Champagne Country

No, we didn't take a wrong turn and end up in France! Champagne Country is the moniker for the music played here at the campground by Vern and Rita Davis. They relocate to Medora each summer from Casper, Wyoming, and play a 4-hour set most nights during the summer. This is their 28th year. Vern plays guitar and sings songs from his deep repertoire of country and cowboy songs. Rita doesn't sing but plays the bass and keyboard. They specialize in taking requests from the audience. One night Jimmy Buffett's "Margaritaville" was followed by Don Ho's "Tiny Bubbles." Vern is 80 years old. In his younger days, he wrote several country hits and recorded in Nashville. He told the story of the time back in the early 1970s when he and his band got their big break to go on a nationwide tour. The night before they left, his drummer and bass player quit the band. Vern managed to find some last-minute fill-ins but they didn't work out. End of tour. Bye-bye big break. We've really enjoyed their songs and stories every night. Tonight is their day off and I really miss walking over and listening.

This guest vocalist will stick to blogging after his cameo with Vern and Rita Davis.

Keep the Maple Syrup Off of My Binoculars

The 57th Annual Theodore Roosevelt National Park Birdwalk and Chuckwagon Breakfast combines two of my favorite things -- birdwatching and eating. So, we did have some incentive to rise at 5 AM and drive into the park to participate in this year's event. More than 70 birdwatchers of all ages showed up. The group included serious birders who can identify birds by listening to a few call notes, those interested in adding to their bird lists (us), first-timers looking to see what birding is all about, and several who came exclusively for the pancakes, sausage, and cowboy coffee. With all of the flooding along the Little Missouri River in recent weeks, the conditions were perfect for birdwatching. The group identified 53 species of birds, one of the higher totals in the event's history. The locals were excited by the sighting of a red-bellied woodpecker, a rare sighting in North Dakota. We see them all the time at our backyard feeder in Gainesville so it was no big deal for us. We saw a Bullock's Oriole, which is only found in this part of the country. So we were really excited by that but the locals pretty much yawned their way past that tree.

More than 70 people showed up at 6 AM for birding and pancakes.

We added the Bullock's Oriole to our bird list.

Theodore Roosevelt National Park

Miles of hiking trails wind through the geologic formations at the park.

Wild horses roam throughout Theodore Roosevelt National Park

How did a National Park in the middle of North Dakota come to be named after a former US president from New York? In the winter of 1883, more than 20 years before becoming president, Theodore Roosevelt had suffered the double tragedy of losing his wife and his mother -- on the same day! To help him clear his mind and deal with his grief, he accepted the invitation of an acquaintance to spend some time big game hunting in the Badlands of North Dakota. He fell in love with the area and its people, so much so that he became partners in a cattle business and built a cabin where he could lead the "strenuous life" that he loved. But the big game hunting he came west for proved disappointing -- the last of the bison herds were gone, having been decimated by hide hunters and disease. After seeing the damage being done to the land and its wildlife, Roosevelt became an ardent conservationist. As president, he established the US Forest Service, proclaimed 18 national monuments, established five national parks and 51 wildlife refuges, and set aside land as national forests. The park was created and named in his honor to commemorate his vision and contributions to preserving wild lands. Today, the park offers the visitor access to those same lands that inspired Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt's cabin has been restored and is open for tours at the visitor center.

Support Rails to Trails

We rode the 18-mile segment between Custer and White Elephant Junction.

Many communities around the country have converted no-longer-used railroad rights-of-way into trails for non-motorized use. As someone who enjoys traveling with my bike, I inquire about local bike trails as soon as we arrive at a new campground. More times than not, there is a rail trail in the area that offers a great way to see the area and satisfy the need to get some peddling time in. Custer, South Dakota, has the Mickelson Trail, a 109-mile rail trail that runs through the Black Hills. Conceived by former Governor George Mickelson, the trail connects the major towns in the Black Hills and, with no more than a 4% grade on any stretch, it is challenging enough but not so intimidating that it takes away from enjoying the scenery. We saw horses, bison, deer, cattle, sheep, goats, and even a couple of snakes along the way. If you have a rail trail in your community, get out there and ride it sometime. You'll get some great exercise and discover a whole new world right in your back yard.

...and the Sculpture Down the Road You Probably Don't Know

A few hills to the southwest of Mt. Rushmore is the Crazy Horse Memorial which, when finished, will dwarf that of the four presidents. But finishing it seems to be a long ways off. After Mt. Rushmore was completed, Lakota Chief Henry Standing Bear and several fellow chiefs invited Korczak Ziolkowski to create a sculpture that "would let the white man know the red man has great heroes also." Korczak was an accomplished sculptor whose first place finish at the New York World's Fair attracted the attention of the Indian chiefs. Korczak started the sculpture in 1947 with $174 to his name and battled financial hardship, injuries, and advancing age until his death in 1982. After his death, the cause has been taken up by his wife and children, who are committed to seeing the sculpture completed. A strong believer in the free enterprise system, Korczak refused all offers of government assistance, relying on private donations. It's a great story, but after 64 years of work, only Crazy Horse's head has been completed. Like I mentioned, it'll be a long time before it's completed, if ever. In the meantime, there is a great Indian museum, sculptor's workshop, Native American Cultural Center, restaurant, and laser light show on the mountain to keep the tourists coming while the carving on the mountain plods along.

Compare the bronze sculpture of Crazy Horse in the foreground to the actual carved mountain behind. It took 67 years to get this far-- you do the math and let me know when you think it will be finished.

The Famous Sculpture You Know.....

That would be Mt. Rushmore. Envisioned as a way to bring tourists to South Dakota, the original idea by local visionaries was to have the faces of western heroes adorn a granite peak in the Black Hills. But, after the locals had trouble drumming up support for their idea, they called in the master sculptor of the time, Gutzon Borglum, who had just finished his work on Stone Mountain in Georgia. Borglum's choice of subjects, four U.S. presidents, promised to elevate the memorial from a regional enterprise to a national monument. Work on the sculpture began in 1927 and took 14 years to complete. Only 6 years were spent on actual carving-- the rest were spent lobbying Congress, cabinet members, and presidents to provide enough funding to complete the work. Washington was the first head finished (1930), followed by Jefferson (1936), Lincoln (1937), and Roosevelt (1939). Interesting tidbit -- carving of the Jefferson head was originally started to the left of the Washington head and was well underway before Borglum realized there was not enough suitable granite left to finish the work. They blasted Jefferson's head from the mountain and started a new one in its current location.

Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln keeping an eye on the more than 3 million visitors who come to their mountain every year.

How to Beat a Rainy Day? Head to a Cave

Giant flow stone formation in Jewel Cave, 345 feet below the Black Hills.

Rare cave boxwork formation in Wind Cave. Ninety-five percent of known boxwork is located in Wind Cave.

With 2 days of rain ahead of us, we took advantage of two magnificent caves in the Black Hills, both administered by the National Park Service. Jewel Cave National Monument and Wind Cave National Park are within 30 miles of each other, were discovered at about the same time by two separate people, and are ranked as the second largest and fourth largest cave systems in the world, respectively. But despite being so close together, they offer vastly different experiences for the visitor. Jewel Cave's formations are more ornate and the rooms much larger. Wind Cave is less spectacular but the passage through is much more confined. You really feel like you are exploring a cave. The really amazing thing about both of these caves is that they have only discovered about 5 to 10 percent of what they think is there. Over 130 miles of Wind Cave have been mapped and about 150 miles of Jewel Cave. That gives you some idea of how big these two caves might be.