Crazy Ukulele

Cherryl has been playing Ukulele since she was a kid in Hawaii.  When we lived in Denver, she was in the Rocky Mountain Ukulele Orchestra, under the direction of Gary Jugert.  At the start of this Virus junk, Gary started doing internet ukulele lessons. I decided I’d like to try it too, so I got a cheap uke in Arizona.  While in Denver last week, we both got upgraded instruments. I have had a lot of fun and a lot of frustration trying to learn how to play!  If you are somewhat crazy too, you can go to jollyrogerukulele.com and join with tons of folks having fun learning ukulele…

 

Devil’s Backbone

Friday we met up with dear friend Giny, and explored a bit a place called Devil’s Backbone.  It was pretty hot, so I can’t really say we hiked… from where we walked, it was very pretty, but we didn’t see the “Backbone” well till I launched the drone.

 

 

 

 

 

Campion Academy

Friday we moved to the campus at Campion.  We have stayed here many times over the years, when Becky and Kevin were in school here, but also when there were camp meetings, pathfinder outings or music programs.  The campus is very quiet, being summer and of course our virus pandemic.  It was fun to look around.

The following picture shows the peaked roof addition we’ve done to our motorhome. (NOT!)

 

Fort Collins City Park

We had a picnic with our friends Giny and Joe, and his mother Janet. We then explored a bit of  City Park – a nice park with a pretty lake.

 

Lusk, Wyoming

Ever heard of Lusk?  We hadn’t either.  Don’t worry too much about it… we spent the night there on the way to Rapid City.  Some interesting clouds; the campsite not so interesting.

 

 

Rapid City, South Dakota

Our campsite was next door to Fort Cody, where they do sightseeing tours of Mt. Rushmore, serve up chuckwagon dinners and shows, and have a lot of exhibits to peruse.  I found a few old cars worth looking at.  There was also an old Ford Falcon Pickup… I’m told it was a factory car, built before Ford started making the Ranchero.

 

Here’s a very short view of the land around our campsite.

 

We also spent some time with Cherryl’s niece. Crista and Josh Few have moved into a beautiful house in a gorgeous area.  I flew a bit over their home, and then a couple minutes trying to chase a Bobcat.

 

Wall Drug

If you have driven across South Dakota, you have probably seen several of the roughly 18,000 signs advertising Wall Drug.  In the little town of Wall, (Maybe the WHOLE town), is this self proclaimed world famous store. In 1931 Wall had all of 326 residents, and Ted Hustead bought a tiny run down drug store.  They started offering free ice water in an attempt to drum up business, and started growing dramatically.   It now covers at least a whole city block, and they sell all kinds of souvenirs… We have driven past this place many times, and now we’ve stopped and seen it.  Good for us.  Next time I can drive past easily.