Gotta tell a great message board story....
Mrs. Cygarin and I set up our camper in Rafter J Bar ranch as a couple of you suggested. It was an outstanding, peaceful, and quiet campground, and I greatly appreciate you suggesting it. We were way in the back in the Island section.
A couple days later we came back from one of our excursions to find that we had a new neighbor next us, with Iowa State chairs set up by the campfire. The campers were nowhere around.
A while later, our neighbors showed up, and I anxiously pointed to my Iowa State sweat shirt as the pulled in. We small talked a bit about how fortunate it was to be set up next to Cylcone fan, the neighbor expressing that usually it's his luck to get stuck next to some Hawk fan. Then we broke conversation so that he could get finished settling in.
About an hour later, he came over and expressed that the coincidence of us camping beside each other was a lot bigger than I might of first thought..."CYGARIN!"
It turns out our neighbor was our very own board member "Cytoplasm", and it dawned on him that I was the same guy that had asked about Black Hills campgrounds here on the board a few weeks ago.
What a small world! And Cytoplasm, it was great to meet you and Mrs. Cytoplasm, and we thoroughly enjoyed your next door company for a few days.
Other worthy notes.....
I wore some sort of ISU gear nearly every day, and I observed a very surprising number of other Cyclone fans wearing ISU gear. And I was met with a an even more surprising number of "Go Cylcones!" from people not wearing ISU gear when they saw mine.
And there is no question that Iowa State has "brand" value, and quite a few store employees would make note of the Cyclones when they saw my I-STATE hat.
One store owner of note....
We went into the ice cream store in Hill City, and the older owner made note of the Cyclones, and said he went to Iowa State "for a quarter" to wrestle for Iowa State, but didn't stay because it didn't have the curriculum that he was most interested in (ministry).
We chatted a bit and I asked him if he ever wrestled at the collegiate level after that, and he did, at UCLA. He went on to add that he was the head wrestling coach there for several years.
He was quite knowledgeable about Iowa State sports, and even mentioned that Jamie Pollard was there last year with his family, and had a nice chat with him.
I didn't catch his name, but I was wondering if anybody else has met this guy. Ketemeister?
Lastly.......
I saw only one person with anything Hawkeye and he was wearing a hat. Hard to believe, but when he saw my hat, he said "Go Cyclones". Turned out that his brother is an Iowa State grad, and said he has a lot of fun bantering with him.
That was it! Not one other Tavern or Walmart T-shirt!
There was one store owner that was a UNI fan, and formerly from Waterloo, who gave me a hard time. But since he was actually from Waterloo and did not profess to be a Hawk fan, I took it in stride.
One last non-Iowa State note.....
If anybody is a history, Black Hills, or Custer buff I would highly recommend the book "Exploring with Custer" by Ernest Grafe and Paul Horsted". The book is about Custer's expedition through the Black Hills.
They didn't so much write the book as they did narrate it, using excerpts from Custer's daily notes and the diaries of some of the others in the expedition. The book details every single day of the expedition in the words of those on the expedition, and the authors made notes interpreting the comments made, as well as locations in present day.
It also includes maps with GPS locations so that if one wished to do so, he could actually retrace the course through the Black Hills with amazing accuracy.
If you are not overly familiar with the expedition, Custer took along a professional photographer who took hundreds of photos for documentation of the trip. Paul Horsted has used these photos to help identify locations where they were taken, and has created dozens of "then and now" photographs taken from nearly the identical spot as the original. And included the GPS locations of those spots in his book.
Anywhoo, back to the grind tomorrow.
Mrs. Cygarin and I set up our camper in Rafter J Bar ranch as a couple of you suggested. It was an outstanding, peaceful, and quiet campground, and I greatly appreciate you suggesting it. We were way in the back in the Island section.
A couple days later we came back from one of our excursions to find that we had a new neighbor next us, with Iowa State chairs set up by the campfire. The campers were nowhere around.
A while later, our neighbors showed up, and I anxiously pointed to my Iowa State sweat shirt as the pulled in. We small talked a bit about how fortunate it was to be set up next to Cylcone fan, the neighbor expressing that usually it's his luck to get stuck next to some Hawk fan. Then we broke conversation so that he could get finished settling in.
About an hour later, he came over and expressed that the coincidence of us camping beside each other was a lot bigger than I might of first thought..."CYGARIN!"
It turns out our neighbor was our very own board member "Cytoplasm", and it dawned on him that I was the same guy that had asked about Black Hills campgrounds here on the board a few weeks ago.
What a small world! And Cytoplasm, it was great to meet you and Mrs. Cytoplasm, and we thoroughly enjoyed your next door company for a few days.
Other worthy notes.....
I wore some sort of ISU gear nearly every day, and I observed a very surprising number of other Cyclone fans wearing ISU gear. And I was met with a an even more surprising number of "Go Cylcones!" from people not wearing ISU gear when they saw mine.
And there is no question that Iowa State has "brand" value, and quite a few store employees would make note of the Cyclones when they saw my I-STATE hat.
One store owner of note....
We went into the ice cream store in Hill City, and the older owner made note of the Cyclones, and said he went to Iowa State "for a quarter" to wrestle for Iowa State, but didn't stay because it didn't have the curriculum that he was most interested in (ministry).
We chatted a bit and I asked him if he ever wrestled at the collegiate level after that, and he did, at UCLA. He went on to add that he was the head wrestling coach there for several years.
He was quite knowledgeable about Iowa State sports, and even mentioned that Jamie Pollard was there last year with his family, and had a nice chat with him.
I didn't catch his name, but I was wondering if anybody else has met this guy. Ketemeister?
Lastly.......
I saw only one person with anything Hawkeye and he was wearing a hat. Hard to believe, but when he saw my hat, he said "Go Cyclones". Turned out that his brother is an Iowa State grad, and said he has a lot of fun bantering with him.
That was it! Not one other Tavern or Walmart T-shirt!
There was one store owner that was a UNI fan, and formerly from Waterloo, who gave me a hard time. But since he was actually from Waterloo and did not profess to be a Hawk fan, I took it in stride.
One last non-Iowa State note.....
If anybody is a history, Black Hills, or Custer buff I would highly recommend the book "Exploring with Custer" by Ernest Grafe and Paul Horsted". The book is about Custer's expedition through the Black Hills.
They didn't so much write the book as they did narrate it, using excerpts from Custer's daily notes and the diaries of some of the others in the expedition. The book details every single day of the expedition in the words of those on the expedition, and the authors made notes interpreting the comments made, as well as locations in present day.
It also includes maps with GPS locations so that if one wished to do so, he could actually retrace the course through the Black Hills with amazing accuracy.
If you are not overly familiar with the expedition, Custer took along a professional photographer who took hundreds of photos for documentation of the trip. Paul Horsted has used these photos to help identify locations where they were taken, and has created dozens of "then and now" photographs taken from nearly the identical spot as the original. And included the GPS locations of those spots in his book.
Anywhoo, back to the grind tomorrow.
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