The Sun is Out

I know, it's about time this blog has been updated! It's just that we can only share so much about our trips to Wal-Mart.

The good news is, the sun has been out for about 5 days in a row now. We're still getting rain, but it only comes in the middle of the night and early morning.

We've been able to do a little off roading, it's so neat because you can pick a road and off you go into the hills through the pine trees. We also found a BLM road through old Ft. Mead and saw some of the old Calvary training grounds.

Last Sunday we decided to celebrate Father's Day and my Birthday by taking a road trip to Wyoming to see the Devil's Tower. What a beautiful drive, but then every drive is beautiful around here. We had two close encounters with deer wanting to run across the road in front of us, that's pretty scary. The Tower was pretty amazing, we even got to watch a couple of guys trying to climb it. I don't know what the heck they were thinking since that rock is straight up!

We're still waiting for the hard top we ordered for the Jeep to come in, so we'll probably be in South Dakota for a couple more weeks. We are thinking about moving closer to Rapid City since that's were we ordered the top, and we seem to be driving there more often anyway.

Pictures:
Devil's Tower
Devis's Tower - climbers (hope you can see them)
One of the roads we found
Mike and his buddies

Until next time..

Oh Hail

We've decided that we don't know how to read the weather in South Dakota, the hard way!

We got caught in another hail storm and this time it was a lulu. Last Wednesday we decided to drive to Rapid City to check out Sam's Club then go to Wal-Mart for groceries. The day was beautiful, so nice that we didn't even take our jackets. We were just finishing our shopping in Wal-Mart when I heard the thunder. I'm thinking, "don't tell me it's happening again", the exact same thing happened last week when we went to the Wal-Mart in Spearfish. So we hurry out of the store, hoping to beat the rain, then bam the lightning seemed like it was directly over our heads and the thunder was so loud I about jumped out of my skin. Here we are with this big metal rack on top of our jeep, so of course I'm thinking the lightning is going to strike us dead.

We got the groceries loaded and headed home. No sooner had we got on the Interstate when the sky opened up and golf ball sized hail started coming down. All we could do was pull over to the side and wait. It was pretty darn scary, it sounded like the hail was going to come through the windows. It seemed like it lasted an hour, but in reality it was probably 15 minutes before we got to take off again. The streets and parking lots looked like it had snowed. (I got the golf ball size from the news that evening)

Our jeep really took a hit, we have lots of dings on the hood and fenders.

Pictures:
1. Mike loading groceries in Spearfish
2. Jeep damage in Rapid City
3. After the storm in Rapid City

Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park

I know it's been a while since we've updated, but unfortunately we haven't had a whole lot to share. May has been a record breaking month for rain in this area,
9.77 inches!

We've been able to sneak in a couple of sightseeing days, and today was the first time we made it through the whole day without rain or drizzle. It was great!

This was our second visit to Mt. Rushmore and Custer State Park. We got to see the Presidents without their heads in the clouds and some amazing animals on Custer Wildlife Loop Road.

You can't really tell from the pictures, but we had a huge herd of Buffalo, with their babies move across the road right in front of us. It was so neat to hear the babies make this little grunting noise when their moms would get a little too far away. Next we come around a curve and find two Long Horn Sheep right in the middle of the road getting ready to head butt each other. I was able to get the camera out fast enough to video them. Right after they rammed heads, two more sheep jumped over the guard rail as if to break it up. They all stood there for a minute then moved on. I'm not able to attach the video, but do have a picture of one big guy giving us the eye. We thought for sure he was going to ram our jeep, so we slowly creeped away. My personal favorite were the Burros. They just stop traffic and walk right up to your window, looking for food I'm sure. How do you like my buddies bangs? He was so cute.

We also stopped by Crazy Horse. They showed a movie of the whole story and it's quite interesting. They have been working on the statue since 1948 and I don't think it will be completed in our lifetime. His face is the only thing that is complete, they still have his upper body and front half of his horse to go. They will not accept funds from the Government, tho funds have been offered. It's funded by donations only. The original artist has passed away, but his wife and 7 of his 10 children are still working to keep it going.

Hope you enjoy the pictures.