Unexpected snow in Custer State Park
We, my husband David and I, woke up to darkness and cold. Tried to turn the lights on but they didn’t work. He went to the window and pulled back the curtain and saw it. Snow. It was September. This was completely unexpected.
While I dressed he went off to find the cousins with whom we were travelling We were staying in the Game Lodge in Custer State Park on our very first visit to South Dakota, in the USA. He came back to tell me that the unexpected snow had brought down the power lines, so no hot shower and no breakfast. We would rendezvous in fifteen minutes and go to the town of Custer where there was power. A snow plough had been out and had cleared the roads. The Black Hills of South Dakota were now white!
When we were dressed in our warmest we assembled at Reception. The cousin had brought the car over to the entrance so that we would not have to cross the now slippery car park. We were going through the ‘have you got everything, are you warm enough’ ritual before stepping out into the cold and there was a sound like a loud whisper from the car park. A large tree fell down right just where the car had been parked a few minutes previously. Four mouths hung open. That was a close shave.
So slightly shaken, off we went and found an open diner in Custer. Cups of coffee arrived at our table as we were sitting down. Our waitress was pint sized and friendly. As we latched on to the coffee a remark was passed about the weather and she agreed it was cold but said it was good hunting weather.
Now our cousin is a hunter and loves hunting stories. So he asked her had she done much hunting recently. She told us that she and her husband and brother had shot two elk the previous day. While dressing the elk her husband had cut his leg to the bone with his hunting knife. He had tied up his leg himself but she and her brother had to carry the kills to their pickup. Now enroute to the diner I had seen elk in the park and I was flabbergasted that this diminutive young woman could carry such a large carcass!
My cousin then asked how her husband was after such a nasty injury. She positively snorted when she said that he had gone to the ER that day to get his leg treated. It meant that he had to take the day off work and she implied that in her opinion he was being a wuss. Had we decided what we would like to eat for breakfast?
Our party of four was fairly impressed with this brand of Wild West stoicism and ruggedness and we ate our breakfast in silence. As a non coffee drinker I had just about found my voice to ask for tea. Our waitress brought it to me but I rather fancy she looked on me pityingly as if I was some kind of invalid. I wondered did her husband drink tea too?
Fortified by a good hot breakfast, we prepared to take our leave. I noticed a sign in the diner not far from our table . It marked the location where Fly Speck Billy had murdered Abe Barnes in 1876. Fly Speck Billy had been arrested immediately but later that night a number of the deceased’s friends had taken Fly Speck Billy from the jail and had lynched him outside the diner.
As we were getting into the car I stood looking down the main road of Custer. It is a wide road and had a three foot high bank of snow in the middle where the snow ploughs had cleared the street. I was looking to see if Clint Eastwood was going to appear around a corner, riding on his horse , wearing a woollen poncho and with a cheroot clenched between his teeth, because sure enough I could hear that music playing in my head.
Footnote
Our cousin has been back to this diner and has met the feisty waitress again. She is also a deputy sheriff. Wow!