This was our final day of vacation, as we were driving home on Friday.  We hoped to get to the wild mustang sanctuary and get a cave tour done.

We were a bit late starting off, so Brian drove like a bat out of hell to get there in time for the tour.  This did not do Kai’s tummy any good.  He seemed fine starting out, but by the time we got there he was sick to his stomach.  We decided to let him rest a bit out of the car, so Anya and I took the 2 hour tour while they waited.

This was a really interesting tour.  They have around 10,000 acres of land for the horses.  There is two tracts of land on either side of the Cheyenne River.  The horses on the north side aren’t seen very often, but the horses on the south side we could go see.  They filmed parts of Hildago and Crazy Horse on the property, too.

 20130829-DSC_0098

This first pen is for the new wild mustangs that have been shipped to the refuge.  Some were a bit thin and needed to get fattened up a bit.  They also need to make friends across the pasture with the rest of the herd, or else they might get injured.  They are very territorial.

This mare came up to Anya, and let her pet her on her head.  Most of the herds were standoffish, and didn’t come up to the bus we were in.  The bus was an old diesel short bus with no a/c.  Kai would not have made it through the tour, I am certain.  It was again around 90+ degrees, so we were a bit hot by the time we got back.

20130829-DSC_0119

20130829-DSC_0123

This is a Sioux Indian sacred area for their Sundance Festival.

 cermonial-indian-grouds

These horses are in the main herd.  Lots of Paints!

 20130829-DSC_0147

20130829-DSC_0142

20130829-DSC_0139

These horses are part of the Spanish Mustangs.  The one with the markings on his legs shows the coloring indicative of the bloodlines.  They also have one less vertebrae than other horses due to their seclusion.  The herds had been away from other horses in the mountains for hundreds of years.

20130829-DSC_0158

20130829-DSC_0164

Petroglyphs!

20130829-DSC_0151

By the time we got back from the tour, Kai’s tummy turned into a full blown fever.  We headed back to the hotel straight-away, after stopping at Shopko for some medicine.  An hour or so later, we grabbed lunch and headed to the hotel for some down time.

Anya got to spend the rest of the day in the pool, we drank some beer and Kai got better.  He spent some time in the pool for a few hours (as opposed to Anya’s 6 hours).  The next morning we packed up and headed home.

When we got back to town some 10 hours later, we were going to stop for dinner.  We needed groceries and wanted some food in them.  Kai complained of his tummy and Anya had a headache, so we went home, fed them some mac and cheese and put them to bed.  Anya got diahhrea.

Perfect!

We ended our vacation with some beers on the couch, eating Pei Wei take-out and watching Longmire.

We were just glad we were home!