Winter Family Travels in 2005: Day Fourty

We woke to the baaaing of sheep and the barking of dogs in the distance this morning. We got on the road by 9.00 and for the first time Kaitlin and Brenna had to wake their parents. It was a bit cool but it had warmed up. Margot's feet where still cold from the night before. We came down off the mountain and stopped at a banking machine at the nearest town. The temperature at 10.18 am was up to 94 degrees F or 35 C. The girls changed into shorts in the truck. Got on to the 190 East and travelled through more typical prairie grazing land seeing more cattle on the way to the Blackhills of South Dakota.

We stopped at Devil's Tower. A giant igneous intrustion rock. It was very hot, but not too humid.

We continued on to the Blackhills. We were told that it was a very popular spot so we wanted find a campground before it was too late in the day. Just into the park you go through the town of Deadwood. This is the place that Wild Bill Hilcock was murdered playing cards. Clamity Jane and many other western characters are buried here. Twenty years ago, Deadwood was basically a ghost town with an abandoned downtown. Someone got the idea to bring "gameing" to the town and well as the saying goes "If you build it, they will come." Deadwood now has over 20 casinos all in restored saloons and buildings that were orginally gaming houses of the old west. The old west as it turns out is only around 120 years ago.

We found a nice campground at Roubaix Lake. The lake is more like a pond but it had a very nice beach and the water was a great temperature. The girls had a swim before bed. We had a much warmer night.