulls.

The best part was meeting Ray and Bert that watch over the Museum a few days a week.  

Outside is this old well digging machine.

Craig thought it would be fun to try to get it working again.  I think it may be past repair.

Tomorrow we hope to tour around the area and try the Mexican Restaurant in nearby Lindle.  On Sunday, we will be driving on in to Cherry Creek State Park where we will begin our work camping for the next couple of months.

Blessings,

Kathy

Hots Springs, South Dakota and Angostura Recreational Area

Our Sprint cell phone coverage was pretty bad all through South Dakota.  We were roaming most of the time, so I had trouble with some calls and getting on the Internet.

We left the Rapid City area on Wed and just drove 68 miles down 79 just past Hot Springs to Angostura Recreation Area.  What a beautiful campground and lovely lake.  They didn't rent any boats, so the next time we come back, we'll have to make sure to bring one with us.

We checked in at the park office and saw this Mountain Lion.  It was found here in the park watching a man walking his dog.  They had a debate of what to do and decided that the park owed it to the visitors to remove the cat to this permanent place.

Any time we were out walking I had the thought about that cat coming from around the Lake and wondered if it was the only one.

Marina

 There's 43 miles of beach around the lake.

We saw one of the "hanging tents" that are popular now. I think we would need to lose some weight before it would work for us.

The campground and lake are busy on the weekends, but during the week these people had the lake to themselves.

We spent two nights in this campsite.  We enjoyed our time even though we had trouble getting level.  We kept in a nose down position that made cooking and waking up in the night a challenge.

Blessings,

Kathy