Ellsworth AFB in Rapid City, SD

One of our friends was stationed at Ellsworth AFB and while at the rally attended a reunion there.  He arranged for all of us to have a tour of the base while we were there for the museum.  Several B1B bombers took off while we were there and they ARE LOUD!  In the third picture we were on a bus that took us out to one of the flight lines while on our way to watch a crew practice loading bombs.  The fourth picture is the business end of these planes.

 

In talking with these servicemen they told us that the actual loading takes place outside....no matter the South Dakota weather.  When some of their planes flew to Iraq they were doing this in the middle of winter outdoors.  They told us it takes them 3 hours to load a bomber, and the pilot 3 seconds to unload it.

We also got to go down into a Minuteman silo plus see and talk with some ordnance disposal specialists, all have been in Iraq and/or Afghanistan.  They demonstrated their robot and showed us some of the original and new IEDs used by the bad guys.  When the US develops better mine detectors the bad guys revise their IEDs.  The current IED is a 4 gallon red plastic container full of homemade explosives.  The bad thing is there are thousands of these containers with fuel, cooking oil, and anything you can think of all over Afghanistan, everyone uses them for legitimate purposes.

1880 Train

Judy, being the organizer that she is, set up the 1880 Train ride from Hill City to Keystone then return after 3 or 4 hours in Keystone.  I think most all of the rally attendees went, we even had a car all to ourselves.  Since we had a few hours to kill in Keystone we did a little shopping but a lot or time spent socializing at the Emporium where the beer was cold and cheap.  We also stuck around for lunch there.  This was a GREAT day!

Custer State Park

 

One morning Judy got up early and went with Paul & Dottie for a ride through Custer State Park's wildlife loop and here's some of the critters she saw.  Me?  I slept in.  We drove through the park several times and saw these animals several times.

Mt Rushmore & 9/11 anniversary

On Tuesday evening, the 11th anniversary of 9/11 we all went to Mt Rushmore for an evening presentation and light show.  I was impressed when the park ranger invited everyone who has or is serving in the military to come down on the stage.  She then had each of them introduce themselves.

Western Buffalo

One of our HitchHiker friends, Larry, who couldn't attend the rally works for Wolverine Packing in Detroit & arranged for his buffalo meat supplier to give us 100 buffalo burgers.  Judy & I picked them up and after we all had them at a potluck the folks were quite impressed so Larry arranged a tour of the buffalo packing plant for several of us who wanted to return and purchase more buffalo.....and elk.  That's a buffalo hanging on the left and beef on the right.  Most of their work is on buffalo but they will do an occasional beef for their long time good customers. 

Custers Gulch CH in Custer, SD

We have arrived at our destination....Custer, SD for a large HitchHiker rally of 43 units.  We came in a couple days early so we could check out the area although we have been in the Black Hills and Custer State Park about 3 years ago.  The campground (CG) is name Custer's Gulch because George Custer did stay here a few days in 1874, 2 years before his famous last stand.  He was leading a large expedition into the Black Hills to explore the area.  The Indians called the area the Blank Hills because the bottom of the pine needles are dark causing the area to appear dark, or so it's said.

One evening after a potluck George stopped by and spent an hour or two with us, he told us about George's accomplishments and life.

Interior, SD in the Badlands

Today we towed through part of the Badlands National Park to the small, really small, city of Interior, SD.  The pictures were taken from the campground.  Six of us went out for dinner to a small store, restaurant, gift shop & gas station.  I think there were 3, maybe 4, tables and you didn't need to figure out what ya wanted to eat, you got the one item that the lady was preparing in her electric skillet.  Today it was country fried steak and it was large and it was good!  Unfortunately the campground was not as good and we all decided that we'd depart tomorrow rather than stick around for the planned 2 or 3 days.