So long, farewell, auf wieder sehen, goodbye Black Hills!

Hard to believe today is our final day here in South Dakota!  Mommy and I took our last walk along the Mickelson Trail, saying good-bye to all our animal friends. 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the Black Hills area immensely, visiting wonderful places and meeting some pretty cool folks!  Not to mention my best doggie friend at the campground, Bella.

 

 

 

Bella, my best doggie friend!

 

 

 

But alas, it is time to travel on to our next work-camping adventure in Haslet, TX.  We are becoming Santa’s elves—we will work at Amazon.com for the next 3 months to fulfill holiday gift orders!

 

Rambling RV Rat, an Amazon Elf!

 

Amazon requires pre-employment drug testing.  We thought Amazon had a contract with a lab within Rapid City, which would mean a one hour drive each way.  Unfortunately, the CLOSEST lab was 214 miles away in Casper, Wyoming!  So we left at 6:15 a.m. on Monday, our day off from work at Crazy Horse, for a four-hour “road trip” to Casper.  We fulfilled our pee-in-a-cup requirement within 20 minutes from the time we walked in the door.  Not to pass up the opportunity to explore a new area, we began our tour of Casper, Wyoming’s second largest city with just under 60K people.  First order of business, feeding Daddy’s belly!  So we took the recommendation of a “local” and went to Johnny J’s Diner.  What a blast from the past!  Complete with nostalgic posters, décor, and juke box, I felt like I was starring in an episode of “Happy Days”.    Very reasonably priced, tasty food, and friendly and efficient service from our waitress Trinity!   So far, so good.  We asked Trinity for a suggestion on what to see in Casper for a couple of hours.  When she suggested The Mall, we knew we were in one VERY SMALL city.   This was confirmed after driving through “downtown”.  By unanimous vote, we rejected The Mall idea.  Instead, we consulted Trip Advisor and opted to visit the Fort Casper Museum. 

 

 

 

Situated in the North Platte River Valley, the area served as a gateway for the Oregon and California Trails as well as a route for the Pony Express.  Interestingly, Brigham Young and the Mormons, enroute to Salt Lake City in 1847, established a ferry service for future emigrants to traverse the North Platte River.   We enjoyed learning about Central Wyoming’s history, then headed back for the long trek to Custer.

 

 

And now we return to the road for the Lone Star State.  So as the Family Von Trapp would say, so long, farewell, auf wieder sehen, goodbye Black Hills!