Christmas in D'Hanis School

What a joy to be part of this community at Christmas time. The Lone Star Corral, the SKP park where we are, does something special for the local elementary school children each year. It's a poor, rural area. Usually we arrive after it's all over, but this year we are fortunate to be able to take part. Last Monday the children came to the club house and performed A Bug's Christmas for us. What a wonderful group of well behaved children. For the last few weeks, the collection of gifts for the 154 children has been growing. The members here baked large quantities of cookies, bought candy, made crayon boxes, jewelry boxes, and pencil boxes and donated small toys and much needed school supplies. Thursday we packaged the gift bags and stockings and made the delivery on Friday.

The children who came to the park for the concert.

Bagging cookies

Candy

Goodies ready for our Kindergarten class.

Filling bags for the older grades.

Stuffing stockings for the Kindergarten classes.

The 12 stockings ready to go for our class.

Some of our fellow elves, with our head elf in the center. Thanks Shari!

Making the delivery was the best. It was awesome to be representing the many wonderful people in our park. Thanks Kay for sharing your pictures.

Veterans Day 2010

We had a wonderful celebration on Veterans Day this year. There are many veterans in our park and others were invited from the local community. The D'Hanis High School Band played for us, and the local Ford dealership provided lunch for all those in attendance.

A small group of the many veterans here for the ceremony.

Some of the park residents and visitors, dressed in their red, white and blue, preparing for the singing of the patriotic songs.

The high school band volunteered to perform for us on a day off from school.

The band members had very colorful shirts.

These three army reserves were on hand for the raising of the flag.

The flag burning ceremony

The local Commemorative Air Force did a fly by for us with some of their vintage planes.

America, home of the free, because of the brave.

Minuteman Missile National Historic Site

While we were staying at Badlands National Park, we took part of a day for a tour of the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site, which was established in 1999. Minuteman II missile sites were deactivated after the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty was signed in 1991. The National Park Service worked to preserve one of the sites to show the significance of the Cold War, the arms race, and the dedication of USAF personnel.

Our tour started here at the Delta-01 Launch Control Facility.

A Delta Flight Peacekeeper vehicle used by the security personnel to patrol the facilities.

This bedroom has been preserved as it was in 1991.

The dining and lounge area are still furnished as they were when it was closed down. Even the magazines and books from 1991 were left in place.

The door into the underground control room.

Underground launch control center at Delta-01.

Looking out from the launch control building.

This part of the tour was at the Delta-09 Launch Facility a few miles from the control.

You can see the heavy door that would normally be over the missile. The glass dome on the right was put in place to give us a view down to the missile.

Badlands National Park

Our next stop was Badlands National Park. We spent four days in the park, exploring and marveling at the colorful layers of rock and the power of erosion.

You think?

Unusual formations at each turn.

Some were smooth.

Some very jagged.

If you look carefully near the edge of the shadow in the lower part of the picture, you can see a couple of big horn sheep.

A big horn sheep walks by.

You can really see the different layers here.

This bison was in the western part of the park where we also saw prairie dogs, hawks, coyotes and many more bison.

One of the many windows we saw.

Magnificent sunset

Black Hills Area, South Dakota

After leaving West Yellowstone, our first destination was the Rapid City area of South Dakota. It had been 21 years since we had visited there and our friends David and Diane have a temporary home there. Two great reasons to go spend a few days there.

Our peaceful, quiet campsite at the Belle Fourche Reservoir. The RV you can see is our rig.

In addition to the view, we were treated to this colorful sunset.

Arriving at Devils Tower

These two rock climbers look like insects walking up the vertical rock.

The campground at Devils Tower.

There is a prairie dog town near the tower.

David and Diane know the area well and were kind enough to be our tour guides. They took us on some great rides where we saw the beauty of the Black Hills.

Notice the vehicle tunnel in the center of the picture.

The needle's eye.

Crazy Horse Monument