Catching Up On Summer (Hot Springs, SD)

We had such a wonderful summer.  No regrets for changing jobs and locations.  Hot Springs is a very friendly town.  The locals and our co-workers were always helpful and willing to spend time out of their busy day to talk to us.  

Sandy found their architecture very interesting.  Made from sandstone, many of the buildings had a European medieval look with turrets and merlons.

There was so much detail that every time we passed through the downtown area, we saw something different.

Even the VA facilities were quite interesting.  We did not go inside this building, but it was Sandy's favorite one.

There's a great river walk that goes along one side of the main road through town with a waterfall directly across from the downtown area.

We did not spend much time touring around the Black Hills area during our stay this time.  We drove to Rapid City once a week for groceries, but for most of the time, we were happy to hangout around the campground or in Hot Springs.

We did a one time drive at the beginning to Custer State Park because we just had to see the bison with their calves.  Here are a few more photos....

And of course, we could not leave without seeing the 'Burro Gang' holding up vehicles for food.

It just isn't a Black Hills experience without seeing these guys in action!

Got something stuck in yer teeth...

What?

itchy chin

We had so much space that the cats were constantly asking to go outside...well, at least Dusty and Squirrel were asking.  Those two could spend all day outdoors if allowed.

Our duties were pretty light compared to our last job.  Dan checked the pit-houses for toilet paper and sweeping every morning and evening.  We picked up trash from the day-use areas and vacated campsites.  Checked to make sure campers were registered or answering their questions.  For the most part, if we saw a problem, we let the rangers deal with them.  That included any big major messes in the pit-houses, although, Dan did clean a couple of them when he knew it would be awhile before a ranger would be available to do the cleaning.

Cold Brook Lake in the morning

We did have one incident where the head ranger closed down the whole campground due to flash flood warnings.  The campground was full and most campers were in the middle of making their dinners.  It's a good thing Dan had warned the campers ahead of time because it took the head ranger a lot of time trying to get people to leave the day-use area.  By the time the ranger came around to the campground the intersection was already flooding.

Campsite #1 and cross roads

It felt strange to go from a full campground to completely empty.  We did not have to leave since our campsite was above the flood area.  

This is the area behind our site.  Usually, we cannot see the creek, but we could with the flood waters.  The flood turned out to be minor with no damage done to the campground or the surrounding area.

We left South Dakota on Tuesday.  We spent four days traveling to Kansas.  The weather was decent with hot sunny days and some side winds.  We took the advice of our friend a young ranger.  He suggested we should stay in some U. S. Corps of Engineers campgrounds.  They have some great sites and campgrounds.  We were a little envious of the camp hosts' sites during our travels, but at the same time, we liked our small campground in Hot Springs and the little lake.  It was a lot easier to manage a 13 site campground than a place with 100+ sites and multiple day-use/fishing areas.

Anyway, we are settled in Coffeyville, KS at Buckeye Estates and RV Park.  All the cats seem happy with our new site.  Lots of sniffing and exploring going on with all four cats!  The campground did a great job of setting up the Amazon work campers by their schedules, so our nearby neighbors will start work and be on the same schedule as us which is the night shift (5pm - 4am).  We also noticed the camp's workers try to stay as quiet as possible.  We really appreciate all of the extra effort since we will be sleeping during the day.

We start work tomorrow.  We will try to post again in another month.

Happy Trails!