Day 8

It has been blisteringly hot during the day — reaching well into the 90s — but at night it gets chilly dropping into the high 60s, making it perfect for a campfire. I think the fire is Kati’s favorite part of camping.

We woke up early to get tickets to Jewel Cave but the earliest tour we could get was noon. To pass time before then we did a couple of Adventure Lab caches in Custer. As always it was interesting to learn some history, however, not surprising the history in the caches heavily favored the white man. I didn’t appreciate the labeling of Native Americans as hostile. I mean what do you expect? Would you be welcoming if someone stole from you? And I have come to wonder, we are taught we should honor American soldiers, but isn’t it immoral and unethical to honor people who slaughtered others because of greed and a sense of superiority? We have come to question the whole idea of honoring Confederates. When will we start questioning the honoring of Americans who committed atrocities against Native Americans? I would love to teach history, but I could never do so in a school that frowned upon critical race theory.

We did learn that Custer was the first settlement in the Black Hills following the discovery of gold. In Custer, we saw the first jail. The first person to be jailed in it was its builder. Once he got paid for constructing it, he spent his money on a drinking spree which resulted in an arrest for drunk and disorderly conduct. We also saw the first school which was pretty cool. It was super tiny, smaller than the school Laura Ingalls attended.

We all enjoyed Jewel Cave more than Wind cave. It was a more difficult tour. We had to duck and bend to get around and under the rocks. The temperature in the cave was 49 degrees — a great way to cool off on a hot day. One of the formations in the cave is called Madonna and Child because it looks like.a woman with her child. G3, as always, walked up front with the guide and asked many good questions about the geology of the cave. He was by far the most observant — and inquisitive— person on the tour.

En route to Custer State Park from Jewel cave we were all hungry so we stopped for ice cream – always a filling treat.

We liked Custer State Park so much we went back this afternoon. It is one of the nicest, most scenic state parks I have been to. G3 wanted to do a rock scramble hike in hopes of seeing a mountain goat. Due to the heat, Kati opted to sit out the hike. We didn’t see a mountain goat but the rock scramble was fun and the view from the top was beautiful. G3 enjoyed it too. But there was so much poison ivy. I’ve never seen such huge patches.

Driving through the park we passed through the most narrow one lane tunnels I’ve ever experienced.

G3 wanted to go for a swim and considering it has been days since we last showered we thought a swim was a fabulous idea. So before leaving the park we stopped at a lake. We intended to stay just long enough for a cleansing dip but we met a nice couple from Minneapolis and ended up chatting with them for awhile.