Woke up with the alarm, but jumped out of bed immediately because when I
heard a whinny (from Clio) and looked out my window, my bad boy Apollo
was eating hay off the back of my pickup! He had escaped yesterday
once, but I put on more line on the corral, but evidently on the wrong
end, as he got out once again. I heard a vehicle, as well, apparently
someone was concerned enough to follow him, though it really wasn't
necessary, as the entire campground is fenced in, with cattle guards at
several road crossings, so he wasn't going anywhere. Anyway, I got up
and dressed quickly, tied him up near the corrals, and set about getting
ready leave. We were out of there by about 8:10 Mountain Time (which,
btw, is an hour later than across the Little Missouri River which the
campground bordered, which is in Central Time). My phone has been
reading Central Time the whole time we've been here, apparently the
nearest tower is on the north side of the bridge. In any event, we
headed south on the still very busy US 85 (which has had non-stop
traffic on it the entire time we've been here, even throughout the
night, including Sunday morning!), stopping at the intersection on the
interstate to get gas and grab some breakfast. We had hoped for a fast
food place because of our long drive today, but choices were limited (to
one, essentially), so we stopped at the only restaurant we were likely
to find between here and our destination, a hotel restaurant called
Trappers, which turned out to house the "Trappers Hall of Fame."
Buffalo and elk were on the menu (though not for breakfast, or I might
have tried some), and the atmosphere was pretty unique, lots of old
western and trapping gear around, and the salad bar was actually a
beautifully-lacquered wood canoe full of ice. Hubby ordered two
blueberry pancakes, not realizing that one pancake was about 12 inches
across, I just had a regular bacon and egg breakfast. When we were
leaving, we noticed that behind the hotel was "Horse Lodging," a row of
corrals and run-in sheds for hotel occupants traveling with their
horses. That's one thing I really like about the West, few people are
surprised that you're traveling with a horse! Anyway, we crossed the
plains uneventfully, stopping at Walmart in Spearfish, then gas at the
Phillips, before taking the final 30 minute journey to Sturgis. Well,
actually, it turned out to be a little longer than that, for reasons of
my own making. I never found a park map for Ft. Meade, so I wasn't sure
where the horse camp was, so we ended up coming in the north side of
the park. The gravel BLM road was a bit twisty, so instead of just
diving in head first not knowing where we were going, I call the office
and discovered the horse camp was just a half mile off the freeway along
the south end of the park, so we decided to return to the freeway and
go down two exits to #34, which, indeed, had us in the campground in no
time. A very nice spot here, small but well wooded, with enough
openings for Hubby to get a satellite signal with no problem. Highlines
were already in place, but I ended up putting ours up underneath
theirs, because they didn't allow for as much movement as ours do. We
were set up and settled in by about 5:30, though Hubby was struggling a
bit, his hip hurts more now than it did when he fell a few days ago, so
we put an ice pack on it and are keeping him medicated on acetaminophen.
Watched a movie and went to bed, tired from the long drive.
Woke up with the alarm, but jumped out of bed immediately because when I
heard a whinny (from Clio) and looked out my window, my bad boy Apollo
was eating hay off the back of my pickup! He had escaped yesterday
once, but I put on more line on the corral, but evidently on the wrong
end, as he got out once again. I heard a vehicle, as well, apparently
someone was concerned enough to follow him, though it really wasn't
necessary, as the entire campground is fenced in, with cattle guards at
several road crossings, so he wasn't going anywhere. Anyway, I got up
and dressed quickly, tied him up near the corrals, and set about getting
ready leave. We were out of there by about 8:10 Mountain Time (which,
btw, is an hour later than across the Little Missouri River which the
campground bordered, which is in Central Time). My phone has been
reading Central Time the whole time we've been here, apparently the
nearest tower is on the north side of the bridge. In any event, we
headed south on the still very busy US 85 (which has had non-stop
traffic on it the entire time we've been here, even throughout the
night, including Sunday morning!), stopping at the intersection on the
interstate to get gas and grab some breakfast. We had hoped for a fast
food place because of our long drive today, but choices were limited (to
one, essentially), so we stopped at the only restaurant we were likely
to find between here and our destination, a hotel restaurant called
Trappers, which turned out to house the "Trappers Hall of Fame."
Buffalo and elk were on the menu (though not for breakfast, or I might
have tried some), and the atmosphere was pretty unique, lots of old
western and trapping gear around, and the salad bar was actually a
beautifully-lacquered wood canoe full of ice. Hubby ordered two
blueberry pancakes, not realizing that one pancake was about 12 inches
across, I just had a regular bacon and egg breakfast. When we were
leaving, we noticed that behind the hotel was "Horse Lodging," a row of
corrals and run-in sheds for hotel occupants traveling with their
horses. That's one thing I really like about the West, few people are
surprised that you're traveling with a horse! Anyway, we crossed the
plains uneventfully, stopping at Walmart in Spearfish, then gas at the
Phillips, before taking the final 30 minute journey to Sturgis. Well,
actually, it turned out to be a little longer than that, for reasons of
my own making. I never found a park map for Ft. Meade, so I wasn't sure
where the horse camp was, so we ended up coming in the north side of
the park. The gravel BLM road was a bit twisty, so instead of just
diving in head first not knowing where we were going, I call the office
and discovered the horse camp was just a half mile off the freeway along
the south end of the park, so we decided to return to the freeway and
go down two exits to #34, which, indeed, had us in the campground in no
time. A very nice spot here, small but well wooded, with enough
openings for Hubby to get a satellite signal with no problem. Highlines
were already in place, but I ended up putting ours up underneath
theirs, because they didn't allow for as much movement as ours do. We
were set up and settled in by about 5:30, though Hubby was struggling a
bit, his hip hurts more now than it did when he fell a few days ago, so
we put an ice pack on it and are keeping him medicated on acetaminophen.
Watched a movie and went to bed, tired from the long drive.
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