The Devil’s in the Details …

Today’s blog post celebrates Dave and Gail Bowman’s 34th wedding anniversary. August 6, 1983 … truly a day to remember.  The photo location is a preview of today’s ride.

We begin the day, as so many children do, by finding Nemo.

Children the world over have been finding Nemo since 2003, when the Pixar film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Finding Nemo is the most popular DVD of all time, with more than 41 million copies sold. In theaters worldwide, Finding Nemo grossed more than $940 million. That’s a lot of clownfish.

Finding Nemo: everyone’s favorite clownfish!

Today, we find Nemo by heading west out of Rapid City and turning onto Nemo Road. Nemo Road leads us, of course, to Nemo, South Dakota, a tiny town about midway between Rapid City and Deadwood. Nemo is home to the Nemo Guest Ranch, as well as large stands of birch and aspen trees.

Every February, Nemo hosts the Nemo 500 Outhouse Race and Chili Cook Off. In March, you can compete in Frozen Turkey Bowling at the Nemo Winter Games. Woo-hoo!

About as quickly as we find Nemo, we un-find it and continue west through the town of Roubaix, a community so small the US Census Bureau doesn’t monitor it. From Roubaix, it’s about eight miles on US Highway 385 to the charming town of Deadwood.

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Main Street in Deadwood.

Once a boomtown during the Black Hills gold rush in the 1870s, Deadwood is named after the dead trees found in its gulch. Its population is only 1,270, but the place is hopping during Sturgis Rally Week.

Dave enjoys a hot dog for a mid-day snack in Deadwood.

This photo, also on Main Street in Deadwood, would be marked NSFW (not safe for work), except we don’t know anybody who’s still working.

The entire city of Deadwood is a National Historic Landmark. What you see in Deadwood today is a careful, accurate restoration of a town that once was a playpen for Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. The 1953 Warner Bros. movie musical Calamity Jane, starring Doris Day, was set in Deadwood.

Doris Day, as Calamity Jane.

Deadwood now has more than 80 places to gamble, a major driver for tourism. It’s said to be the largest historic restoration project in the US.

At Deadwood Harley Davidson, there were plenty of opportunities for retail therapy. Here are a few pics of our posse shopping there.

Jackie finds the perfect gift for herself. Purple, probably.

Dave, ever the fashion horse, had his eye on just the right tee-shirt to complete his outfit.

Gail shops for new Harley sunglasses. She shops, she scores!

In Deadwood, we turn west and south on US Highway14A, passing through Blacktail and Central City before riding along the Terry Peak Ski Area. Terry Peak is the place to ski and snowboard in the Black Hills. With a vertical rise of 1,053 feet, the area features 30 runs and three high-speed quad chairlifts. Terry Peak’s peak: 7,064 feet.

The road turns north at Cheyenne Crossing. Soon, we pass through Elmore and Savoy, then find ourselves in beautiful Spearfish Canyon. We ride the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway, a 22-mile journey that leads us to Spearfish.

On this Scenic Byway, Bridal Veil Falls and Roughlock Falls are oft-photographed scenes along the way. Spearfish Canyon was the location for several scenes in the Oscar-winning movie, Dances With Wolves.

We stop at O’Neal Pass, and take the opportunity to snap a few pics.

The author and Mrs. Bowman at O’Neal Pass. Note her stylish new sunglasses.

Gail shows off her new iPhone case, purchased yesterday at Wal-Mart in Rapid City.

Bowman’s and Donaldsons along the roadside.

In need of a bathroom break, Gail and Jackie scamper up a hill in search of the perfect place to be one with nature.

Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway leads us, of course, to the city of Spearfish.

Spearfish got its name from Native Americans, who would spear fish in the creek at the mouth of what is now Spearfish Canyon. The city grew during the Black Hills Gold Rush, and became a supplier of food to the mining camps in the hills. In the 20^th century, the history of Spearfish was closely tied to mining and tourism.

The city’s biggest claim to fame is a weather phenomenon that occurred on January 22, 1943. On that day, at about 7:30 am, the temperature in Spearfish was -4 F. A Chinook wind picked up speed rapidly, and two minutes later the temperature was +45 F. The 49-degree rise in two minutes set a world record that still stands. The sudden change in temperatures caused windows to crack and windshields to instantly frost over.

Today, the second-largest employer in town is Black Hills State University, home to more than 4,500 students – primarily pursuing degrees in education. The BHSU Yellow Jackets play in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference, and its rodeo teams are members of the National Intercollegiate Rodeo Association.

Black Hills State University student athlete Lane Rossow from Herreid, South Dakota, competes in a roping event for the Yellow Jackets during a 2016 intercollegiate rodeo.

An economic development postscript: Spearfish’s largest employer is Spearfish Regional Health, and its third-largest employer is, of course, Wal-Mart.

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Leaving Spearfish, we hop on Interstate 90 West. Ten miles later, we cross into Wyoming, quickly passing by Beulah, population 33. Next town of note: Sundance, 20 miles down the road.

The author and Dave, in the road in front of Sundance Harley Davidson. (photo by Randy)

Sundance, population 1,182, is named for the Sun Dance ceremony practiced by several Native American tribes. The town is the primary setting for Lorelei James’ novels in her “Rough Riders” series of 16 books involving the fictional McKay family.

Sundance may be best known for providing a nickname for Harry Longabaugh. After his release from the town jail in 1888, Longabaugh acquired the moniker, “The Sundance Kid.”

You may know the rest of the story. Longabaugh was an outlaw and member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch, which performed the longest string of successful train and bank robberies in American history. Along with his girlfriend, Etta Place, and Cassidy, he fled to Argentina, then Bolivia – where they were apparently killed in a shootout made famous by the Hollywood film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.

Twenty-first century outlaws, like most of us who ride Harleys, still hang out in Sundance. They wear black and can be found at Deluxe Harley Davidson on Sundance’s Main Street.

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Just past Sundance, we exit I-90 and turn west on US Highway 14. We are headed to the day’s primary destination: Devils Tower National Monument.

Devils Tower: close encounter with the real kind.

Devils Tower is a laccolithic butte rising dramatically 1,267 feet above the tree-lined Belle Fourche River. The tower itself stands 867 feet, from base to summit. Every year, about 400,000 tourists like us visit Devils Tower. About one percent of them, not like us, climb it.

Randy photobombing at Devils Tower.

The name Devil’s Tower originated in 1875 during an expedition led by Col. Richard Dodge, when his interpreter speaking to Native Americans mis-interpreted the name to mean “Bad God’s Tower,” which then became Devil’s Tower. Following standard geographic naming conventions, the apostrophe was dropped and, voila, you have Devils Tower.

Devils Tower was called many other things in the years before non-Native Americans reached Wyoming. Tribes including the Arapaho, Crow, Cheyenne, Kiowa, Lakota, and Shoshone all had cultural and geographical ties to it. And they all had their own names for the block of rock, too: Aloft on a Rock (Kiowa), Bear’s House (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear’s Lair (Cheyenne, Crow), Bear’s Lodge (Cheyenne, Lakota), and Grizzly Bear Lodge (Lakota).

Dave and Gary, pretty much seeing things eye to eye for a change. (photo by Randy)

The huge monolith is most famous for its role in the 1977 Steven Spielberg movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

The film used the igneous rock formation as a plot element and as the location of its climactic scenes. In the Close Encounters climax, several characters – who have been so unknowingly obsessed with the structure that they have sculpted it in mashed potatoes and repeatedly sketched it – descend on Devils Tower, where they greet a gargantuan alien mother ship. The movie’s release caused a huge increase in the number of visitors (and climbers) to the monument.

As we approach Devils Tower, it quickly becomes apparent this is no fantasy. Most years, it sees nearly a half-million visitors, almost as many as the Washington Monument.

A final pic before heading back to Rapid City.

In 1906, the two-square mile park surrounding the tower was proclaimed America’s first National Monument by President Theodore Roosevelt. The stone pillar is about 1,000 feet in diameter at the bottom, and 275 feet at the top, making it the premier rock climbing challenge in the Black Hills.

Today, hundreds of climbers scale the sheer rock walls of Devils Tower every summer. If you’re thinking of climbing it, here are some tips, courtesy of the National Park Service.

If you plan to climb above the boulder field, the Park Service requires you to register before the climb, and check in when you return. Your climbing permit is free.

Here’s one way to get to the top.

A less thrilling, but more popular route, is to hike the popular Tower Trail, a paved 1.3-mile loop around the base of the formation. The loop starts at the Visitor Center. Sign us up. Table for Six.

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Leaving Devils Tower, we begin the two-hour ride back to Rapid City.

We’re heading north and east on Wyoming Highway 24, which takes us through the town of Aladdin, a former coal mining settlement. Aladdin has a post office, a general store, and a population of 15.

In 2014, the entire town was for sale: $1.5 million would buy 30 acres and 15 buildings, including the general store, which does a brisk business serving travelers on the road between Devils Tower and Belle Fourche, South Dakota. According to my research department, it’s still for sale.

Best photo from Belle Fourche: this Wyoming cowboy, on his way home from Denver, where he’d just picked up this 10-week old kangaroo to take home to his ranch. Yes, that is a newborn roo!

Lacking the resources – even among the six of us – to buy the town, we press on toward Belle Fourche, French for “beautiful fork.” The town was named by French explorers who discovered the confluence of what are now the Belle Fourche and Redwater Rivers, and the Hay Creek.

The monument marking the geographic center of the USA.

Belle Fourche’s claim to fame: it’s the geographic center of the US. Close, anyway. In 1959, the US Coast and Geodetic Survey officially designated a point 20 miles north of Belle Fourche as the center of the nation. That honor belonged to Lebanon, Kansas, until Alaska and Hawaii became states.

Wyoming Highway 24 becomes State Highway 34 as we re-enter South Dakota.  We continue on South Dakota Highway 34, until it merges with Interstate 90, which takes us the rest of the way into Rapid City.

Along the way, we pass Sturgis, tomorrow’s destination. We’re finally, almost, in Sturgis!

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Day Ten Summary: Finding Nemo, spearing fish, in the shadow of the Sundance Kid, speaking of the Devil.

Click here to see today’s complete route from Rapid City to Devils Tower and back to Rapid City.

We’re on our way to Sturgis!

Vroom, vroom.

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Today in Bucket List History: 

Bucket List Goal: “Have Your Number Retired Before Turning 50.”

Goal Achieved: On August 6, 1989, the Boston Red Sox retire Carl Yastrzemski’s Number 8, two weeks before his 50^th birthday. Yaz played his entire 23-year Hall-of-Fame career with the Red Sox, collecting 3,419 hits, 452 home runs, and making the All-Star team 18 times. He played 3,308 games for the Red Sox, more than any other player in history has played for a single team.

Carl Yastrzemski’s last game. Goal achieved.

What’s on your bucket list?