Beware the elusive Tree Buffalo...

Aaron and I spent the day and a half out of Spearfish, away from our friends, away from our family, just the two of us, for our one year anniversary. We went to Hot Springs and Custer, SD, and stayed at a little bed and breakfast called the Flat Iron in Hot Springs. After checking in, we drove to Custer so we could see some wildlife and Mount Rushmore. We went to the Custer State Park, the home of the buffalo, burrow, elk, antelope, deer, and the elusive tree buffalo. Here are some of the regular prairie buffalo:




Aaron had warned me about the tree buffalo, who like to hide in the trees and jump on their prey, crushing them to death, and then eating them. Aaron said they only eat little blue cars, so we'd better be careful. Especially when we were sneaking up on the prairie buffalo in it. We were fortunate enough not to see the vicious tree buffalo, but we did see some mangy antelope, a buffalo with a Moe haircut (Three Stooges), and a deer with a shaved neck and radio collar. This is how we think that scenario went down:

Game Warden 1: We need to put a radio collar on this deer, so we gotta shave his neck.
GW2: How are we gonna do that?
GW1: Well, we'll tranquilize him first, then take him to the dog groomer and have them do it.
GW2: Think we can get them to style its hair, too?
GW1: Sweet. Good idea.
Dog Groomer: Mornin', gentlemen!
GW1&2: Hi! We've got a, uh, large breed dog that needs its neck shaved.
DG: Um, that doesn't look like a dog to me...that's a deer.
GW1: No, seriously, it's okay. We just need its neck shaved. We have to put a radio transmitter collar on it.
GW2: Yeah, and put a bow in its fur, too!
GW1: I thought you were joking about that earlier...
GW2: What? Oh, totally, yeah, it was a joke.
GW2: Can we give a buffalo a haircut, too? When we put the radio collar on one, let's style his hair.
GW1: How did you get a job here?

Poor deer. I didn't get a picture of him, but he was pretty sad looking. You know when you take a dog to the vet and shave everything but its paws, tail, and head? Yeah...it kinda looked like that.

We left the park and Aaron was going to take me to the Needles, which I'd never seen before, but unfortunately, the road was closed because it wasn't late enough in the year yet, and there was still snow on the ground. So we went to this really beautiful area with those same kind of rocks, just not as many of them, near a lake.



After that, we drove towards Mt. Rushmore, but we didn't actually stop because it was snowing, and we didn't want to have to pay for it or hike up there in the cold...if they were even open. It was a beautiful drive, with everything covered in snow. I didn't get any pictures of it because we never stopped the car, we were just trying to get home before it got too dark.

We got back to town, had some dinner at a sports bar, then got back to the B&B. It wasn't even 9pm yet, but there wasn't really much else to do, so we flipped on the TV because we had DishNetwork satellite. 5000 channels and nothing to watch! Actually, that wasn't the case. It was more like, 5000 channels, and you can only watch three! The system was messed up or hadn't been activated yet, so all we got was Pay Per View, and we weren't going to do that, or the DishNetwork information channel, CCTV (Communist China Television), the SIRIUS radio network information channel, and the Shop At Home channel. Well screw this. There's a shelf of about 10 chick flicks next to the VCR. After much deliberation, we find "Something To Talk About" starring Julia Roberts and Dennis Quaid, the story about an unfaithful husband and what happens to the wife as she goes out on her own. *Puke* No sound. Fiddle with the VCR connection. After about a minute, sporadic sounds come pumping through the speakers like a bad rap song beat. Rewind, fiddle with some wires, try it again. Nothing. Sporadic beats. Okay, let's try a new movie. We ended up watching "How To Lose a Guy in 10 Days." Ha. Good thing we didn't go to the B&B for their movie selection.

Before we left this morning, I took some pictures of our room.

Bedroom

As you walk in, bedroom to your right, bathroom to the left, then living room/kitchen area straight ahead.

Living room/kitchen area

Kitchen

Sink

Shower. Those tiles in the shower were on the floor throughout the whole room, it was really pretty.

Next are my favorite pictures, they turned out really well. Before we left for good, Aaron pointed us towards some hot spring falls and springs, located a few miles from eachother on Highway 71. I didn't think the picture of the falls (which didn't look that impressive from our viewpoint, but if we'd hiked down a little, you would have been able to really see them), was going to turn out that well, but it's my favorite one of them all. The first picture is of the falls, and the rest were taken at the springs at a little picnic area.

Falls


Stream



Hot springs