Jul 15 - Laying 50 more feet of sidewalk

Saturday, July 15, 1972 - Page 197
LOCATION: Bethlehem, South Dakota

1:30 PM
Me & Greg are laying cement, Tom's finishing, Mike's mixing, Clint and John are hauling. Bruce & Tim are working on the retention wall. Two families appeared today, one is the Boursracks (or some such unpronounceable name). The other is the McKeevers -- seven people in all, plus one photographer (McKeever is a politician). We've been working fairly slow today.

Laying sidewalk for $7 per week

(7:30 PM 7/16/1972)
I was wrong about the McKeevers, the people I saw were mere tourists. They didn't show up yet. Late that day the Gorsatch's appeared (that's as close as I can get to their name). So did a Philippine Los Angeles Priest by the name of Father Henry. We completed about 50 feet of side walk. I took a bath tho the water crisis continued -- there's a leak somewhere and they haven't found it.

We played poker again -- as usual, everyone was forced out by a lack of chips except me and Greg. It always ends up that way -- just me and Greg. Greg is a better poker player, but again I beat him, the same way I beat him last time -- matching pots (my pot is usually one percent of the chips -- he has the rest), and dealing five cards up -- best 2 out of 3 hands wins. I win constantly, despite the odds against it. We finally finished playing at 1:15 A.M. Somehow the screw came out of my glasses, so I couldn't wear them. Interesting, huh?

(7:40 PM 7/16/1972)
I finished "The Little Prince," and am now on page 96 in "I'm OK, You're OK."

TOMORROW: Swimming Holes in the Wilderness

Jul 14 - Serious cave crawling**

Friday, July 14, 1972 - Page 196
LOCATION: Bethlehem, South Dakota

Bethlehem Cave helictites

(1:00 PM 7/15/72)
As it developed, very little work was accomplished Friday. It rained just enough to prevent any progress on much -- only two more sections were completed in the side walk. The second Tim arrived, Thursday I guess. I read some more in "I'm OK, I'm OK," & "The Little Prince." I took a brief nap but it was cut short by Greg & Mike. M.R. managed to get some clothes washed. I wandered through the cave alone (I think that is forbidden -- I'm not sure tho, so I'm innocent) -- I explored the three entrances of the cave, and learned a lot I didn't know before.

I walked around down below everything, where the old buildings are and met three squirrels and a rabbit. The squirrels were Irving, Albert and Horatio, but they didn't let me get any closer than 3 feet. I watched them for about a half hour. Horace, the hare, was more sociable -- he chewed on plants, hopping close to me. After a quarter of an hour, tho, he went away.

A map of 4 known miles of passages in Bethlehem Cave
(More continue to be discovered even today)

We went spelunking -- Me, John, Greg, Mike, and Jim. We saw lots of great things, and in the Sonora Room I got the feel of real cave crawling -- we had to go into contortions on a ledge above a deep lake to enter a narrow opening into a wonderland of stalactites, stalagmites and helictites. Beauteous. We wandered around for four hours, and it would take too long to describe it all.

The water went out on us at Beth, so we couldn't shower. We got to bed after midnight.

TOMORROW: Laying 50 more feet of sidewalk

Here is a formation in Bethlehem Cave.
What would you call it? Here's an easy way to remember:
"Stalactite" has a C in it (as in Ceiling)
"Stalagmite" has a G in it (as in Ground)