Day 4

Got up this morning to a cool cabin. Slept with the windows open last night. Made some coffee. Mari was supposed to cook biscuit's and gravy but she slept in. So I decided to give a try. First problem, how do you cook biscuits without an oven? These are the Pillsbury biscuits in a can. Have you figured it out yet. Well let me tell you. First you find a big pot with a lid. Put some water in the pot, turn the stove top to a low-medium heat. Warm the water then place the biscuits on the bottom. Let them cook, but don't forget about them. If you start to smell something burning then you left them unattended to long. Once you pulled the pot off the electric stove top grab a spatula and desperate the biscuits from the pot. Then take a plate and flip the pot on to the plate. Clean the pot and then spray the bottom of the pot. Put the biscuits back in the pit to brown the side that is not quit done. While they are browning you can peel the blacken part of the biscuit off and pitch it or if you like your biscuits Cajun style then leave it. Your probably wondering if they turned out. Heck yes! They raised and once you peeled the burnt stuff they were good. They even tasted good. I cooked up some Jimmy Dean maple sausage split it for another batch of biscuits and grave for another day. Dumped a can of sausage gravy in with the cooked sausage, let it simmer. Better than the restaurant. Right now Mari is trying to figure out what we are doing today. It was foggy this morning with an overcast. Sounds like we are going to do the 1880's train and another excursion.

Well, I better get ready. Check back later for an update on today's adventures.

Mari called the 1880's Train this morning and they had 100 seats open from Keystone at 10:30am. We took a scenic drive up past Mount Rushmore. We got to the depot, ticket counter, to only find out the was full. A quick check and the ticket taker was able to reserve two spots on the train in Hill City. So we loaded up, took a road that takes a similar route for the train. Got to see done deer with its fawns. Mari thought this was so cute, we had to watch them. We also found an old abandon mine along the way. Made it to Hill City, to the 1880's Train depot and picked up our tickets. We were early enough that we walk a block to the Slate Creek Grille for coffee and a snack. After the quick snack we walked back to the depot for the 1880's Train. We only had to wait in line about 15 minutes before getting on. We got on a middle car with cushion seats. Mari got the window seat on the way to Keystone. We switched sides for the trip back and got the window seat. The engine has no place to turn around in Keystone so it has to disconnect from the front get water switches track so that it connects to the back of the train. So it pulls the train in reverse back to Hill City. Between Mari and I we got some really neat pictures.


We learned that the route is closed to other trains and its only route is between Hill City and Keystone. The host pointed out abandoned mines as well as an old track to another abandon mine. They have seven passenger cars they use. They all have a great AC system right out of the 1880's, all open windows and movement. Today was not bad temperature wise, 80's. Once we arrived at Keystone we only had about a 15 minute layover. Just enough time for some of the passengers going only one way to get off and other passengers from Keystone to get only. The route is only 10 miles one way and takes 1 hour one way. When we got back to Hill City I was able to get some really neat pictures. Once we finished with the train ride we stopped at the Harley-Davidson store in Hill City to get David a T-shirt. Also grabbed a drink before heading out on another adventure. We headed out to the scenic drive through Custer State Park.

We went through the state park and got to do a photo shoot. We gotten to the south end of the park and went into the visitor/ranger station to inquire about the buffalo. A moment latter people were shouting that a buffalo just walked across the road. We were able to get a photo but it took off. So, we went down the gravel road in pursuit of some other buffalo. While we on the gravel roads a storm blew in and stormed on us. We were never able to to get close enough to get any other photos of the buffalo. We gave up and started heading home. Well, no sooner than we quit looking for them we found them several times on or near the paved road on the way back to the cabin. We even got to see some prong horn, buffalo, wood chuck, white tail deer and some turkey.