A Traveling Fool

On a trip to Central Europe in 2008, we began and ended the tour in Germany. We went in late March, which was actually a little too early as we encountered both cold and snow during the first few days of the trip. When we arrived in Frankfurt, it was snowing. It was also Easter Sunday. Very little was open. Only one restaurant in the hotel (which was a modern high rise) was open and offered an overpriced Easter Buffet. We piled the food on our plates to make that our one real meal for the day and rolled ourselves out of the restaurant afterwards.

Feeling like we were possibly going to explode, we went for a walk afterwards to settle everything and found a gas station with some snacks that we purchased in case we got hungry at dinner time. We had a fridge in the hotel, so we also bought some liquids. We never did get hungry again that day, but the liquids definitely came in handy. We ended up just taking the snacks with us to use a little later on the trip.

Our tour director was a Croatian named Wenceslas (Wence). We had an Italian driver named Franco, from Sorrento, and a trainee tour director from Hungary named Esther. Franco didn’t speak much English, but both Wence and Esther spoke Italian, so no problem. We met them that night at an introductory gathering with wine and a few appetizers. The tour left the next morning for Berlin.

Our morning break was at Eisenach at the former East/West border. Eisenach was where Martin Luther translated the Bible to German and where Johann Sebastian Bach was born. I got some photos of the East German border crossing and guard tower as well as one of the town of Eisenach.

We had lunch in Weimer. Although Bach had been born in Eisenach, he spent a lot of time in Weimer, as did Liszt, Schiller, Goethe and Nietzsche. Martin Luther also used to hang around in Weimer and later hid out at a nearby castle. The Nazi concentration camp, Buchenwald, was located not far from Weimer. It was one of the first and the largest concentration camp on German soil.

In the afternoon, before reaching Berlin, we had a break in Leipzig. Leipzig has been around for a long time and was first documented in 1015. It has the oldest remaining trade fair in the world. In 1813, it was the site of the Battle of Leipzig during the Napoleonic Wars. It was also bombed pretty heavily during World War II.

The province of Brandenburg (which used to be the core of the Kingdom of Prussia) completely surrounds the city of Berlin. Potsdam, which we visited later, is the capital of Brandenburg. We arrived in Berlin fairly late in the afternoon and had an orientation tour of the city before arriving at our hotel, which was in the former East Berlin. We had opted not to do the dinner that evening, so we had picked up some fruit, cheese and bread during our afternoon stop to have a light dinner in our hotel room. Just down the road was a small shop where I could get some cold beverages, so I took a walk down there shortly after we arrived. There were a couple of other people from our tour who apparently had the same idea.

The following day, we explored Berlin in earnest. We drove all over the East side and the West side. The book burning square, the Pergamon Museum (Greek & Babylonian antiquities including the Ishtar Gate and the Pergamon Altar), the Altes Museum (more Greek, plus Roman artifacts), the Nues Museum (containing prehistoric pieces and Egyptian art – including the bust of Nerertiti), plus two other museums with paintings and sculptures, the Berlin Cathedral, the Victory Column (which commemorates early Prussian victories), Checkpoint Charlie, the Holocaust Memorial, the Reichstag, and the bombed out Kaiser Wilhelm Church were all places that were pointed out as we went by.

We stopped off and spent a short amount of time at the square containing the Berlin Opera, the French Dome, and the German Dome. The square is called the Gendarmenmarkt and was created at the end of the 17^th century as a market square. The two churches (the French Dome and the German Dome) were built in the early 18^th century on either end of the square as enhancements. The Opera House/Concert Hall was built in the early 19^th century at the center of the square.

We also spent some time at the Berlin Wall, parts of which have been preserved as a memorial. At the Brandenburg Gate, erected in the 1730s, it began to snow. If you look carefully at both the photo of the Brandenburg Gate and that of the Reichstag (Germany’s parliament) you can see snowflakes.

After lunch, we visited Potsdam, where we toured Cecilienhoff Palace and visited Sansouci Palace. Cecilienhoff Palace was the location of the Potsdam Treaty Conference in 1945, which was signed by the US (Harry Truman), the UK (Winston Churchill), and the Soviet Union (Joseph Stalin). We were able to tour most of the palace. At Sanssouci, the summer palace of Frederick the Great, King of Prussia, only the gardens and the gift shop were open. Fortunately it was no longer snowing.

After visiting Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Austria, and the Czech Republic, we returned to Germany, arriving in Munich in the late afternoon. Mom was feeling a little under the weather, and I had to admit that I was tired. So, after an orientation tour on the coach, we looked around for a bit and went to the hotel to rest up before the next day.

We spent the following day on the Romantic Road, stopping first at Nordlingen, an intact medieval town with walls, gates and buildings which was built inside of an impact crater in 898AD over a Roman settlement that dates back to 85AD. Then we went to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, another village with intact walls, founded in 1170. We had lunch there at the Golden Lamb on Market Square. The fare was traditional German — bratwurst, sauerbraten, potato pancakes, sour cream, and apple strudel. That evening, we arrived back in Frankfurt for a farewell dinner before our flight home the next day.

Next time – Poland.

We began our day in Bouctouche on a small island where, in summer months, one can travel back in time and experience Acadian life with a village and show called Le Pays de la Sagouine. We were treated to comedy, music, dancing and stories, followed by a drink made from rum, fruit juice and a secret ingredient. Once again, since Mom couldn’t drink, I had hers and mine.

In Bouctouche itself, with a population of between two and three thousand, we had lunch. The area, with its population mostly descended from the Acadians, is completely bilingual, with most people speaking French unless spoken to in English.

After lunch, we visited the Olivier Soapery where we received a demonstration of soap making. Located in St-Anne-de-Kent in New Brunswick, the soapery uses recipes developed in France, Spain and Italy along with natural ingredients and Acadian methods to create their products. The guide we had telling us their history and about their products had a decent sense of humor as she kept us laughing throughout. One thing that I remember her saying was that a particular soap that contained several edible ingredients and smelled delicious should not be eaten as it would make us “fart bubbles”.

We spent the night in Moncton, which had first been settled in 1733 and is the largest city in New Brunswick. The capital of New Brunswick, however, is Fredericton, which began in 1690. We had lunch there the next day before visiting the King’s Landing Historic Settlement. It is a living history museum dating to the early 1800s where guests can experience some of the life of that period by trying some hands-on farming, blacksmithing, wheelwrighting, among other things. They have costumed interpreters on hand, much as in Colonial Williamsburg and Plimouth Plantation. Many of the items made at King’s Landing are for sale in the shops there. Mom and I visited a church, three houses, the ox barn, the General Store, the Blacksmith’s shop (my dad’s father had been a blacksmith as had his father before him), and the King’s Head Inn.

One of the highlights of the trip was a visit to St Andrews by the Sea in order to do some whale watching out in the Bay of Fundy. St Andrews was founded in 1783 when some buildings were floated on barges from Maine just after the American Revolution. The waters in the area were also where my ship’s captain ancestor sailed, so I was elated to be out in a boat in the same place and seeing a lot of what he would have seen.

Nearer St Andrews we saw several small, rock islands covered with seals. I decided to use my video camera to try to capture what we saw (it’s too hard to go back and forth between a video camera and a photo camera when trying to capture quick action), so I only got two photos. In addition to the harbor seals, we also saw minke whales, fin whales, and humpback whales. I managed to capture some great video footage of every whale we saw.  Whenever one was spotted, I got the camera on them so, if they did anything like leaping or spouting, I was already recording.

We spent the night in Saint John, which was originally settled in 1604 and was the first city to be incorporated in what was to become Canada in 1785. We began the following day by exploring the Old City Market and then seeing the Reversing Falls. This is a unique phenomenon where the high tides of the Bay of Fundy reverse the flow of the river within a gorge in the middle of the city. In the narrowest part of the gorge are some strong rapids.

There are several covered bridges in the vicinity of Saint John, so we visited the town of St Martins to see a few. Afterwards we drove along the Fundy Trail. Where the highways were, there were very tall chain link fences, which were to try to keep moose from running out on the highways and getting hit by cars. Around the trail itself on the scenic drive, there weren’t any fences. But the road speeds were much slower than the highway speeds, so hopefully drivers would be able to spot any moose in enough time to stop.

The tides in the Bay of Fundy have a wide range (about 28 feet) from low tide to high tide. One of the places that demonstrates this at its utmost is Hopewell Rocks. The rock formations were created by the extreme tides that can vary as much as 52 feet in this location. At low tide, people can walk around on the ocean floor.

We spent another night in Saint John before heading back to Halifax. En route, we spent some time at Peggy’s Cove, which is on Saint Margaret’s Bay in Nova Scotia since 1766. Originally a fishing town, its main industry now is tourism. That makes sense as it is very picturesque.

We had lunch in Lunenberg, another colorful, coastal town and went through Mahone Bay before reaching Halifax. Our last adventure was to sail on the tall ship Silva around the Halifax Harbor. I loved that. When it was moving along quickly, it felt like we were skimming along above the water instead of on it.

I guess 2007 was my year for having difficulties getting home. We were supposed to catch a flight from Halifax to Toronto and then another from Toronto to Minneapolis. The first flight was canceled so we had to re-book. We managed to get a flight to Boston, but our luggage had already been checked through to Minneapolis and loaded on another plane. So when we got to Boston and had to switch terminals with no luggage, they became very suspicious. We were each taken aside (Mom was 80 by this point), searched and questioned. Fortunately I had kept the original tickets, our luggage receipts, etcetera, so they finally decided we were okay and let us on the plane. We didn’t get to Minneapolis until about 10pm. Our luggage had beat us by several hours and was waiting there for us. We were relieved to be reunited.

After delays in our flights from Minneapolis to Chicago and from Chicago to Halifax, we finally arrived in Halifax in the middle of a thunderstorm in September of 2007. We changed our wet clothing (the rain was coming down so hard that we got soaked just getting in and out of taxis from the airport to the hotel) and went to dinner in the hotel before getting ready for the next day.

We started with a city tour of Halifax. Originally home to the Mi’kmaq, Halifax was settled by the British in 1749. The tour included the Halifax Public Gardens, which were laid out in the Victorian era, Fairview Cemetery, and The Citadel.

The cemetery contains the over 100 Titanic victims whose bodies were recovered from the Atlantic, but not taken elsewhere by family members. Roughly one third of these were never identified. One of the graves belongs to the “unknown child” who was finally identified in 2002.

The Citadel was originally built in 1749. The current version of the fortress was completed in 1856. While there, we saw a demonstration of musket shooting and another of canon firing. Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland” and the uniforms at the Citadel include a kilt.

With a free afternoon, we had lunch at a café in the harbor of Halifax and then visited the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic. This museum had three exhibits in particular that we wanted to see – the Titanic exhibit, the exhibit of the Halifax Explosion of 1917, and a special pirate exhibit.

The Titanic exhibit focuses on the role of Halifax in the recovery of the bodies and has the largest collection of wooden artifacts from the ship, including one of the deck chairs. The exhibit also includes a pair of children’s shoes that helped in the identification of the unknown child.

The Halifax Explosion of 1917 happened when two ships, one loaded with explosives, collided in the Narrows. The Explosion was so enormous that it leveled portions of the city, killing roughly 2,000 people and injuring roughly 9,000. This happened in December, so the weather was also a factor. Hundreds of people were blinded when the explosion took place. They had been watching the fire on the ship from inside their homes, businesses, etcetera. Many of the stories were really heart-wrenching, including one of a railroad dispatcher who stayed behind to warn incoming trains to stay away from Halifax and signed off with, “Guess this will be my last message. Goodbye, boys.”

The next day we set off for Cape Breton where we visited the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, which included exhibits on airplanes and the hydrofoil, in addition to the telephone. He had an entire peninsula on the Bras d’Or Lake opposite Baddeck that his descendants still own. We spent that night and the next at the Inverary Resort in Baddeck. The Bras d’Or Lake is essentially an inland sea with a mixture of salt and fresh water.

Mom was feeling a little under the weather when we arrived and our room was upstairs in the building we were in, with no elevator. So I left her sitting in a comfy armchair on the ground floor and took the luggage up the stairs and put it in the room. Then I came back downstairs and sat and talked with her until she felt better. It seemed to be just a passing feeling of being winded and didn’t happen again during the trip.

The next day we took the Cabot Trail through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, stopping for lunch at Cheticamp, an Acadian fishing village, where we had wonderful homemade food. The Acadians are the descendants of French colonists who settled in the area in the 17^th and 18^th centuries, some of who are also descendants of the indigenous people of the region. During the French & Indian War, many of the Acadians were expelled by the British who thought they might be in cahoots with the French. Some of the Acadians who were sent to France, were recruited by the Spanish to settle in what is now Louisiana. These people became the Cajuns.

That evening we took a boat ride on the lake and became acquainted with one of our fellow travelers, Colin from the UK, with whom I am still friends. He captured a great photo of a bald eagle and shared it with us. It was a beautiful night, not cold or rainy, and a lovely boat ride.

Our last stop in Nova Scotia was Pictou, which was where the first Scottish settlers arrived in 1773 on board a ship called the Hector. So Pictou is essentially the Nova Scotia version of Plymouth, Massachusetts. They have a replica of the Hector that can be explored. I really liked Pictou. It is a fairly small town (roughly 3,000) clinging to the side of a rather steep hill sloping down to the harbor.

Interestingly enough, an ancestor of mine, Captain Nathaniel Reynolds (a 6^th great grandfather), was a privateer for the colonies during the American Revolution who helped capture a British ship at Pictou. For that, the British labeled him a pirate and put a reward of £100 up for his capture. The daughter of his from whom I am descended, was born in Amherst, Nova Scotia.

After exploring the ship and having lunch, we boarded a ferry to Charlottetown on Prince Edward Island. We explored the town during the afternoon, visiting St Dunstan Church and Provence House (which was where Canada was confederated into a country in 1864). That night we went to the Center for the Arts to see a production of a play based on “Anne of Green Gables”.

The next day we set off for North Rustico on the island, followed by a visit to the Prince Edward Island National Park. Our local guide on this part of the trip had a fun sense of humor. She said, “There isn’t a single mosquito on PEI.” After a pause she added, “They are all married with large families.” I thought that would work well for Minnesota too (where the mosquito is the unofficial state bird), so I wrote it down in my trip journal to remember it. To tell you how swift I am at remembering a joke, this is the first time I’ve used it.

Being a fan of “Anne of Green Gables”, I was excited when we got to Cavendish. There we visited the farm that was owned by a cousin of Lucy Maude Montgomery’s (the series author) grandparents. This was the setting for the books and is now open for tourists. The area in the vicinity of the house and town was also portrayed in the books, so we took a good walk to take it all in. Not only do I enjoy historic locations, but I also love to see where some of my favorite novels were based when the fictional story was in a real setting.

The next morning we took the Confederation Bridge from Prince Edward Island to New Brunswick.

In 2007, a group of us from our church went out to Ashland, Oregon to the Oregon Shakespeare Festival. Greta, the wife of our head pastor at the time, was an actress and in two of the plays out there that year. She has since been in numerous productions in the Minneapolis/St Paul area mainly at the Penumbra and Guthrie Theatres. I just recently saw her in “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” at the Guthrie.

There were about eight of us who flew from Minneapolis to Salt Lake City and then to Medford, Oregon. One of our group had flown out a day earlier, rented a car, and came to pick up about half the group. Another group member picked up a rental car at the airport and drove the remainder of the group into Ashland.

The hotel had been built in 1914 and was quite quaint with bathrooms down the hall and old furniture in the rooms. It had character. My roommate, Nancy, and I had a larger room with a lounge area, a dining table and chairs, and a small kitchen with a tiny fridge. I was at the tail end of six months of pumping chemicals into my body after having been diagnosed with a life-threatening illness and having had some surgery to combat it. The intravenous liquid needed to be refrigerated. I had carried it onboard both planes in a cooler compartment at one end of my carry-on.

After having a very nice dinner at a nearby restaurant, the rest of the group went to a concert in the park. But my energy was very low, so I stayed back at the hotel, read a little bit and went to bed. I was definitely too ill to have gone. But I was there and determined to try not to be a party pooper for the whole trip.

We started the next day with a backstage tour of the three theatres. Two are indoor theatres and the third is an Elizabethan-style outdoor theatre. Normally a quick walker despite my short height, this time I was struggling somewhat unsuccessfully to keep up. After the tour, we met up with Greta near one of the theatres and all went out to Crater Lake together.

Wow! Crater Lake! Absolutely gorgeous! After lunch at the lodge, we drove the Rim Road slowly around the lake, stopping several times along the way for photos. The lake was formed by the caldera of a volcano roughly 7,000 or so years ago and is the deepest lake in the U.S. The water is very clear and very blue. It is also up in the mountains and can have snow for most of the year. The mountains around it usually do. We were there in July and needed warm jackets up by the lake.

We timed our trip so we would get Greta back in town with plenty of time for her to have dinner and relax before her performance that evening. She was in “Gem of the Ocean” by August Wilson. Greta was playing Aunt Ester who claimed to be 285 years old and was a soul cleanser. By the end of the play, I wasn’t really doubting any of that.

The next day was Greta’s day off. So we all went down into California to Crescent City and then up the coast to Brookings, Oregon, which was having their annual kite festival that weekend. We had lunch in a restaurant that overlooked the ocean and then headed back down the coast into California to see the Redwoods. We stopped at a place that had cable car rides up through the trees. So far, that is the only trip I have ever taken where I was able to get up close and personal with those enormous redwoods.

On Sunday, Greta took us to the church she was attending while out in Oregon. They had a lovely outdoor service in a beautiful setting. For our afternoon excursion, we chose to visit the town of Jacksonville, Oregon. The entire historic district is on the National Historic Register as an authentic western town. We took a trolley tour around the town, which included some interesting, and often funny, commentary.

We got back to town in time to have a nice, leisurely dinner at a seafood restaurant before seeing Greta in “The Tempest” at the outdoor Elizabethan Theatre. We were fortunate to have wonderful weather all day and evening. Since the only female character Shakespeare wrote for the play is Miranda, Greta played a role usually played by men. Since she had the very complicated lead role in “Gem of the Ocean”, she was cast in a less demanding role in “The Tempest”. The woman has talent and did a beautiful job in both roles (and indeed in every role I have ever seen her).

The next day we traveled back towards Minneapolis. I say “towards” because we didn’t quite make it. Our flight from Salt Lake City to Minneapolis was delayed, and then canceled. Then we were supposed to go on another plane, which was eventually canceled (after a lot of fooling around – we’ll be going in an hour – we’re delayed for another two hours – etcetera). Finally, after 11 pm, we were told that we wouldn’t be going anywhere that night, got booked on other flights for the following day, and given taxi, hotel and dinner vouchers.

Dinner vouchers only work when there is someplace open to use them. We didn’t reach our hotel until past midnight and it was in the middle of nowhere, so no dinner for us. The taxi was getting us the next morning at 5am, so not much time to sleep either. I was relieved that the hotel room had a fridge for my meds. Too bad the airline hadn’t conceded defeat early enough for us to have a nice meal and get some rest before returning to the airport where our breakfast came out of vending machines. I seem to remember jumping into bed shortly after arriving home. My dog joined me.

During our 2005 family trip to the Black Hills of South Dakota, the morning after our trip to Hot Springs we started our day at Ken’s Minerals, which Mom and I always visited on every trip we made. It is near the town of Custer. Mom had a pretty sizeable collection of rings that she purchased there over the years. On this visit, I bought a Nativity set made from rose quartz, a powder horn (for an old musket), and an arrowhead. When I mentioned that I collect old weapons, Ken showed me his antique flint lock rifle.

The Gordon Stockade (which was being restored in 2005) was created shortly after General Custer’s men discovered gold in French Creek and the Black Hills were flooded with prospectors. The Black Hills are sacred to the Lakota. The US Government wanted to know what was there, so they sent General Armstrong Custer and several soldiers into the Hills to find out. They camped out near what is the present day town of Custer. In fact, from the photos, the camp looks like it could have been approximately where Ken’s Minerals is now.

While there, they discovered gold. The US wanted to buy the Hills from the Lakota, but the Lakota said, “No way”. So the government just took it anyway. The Pine Ridge Reservation was eventually set up near the Black Hills on the edge of the Badlands. The Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890 took place by the Wounded Knee Creek in an area of the Badlands.

Close to the stockade is Lower French Creek Road. Taking that road, we came upon a monument to the first white woman to enter the Blacks Hills (in 1874). We took a fork in the road there which went by a log schoolhouse, which was the first public school in the Dakota Territory. This was the road to the cabin that a childhood friend of Mom and her sister owned and where Mom and I stayed on several prior trips. This road eventually leads to the cabin that Grandpa and his sister, Teena, owned along French Creek.

When we arrived at the cabin, the new owners were there and in the middle of remodeling the place. They were kind enough to invite us inside and show us around. I was so happy to be able to see inside of it before it was entirely different than it had been when Mom was a child. The owners at that time were also from Hot Springs. Once again, Scott and I videoed Mom outside of the cabin as she told her stories about it.

For lunch we went to the Sylvan Lake Resort. After lunch we walked around by the lake a bit. We came across a woman who had a Scottie, which is the same type of dog that Mom and her family had when Mom was a child and they lived in the Black Hills. From Sylvan Lake we took the Needles Highway back to the State Game Lodge. Along the Needles Highway, several of the rock formations resemble needles. There is one that is called the Eye of the Needle and that is what it resembles.

Back at the State Game Lodge, Scott had signed us up for the Buffalo Jeep Safari. This is a ride in a large jeep off road. It goes to some scenic places not served by roads and also drives amongst the bison herd.

The ranger who was taking us out said that the bison respect what is bigger than they are. So a large jeep doesn’t get bothered. A person (or even two) on a motorcycle or a person walking around do not fit in the category of “bigger than they are”. Every year there are a certain amount of deaths caused by somebody getting out of their cars and getting too close or someone on a motorcycle who thinks that the bison should be intimidated.

On a later trip to the Black Hills, some of us went up the hill behind the State Game Lodge to take a hike. We heard this loud crashing sound below and ahead of us while on the trail. We froze and waited to see what it was. It was a couple of male bison who crossed the trail about twenty five feet or so in front of us. They didn’t pay any attention to us at all. Likely didn’t notice us. We didn’t move an inch until they had gone their merry way and we were certain no more were following them. Then we turned around and went back down to the Game Lodge. Enough excitement for that walk.

On the Buffalo Jeep Safari, we were joined by a couple other jeeps from the State Game Lodge. We saw more pronghorn antelope, some white tail deer, some mule deer, and some elk in addition to a couple different bison herds. We then joined the other jeeps and some wagons from Bluebell Lodge, taking families with children on hayrides, at a remote location in Parker Canyon for a chuck wagon dinner. Western music and a comedian emcee accompanied our western dinner.

When we got back to the Game Lodge, six large, male bison where hanging out by the parking lot. They didn’t seem to be too concerned about us getting out of the jeeps and into our cars. They were far enough away that they obviously didn’t consider us to be a threat. There were a couple more hanging out near our cabins again.

The next morning, it was like a bison convention on the lawn between the cabins and the lodge. We piled into the van to go to breakfast at the lodge and then headed for Crazy Horse after breakfast. The difference in size between Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore is best illustrated by the fact that all four faces on Mount Rushmore would fit on Crazy Horse’s cheek.  The project, which is very controversial to the Lakota, including some of Crazy Horse’s descendants, is funded by a private fund and the money brought in by tourism to the site. Once completed it will be the largest sculpture in the world.

Our next adventure was to drive up to Deadwood. Mom and I had been there many years before to visit the nearby Homestake Mine. This was the largest and deepest gold mine in North America. George Hearst (father of William Randolph Hearst) had been one of the owners. On that earlier trip, we had then gone into Deadwood to take a look at the town and the graves of Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. The town was quite sleepy and rundown in those days. But that was before the film “Dances with Wolves”, Kevin Costner, and the TV series “Deadwood”. What a difference! This time there was loads of noise, tons of casinos, places to eat and lots and lots of people. In fact, we had some difficulty finding a place to park.

My initial reaction was that the wild west authenticity was gone. But the town had been created by people who had come west to seek their fortune in gold. If you have ever seen the “Deadwood” TV show, that was pretty accurate and many of the people portrayed on the show (at least in the first season) were based on real people. The original Deadwood was extremely wild and dangerous, so this newer version was actually quite tame in comparison.

The earlier “ghost town” version of Deadwood that Mom and I had visited did have signs indicating where the original No. 10 Saloon had been located (where Wild Bill Hickock had been killed) and where Jack McCall (Hickock’s killer) had been caught. They also had a newer version of No. 10 where, for a fee, you could go downstairs and see a tableau of Hickock’s murder with mannequins. The new Deadwood still had those things (except for the mannequins), but they also had refurbished several of the old buildings, including a couple hotels, and had actors portraying the famous characters from the days of the Gold Rush who reenacted Hickock’s murder and McCall’s capture and trial on a regular basis.

We had lunch in a place just across the street from the No. 10 Saloon. Afterwards I tried one of the slot machines and won $2.50 for my quarter. I decided to quit while I was ahead. I’m not much of a gambler.

We went to the Mount Moriah Cemetary to view the graves of Wild Bill Hickock, Calamity Jane, and Seth Bullock. When Mom and I had been there before, Hickock and Calamity Jane still had the old-fashioned painted wooden grave markers much as would have been on their graves back when they were first buried. This time Hickock had a large bust on his grave and Calamity had a large urn on hers. Seth Bullock and his wife had a decent sized stone marker on their joint grave.

A little ways outside of the town is a wooden recreation of what the town looked like back in its heyday in the late 1800s. They have costumed interpreters and reenactors do their thing for the tourists. Sometime when I have the time I’ll stop by there to check it out. But I really am much more interested in the real thing.

When we got back to the cabins, it seemed that every male bison in the park was hanging out there. We said goodbye to our sizeable pals, packed our bags and left the following morning after breakfast to get back to the airport at Rapid City.

Although my mom and I had been to the Black Hills of South Dakota several times together, neither one of my brothers had ever been there. So in May of 2005, we all took the Nostalgia Tour in order for Mom to be able to show her sons where she had grown up. We all believe that we are very fortunate that she grew up someplace so very interesting with beautiful scenery, wildlife and a fascinating history.

We flew from Minneapolis and picked up a rental for the five of us (Scott’s wife was with us) at the airport. Driving into Rapid City, we stopped off at the Alex Johnson Hotel.  Mom’s dad’s sister, Teena, had a dress shop in the hotel from shortly after it was built in 1929 to the late 1930s. Where Aunt Teena’s dress shop used to be, the gift shop is now. The lobby is much as it was when the hotel was built so it didn’t take much to envision Mom standing in the lobby with her father back in 1936 watching President Franklin D Roosevelt arrive for the unveiling of the face of Thomas Jefferson (the second face to be completed) on Mount Rushmore. She was nine at the time.

Back when Gutzon Borglum first began carving Mount Rushmore, the money came from the local business people, who included my grandfather and his sister, Teena. So they were guests at the unveiling. Grandpa and Mom were at the hotel because Aunt Teena lived there in addition to having her dress shop there.

After lunch at the hotel, we went to Mount Rushmore. Mom pointed out the area where they stood during the unveiling, which was near the pile of rubble down at the base of the monument. The President gave a speech and then the flag draped across Jefferson’s face was removed. The last time Mom and I had been there, the great trails that are there now weren’t yet in existence. We enjoyed exploring the trails and getting photos from different perspectives. Scott and I both had video cameras with us and filmed Mom reminiscing.

At the gift shop they had picture books of what different parts of the Hills looked like back in the ‘30s. It was Mom’s birthday, so we bought her some of those books. She teared up. Before we left, we all had ice cream.

From Mount Rushmore we took the Iron Mountain Road with its pigtail bridges, switchbacks, spirals and single lane tunnels. During a prior visit the rental car that Mom and I had did not have a working horn. When approaching a tunnel, it is necessary to honk the horn in order to let anybody coming from the other direction know that you are there. Because the horn wasn’t working, I rolled down the window and yelled, “Honk!” as loud as I could. The people on the other side were still laughing as we went by.

We had tried the horn on this vehicle prior to leaving the airport, so we knew that nobody would need to yell this time. Along the route, we saw some prong horn antelope and several wild turkeys before we got to Custer State Park. We rented two cabins at the State Game Lodge (which had been President Coolidge’s Summer White House) – a single room for Scott & Anita next door to a two room with kitchen for me, Mom and Dean. While we were unloading the van in the back, a large, male bison was roaming in the front.

On the way to Hot Springs the next day, Scott had taken a short detour to a scenic overlook that was quite nice. Then he veered off to Mount Coolidge Lookout. This was a single track dirt road up a mountain. No railings and no place to pull over should you meet someone on the way. At the very top was a single-car-width dirt road with sheer drops on both sides to get to the actual lookout. I was riding shotgun and was absolutely terrified. I told Scott that I had my eyes closed across the last bit. He joked that he did too. We decided that anything that said “overlook” was fine, but anything that said “lookout” meant “LOOKOUT!” We did have some great views from up there, though, including a frontal view of Crazy Horse.

The rest of the way to Hot Springs was on pretty flat terrain. We encountered several bison, pronghorn antelope, deer, prairie dogs, and a coyote. Our last stop before the town was Wind Cave. It was created as a national park by Theodore Roosevelt in 1903 and is known for its boxwork formations (kind of like a honeycomb). 95% of the known boxwork formations in the world are found in Wind Cave. Despite the fact that Dean isn’t a fan of tight spaces (especially underground) he still joined me and Scott on a tour. Both brothers are well over 6’ in height, so they had some very tight spaces to deal with maneuvering around in there.

The Lakota Native Americans consider Wind Cave to be a sacred place. It was considered to be the location from which their people emerged from the underworld. The cave breathes. Wind goes in and out of several holes at the surface, which is how it got its name.

When we got to Hot Springs (which was where Mom lived as a child) our first stop was the Evans Plunge. Mom had many happy memories of swimming there. The water to feed the pools and slides comes from the hot springs that gives the town its name.

Next we went by Grandpa’s garage (he had a Chevy dealership and garage from about 1927 to 1938). Through the years his business had continued to exist under various other owners. On a previous visit, Mom and I had talked with the owner then who was very interested in the history of the place and was quite pleased to be able to find out quite a bit from Mom. This time, however, the garage and dealership were boarded up and about to be torn down. The roof had fallen in during some big storm. It had one of those old, tin ceilings.

Up the road was Mom’s childhood home. It was in a great state of repair and appeared to be very well taken care of. The library where she used to check out books about faraway places was still there too. Her school is now a museum and was open. So we all went in and explored. It kind of reminded me of those antique stores where everything is kind of piled in with different areas having different themes. Mom pointed out which classrooms had been hers. She also pointed out the principal’s office and other important parts of the building, including the fire escape.

They have a chute that was entered by a door on each floor above ground floor. Everyone slid down the chute and out at the bottom. Mom got in trouble for not wanting to go down the chute for a fire drill when she was in about the 5^th grade. She confided in her mother that it was because the boys would go first and then wait for the girls to come down so they could see their underpants.

Because the school had been turned into a museum several years ago, it had never been modernized at all, so the structure had not changed from when she had been there. Some of the playground equipment that had been there in her day was still there as well.

What had not been there when Mom lived there was the Mammoth Site Exhibit. The bones had been there for thousands of years, but weren’t discovered until the 1970s. We visited that too before heading to Bluebell Lodge for dinner.

On the way back to Custer State Park, we saw several more bison, deer, antelope and prairie dogs. We broke into a chorus of “Oh, give me a home where the buffalo roam; where the deer and the antelope play…” Anita groaned.

The building containing the dining room at Bluebell Lodge is a very large log cabin, both inside and out. The food is decidedly western.  After dinner, we stopped off at the general store there. The store is walking distance from the cabin that Grandpa and his sister, Teena, jointly owned and was where Grandma, Mom and Mom’s sister, Barbara, used to go to get any groceries they needed while staying at the cabin.

We back-tracked to the Wildlife Loop and took it back to the State Game Lodge so we could see more bison, antelope, and deer, plus some wild turkeys and burros. A little later, one of my brothers decided to walk over to the lodge for a nightcap. We got a call asking us to come and rescue him with the van. About three bison were hanging out between the lodge and the cabins. One was on the cabin side of the footbridge across the creek separating the lodge from the cabins. Another was sauntering along the sidewalk next to the road leading from the lodge to the cabins. The third was just biding his time out on the lawn in between the other two. Bison are about two tons with horns, so you don’t want to take chances.

We had a couple more days in the Black Hills in which we visited Mom’s family’s cabin, went on a Buffalo Jeep Safari, and took a road trip to Deadwood. More on these adventures next time.