Another GRRREAT week !!!

Last Sunday, we decided to hike the Cathedral Spires trail in Custer State Park with our good friends, the Vickers. It was a SUPER hike up, under and around the beautiful rock spires. The weather was gorgeous for hiking. 73 deg was the high for the day!!
(click on all pictures to enlarge)

Here we are at the Trail Head.....




Here we are at THE END of the Trail, on top, at the Base of the Spires. It's SOLID rock straight up all around us.


Here is a shot with the telephoto lens, as we looked up at some Rock Climbers that had climbed way up on the Spires and were preparing to go further...to the TOP!!

After the hike, it was such a beautiful day, that we decided to go on down the famous Needles Highway and tour Custer State Park a little. As a lot of you know, Pat and I worked in this great park for 9 summers. We know every INCH of it and always enjoy spending time here. We showed Jim and Donnalyn another one of our favorite "private" hikes. We walked an old fire road back into the woods to a place where we had a nice view of the faces on Mount Rushmore.

We toured around for another couple hours and headed on back home.....What an ENJOYABLE morning!!!!

There are lots of our old friends still workamping at Custer State Park, so we decided to invite them to a Pot Luck at our place and break in our NEW POLE BULDING........so Friday we were all set up.......................


Here is all the food everyone prepared. It looked and smelled superb!!




Lots of GREAT friends, old and new came!!! First, of course, was HAPPY(social) HOUR!!!!!



Bill Disney (on the left) and Bill Weatherford (in the center) still work in the Park and Daryl Kraemer (on the right) works on the Mickelson Trail.



Dick Peer and Mark Bruss. Dick (and Shirley) and Mark (and Dale) are also our neighbors at our place in Mission, Texas. Peer's are Campground Hosts at Game Lodge Campground in the Park and Mark and Dale are visiting us.




Jim and Donnalyn Vickers on the left, Dale Bruss and Ruby Disney enjoy the protection of the new building as it was COOL outside....



Bob Stewart joins the conversation. Bob is like us and "retired" from the Park after many, many years of service. Bob & Shirley brought us a "barn warming" gift....it was a bottle of South Dakota wine, made in Vermillion, SD and the label has a picture of a buffalo on it. I don't have a picture of the bottle but maybe I can get one on here next week. What a neat gift!!! Bob and Shirley know how much we love "buffalo stuff". Thanks Bob and Shirley.





It wasn't long until we had ALL made our way through the FOOD lines and sat down to enjoy the GREAT FOOD!!!!

Donnalyn and Shirley Stewart are helping themselves to those wonderful desserts that we couldn't LIVE without. Donnalyn made a delicious "chocolate dish" and Linda Weatherford made 2 "homemade, fresh shelled" pecan pies. They just LOVE to test my will power!!! That's OK!!!!!:-)



This is our GREAT friend and X boss, Ron Tietsort, and his two children, Hope and Noah. Ron is the head Law Enforcement Ranger in Custer State Park....... Let me tell you, he was a WONDERFUL boss!!! We saw Noah and Hope grow up while we worked in the Park and they just continue to GROW!!!! Pat used to babysit them when they were little. Ron knows how much I enjoyed driving around the Park when I was working there, so he called and asked if I would like to take a ride with him!!!! WOW<>

He goes on duty at 1pm, so he told me to meet him Thursday at his place and he would take me with him for the afternoon....Ahhhhhh,,,,,,Gee, I was in Heaven. I was so excited and pre-occupied, that I forgot my camera. Left it behind in my car..:-( So I can't show you all the beauty and enjoyable things we did.......But take my word for it,,I had a BALL!!!!! Thanks a MILLION Ron ! That was mighty nice of you!!! It sure made it a GREAT WEEK!!!!!!!

That about wraps it up for this week, Thanks for stopping by and I hope everyone is having at least half as much fun as we are.......!!!!! Take care!

I Know I said it already, but it TRULY was a GREAT WEEK!!!!!!
It's great to be alive!!! Praise God!!!

Mike

This Blog published every Sunday morning.......