Chicago, South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming

Strategy for a long layover at O’Hare Airport; Head into downtown Chicago and pick yourself up a delicious meal at Eataly to eat on the plane. Start at the Nutella counter.

Pre-Raphaelites at the Driehaus Museum, a small treasure of a house museum filled with Arts & Crafts era items.

Tatanka

Tatanka burger

Alpine Inn – Steak dinners at bargain prices.  Treat yourself to a giant beer while you prepare for the inevitable wait, or walk around the gift shops of Hill City.

Deadwood

Check out the movie memorabilia in Deadwood’s Celebrity Hotel, including Herbie the Love Bug.

Highly recommended are the bus tours of Deadwood (various operators), which take you up the cemetery and grave of Buffalo Bill.  The guides are sort of in costume and are full of Deadwood tales, minus the swearing.

On the outskirts of town you can tour the now defunct Broken Boot Coal Mine.

For Sale – Presidents Park (some presidents missing)

Reward at the end of the Roughlock Fall Nature Trail are these refreshing cascades.

Surprisingly fascinating visit to D.C. National Fish Hatchery & Archives, a working fish hatchery and museum. This meticulously recreated fish railway car is just one of the displays at the complex, which includes the caretaker’s house, boats, and fish themselves.  Buy some fish food and watch the swarm to it.

Badlands National Park.

Roberts Prairie Dog Town, on the Rim Road outside Badlands National Park. There are so many of these little guys.

Tatanka for sale in one of the Badlands gift shops.

Minuteman Missile Site, operated by the National Park Service.

On the balcony outside our room at the Hisega Lodge in the heart of the Black Hills with your own creek outside.  We stayed in the Trout Room at the front of the lodge so we could have a creekside view and sounds.  This historic lodge has changed ownership since stayed, but a friend who stayed their at our recommendation since the change said the breakfasts are as terrific as before and all is well.

Not paying attention and missing the turnoff to Nebraska meant we detoured into a small historic park (the Anna Miller Museum) in Newcastle, Wyoming. Knocking to make sure Carrie isn’t in the outhouse.

Obviously someone finds this interesting in Lusk, WY.

Fort Robinson, Nebraska.  We enjoy the picnic tables and get a history lesson.  The barracks now operate as a hotel. 

In an old trading post at the Museum of the Fur Trade, Chadron, Nebraska.  The museum staff acted as consultants to the move “The Revenant,” and some costumes and props are on display.

You can see paleontologists and volunteers excavating the Mammoth Site, where the fossils are being left in situ.

Utterly amazing Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SC.  Just as apartments were about to be constructed above this site a mammoth tusk came up from the digger. Mercifully it became a research site and museum.

Raindrops and Roses and Whiskers on Kittens. Ice Cream and Jesus and Mammoths and Mittens. These are a few of our favorite things.