When we first left on this trip, I decided that I would be retiring one of my other blogs,– Haw Creek Out ‘n About , my outdoors and travel related blog –and that I would fold the content from that blog into this one, Exit78.

However, that idea ended up detracting from the way that this blog was developing, so I changed my mind and decided to continue using Haw Creek Out ‘n About for outdoors and travel related material. It’s going to mean backing up and adding material to Haw Creek Out ‘n About from earlier in the trip, but that’s alright.

The first post from earlier in the trip is up. It’s from August 26, 2007, but I will be posting the earlier material there also, which will be post dated for the applicable dates, as I explain in Catching Up is Hard to Do.

This image is from the August 26, 2007 post, which also has several other photos.

Comments on “Getting Settled on How I’m Going to Be Using This Blog in Our Travels”

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

It’s about time!

While I don’t pretend to know the details of what has been happened to the Justice Department under his stewardship, I have paid enough attention to see that that he seemed to be very deceitful and somewhat inept in his answers to Congress.

Goodbye Alberto!

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

Today, we took the trail around the base of Devil’s Tower and, later, a drive to see some of the countryside around here.

The Devils Tower KOA has a large area at the back of the campground which, at this time of the year, is empty, except for those who are using the Kamping Kabins. It is very pretty back there. This view is of the Devil’s Tower National Monument from that part of the campground. The fence in the picture is the boundary between the monument and campground properties.

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Devil’s Tower is sacred to many Native Americans.

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This image is a montage of over 10 separate photographs. Even with a wide angle zoom lens, we were so close that I was not able to get all of the tower in. The rocks below the tower are remnants of rock columns that have fallen over the ages.

Critters around the tower:

Deer

Chipmunk

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In the afternoon we took a drive and ended up at Interstate 90 east of Sundance, Wyoming. Seeing a sign pointing to Vore Buffalo Jump, we decided to go check it out.

For over three hundred years, Plains Indian groups stampeded bison over the rim and into a deep natural “sink hole” at the site which is now called the Vore Buffalo Jump. It was one of the most effective means available to the Indians to procure the buffalo which were their primary food and the source of many other materials used in their cultures. It is believed that up to 20,000 of the shaggy bison were trapped at this one location. – Sundance, Wyoming website

Note: this image is a panorama compiled from several photos.

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

We’re camped in Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, just a little ways from the Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, post office.

I took the following photo from the tail-gate of my pickup truck at our campsite. (That’s not our camper in the picture.)

We are at the Devil’s Tower KOA, which shares a fence with the national monument.

Comments on “We’re in Wyoming now — check out the pictures!”

August 27, 2007

teeni @ 8:30 am

Hmmm…The first two pictures leave me wanting a nice big pile o’ mashed potatoes! LOL.

Seriously, though – gorgeous scenery!!!!!!! Thanks for sharing the pics!

Mike Goad @ 8:36 am

It took me a minute to catch the connection. Of course if I had gone to the campground’s nightly showing of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, I would have gotten it right away.

I plan on posting more pictures. A big part of traveling for me is taking photos and now, with my blogs, I have a venue where I can share them with others.

August 28, 2007

teeni @ 9:41 pm

And though I AM a big goofball at times, I DO appreciate your sharing your travel pictures. I hope to visit all kinds of places in my lifetime but with money/work/financial situations I may not get to see them all in person so you never have to twist my arm to look at pictures. Do they really show that movie every night at the campground? Too funny.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

We were in the gift shop at Mt. Rushmore, when I heard someone — the fellow in the wheelchair outside the door in the picture above — ask, “Could you push that button for me, please?”

He wasn’t asking me, He was asking someone else, but my curiosity made me look to see why he would have to ask anyone else.

He couldn’t reach it. The display was in the way.

He didn’t make a fuss, and neither did I. Most people don’t — not even the ones in wheelchairs.

I should have said something. My brother-in-law, Scott, would have. He would’ve wheeled right over to the counter where the sales people were and demanded to see a manager. He probably wouldn’t have been quiet about it either — and he would have been justified.

I have sent an email to the gift store and filled out a comment form on their on-line site.

Update to this article:
Devil’s Tower, Wyoming, August 26, 2007, 5:25 P.M.

I just received the following message regarding the display described in the article below:

Thank you for bringing to our attention that the button was blocked. Unfortunately the display was moved and we were not aware of it. But we have taken care of it now. We do try to be aware of the ease of use of the button, but sometimes we neglect it. We are sorry for any inconvenience this caused and we hope that it will not stop you from wanting to come back to Mt Rushmore in the future.

Mark Parker
Retail Manager

It is refreshing to see prompt action taken when something is not right. However, I still wish that I had said something at the time. I also wonder of all the thousands of people who have gone through that store since the button was blocked, how many noticed, and how many were disabled and could not use the button.

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

Our drive today was a relatively short one. We went from the Rushmore Shadows campground–about 9 miles south of Rapid City, South Dakota–to the KOA that sits just outside of the fence of Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

Images from the I90 rest area at Sundance, Wyoming:

Silver Buffalo Berry (see reference) – silver refers to the color of the leaves of the plant

Devil’s Tower images

The camper in this image is ours, after we had set up and extended the slides. Excellent location.

This is the view from the campsite next to ours. We have a small tree across the drive that is slightly in the way of our view.

We see deer every time we go for a walk or go for a drive.

This is from the opposite side of the tower, from the parking lot at the head of one of the park’s trails.

Long before the official time for sundown, we were in the shadow of the tower.

The Devil’s Tower KOA is a very large campground with plenty of room for tenters and RVers. This is the “overflow area.”

A twilight image of the tower.

Note: This “lost” Haw Creek Out ‘n About post was recovered from the Internet Archive WayBack Machine.

If you’re reading this blog by feeds, you will probably notice a change. I’ve changed from “full feed” to “summary.”

I just want to make it a little more difficult for content scrapers to get my full content. I’m going to stop giving it away. If they want to steal my content, some of them will have to come to the blog to get it.

I’m not so vain that I think I have a lot of people scraping my content…, yet. However, I do want to grow my blog and I don’t want my content diluted by having it duplicated elsewhere on the internet.

I made this decision after reading Darren Rowse’s The Age Old Debate – Excerpts of Full Posts in RSS Feeds.

I hate it when people steal my content or the content of others.  It’s copyright infringement and plagiarism.

4 Responses to “ A change in my RSS feeds ”

1. 1 Steve Harrelson Says:
   August 25th, 2007 at 11:39 am Nice blog. I’m considering doing the same to mine to keep my traffic number up. It took me a few minutes to decide whether you were in Russellville or Arkadelphia, since Exit 78 on I-30 is just six miles from Lake DeGray. I knew those mountains in your pic were a little more steep and rugged than the ones in Clark County, though.

   Steve

2. 2 Rose Says:
   August 26th, 2007 at 12:02 am Mike wise move. I have mine set on short too.
3. 3 Jonathan Bailey Says:
   August 26th, 2007 at 10:20 pm One point to consider though. Even though this may thwart most RSS scrapers out there right now, the next generation of scrapers will likely have the ability to scrape from the site itself, much like what Technorati does for its search engines.

   The technology exists, it just hasn’t been applied yet to your traditional RSS scraper. It’s only a matter of time though.

   Just something to weigh, this might not be a long-term solution.

4. Mike Goad Says:
   August 26th, 2007 at 10:50 pm Steve – that’s correct; it is the Exit78 on I40, Thanks for stopping by the blog

   Rose – thanks; time may tell if it’s smart or not

   Jonathan – thanks for commenting. It’s unfortunate that we have to even consider “long-term” solutions for unethical use of the internet.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

If you’re interested in oil or watercolor paintings, check out the web site of Bill and Gloria Garrison.

Bill works in oil and Gloria does watercolor. Recently, some of their works as well as sculpture by their son, Steven, have been selected to be exhibited in the Arkansas State Capitol building in the office of the Lieutenant Governors, Bill Halter.

Former Governor Mike Huckabee, currently a Republican candidate for President of the U.S., chose many of Bill’s works to be given as gifts from the State of Arkansas during his official trips abroad as Governor. Bill’s paintings also hang in the collections of many corporate offices.

I first met Bill 27 years ago. He was a shift supervisor when I first went to work at the plant I later retired from. Bill later worked with emergency and other procedures for the plant and I ended up being the instructor who did most of the training on the emergency procedures. He retired several years before I did and I had only seen him since once or twice over the years. However, since I retired, I’ve been going to bi-weekly breakfasts of retirees from our company, when we are at home, and have had the opportunity get reacquainted with Bill and others.

A lost Exit78 post, recovered from Internet Archive WayBackMachine; March 2011

We were resting on a bench at the highest point on a loop trail at Badlands National Park today, when this little kid stepped outside the railing right in front of us and hollered.

“Mommy! Look at me!”

Well, Mommy didn’t look at him to see where he was at or what he was doing. She just said, “Yeah, yeah, c’mon.”

Or something to that effect.

She didn’t look to see that he was outside of the railing at a point where there was a pretty steep slope. She just seemed to want to keep him moving.

I doubt that she or her hubby had even paid attention to the warning signs. Hubby was off somewhere ahead of Mommy and the kid.

There had been quite a few signs all over the park to watch out for rattlesnakes.

But — really — you never — ever — see any, so why should anyone be concerned.

The chances of a kid coming across a snake on a trail are pretty small, especially a rattler.

Unless — of course — unless he steps off the trail, where he shouldn’t be, when Mommy isn’t watching.

I snapped this photo of this little fellow 15 minutes earlier on the same trail. Yes, that IS a rattlesnake.

Mommy!… Look at me!