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Stampede Tour - On the Road posted by Dakota Livesay

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We arrived safely in Pueblo, CO.  We’re staying at a state park.  There’s good and bad aspects about county, state and federal parks.  The bad is that, as with this one, they often don’t have water or sewer hookups.  Also, the spaces are more for a 24’ pull trailer than a 34’ fifth wheel.  The good is that they cost a bit less, and the atmosphere is great.

When we were in Cheyenne, WY we had RVs on top of us.  As you can see with the pictures, here we have a chance to breath.

As you can see by the clouds in the first picture, we’ve been getting some rain.  The second picture is the view looking outside of Monte’s door.

We’re packing up to leave Cheyenne, WY and head to Pueblo, CO.

We probably won’t be back to Wyoming until next year sometime.  Right now we’re working our way to Southern California to spend a few days with our children and grandchildren.  Then we’ll attend an event in Big Bear, CA.  From there we’ll head over to Phoenix and go to an event there.  After the Phoenix event we’ll travel up to Show Low, AZ, where our international headquarters is located, and spend a couple of weeks with friends.

From there we’ll be heading to Texas to spend the last half of October and first half of November traveling that great state.

We regularly receive phone calls from subscriber John Shearer.  John is an Old West enthusiast from England.  Among a number of other things, he does cross stitch.  The picture is of his latest project.

The wall hanging is 24” X 24”.  It took him two years and one month at an average of 1.5 hours a day to complete it.  The wall hanging contains 93,000 stitches.  John used 32 colors comprising of 2005 yards of silk.

The wall hanging will be auctioned off at a hospital charity.  The last one he did raised over a thousand pounds.

We are now in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  We’re here to visit a potential advertiser, and we’ll be staying extra days to take care of the end of the month business.

This is a particularly busy time of the month…every month.  Yesterday we wrapped up the daily shows for September, and got them in the mail.  Today, and for the next few days Dakota will be working on the September issue of Chronicle of the Old West.  Then, there is the weekly show that has to be in the mail no later than Friday.

On top of all this, there are the regular chores, like doing the laundry for Sunny and making sure we don’t get attacked by mountain lions or bears for Dakota.  It sure is tough being a pioneer in the West.

For the last few days we’ve been out of contact with the world, on a ranch 20 miles outside of Wall, SD.  The event is called The Artist Ride.  Artists from all over the US and Canada come to take pictures of “models” (as they call them) from the West.  These pictures are used as a basis for paintings.

The models get paid by the individual photographers when they take their pictures.  It was fun and interesting.

Although Dakota didn’t get one picture taken of him, Jake, that camera hog dog, got over a hundred taken of him doing dumb things like chasing a stick.  Anyone can do that.  Dakota is talking about leaving him in the trailer the next time.

Unfortunately, Sunny declined payment for Jake, or we would have been able to have enough money to pay for the rest of our Stampede Tour.

We’re headed to a ranch about 20 miles outside Wall, South Dakota for an annual event called “The Artist’s Ride.”

Over the weekend about 100 artists are assembling with a bunch of mountain men, Civil War, 1800’s cowboys and contemporary cowboys for a photography, sketching and painting weekend.

We’re not quite sure what to expect, but we’re excited about the possibilities for our weekly radio show.

Incidentally, the chances are that we will be out of communication with the world.  I hope things can stay in one piece without our constant advice.

We’re about to wrap things up here in Deadwood, SD.  We returned here to pick up a couple more conversations for the weekly radio show, as well as get some down time to do the weekly show and get the September issue of Chronicle of the Old West organized.

Got a look at the actual spot where Wild Bill Hickok got shot.  It was in the No. 10 Saloon, which isn’t the No. 10 Saloon today.  The real No. 10 Saloon is across and up the street from today’s No. 10 Saloon.  The real No. 10 has a display depicting the shooting.  It’s about five feet down some steps.  Some say the street etc has been filled in over the years, and five feet down is the level of the street in the 1800’s.  It’s so confusing.

The picture is of the display.  Doesn’t look like Wild Bill to me.  Maybe it was someone else who got shot.

We’ve traveled down to Deadwood, SD again for a couple of days.  The Sturgis Bike Rally is over. There are still some bikers around, but they’re disappearing quickly.

It seems we’ve been in the vicinity of Sturgis during the whole rally.  We’ve had no problem with the bikers. The problem has been with the merchants. An RV park that went for $25, was $100 during the rally. They added .25 to a gallon of gas, and raised the price of meals.

While in Belle Fourche, we went to see the Devil’s Tower. Very interesting.  Several thousand people climb it each year. The picture is of Devil’s Tower.

We’re in Belle Fourche, South Dakota. KBFS 1450am carries both our daily and weekly radio shows. The weekly show is aired at 8:00 am on Saturdays.  We were able to hear it. There is always something surreal about actually hearing a show on the radio. It’s so seldom that we’re at the right place and time to do it.

Yesterday we stopped by KBFS and spent some time with the station’s owner Karl Grimmelmann.

Incidentally, Belle Fourche is the geographic center of the United States.  The picture is of the actual spot.

A couple of weeks ago I spoke to the NOLA Rendezvous about Wild Bill Hickok and show business. I talked about Wild Bill’s two ventures into show business and how TV and the movies have portrayed him. And, because TV and the movies usually link Calamity Jane with Wild Bill, I also included her…Incidentally, most historians say the two were never an item.

During the Power Point presentation I showed, for the first time, a photograph that links the two together. I will have to admit that, at this point, the photograph hasn’t been authenticated.

The reason I haven’t put the picture up before now is that I talked about it in a weekly radio show that’s being aired this week. I ask the listeners to check it out and make any comments.

Yesterday was spent having conversations for the weekly radio show.  We did four of them, including Timothy Shawn, who portrays Theodore Roosevelt in a one man play called “Bully.”  The picture is of Dakota and Timothy setting on the stage after the performance.

Medora has the most unique post office, both inside and outside.  The second picture is of their post office.

I have two corrections to make on an earlier entry.  I left out elk as one of the animals we saw while going through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.  The other was that I estimated the population of Medora to be around 1,500.  I was wrong, it’s only 100.

Tomorrow we’ll be traveling to Dickinson, ND and get new tires for Monte.

Yesterday we got up early and traveled the 30 mile loop through the Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

It was not only a beautiful ride, we saw a lot of wildlife. It included buffalo, deer, wild horses, prairie dogs and rabbits. It seems the rabbits were suicidal.  We were virtually the only vehicle on the road, still, some ten plus rabbits chose to cross the road right in front of us. Twice I had to put on my brakes to keep from hitting them.

After church we had pizza for lunch and relocated to a new spot in the park…For the last couple of days we were operating on 20 amps, instead of the normal 50 amps.  It’s tough being a pioneer in the west.

Most of today will be spent doing interviews for the weekly radio show.

We are presently in Medora, ND. And, let me tell you this has to be the biggest little town in the US. We, along with about 400 other people had a “Pitchfork Steak Fondue” dinner. This was one of the most unique dinners I have ever had…and it was great eating too. The first pictures are of the men cooking the steaks.

Then we went to the Medora Musical. This was a first rate, professional musical.  The facility holds about three thousand people, and it is full every evening during the summer…the population of the town itself can’t be more than half the capacity of the amphitheater. We got a behind the scenes look at the stage production. The picture is of the stage and performers during sound check.

During the Medora Musical itself the MC recognizes special people in the audience. We were two of the people recognized. Our host has been Wade Westin with the Theodore Roosevelt Medora Foundation. And he has been taking great care of us.

We are now in Medora, North Dakota.  The trip getting here wasn’t uneventful.  Just two miles outside of Sturgis, SD we got a flat tire on Monte on the Interstate highway…Actually, the tire came apart.  Because it was on the driver’s side, the highway was busy and we have coverage for this, we decided to call Good Sam.

The closest service truck was in Rapid City…where we had left earlier in the morning.  An hour an a half later we were back on the road.  This is the first time we’ve used Good Sam’s emergency road service.  We’re very happy with the way they handled this.

We’ve all seen a vehicle broken down with the inhabitants sitting on the nearby hillside waiting for help…well, that was us.  Sunny and I each had a chair, and Jake was wondering around.  Incidentally, this is biker week at Sturgis, and we spent the time waving at the bikers as they went by.

The picture is of Hoss and Monty broken down along side the highway.  A sad picture.

We went to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse.  I’m sorry to say that Mt. Rushmore was nice, but it wasn’t as impressive as I had thought it to be.

But the Crazy Horse story was.  Although it won’t be done in my lifetime…and probably that of my children…it’s the story of sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski’s dedication to a dream.  If you haven’t read the Ziolkowski story, it’s well worth looking up on the web.