Dateline August 8, 2019, Deadwood and the Bohlingers
Deadwood. Off early in the morning, still bound for the Bohlingers, it dawned on us that our road would carry us through Deadwood, where we might see the graves of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. We drove out to the spot only to find the road up would not take an RV; we would have had to ride a bus from town, and it would not open for an hour, so we let the stop go. The reason the two of them lie side by side is a priceless little tale. As Michael Giseke tells it in his Diaries of John Hunton, the men who arranged Jane's funeral knew that in life Wild Bill had had "absolutely no use" for her, so they had a bit of fun at his expense and laid her to rest right at his side.
Driving on through Deadwood we passed the markers on the buildings where Hickok was shot; it was early enough that most of the places had not yet opened.
Billings. We bid Deadwood adieu and pushed on, aiming to reach John and Nancy around one o'clock Mountain time, changing time zones yet again.
When we arrived we had the pleasure of meeting John's sister, in from Little Rock, though there was little time to sit and talk, for we were all bound for John's daughter Jan's house and a birthday party for her grandson, in from Charleston. John's other daughter, JoLynn, was there with her family too, and it was a joy to meet Jan and JoLynn's grown children and the whole crowd of John's grandchildren and great-grandchildren. John Wilson had not seen the girls in many years, so there was a great deal of catching up, and it was a fine party with plenty to eat and drink.
Back at the house we turned in early, and in the morning John made us his "cheesy eggs," which were a delight. We lingered over coffee and conversation and finally pulled out around half past ten. We had had the pleasure of John and Nancy visiting us down in Flagler Beach after Christmas, and it was awfully good to be with them again.
We had a couple of errands in Billings on the way out of town. John needed a hand with his new hearing aids, and the shop sorted out our "user error" in five minutes, tested them, and sent us off. Then it was the Mercedes dealer for an oil change on the RV, and two hours later we were back on the road, rolling past Bozeman to Camp Three Forks for the night, in Three Forks, Montana. Janice had found the Lewis and Clark Caverns over in Whitehall, and we meant to tour them in the morning.
