Hello from Custer, SD

Hello from Custer, SD

Saturday Evening July 17, 2010 (Second travelogue of this trip).

We are at the Broken Arrow Campground (map). This is a fairly new campground and does not show up in the satellite view. This is the site of the Eagles International Rally.

Today was the last full day of the rally. We arrived on Wednesday (7/14) and the rally officially started on Thursday. There is a good turnout with 21 Eagle buses and two SOB (some other brand).

Some of the Eagles at the Rally

Custer is located in the main tourist area of SD. Mount Rushmore is very close, as is Crazy Horse and many other fun destinations. Thursday we took the Wildlife Loop where we saw some really neat burros who tend to block traffic until you feed them. Later, we saw a whole field of Buffalo (perhaps 200-300). Many had calves who were still nursing. Later we drove over a tight twisty road to Mount Rushmore. You pass through several tunnels, two of which “aim” right at the monument.

Friday we toured Bear Country USA. This facility has a road where you drive through the facilities and view many wild animals including Elk with HUGE racks and mountain sheep. The last part of the road is through an area that has a large number of bears. The bears wonder all around the cars and one even started chewing on the front bumper of one car. At the end of the drive, you can walk through a zoo type area. One pen had several baby bears. There was a vet tech there talking about the bears. About four of the cubs were extremely playful, wrestling with each other and the vet tech.

Burros on the Wildlife Loop

Buffalo on the Wildlife Loop

Bear Cubs at Bear Country USA

We have had some wonderful meals with the group, concluding with a great potluck tonight. Of course, there was lots of social time and the guys all stuck there heads in each others engine compartments and compared note on their buses and some of the experiences encountered while driving our “toys”.

Tomorrow we head home. We should have a relatively easy two days of driving.

That is all for now.