Devils Tower, Wyoming

Prairie Dogs around the Devils Tower

we went to Devils Tower, Wyoming and Caleb made it in mashed potatoes the night before. I had never seen a Dairy Queen quite like this one. It was tucked between Mom and Pop shops in the downtown area. Devils Tower was really cool. There were people climbing it and they looked like little ants. The grooves in the side of the tower are about two people wide. We headed home via Omaha, Nebraska, Kansas City, Missouri and Checotah, Oklahoma. I am going to post pictures of these stops in the next post.

Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore

We left Douglas, Wyoming the next morning and headed to South Dakota. We stopped at the Crazy Horse Memorial first. It was really neat. Christa claims that it hasn't changed much since she was there as a child, but in reality they have completed the face since then and are now working on the horse. They had a really nice Indian museum and Indian vendors selling their wares. After viewing the monument from several locations we headed to the KOA Kampground and got set up. It was really something. The lobby was like a hotel and it had a really nice store. After we set up we headed to Mount Rushmore. It was incredible to see it, but in many ways it was not as big as you would imagine. We were greeted by a mountain goat at the entrance to the Avenue of Flags. We walked all the way down right under the monument. It was an interesting angle to view it. It was getting kind of hot so we headed back to camp and then came back for the lighting ceremony. There were so many people that we really couldn't see the stage, but it sounded pretty cool. They presented a flag to a veteran at the end after they lit the monument.

A closer view of the monument

Mount Rushmore, there is no danger of Obama appearing here there isn't enough rock left for another face!

The South Dakota landscape

The Texas flag at Mount Rushmore

The greeter at the Avenue of the Flags

Daryl and Greerson in front of the Avenue of Flags

Greerson posing with the Presidents

Mount Rushmore from a distance

The entrance to our Kampground. That is the lobby straight ahead

The model for Crazy Horse

A bronze image from a viewing window with the monument behind it

The Crazy Horse Memorial

Douglas, Wyoming

Daryl left Camp Tahosa and headed to the Denver airport where he picked up Christa and our friend Christy Howard and her son Caleb. Her huband Chuck stayed at the camp and met us later with Greerson and their other son Chas. We went grocery shopping at Safeway. It was like a picture perfect grocery store with mood lighting and awesome displays. It really made the food look good. Anyway, we met Chuck and the boys at Target and headed for the Wyoming border. We pulled into Douglas, Wyoming a couple of hours later and got set up and decided on a local restaurant for dinner. It was really interesting. The chairs were made out of logs and every time Chuck got up it turned over because the backs were so heavy. Caleb ordered spaghetti from the kids menu he thought, but when it came it was an adult serving. We didn't think much of it until the check came and they charged for an adult serving. The waitress claimed that he should have clarified that he wanted a child's portion. After that meal every time Caleb ordered he made sure to specify "kid's menu". After dinner we found the town square and took pictures by the big Jackolope.





The Wyoming landscape

This town had banners for all of the boys from their town serving in the military. The Carnegie Library was interesting also.

Greerson in Douglas, Wyoming home to the Jackalope

Camp Tahosa

The riverwalk in Estes Park


The Park Theatre in Estes Park, it was a really cool looking building

The Stanley Hotel, didn't Stephen King stay there or something?
(maybe the Shining?) This is the back of the hotel

The lake at camp Tahosa

The dining hall and flags at Camp Tahosa

Daryls space in the huge cabin tent he brought for two people, they actually had all of the counselors in the tent Sunday night for a meeting!

The horses in the corral

Troop 377 reclaims Tahosa for Texas!!!!

The boys veg out watching tv waiting for camp the next day!

After our night in Amarillo we headed to Limon, Colorado and camped there. The boys ended the evening watching television in the camper. The next morning we drove into Denver and went to Walmart and the Bass Pro Shop and checked it out. Then headed on up to camp. We got there about forty five minutes before the rest of the troop. When they arrived we all put on our cowboy hats and mounted our stick horses and proceeded to reclaim Camp Tahosa for Texas. It was a lot of fun!

Greerson had a blast at camp and worked on several merit badges. Daryl was the counselor for photography and assisted with archery. Greerson passed his swim test (the water was really cold) and was labeled a "swimmer" several of the boys did not pass due to the low water temperature. Another evening they had canoe races. A counselor jumped into the lake to start the race and retrieved a watermelon from the middle of the lake then brought it back to shore and put it in the canoe and the boys raced around the lake. Greerson was in the intellectual canoe. He was in front and the boy in the middle just sat there and didnt really paddle and the boy in the back tried, but they just couldnt quite get it together to win, but they had a blast trying. The reason we referred to them as the intellectual canoe is the fact that all three of them are GT students.

Daryl backed into a tree, but didnt hurt the truck and Greerson almost starved to death because of his picky eating, but all in all it was a great week!

Thursday morning Daryl headed to the airport in Denver to pick up Christa and Christy and Caleb Howard for the trek to Mount Rushmore.