Custer City, SD June 23, 2014

Monday, June 23, 2014 Only 2 more days here and a couple of things left to do on my “to do” list. Since things are still a little soggy from the rain yesterday, we decided to save our hike for tomorrow. We hung around the campsite this morning doing a little cleaning and maintenance. I also worked on my blog in the Internet lounge at the campground for about an hour.

It rained off and on when the dark clouds blew in, so we waited for a break in the rain before we left to go to town. Around 2:30 we took a drive into Custer City.

We walked along both sides of the Mt. Rushmore Avenue checking out all the shops, bars, restaurants, and old buildings. This First National Bank building was first established in 1881.

Farther down the road, we saw the County Courthouse Museum, a very stately old building.

In the city square, the Dr. Flick Cabin built in 1875 was the first home built in the Black Hills. It was finished inside to look like it did back in the day.

We passed the Naked Winery. Bob had been dying to check it out so we did.

Bob saw the “Help Wanted” sign and wanted to apply for a job there.

We went inside to get a sample of rhubarb wine, but found this instead.

This beautiful “Trojan horse” sculpture sat in an outdoor patio.

The Gold Pan Saloon was closed but they had those cool “swinging saloon doors”.

One of the coolest things we saw in town were the buffalos from the “Custer Stampede”. Artists from around the country design and paint each buffalo. All the buffalo artwork is displayed on the street corners in town. Later in September, they will be auctioned off. This auction takes place in conjunction with the annual Buffalo Roundup, the Crazy Horse walk to the top, and the Art Festival. It is an annual event and many people attend. Sturgeon Bay, WI does the same thing with sturgeons, Madison, WI does it with cows, and Bradenton, FL does it with geckos. These are three of my favorite buffalo entries for this year.

We were a little early for dinner, so we did some grocery shopping and went back to the campground until 5:00. It seems most eating establishments serve lunch from 11-2 and then reopen for dinner at 5:00. We got it from a reliable local

source that the Burger and Bun Co. had the best buffalo burgers in town, but you had to get there when it opened or be prepared to wait. 

We got there a few minutes after 5:00 and the place was almost full. We got the last table. What luck! We ordered a classic buffalo burger with fries and a beer! The perfect match! It came with lettuce, tomato, onion, and thinly sliced cucumber slices.

It tasted a lot like hamburger, but much leaner. It was delicious! We treated ourselves to a slice of homemade strawberry rhubarb pie with whipped cream! Yum! There’s nothing better than a great burger! The place was jammin’ by the time we left. We got there just at the right time and now we have two more things to cross off the “to do” list…the buffalo burger and cruising around Custer City! We drove back to our campsite and tried to have a campfire. It started to rain just as Bob got the wood split. We asked the lady at the grocery store this afternoon if it normally rains this much at this time of the year. She said this is the rainy season, but it has rained more this year than normal. Just like a lot of other places I know. We asked her what the yellow powder all over everything was and she said it was pollen, like we had guessed. I guess it is especially bad this year. We noticed! Auggie and I took a walk around the campground and only ran into about 6 rabbits along the way. We waited for the rain to stop so we could have a campfire. This is getting ridiculous! Tomorrow is our last day so we’ll finish up what’s on the “to do” list and then it will be time to move on. We did get to enjoy a campfire, but the wood was damp and just made a lot of smoke, not too much fire and heat. It got cold, so we all moved inside. We’ll try again tomorrow on our last day in Custer.