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Black Hills Matter: The Ricochet Meetup Report
The whole gang at Murphy’s Pub & Grill
Seventeen of us (mostly Ricochet members, but also some spouses and other guests) met up for a four-day meetup in South Dakota’s Black Hills the weekend before Labor Day. We didn’t all do everything, but among the activities and places we went were Mammoth Site, Mount Rushmore, Sturgis Mustang Rally, the 1880 Steam Train Ride, Bear Country USA, and Reptile Gardens. We had talked about doing a cave tour, but most of the cave tours were shut down due to Covid-19. Most of us also went on a scenic drive through Custer State Park and Spearfish Canyon. Although we set out at more or less the same time, we did not drive in a caravan. And I don’t think any of us stayed exactly on the pre-planned route.
Sturgis Mustang Rally
Vectorman and Wife at Mount Rushmore
Stad & Neutral Observer at Mount Rushmore
Bear Country, USA
Bear Country, USA
Crazy Horse Memorial
Waiting to start the scenic drive
Several of us went in together and rented a castle to live in, and each evening we would invite the whole group over to finish off the night. Unlike the Montana Meetup, we actually had quite a bit of liquor left over. I guess we were missing the ladies who finished off all the bottles in Montana.
Welcome to the castle
It was a fantastic time. It gave me a chance to get to know some Ricochet members who I had met before but hadn’t had much time to talk to, as well as reconnecting with established old friends. And I can verify that @concretevol’s car isn’t just awesome on paper, it is awesome in reality. I actually got to drive the Shelby GT350 on some winding mountain and canyon roads and it was delightful.
Concretevol and I also talked about someday have a weekend meetup in Knoxville to coincide with Ponies in the Smokies. This meetup would also likely include a firearms day. But that’s for some time down the road. Next year we are having a major Ricochet Meetup on Kentucky’s Bourbon Trail. And it’s likely that in 2022 we’ll have a big meetup in New Orleans during the New Orleans Jazz Fest.
When I have some time I will make a slideshow video from photos of this meetup, so stay tuned for that.
Published in Meetups
The American West is the most fascinating part of American history?
His real but fake SSN is public information
Be extra cautious when you get within a few hundred yards of your driveway on your return home.
Certainly one of the more romantic periods in US history. The same with the Antebelleum Deep South. Slavery sucked, to be sure – but this period of time in this location evokes all sorts of images and stories, Song of the South and Gone With the Wind being classic representations.
Simon Legree was the exception, not the rule. However, Harriet Stowe tainted Southerners with this image that has stood to this day . . .
Good point . . .
The 1962 How the West Was Won was made by MGM, the studio that released Gone With the Wind, and HTWWW was intended to be the same kind of sweeping tapestry that sums up a whole region, a whole volume of American history. It’s pretty good. It does have a touch of tame, 1962 liberalism, nothing a conservative of today would object to: it has some sympathy for the cause of the Indians (none of whom is a character in the story), but today it would be totally condemned as colonialist all the way. It has one of those dream casts of Hollywood legends like Wayne and Stewart and was photographed in 3 screen Cinerama, the last film to be made that way. It was also released in a standard, one screen edition.
Simon Legree was from New Hampshire. He was a Yankee through and through.
HBO’s Deadwood season one
The pilot is really really good
“Black Hills Matter”
😂😂😂
Excellent! Glad y’all had a good time.
I should have thought of this earlier, but I want to mention a special thanks to a few people. @vectorman’s wife, Ann, made us all breakfast a couple times with some assistance from @stad. Also thanks to @katiekoppelman, for arranging the tickets for the 1880 Steam Train ride. It was just a fantastic time, although I didn’t get to spend enough time talking with @concretevol about cars. Next time, though!
Ann did the heavy lifting when it came to breakfast. All I did was sling some frozen hash browns in a vat of olive oil and keep them from burning as they browned. Ann rocked when it came to the eggs!
You must have been that couple I saw waiving with ALL their fingers. I knew you weren’t from around here.
Hehe . . .
And we did wave on the way back.
I’m going through pictures sent to me by other meetup attendees. Once I get them all organized I’ll select which ones to use for a slideshow, which I will upload for all to see. This photo is a mystery to me, though. Katie took this one at Bear Country, USA. Is this just some optical illusion or did the creature on the right really, really have to go?
Great timing on the photo.
Another one from Katie’s photo set.
Men in Black Hats
…and mustaches.
Any final report on Stads car? Did they total it?
So now that I have the total picture set from the various contributors organized, I’m winnowing down the list of which ones to include in the slideshow. Do you think 7+ minutes of pictures from the Mustang Rally is too much? Sigh. OK, I’ll keep winnowing.
It’s here! The slideshow from the meetup photos is online.
The guy you don’t recognize is Omega Paladin’s friend, Silence. The two of them were AWOL for the group photo above.
My one regret about this meetup is that we forgot to feed @neutralobserver some deep fried cheese curds.
Two thoughts
At least you weren’t unlucky enough that they saw you.
Maybe they did; I wouldn’t come up and introduce myself if I were them.
Hahaha! It was so hot they had to set up a sprinkler for the reindeer!
Instead of Hank with mismatched shoes like in Bigfork, Montana, here we see Hank and MushroomAlgae showing off their matching hats!