Neat RV !!!!

We saw this NEAT truck and trailer parked in the grocery store parking lot. We kept waiting for the owner to show up. But he never did. I would of loved to ask him a bunch of questions!!! It is an old CHEV pickup, but I'm not sure what year. It has been completely restored and much better that it was originally. I'm sure it has a much bigger motor and probably an automatic transmission.







The trailer is Fiberglass and like a Casita, but it had a name I never heard of...
It is probably quite light weight.
Matching stripe and all !!!











I would think it would be in the 40's vintage......Anybody know for sure.
It had British Columbia license plates on it.
No doubt it gets a LOT of attention where ever it is!!!








The floor in the bed was so clean you could EAT off of it !!!


Neat Trunk huh ?


Click on pictures to enlarge them.....


IT WAS A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Mike

Custer GOLD DISCOVERY DAYs PARADE July 2007

Pat and I decided to go to the CUSTER GOLD DISCOVERY DAYS parade. We hadn't been to a parade for about 15 years...LETS GO !!!

SMOKEY was there!! Smokey has a very important job as it is so DRY that everyone is so afraid of more fires...

Did you know SMOKEY just had a birthday? He was 63 years old on July 28th. He wasn't even around when I was born.

All parades have FIRE TRUCKS,,,,,there were about a dozen, but this ONE took my eye.
Oldie but Goodie! I'd guess its a 1949 to a 52 year. I know its a FORD !!













Here is the local Dr. Sweetwater and the Medicine Show











Burros Played a great part in hauling supplies.
Did you know that they and mules are much more "sure" footed than horses? Its true!

















This was ONE of my favorites!!! What a TREAT to see a JOHN DEERE trike!!!!!
REALLY NEAT !!!!!
I've never seen such, but I would trade my VOLVO for it !!!

(Pat says no!):-)














This WAS my favorite !!!! What a NEAT little truck.











Is it a Pete or a KW......??? Not sure but I sure liked it....
I LOVE trucks!!!!!(and little baby ducks!











Here is a 4 horse team and wagon. My Dad had one of these on our ranch, but we worked our horses side by side, 4 wide.

We also had a team and wagon like this. We used to take it out fixing fence......

Old memories!!!!

Dad would love it......but hes watching ! :-)

I took dozens of other pictures, but don't want to bore you with ALL of them.... WE thoroughly enjoyed our Custer's Little Parade...........The weather was Superb and people are down to earth and friendly.......As Crazy Horse would say "they are MY PEOPLE,,,,,,,

It WAS A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!

Mike

IT'S DRY HERE !!!!!

FIRE DANGER "VERY HIGH" !!!

Boy O Boy,,,,is it ever dry here !!!! This as a 7 year drought so far. Ranchers have no hay for their cattle. They are having to sell off part of their stock. Hay is too high priced for them to purchase, so they just sell the cattle.

We are having fires right and left every day. Several fires have been BAD !!! South of Hot Springs which is 30 miles South of us, they had a big fire that took days and days and all the resources they could come up to put out. It burned a lot of Houses and Building and 1 life was lost. We have a BURN ban on all around.

We had a 1/2 " rain day before yesterday and 1/4 " yesterday, for a total of 3/4 " and that's been " it" for a long time. Every little bit helps, but that didn't even make a slight dent in our problem........WE NEED MORE !!!!!

Send us SOME !!!



IT'S A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!

Mike

OLD GAS PUMP and TANKER WAGON

This OLD Gas Pump and Delivery Wagon are in the front yard of our neighbors, Dennis and Carolyn McDonald. They were in the GAS business before they retired. It is a neat yard ornament and brings back a lot of memories for me.


How many of you have seen a GAS PUMP like this? Not many I bet, except in a antique display. Well when I was a kid, these pumps were in operation at many of the Gas Stations!

They had a big handle on the side of the pump and you would pump it back and forth until the Top (below) was filled with gas. Then you would take the hose down and fill your car, truck, etc. Although in those days the Service Station Attendant did it all for you. No such thing as self service in those days....They even washed the windshield and aired the tires.....







See the numbers in the glass, that's how you could tell how many gallon you used. Hard to believe gas was about .15 cents per gallon. Soon it went up to .19 cents, when the state tax increased.

By the time I became a teenager there were still a lot of these pumps in use, but the electric model was becoming the standard.

Its neat to see a little reminder of the OLD DAYS every day. It brings back those childhood Memories........

Those were the GREAT DAYs !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike

Hiking LITTLE DEVIL'S TOWER trail CSP 07/12/07

Nice beautiful cool morning at about 7:45am we are ready to hike......

But, Which way do we go ?????

One way is Harney Peak and the other is LITTLE DEVIL'S TOWER.....

Shucks,,,I don't know.......???

Ah, ,,,Pat says "lets go to:LITTLE DEVIL'S TOWER, we haven't done it for a while."

Ya, that sounds GREAT, Lets GO!!!!!

About 1/2 way up we can see where we will end up,,,,,,,,,,WAY up there on top of that ROCK!!

Up, Up and Up some more!!!!

Pat leads the way and pauses to look back and see if I'm still back there. Are you coming, she says.....

Yep, I'm right behind you. Just using my NEW camera.........

HEY,,,,were getting up there, won't be long now. These are just a few of the GREAT views......

See why we love this place.......Its like you have it ALL to yourself!!!

Just Pat, Me and GOD !!!

We are on TOP !!!

This is a telephoto shot of Harney Peak from the top of LITTLE DEVIL'S TOWER.

This is back aways.....

That is Harney WAY back there behind me...

NOW Pat is on TOP !!!!! What a VIEW!!!!!!!!

You can see our place from there, about 10 miles to the South.

I took a picture of our property, but since I'm so new to this, I LOST it !!!!

Please go to my web albums to see all the photo's.

Well that was our HIKE up to the top of LITTLE DEVIL'S TOWER........It only took us about 35 minutes to make it.......Its only a mile and a half.......But, its rated Strenuous. Not really that bad. I took quite a few more pictures on the way up. If you wish to look at them all, you can go to my Web Album at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/wb4pdo

click on Little Devils Tower

Wish you were here HIKING with us...............Get on over here !!!!

What a GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Walleye Fishing trip 7/10/07 Angostura Lake

A day of Fishing at ANGOSTURA LAKE, South Dakota

This is our GREAT friend and X boss at CSP. Duane Webster was a Game Warden for the South Dakota Dept of Game, Fish and Parks for nearly 40 years. For about 7 of our 9 years at Custer State Park, Duane was our Boss and Friend. He was a great guy to work for and with.

He is also a SUPER fisherman. He knows where they are and what they are hungry for. We love to go fishing with him........The boat he has is extremely comfortable to spend a day on the lake.

We met him at the lake at 7am. Here we are heading out for a day of fishing. This is Ken, Duane's neighbor, he went out with us.

It was COOL and a little breezy, but we were all anxious to get at 'em!!!

As we headed out on the Lake, we noticed that the big fire just West of the lake was putting off some smoke. It got heavier as the day went on and the wind changed directions...

Here we are at the first of Duane's chosen spots for the day. This is him and Ken fishing off the front of the boat. Duane runs and controls the trolling motor from where he is sitting keeping us on course...

Wasn't long till we had our first catch.

This is Pat doing what she LOVES to do. We were fishing off the back of the boat....

Angostura Reservoir is 5 miles south of Hot Springs. It is the first place we worked for the SD Game Fish and Parks when we came in 1995.

It is our favorite lake and we know it well as we've fished it a zillion times.....

It is extremely LOW for about the 3-4th year in a row. Its terribly dry in this area.

We fished and caught fish from 7:15 am until 4pm. But finally it was time to quit, load up, clean fish and head home....

here is after we had the boat all loaded up and were at the fish cleaning shack.

Here is Duane cleaning one of the NICE Walleyes we caught......

Nice Fish huh ? I can taste him already...mmm.

Look at the size of that fillet !!! That one half will make a meal.....

Pat and I were so tired we could hardly make it the 40 miles back home. But we were sure happy. Its always such a pleasure to go fishing with Duane. We TRULY respect his fishing ability and enjoy his friendship. We have NEVER had a poor day fishing with him.....

Now for a FISH FRY !!!!!!!! Come on over !!

IT WAS A GREAT DAY !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Mike

Mt Rushmore Fireworks 7/03/07 From our private viewing area

This was our "secret" Hike with the Mt. Rushmore view. We gathered up our great friends and hiked about 1/2 mile back in on an old fire road to the area. We got there in plenty of time to find the Mountain and get all set up for the FIREWORKS!!!


We all got seated and visited for a while. This pictures shows Mt Rushmore right between the 2 trees on the right. See it way back there? If we would have just had a chain saw, we could have cleared the view some.......NO NO !!

Our group included Larry and LeeAnn McCormick, Roger and Diane Smith HDT'ers, Dick and Lou and Pat and I.......Neat folks and great friends to celebrate the 4th of July with.

Is this a GREAT life or what??



It wasn't long before the Fireworks started. It took me a while to get my camera zeroed in and I'm not used to taking pictures in the dark. Its kinda tricky, especially with a new camera.....
But I managed to get a few shots.






They are a ways off, but beautiful.....














This is a double !!!













Wow!!!, Not bad.














We can hear the BOOMS !!!!












Now its getting darker, so they are starting to show up better...




























This is a neat one, a pin wheel !!

























That's a BIG one !!!!

It was like this for a solid 30 minutes. The weather had been rainy and windy earlier, but it turned off fantastic. It was a perfect evening.
We had a VERY private viewing area and NO parking problems. My thanks to LeeAnn McCormick for the use of her tripod.

What a great way to spend the evening !!




It was a GREAT DAY !!!!!!! GOD BLESS AMERICA !!!!!!

Mike