In Custer, Wyoming
I’m feeling like a Queen Bee sitting in our luxury room at the Celebrity Hotel, with Herbie the original Lovebug (from Disney movie fame) a few walls away. It has been a super day and I’m feeling extremely lucky. First off we had many belly laughs, so I know I am feeling better. It was a lovely drive to Crazy Horse Monument. Sharing this area with Audrey has been special. She loved Crazy Horse too, and we both like it more than Mount Rushmore, even though it is not going to be finished for a hundred years or more. The non-profit nature of it, the heart behind honoring the Native Americans, plus the shear gumption of one man taking on such a legacy while knowing he would die before seeing it even close to being finished. (read more in my blog from 2012, Lost my heart in the Black Hills…) But we did see a shaggy mountain goat at Mount Rushmore so that added to the presidential fun.
Crazy Horse
Mt Rushmore
After getting our fill of rock sculptures in the beautiful Black Hills we pulled into Deadwood, South Dakota, our destination for the night.
In checking into our hotel, we were asked if we would like to be in the main building rather than the cheaper annex that I booked and the wonderful gal at the desk handed us the key and pointed the way for us to check out the room. Now let me explain, the hotel is also a tiny casino, one of the reasons I chose the annex building, but in passing the bright and noisy slot machines we went through a door into another world. It was quiet and beautiful and the room immaculate, with a bathtub and glass shower to the ceiling. We were sold and did an about-face and went back through the casino to tell the gal that yes, we would love the room.
Deadwood is the quintessential wild west town and dates back to the 1800’s and the crazy gun-slinging days of Wild Bill Hickok. We explored the town and went into cutest and oldest saloon which held the chair that Wild Bill was shot in. Yep, that’s this town and it was crazy fun to sit and imagine the days of Annie Oakley, gold mining, sheriffs, cheating at poker and horses tied to hitching posts, while sipping a beer.
Tearing ourselves out of the old-time reverie we went back to our hotel and each got $5 to put in the penny slot machines. That lasted us about 45 minutes and then we were back to this moment of me feeling like a queen in my fancy hotel room that only cost 79 bucks! It’s been a day to etch in the memory banks.
meanderest 