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Last Stop Before Death Valley

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  With our Utah sightseeing done it's time to get to our campground where we will stage up before entering Death Valley for the winter.  The Clark County Shooting Complex RV Park in north Las Vegas is familiar to us and it works out great for getting service work and shopping done before getting remote. We've signed up/paid for a couple weeks at this location.  Our proposed arrival date for our campground host position with the National Park is October 9th.  I say "proposed" because severe weather and threats of a government shutdown are always in the mix this time of year.  In fact, it was twelve years ago at this same time that we discovered this park.  We were just finishing up as campground hosts at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon and were about to transition to Big Bend National Park in Texas when the government shut down hard.  So the first of October 2013 we were cast adrift and were scrambling to find someplace that could accommodate us for t...
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Sightseeing Our Way West.

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  Our departure from Devils Tower went without a hitch, sort of, which isn't always a sure thing after sitting in one spot for nearly four months.  I did notice that there was a puddle of dark red hydraulic fluid in my jack pad on the left rear corner.  When I raised the jacks it didn't pour a stream or anything and raised with no hesitation.  Okay for now but it will have to be tended to.  But we're out and on our way.  Not directly to our destination, Death Valley, though.  We have some chores and sightseeing to do.   First on the list is to renew our driver licenses.  Last time we did it online but they only let you do that once every other time.  This time we have to appear in person at a Texas DMV.  Cyndee came up with a good travel plan to get this done as painlessly as possible.  She found a nice campground in Cheyenne, WY where we can take the camper, truck and cargo trailer and feel safe leaving them for a couple ...
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Hello, Goodbye

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  This was me on a lot of days.  Greeting visitors to the Tower Trail and answering hundreds of questions.  I was required to keep track/count of all my contacts while on the trail.  In my two to three hours of what was called 'roving' I would record on-average 200 encounters.  Then there was the four hours that Cyndee and I each spent in the Visitor Center.  Our clicker count through that little room would hit 1,200 on some days but routinely be in excess of 800. Devils Tower NM Visitor Center. Smallest Visitor Center we've ever been in . Devils Tower NM is not a big operation.  The whole park is just 1,300 acres and the visitor center is a tiny one-room operation.  The information desk we worked at was tucked in the corner.  That's where the above picture was taken from.  We got culture shock when arriving after having been in one of the largest parks in the system, Death Valley, essentially the size of Connecticut.  We're about t...
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The Indian in the Rock

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 All summer long I had been hearing about the Indian in the rock but was frustrated with never being able to spot it myself.  Several times the location was described to me by other rangers but I still could not locate it.  They even showed me pictures of it so I would know what I was looking for, but to no avail. Finally, one of the seasonal rangers graciously offered to hike with me to the spot, thanks Carole.  It took weeks before our schedules meshed in such a way that we could take that hike but it did finally happen.  Cyndee and I were just days away from finishing up at the monument.  I was getting this done just under the wire. Our hike took us to the exact spot that I had come to before as described to me.  So at least my orienteering skills were sufficient, but my observational skills were lacking.  I was in the right spot but I couldn't see the face.  That is until Carole stood me the middle of the trail and pointed straight ahead ...
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On A Clear Day.......

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  On a clear day, in Wyoming, during summer it's heaven on earth.  Fortunately we have had many of these days but there have been some not so heavenly days too.  This whole region of Wyoming and the Black Hills of South Dakota are well known for hail storms, sometimes really violent hail storms.  One of our neighbors in employee housing was here last year and his 5th wheel took a beating.  The insurance company ended up shelling out over $26,000 to repair the damage and he was without a place to live for months while repairs were being done. One can tell just how much hail influences the local economy.  Whether in Gillette or Rapid City, when you drive down the light industry sections of the towns there is practically a hail dent repair facility every three doors.  We've spent the entire summer watching every dark cloud that came near, hoping and praying it would not be the "one".  There were a couple of pea-sized hail storms in mid-summer and we ...
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Day Tripping - Custer State Park, South Dakota

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  Our job at Devils Tower is in the remote north-east corner of Wyoming.  Not much here except the tower.  If we want to do something not tower, then it's a drive, mostly to South Dakota.  On this day we popped over to just south of Rapid City and took in the Needles Highway that is mostly located inside Custer State Park. A big attraction to this "highway" is that it rambles through the geological structure that gave the highway its name, the Needles. These rock formations gives the highway its name.  They are scattered all along the road. But the road itself is an attraction.  There are several, seven I think, tunnels that are carved out of the rocks.  They are narrow, barely one car wide and not very tall.  One car at a time can pass through and it is up to the drivers to figure out when it is safe to take their turn to pass through. The last time we were here all we had was our F-550 dual rear wheel truck.  It was too big to fit through t...
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