Woke up to clouds but by the time we took off the sun was out and the
day was warming up. This is the day we
start heading back home. Of course, it
took us 4 or 5 days to get out here and it’ll probably take the same going
home. I’m big on taking different routes
just so I can see something different.
Had to take the time this morning to compare routes, distances, camping
options, etc. Finally made reservations
for a camping site at the KOA in Kennebec, SD.
It was 223 miles by I-90…269 miles by a combination of interstate and scenic
route to the north of I-90…or 286 miles by an entirely scenic route to the
south of I-90. No contest!...286 miles
it is!
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It was indeed a scenic route. The majority of it was through farm country
again, with the crops being hay, sorghum and sunflowers. Corn made an appearance as we got closer to
Kennebec. The sunflowers have perplexed me every time we’ve encountered a field
because they don’t raise their heads to the sun; they droop down. They looked like a field of corn with their
heads down. I don’t know the ins and
outs of sunflowers so I had to stop to look at them; my assessment is that the
seeds are making the heads too heavy to lift.
Also each seed has a little flower on it that drops off away easily at
being touched. So maybe it’s getting
close to harvest time. Wouldn't that would be
interesting to watch.
We also saw two varieties
based on the stem or stalk. One type
looked like a basic flower stem with leaves here and there and the other type
had so many leaves it looked like it was wearing a floor length dress. Google has been no help in helping me identify
them, but on the other hand I’ve learned that there are about 70 different
species of sunflower. I honestly thought
there was only one type so I was all geeked when we saw the second obviously
different type this afternoon. Now I
know better, thanks to Google.
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Riding into Hot Springs, SD and a campground
sign caught my attention…The Kemo Sabay Campground. After I sounded it out, I wondered
if it has anything to do with the Lone Ranger and Tonto. My research indicates there’s not a connection;
however I did learn that for Lone Ranger purposes the correct spelling is ‘Kemosabe’. Also The Word Detective site has this to say
about it:
In Navajo, on
the other hand, “kemosabe” translates as “soggy shrub.” If this seems an
odd thing for faithful friend Tonto to call the Lone Ranger, perhaps he was
just repaying the Ranger's long-standing insult. “Tonto,” after all, is a
Spanish word meaning “stupid.”
I have no idea if this information is
correct but it now joins the other useless information stored in my head.
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We took US 385 south out of Custer to Hot Springs, SD, where we had to
get on US 18. As we were following signs
and winding our way through town, I saw a sign for The Mammoth Site. Always looking for something odd and unique
to see and knowing nothing about it, I radioed Kim about checking it out. He was game so we made our way there.
Turns out it’s an active paleontological dig site inside a climate
controlled building and they give tours. The tour includes: 1. an interesting
short movie about how the mammoth bones came to be located there, the history
of how the bones were discovered and how the dig is being managed and 2. a guided
tour of the dig site.
The bones were found when a small hill was being excavated in
preparation for a housing development in 1974. That hill covered a sinkhole that had been
filled in with layers of sediment over the course of time. The bones were discovered in those layers of
sediment…other fossils discovered date the sinkhole to the Pleistocene age. So
far, 122 tusks have been discovered. It's assumed that each mammoth would have had 2
tusks and based on the type of tusks found, there have been 58 North American Columbian
mammoths and 3 wooly mammoths found to date, all of them young males. Also a skull of the extinct giant short-faced
bear has been found….and recently a femur bone that was thought to
belong with the skull has been determined to be too large for that particular
bear. So that means there are at least
two giant short-faced bears contained in the sinkhole. This is exciting news to those at the dig
site.
Mammoth tusks, femurs, teeth that look like the sole of a tennis sole,
skulls, ribs and more are on display right where they were unearthed. The work is slow and methodical. There was a volunteer on site today…I watched
her using a paintbrush, a spray bottle and a putty knife to carefully scrape
off soil which was then saved in a bucket for others to inspect for other types
of fossils. This is not a job for those
who require instant gratification in their efforts.
At the end of the tour, our guide
(Colton) indicated some bones that may be moved to storage soon and then said, “Of
course, ‘soon’ is relative. To a paleontologist,
soon may mean anywhere from 3 to 5 years.” 😉
After the tour we were allowed to wander around (on the walkways only) to
take pictures, read the informational signs, etc. Colton did a very good job of explaining the
process and describing what we were looking at…some of the bones were obvious
but some just didn’t compute for me. It required
looking at the diagrams to figure out what I was seeing because the skeletons
weren’t all neatly laid out like in a museum…some were rather jumbled up or
even found upside down. What
distinguishes an upside down skull in a rock from a rock is beyond me.
Stopping at The Mammoth Site was spontaneous and cost us an hour or so
in time but it was fascinating and worth it.
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We upgraded from a tent site to a cabin when we arrived at the
KOA. It should make for an earlier start
in the morning…but then again, maybe not. 😏 And we’ve already decided on a route and made
reservations at a KOA in Jackson, MN.
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Small Town of the Day: Batesland, SD…population 108
The small town right off the bat to beat was Pringle, SD, which is not
far from Custer, with a population of 122.
It also proclaimed with a large ornate sign that it was the Elk Capital
of South Dakota. The elk must not have
gotten the memo because there was nary a sight of an elk…however, there were
free ranging buffalo along the highway.
Wonder how often one of those beasts wanders into the highway and stops
traffic.
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Monday miles: 291 miles
Total miles: 1,868
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