Vote chickens!

We went off to explore Lead (long E) today. It started as a gold mine town and bills it self as a mile high a mile deep and a mile wide! Population of about 3000 today

They took a lot of low grade ore out from 1876 to 2002. Imagine digging and crushing 1 ton  of ore to get an ounce of gold (about the size of a chocolate chip (just the chip, not the cookie!) George Hearst was one of the principals. He took what he learned in CA and did better here!

More recently at the 4850 (feet) level a lab was built to study neutrinos. Apparently a billion of these pass through your hand if you hold it up in the air, and they keep on moving? I don't remember learning about these in school?!?! They needed to get away from the "noise" on the earths surface and went down in the mine. (Google it, doesn't relate to RVs).

They were also voting in Lead today. I asked why and the lady looked at me with a straight face and said it was to decide if chickens were allowed on peoples yards! I said it 's the roosters that make all the racket. She said they were not allowed?!?

We continued down Spearfish Canyon a very picturesque 20 mile drive back to Spearfish and stopped at a waterfall for a short hike. We ended up back in Deadwood and ate, and explored the shops and the Adams Museum. The whole town leans heavily toward entertaining the Sturgis crowd, which is only 15 miles away. After that things die down and winter sets in. The town of 1200 today was declared a historical monument in 1961, and in 1989 legalized gambling was permitted to help profitability.

We have now been out for 47 days and over 5000 miles in the RV and another 1000 in the car. The "Color me retired" tour has turned into the "Fall colors" tour. Tomorrow we head an hour south to Custers Gulch to a RV park that is supposed to be very nice. We may stop in Rapid City to see if the Subaru dealer will scan the codes and see why the EBD system is acting up. (Electronic Brake Distribution system.)

The horn problem has not recurred and I think was caused by a loose spring found bouncing around when I removed the pad in the center of the steering wheel. This was good to find as the "clockspring" would have been $250 - 300 (The gizmo that keeps all the wires connected when you rotate the steering wheel.)