Cassidy’s

After spending the night in Jackalope town (Douglas) we drove north to the Black Hills to stay with Mike and Rene Cassidy, who also owned a casita and lot at the Myakka River Motorcoach Resort (MRMR). The Cassidys decided to get out of the RVing world this spring as they sold their site at MRMR and currently have their beautiful Newell motorcoach up for sale. About four years ago they purchased a house on property previously known as Rushmore Ranch. Their property has a direct view of Mount Rushmore! They also purchased the lot next to them and built a huge barn that can house all their “toys”.

What a beautiful site! And talk about a barndomium! They can accommodate five RVs with full hookups!

That evening we drove into Keystone and ate at the Ruby House Restaurant.

It looked like an old western saloon complete with a madam and rooms! Mike and I had the Bourbon ribeye – delish!

Then we went to Mt. Rushmore and got there in time to get some great pictures:

And the night program.

The “boys” as Mike calls them were all lit up! After we sang the Star Spangled Banner they invited all the veterans up on stage:

What a glorious patriotic tribute! On the way out:

All the states flags with Mt. Rushmore in the background! We sure wished that they still had a fireworks display but they stopped that two years ago.

What a great first afternoon and evening with our hosts Mike and Rene!

The next day we took their ATVs out for a ride in the Black Hills. What a great location where you can ride straight from your garage and onto hundreds of miles of trails! They took us for a tour:

Beautiful countryside! I can see why the Cassidys purchased here. We were able to stop at the “hippie pool and rock”:

I can’t show you a picture of the Skinny dippers in the pool, but we did get a picture of the Hippie Hole rock. There was one part of the trail that had fairly deep standing water and as we went through it the “bubbling crude” came up through the plug on Katrina’s side of the Polaris:

Needless to say that Katrina wasn’t tickled.

For dinner we went to the Powder House located near Keystone, a local favorite. A wonderful restaurant!

The next day (Independence Day) we were scheduled to take a helicopter on Black Hills Helicopters around the area to include Mt. Rushmore, the Black Hills and Crazy Horse fly by. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate! What a shame! The owner of Black Hills Helicopter is Andrew Busse whom I’m sure that we are related. We did get some pictures of the place:

I’ll have to check the Busse History Book when I return to Myakka. Either way, we were getting the friends and family discount. Since we couldn’t go up into the sky, Mike and Rene drove us through some of the area that we might have seen from above; mainly the needles and the pigtails of the Black Hills. Check these pictures out:

Twisting turning roads that did complete 360’s and went through granite tunnels revealing stunning views of Mt. Rushmore. Katrina and I wish you a Happy Fourth of July!

Here’s a video of going through the Needles Eye:

The best stop was at the Sylvan Lake Lodge. A beautiful scenic lodge near the fabulous lake.

The picture does not do this wonderful tarn justice. Trust me, go see it!

Inside the lodge Katrina and I were able to feed a Moose and pet a Bison:

We drove over to Hill City to have a late lunch at The Alpine Restaurant, a wonderfully good German place.

Mike and I had the traditional German plate: bratwurst, sauerkraut, red cabbage, potato salad, and spaetzle. Yummy!

That evening we played games in the barndomium. I won’t say who won as that would be vain (I did).

We were scheduled to depart the next morning but the weather broke so we were able to take the helicopter ride. What an experience! Beautiful places and sights! The best part was that Andrew took us for an extended ride because of the issues the day before and because that’s what family does (Ohana). Check out these pictures of the Black Hills with the switchbacks and pigtails that we drove through the day before: