Day 25 - they are all going so fast now...in Deadwood...with scurvy

Today we left Wall and headed to Deadwood - an infamous Western town.

En-route we stopped off to see a few bears. We drove through the Bear County USA park expecting to see a couple of scrawny bears in cages - instead we found at least 50 bears roaming around for us to watch. The Bears were on good form - wandering around the cars, lazing at the side of the road and lots of them were busy mating - which got a lot of questions from James....

We have some great photos of the bears milling around the car but the wi-fi access here is not the best.

In addition to bears we saw Elk, Reindeer, Wolves, Big Horn Sheep, Skunks and all sorts of other US animals.

Next stop was Cosmos Mystery Mountain. This is a series of huts built into a steep hill. In each hut there is great optical illusions that mean James could pretend to be superman, Olivia could appear to be taller than James, water could flow uphill etc. It was lots of fun and James in particular loved it.

We finall got to Deadwood around 3pm. Deadwood was once the largest gold producing town in the USA. It boomed in the late 1800's. This is where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane both died - Bill was shot in the back of the head while Calamity Jane died of liver failure after years of alcoholism and prostitution - not quite like the Doris Day version of Calamity Jane I had in mind....

Deadwood was 'dead' until about 1989...when the town decided to introduce gambling. The main street is now a series of casinos. All quite tacky and a little sad.

We did a bus tour around town which was TERRIBLE.

We then had dinner at a restaurant owned by Kevin Costner. Now if you are a movie buff you'll know that Mr Costner has a funny movie history - occasionaly he pulls of a Dances with Wolves or a No Way Out. But then there is also lots of Waterwolds, Bodyguards and the like littered through his movie career. Having eaten at his restaurant in Deadwood I suspect somewhere else he has a really good restaurant he owns....this one was his 'Bodyguard' of restaurants - a great cast, lots of hype, but lacking substance.

Tonight we are staying in the Strawberry Hill B&B - a lovelly house about 3 miles out of town.

I am starting to worry about Scurvy. After 25 days in the USA we've realised that vegetables are clearly in short supply here. On tonights menu I do not think there was a single vegetable - unless deep fried onion rings count. We are starting a challenge to find a menu with lots of veggies on it....watch this space.

Our first 25 days have flown by.....despite a full itinerary the time is just flying. In a few days time we get to Yellowstone and then 'turn back'....but still 19 days to go before we fly to the UK.

Ken