Thanking the Lord tonight for all of His many blessings. He gave me this dream of wanderlust many years ago when I was just a young girl. And now He is fulfilling this dream to travel and see the many wonders of His creations. I am also thanking him for healthy knees that I can actually walk again and overall better general health – able to ride each day for longer amounts of time and able to do other things when we get to campgrounds other than rest or sleep. So very thankful. Custer State Park has to be one of the most beautiful places I have ever stayed. It ranks right up there with Glacier and Yellowstone. The silence in our campground at night was profound. We left Custer later morning and drove towards Devil’s Tower (in Wyoming), but first stopped at Jewel Cave National Monument. We made it in just as the 11:30 tour of the “big room” – a 20 minute tour that takes place in one large cave room. There were only about 30 steps. (YEAH!) It was absolutely breathtaking – I was able to actually look around and up at the ceiling!
Totally different from Wind Cave. The cave is 180 miles long, the third longest cave system in the world. I was wearing my True Grit/Ridgway t-shirt from last year, which started a conversation with a couple in the elevator ride down 230 feet. Then the Park Ranger leading the tour joined in – talking about Ridgway. He was from Delta, CO. After the tour, he talked to us about my knee surgery because he wife also had knee surgery in January. It is amazing the people we have met and the things we’ve talked about and the commonalities we all have. From Jewel Cave, we drove on to our campground at Devil’s Tower – we are near the base and can see it from the campground. Knowing we were getting close, when we came around a curve and caught the first site of Devil’s Tower in the distance, it was breathtaking. Tony set up the camper and we drove up to the visitor center and looked around.
Another thunderstorm system was rolling in, so we did not hike around the base today – that is for tomorrow. We then drove to the small (very small) town of Hulett, WY to get diesel and we ate at the golf course restaurant, watching it rain. Then back to the camper, still raining. It is nearly 7 PM, the rain is coming down and it is supposed to be 39 degrees tonight. We are snug in our little home on wheels. This is DT coming back from Hulett with the clouds rolling in and our view from the camper.
Tomorrow, we are hiking Devil’s Tower, then on to Sundance and to the Vore Buffalo Jump.
GA Gypsies - Fulltiming 