Mallo Camp Reunion

We made it into Mallo Camp Friday late afternoon.  Mallo is about 20 miles north of Gillette WY.  It really is out in the middle of nowhere and there is no cell signal.  So you're cut off for the two and half days at the reunion.  This isn't such a bad thing.  We met my mom and Pete there and of course all the extended Rothleutner clan.  If Gwyn looks a little forlorn in some of the pictures, it's because she was confined to a chair quite a bit with ice on her ankle.  Thankfully, a military doctor was in residence at the reunion and pronounced her not in need of an x-ray.  Just a bad sprain.  And the little hospital in Gillette had a pair of crutches we could borrow for the weekend.  So eventually she did get around, she just couldn't do a lot of the romping and climbing she was looking forward to.

There was ladder golf, hoola hoops, creek wading, fish catching, frog catching, dam building, volley ball, board games, bell ringing, hair wrapping, smore making, horse shoeing, gabbing, laughing, and of course food.

And even though Gwyn could try to summit the bluff this year, Celee, Kallianne, and I did it.  It is just scary enough of a "climb" to get your adrenaline going, but not so much that we feel like we could fall to our deaths.  Then the view from the top is awesome.  We always try to yell to the people at the camp below, but they never hear us.  :)

And as always, the reunion was over too quick.  Time to clean up and say goodbyes.  Hopefully we'll see everyone in another two years!

Crazy Horse

On the way from North Dakota to the reunion we stopped at the Crazy Horse Memorial.  I love to see how this place changes each time we go here.  Mount Rushmore is amazing, but it's also the same each time.  Crazy Horse is monumental, like 7 Wonders of the World type of a place.  And it changes because it's not done yet.  At first glance it didn't look like much had been done in the past two years.  But I'm glad that in the Museum they have pictures from every year and the work that's been done.  They've excavated many tons of rock from the back side of the sculpture that you can't see from the museum, and a lot from where the horse's neck will be.  I just can't even imagine how incredible this will be when it is done.  I don't mind paying the fee to enter or buying things in their shop either, because they accept no government funds.  It's all investment, donations, and revenue.
Gwyn was bummed to have to ride in a wheelchair while we were at Crazy Horse.  I helped her hobble in, but she really couldn't put any weight on her ankle at all.  So we go her the chair and wheeled her around.  We got to see the Korczack movie and the story of how the memorial was conceived and started.  It's an amazing story.

Enchanting North Dakota

We hiked out of Lake Maria and hit the road again.  This time to North Dakota.  The girls and I had never been to North Dakota so I had tried to find some fun things to do as we crossed this new frontier.  I happened upon the Enchanted Highway.  In 1989, Regent ND resident Gary Greff decided to do something to help his dying town and give people reason to get off of I-90 and down the 32 miles of road to Regent.  He began by making a gigantic scrap metal sculpture.  Through the years as he can buy land along the route, he has added sculptures.  There are now 8 huge sculptures along the road, each with a pull out and picnic areas.  Two of the sculpture has playgrounds as well.  Geese in Flight is pretty impressive, and is the only one that can be seen from I-90.  The girls favorite was Fisherman's Dream.  I think they liked the playground boat that they could climb up in.

Mr.Greff did indeed get people to take a detour off of I-90, but there really wasn't anything in Regent for people who made it there to see or do, or a place to stay.  So he bought the town's closed high school and converted it into a hotel, The Enchanted Castle.  I wish all hotels were like this one!  I was pleasantly surprised by how very nice the rooms were, with nice linens and decor and new HD tvs.  What is even better is that they kept the school gymnasium!  And it's open for guests to go in and play ball.  There are ping pong tables too!  And the locker rooms are now hot tub rooms.  Bonus!

The hotel even has its own restaurant.  And Mr.Greff will make just about whatever you'd like to eat.  He prepared it himself the night we were there.

In the morning the girls couldn't resist playing on the school playground that is still out front.  I love the old-school high metal swing set.  It's the kind you can get real high on and then jump out for that moment of weightlessness.  There's a rockwall and all kinds of obstacles, so naturally the girls started playing Ninja Warrior.  I was the timer.  It only took three rounds before someone got hurt.  In this case it was Gwyn, twisting her ankle.  It was pretty bad too.  Thankfully, one of the cleaning ladies was also a nurse.  (I guess in a small town like Regent many people play many different roles)  She didn't think anything was broken, so we fixed Gwyn up with an ice pack and set off again.  At least she had a few hours in the car to keep it elevated and iced.

From Regent we took small highways south into South Dakota.  This was a very cool way to see the countryside.  It's much more interesting than the interstate.  And I saw so many pheasants that I thought they were trying to get in our car with us.  They were running across the road the whole way out of North Dakota.  Maybe they were trying to get us to stay.  :)