Possibly the most exciting thing for me today was the laundry drop-off. Before we left Michigan I found a laundromat, (thank you Google), where they will do your laundry and you can pick it up at the end of the day. This allowed me to pack much lighter than normal. And, with all the hot dirty days we have had, Maddie and I are out of clothes. So, for $16, the nice lady at the “The Lost Sock” laundromat in Custer, SD did what would have been 4 loads of laundry for me and had it ready by 3p.m. Even John saw this was a much better idea than the coin operated nonsense at the campground – no matter how close to the pool it was. Definitely a “highly recommend” in my book.
But I digress – laundry dropped off, and we were off to see “The Flintstones.” This little park was very well done for what it was. We took a train ride around the park and stopped in the “Old West” for photo ops and then toured downtow Bedrock. All the buildings were set up like a neighborhood. They were furnished, but you could only look in them. We did get to sit in Fred's car though – big fun. They had a theater with Fred, Wilma and Dino animatrons doing a sing-a-long and a movie theater playing a continuous loop of Flintstones cartoons. The big ending was a chauffeured ride around a track in Barney Rubble's car. It took a little under an hour for us to go through. It was cute, definitely not a must-see, but Maddie may beg to differ. For us though, it was between the hotel and the Mammoth Site which was next on the agenda.
It was about an hour drive down to Hot Springs, SD where the Mammoth Site is located. The Mammoth Site is a large museum type building that houses the remains of 59 Wooly Mammoths and Colombian Elephants that met their demise in a large sinkhole thousands of years ago. The site is “in-situ”, Latin for “in place.” This means instead of being excavated and sent to museums all the remains stay as is and are studied at the site. It was very interesting. They estimate there are many more to find. They had also found a “short-nosed bear” in the site. Apparently this was very rare prehistoric fossil find. Only 12 others exist in the world. This was a very scary bear too! It is way bigger than a grizzly and when standing on it's back feet it could peer into a second story window. One exhibit showed how big the claw marks would be compared to the grizzly. These babies are best left extinct!
The main exhibit is set up so you walk around the whole site with the guide pointing out bones and skulls and tusks. A couple paleontologists work in the site and it is easy to see them working on the tour. It was so well done that I kind of thought it looked fake. I'm so used to seeing the fancy Field Museum fossils that these looked like something they laid out. If you go earlier in the season and have kids, you can call ahead and sign up for a Jr. Paleontologist Program where the kids can go on a supervised dig. I think it's only for fake bones in a specially designed area, but it looked like it would be fun. If you have older kids (in college), they can apply for summer internships in the actual dig.
Once again we relied on gift shop personnel for meal recommendations. The lady recommended
“Wooly's” next door – I was a bit suspicious but there were few options in Hot Springs so we tried it. This place was interesting. It was clean and spacious, but it looked like they had just called everyone they knew and asked for tables and chairs. There was even some lawn furniture – no card tables but that was about it. However, the food was excellent. Complete junk food, but that's ok. Maddie discovered Mac n Cheese wedges – basically deep fried mac n cheese, John had the beef burrito which was way to big to finish and I had possibly the best nachos I've ever had, which is really saying something, They were way to big to finish too, but I sure tried. Wooly's is a keeper.
“Wooly's” next door – I was a bit suspicious but there were few options in Hot Springs so we tried it. This place was interesting. It was clean and spacious, but it looked like they had just called everyone they knew and asked for tables and chairs. There was even some lawn furniture – no card tables but that was about it. However, the food was excellent. Complete junk food, but that's ok. Maddie discovered Mac n Cheese wedges – basically deep fried mac n cheese, John had the beef burrito which was way to big to finish and I had possibly the best nachos I've ever had, which is really saying something, They were way to big to finish too, but I sure tried. Wooly's is a keeper.
On the drive down we kept passing in and out of Wind Cave National Park. The park is mostly undisturbed prairie with the fourth largest cave system under it. Our plan is to go to Jewel Cave Friday, but we figured as long as we were there we should check it out. Poor Maddie did another Jr. Ranger workbook. I have to give her credit for doing all of these. They are not easy and the Rangers check all the work and if anything is wrong, you'll be going back looking for the right answers. It would be one thing if we were only going to one or two sites, but we had a lot of them in this trip.
We went through the exhibits. This cave is known for it's “boxwork” formations along the ceiling of the caves. Boxwork looks like giant brown tissue paper spiderwebs along the ceiling. Boxwork is very rare, and 90 percent of the boxwork in the world in in Wind Cave. You aren't allowed to touch anything during these cave tours because of it's fragility.
We didn't take a tour but hiked out to the original entrance the miners found into the cave. They were able to find this entrance, and the cave is called Wind Cave because the cave's entrance, (an approximately three foot hole in the ground), blows out cold air from the cave all the time. Today it was just about 100 degrees so finding it was a real treat. It blows your hair from 10 feet away and feels just great. The air temperature in the cave is steady at 49 degrees. John said it is fortunate for the world that these nice miner's found the cave because he would have just built his house over the hole and never told a soul. I believe him!
Maddie got her badge and we were off – national park number 5 this week, under our belts. We headed back to Custer to pick up our laundry, (did I mention how awesome this is). The lady asked us what we had done all day. I mentioned we went to the Flintstones park and she smiled and said, “I have a true story for you.”
She said, “I am the original Pebbles.” Apparently, her aunt was building the original Bedrock theme park and Hanna and Barberra, (sp), came out to approve the design. She was a little red-headed girl and the asked if they could sketch her and use her image for Fred and Wilma's new baby daughter. They did and it is her baby image that is Pebbles. She said as long as she wore a bone in her pigtail, she got free ice cream at the park until she was about 8 years old. Go figure!
For a late afternoon treat we stopped at the “Purple Pie House” - still hoping for the elusive huckleberry pie. Once again they had huckleberry ice cream, but no pie. That's probably ok though, I didn't need much more after the nachos, even though Maddie was “starving” again.
In the evening we packed up and got ready for Jewel Cave and Custer State Park on Friday.
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