June 26, 2013: Hot Springs in the Black Hills, South Dakota

Beautiful cool morning with fluffy clouds against picture perfect blue sky.

We are playing the Southern Hills Course that has been rated #1 for multiple years in South Dakota.  It was gorgeous and in great condition, although the greens still had remnants of aerification.

The views were spectacular and some holes were uniquely designed with lots of elevation changes.  It had grown hot by the time we finished, but no humidity.

After golf we visited the Mammoth site a couple of miles away where they are currently excavating Columbian Mammoths which were almost twice the size and weight of the wooly mammoth.  The area had been a sink hole and the animals would slip in trying to eat the grass at the edges and couldn't get out because the sides were slippery shale.

  Over hundreds of years,the skeletons piled up and they have found 40 mammoths so far and expect many more than that.

 

 

We drove through the small town of Hot Springs with lots of old sandstone buildings.

 On the way out of town, our engine light came on.  Hmmm.  Checked the gas cap, turned it on and off a few times, but nothing changed.  The engine seemed to run fine, so we continued the 1/2 hour to our campground in Custer City, in the center of the Black Hills.  While checking in, the campground manager said he knew a guy who could put a scanner on it to determine the problem.  We decided to do that the next morning, but Jack called our service guy in Charleston and he said if the engine is running fine, it could just be altitude giving false readings.  Hot Springs and Custer City are over a mile high.

Cable and WiFi and full hookups tonight.  Yeah!