Rio Travelers

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

DEVILS TOWER AND BUFFALO WYOMING

There is something about a Walmart that gets RVers excited. This one was on our way to Devil's Tower from Deadwood and there weren't many of us that didn't stop.

We had an overnight stop in Devil's Tower, Wyoming to visit the nation's first national monument. It was established in 1908 by Pres. Roosevelt. Geologically, there are several theories as to how it was formed. Maybe the core of an ancient volcano? Native American legend, as depicted by the painting below the photo, is more interesting. The grooves in the tower were claw marks made by a bear who was trying to attack a group of children. How ever it was formed, it was an amazing site. That evening, we had fun playing Adventure Bingo.

Our next stop was in Buffalo, Wyoming. It is a very small town with a notable history. The Occidental Hotel (Occidental meaning Western) was built in 1880 and had many famous guests such as Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane, Teddy Roosevelt and Butch Cassidy. Another guest was Owen Wister, who wrote "The Virginian" modeling characters after people he saw at the Occidental Saloon.

Buffalo is also the site of the A and E series "Longmire".

We had a wonderful Sunday brunch and tour of the still functioning Occidental Hotel and Virginian Room restaurant. The hotel has been renovated and furnished using period pieces and it is beautiful. It does however have a TV and WiFi in each room.

DEVILS TOWER

OK ITS ADVENTURE BINGO TIME

DAVID WINS A HAT

BUFFALO WYOMING

HI FOLKS WELCOME TO MY TOWN - OH WAIT! THIS IS BUFFALO

A TRUE COLLECTORS ITEM

THE OCCIDENTAL HOTEL

OUR GROUP ON TOUR AT THE OCCIDENTAL SALOON

THE BAR

SUE AND JOANIE BELLYING UP TO THE BAR

THE LOBBY

THE LIBRARY

BRUNCH

KATHY, TIM, BARBARA AND JIM

WALLY AND JOAN

DARRELL, DAVID, SUE AND LINDA

JIM, TERRY, JAN AND GARY

PAT, ED, JOHN AND GLORIA

MARY, JEFF, IRA, BEV AND JERRY

BRIAN, MARILYN, DAVE AND ANN

OUR LEADERS - BARRY AND TERRY

WALLY, RELAXING AFTER BRUNCH

THE BUSY BEE CAFE

Friday, September 12, 2014

DEADWOOD, SOUTH DAKOTA

Deadwood, SD was a very interesting stop for several reasons: one was learning the history of this western town and what took place here; another was visiting Tatanka; and the third was making history by being there for the earliest snowfall in their recorded history.

Deadwood was a very small, nothing town until gold was discovered in 1876. It then grew almost overnight to about 10,000 people looking for their fortunes. Among them were "Wild Bill" Hickok and Calamity Jane. Deadwood was where he was killed during a poker game. They still re-enact the killing on a daily basis.

"Tatanka - Story of the Bison" is a museum built and still managed by Kevin Costner to truthfully tell the history of the Plains Indians, especially the Lakota, and the bison they depended on for their life. I still can't believe that we had a snowstorm on September 11th. It dumped about 8 inches on the area. I know we leave Florida in the summer to get away from the heat but this went a bit too far. The good thing was that it wasn't a travel day so we all just hung out and tried to stay warm. As I write this, it is 9:30 am on the 12th and the sun is out so the snow is quickly melting.