Wednesday, September 14 cont’d

I plan to stay two nights at Devils Tower National Monument. My next stop is Rapid City, SD on Sept 16, and I’m only a few hours drive from there.

I drive up to the visitors center. After looking at the exhibits, I walk the trail that circumnavigates the Tower. It’s only about a mile and half so I take my time to enjoy the area.

Thursday, September 14

Thursday morning I head back up to the visitors center to hike the trail that circumnavigates the Tower but further away from it. The trail is about 3.5 miles. So it’s a nice walk, pretty easy as not much elevation gain. I take my time to look for birds and any wildlife that may be around. But didn’t see too much.

Near the campground is the Circle of Sacred Smoke sculpture.  The Tower is a sacred place to Native American tribes.  The Circle of Sacred Smoke represents a puff of smoke from a Native American ceremonial pipe.

Friday, September 15

It has been a little overcast since I arrived on Wednesday, but Thursday afternoon a front moved in bringing thick clouds and rain. Boo!!! Since I have good cell signal here at the campground I decide to stay put another night. It rains pretty much all day Friday. So I spend the day catching up on phone calls and business that I need to take care of. I get caught up on my financial records, etc.  The day passes pretty quickly really.  It’s amazing how quickly the time goes when doing this kind of stuff.

It continued to rain all thru the night Friday and stayed very overcast with thick cloud cover. When I awake Saturday morning it is about 47° inside, yikes! And for the first time since I have had my solar, the batteries did not recharge. They are too low to be able to run the furnace. So I quickly prepare breakfast and coffee. Then get the Nash ready for travel. Misty and I jump in the truck, crank up the heater and head towards Rapid City. The heat sure feels good! I will be in Rapid City for about a month. One thing I’ll be doing for sure is getting an Olympian Wave Catalytic heater installed. This is a propane heater that doesn’t require electricity to operate.  I’ll need it to get me through the winter.