Casper, WY to Mt Rushmore …and Pizza!

Hey Chroniclers!

This one may get to you a bit late as the internet is spotty at best at the campgrounds in Mt Rushmore. Yesterday was a travel day for us again. The New Guy voiced a complaint the other day. He wanted to know why your hero never gets mentioned in the Chronicles. I explained that as I tell the Chronicles in the first person, I am mentioned throughout. I thought that was pretty evident. You get it, doncha?

How about this? Yesterday as we pulled out of the campsite at Casper, one of my cargo doors opened inadvertently. There. How’s that, New Guy? Better?

Onward. Actually, nothing much happened on our drive to Custer, WY yesterday. You may not have known that Mt. Rushmore is proximate to Custer, well it is. We’re staying at the KOA, Palmer Gulch. This is the HB and my first stay at a KOA and it is quite the experience. The first thing I noticed, is that it is a bustling beehive of activity. There seems to be constant movement. It’s very family-oriented, there is lots to do especially for the kids, so I can see why young families would enjoy this type of environment. That is not a criticism, it is an observation. Personally, we’re used to a little tamer environment, but it’s not really that bad.

We arrived with our usual fanfare; people cannot get over us showing up 7 coaches deep. It brings lots of ooohs and ahhhs, looks of amazement and smiles. We set up camp, grab the temporary local transport devices that the Science Officer suggested and set off to explore. Four couples on identical scooters kind of sets off the same excitement that our arrivals do as we’re trekking through the 100 acres of KOA campground that is Palmer Gulch.

After that, we meet up with the New Guy & his wife and the Centurions. They were interested in visiting Mt Rushmore at night. It’s supposed to be a magnificent sight. I too would like to see the four heads chiseled into rock, but a dilemma is facing me. I was hungry. I was thinking food. It has been pointed out to me on a few occasions that I’m not a lot of fun to be around when I am ready to eat or ready to sleep. Some have indicated that I remind them of Bruce Banner, “You don’t want to see me angry.” I am more like, “You don’t want to see me hungry.”

So, it was about hungry o’clock and Mrs. Francois was standing between us and the Centurions, explaining to the HB on how we should go to the memorial with them. I was watching closely as she used that Samantha Stevens thing on the HB. You remember? The thing where she suggests an idea and then starts nodding her head as if to make you think that you thought of it? Yeah, well she was trying to see if her little witchy thing would work on the HB.

“So, what do you think, HB? Should we go to the memorial? Check it out, and then come back for some pizza and ice cream?” She must’ve forgotten that Mr. Francois was too far away to be under her spell and probably didn’t see me eyeing her closely. As soon as she started to bob her little head, I called her on it.

I pointed at Mrs. Francois and yelled out to anyone around , “YOU SEE THAT! I TOLD YOU! SHE’S TRYING HER LITTLE HEAD NOD THING! WHO SEE’S IT? C’MON TELL ME YOU SAW THAT!!” Fortunately, there were witnesses this time. We all saw her little hypnosis thing. I broke the spell when I pointed it out and just as it started working on my poor innocent little HB.

I grabbed the HB by the hand, led her away from that evil person and toward our RV. After she'd heated up my ribeye and rice from the night before, I sat eating my dinner with a very satisfied look on my face. I had two reasons to be smug: One, I was finally eating. And two, I had outed the witch within our crew. She can try that stuff on her little stuffed zebra, but not the HB! Not on my watch!

Eventually we ended up at the memorial anyway. But I had eaten first. You measure life with small victories.

One band, one sound.

Drink ‘em if you got ‘em.

#coffeehousechronicles