Back on line again.

July 10, 2007 Tuesday

Last night we had a thunder storm (miles away) but the winds were fierce! We did have some rain, and it rained really hard for a while. It is amazing out here, things are so dry, that 10 minutes after it rained you could not even tell that it had rained. Everything was dry again. No wonder things are not green out here.

This morning we decided to go to the Custer State Park. It has a wild game reserve where the animals roam in the wilds and we drove through it. We saw lots of deer, some white tail, some (I can’t remember the name, but they are like mule deer) that had white rumps. We saw more bison. They also had bobcats, rams, and elk, but we didn’t happen to see any of them. We are so close to that place (about 8 miles away) maybe we will go back tomorrow.

We took the scenic route up over a dirt road and stopped and had lunch. It was right on the grazing land. We sat and watched a deer. We wondered what was watching us. Murtle didn’t want to venture far, there was bison plops everywhere. They were bigger than her.
From the wildlife loop, we continued through Custer State Park and headed to Mt. Rushmore.

What a treat to go through some more land formations. (And I mean right through them!!!) There were actual tunnels that we had to go through to get to Mt. Rushmore. The terrain was gorgeous! More rock formations this time. Not like ours in the east. These, again, were more like stalagmites, but different. The seemed to erupt up out of the earth. The roads were narrow and windy. Many of the roads had U turns. First one way then another all at the same time that you climb up the mountain. (We were in the Black Hill.) At times you could look down and see four rows of cars going different directions. Some of the bridges were unique. They reminded me of highway cloverleaf on ramps. At first we could not understand why they did that, then we figured it out. There was no other way to get over a ravine.

We arrived at Mount Rushmore. It is just as you see it in pictures. The sky was almost as clear as most of the pictures that I have seen of it. Depending on the position of the sun, it has some interesting shadows cast on the mountain. I took pictures from all different angles. We listened to the talk and learned a lot about the construction of it. Why they chose the presidents that they did, and why it did not come out exactly the way they planned it. Very interesting.

From Mt. Rushmore we continued back to Custer State Park (through some more tunnels). This time we were outside taking pictures when a tour bus came up to a tunnel. (Now, let me tell you, these tunnels are through rocks, on windy roads, and narrow, very narrow.) The bus did not let up for anything, honked his horn, and cleared the sides of the tunnel by inches…yes, inches. Obviously this driver had done this many times before. He smiled and waved and kept on going.

We were hoping that when we went through the park again, that we might see the elk and ram, but we didn’t. Murtle was excited to see a lake. We haven’t seen many around here. Everything is so dry.

Oh, while we were on our trip, we went to a lookout spot (which happened to be on the top of a hill at a tower) and we climbed up and took some pictures of Mt. Rushmore (off in the distance), Crazy Horse memorial (that they are still constructing), and other various landmarks off in the distance. We also saw the smoke from the fires burning in Hot Springs, SD about 39 miles away. I hope they get a lot of rain soon to help the dry situation out here. There are nine states that have wild fires burning in right now.

It was cool today with a breeze, but the sun was hot. Tomorrow we go back into the heat. Not sure what tomorrow holds for us. I do have to do some laundry. I brought enough clothes to go for about a week and a half, Brad brought enough to last two months…

Murtle can help me fold clothes, or hmmm, the hot tub is by the laundry… first thing in the morning might prove to be a good time for both.

July 9, 2007, Monday

Today we went to the Badlands! What a sight. It was just a wonderful experience. The pictures just don’t do it justice. The temperature when we left was 79 degrees and that was at 8:30 AM.
We traveled on Route 79 to 44 East. Yes, we had to back track a tad, but well worth it. As we started across the highway, it was flat again. Then off in the distance we started seeing land formations. I don’t know what else to call them. They aren’t rocks, but very close to them. As we got closer to the badland entrance, we stopped just to stand on the ground. It looked hard, yet it also looked like it might just blow away as if it were sand. After checking it out, it was not like a rock, and it was not like sand. During our experiment with it, it does dissolve in water. During heavy rains, this area must be ever changing.

We could not believe the land formations as we got up into the Badlands. It looked like stalagmites that you might find in a cave. All different shapes, sizes, the colors were mostly gray. In some places there were reds and yellows. Very interesting how the different colors were formed. This land did not happen over night. It was many, many years of formation.

Murtle loved looking at the Badlands, but when we took her for a walk, she was a tad skittish. She climbed up on a patch of grass, I think she her tail got scorched. We also found out that she is afraid of heights.

She sat in the truck when we ventured out on the land formations. It was rather hot, about 100. AND there were rattlesnake warning signs everywhere.

We came across some bison that were grazing. (Yes, they roam free within the Badlands). We saw some lone bison, then we saw some herds. A few of them were right in the road ahead of us and we had to wait until they moved. I was fortunate to be really close to one that started pawing the ground (he made a lot of dust) then laid down and rolled in it. Amazing! Then one walked right in back of the truck and I got a really close picture of it. WOW!

We drove and looked and drove and looked. It was beautiful. The Badlands were quite a ways from where we camped. On the way back, I got a migraine. Not one of the real bad ones, but bad enough. I tried to quench it by downing two bottles of water when I first started noticing it, but by that time it was too late. (I have been able to stop them, before they go to far, by drinking water, but just couldn’t do it this time.) I didn’t realize that it is really dry out here, not humid like it is in New England. Note to self: DRINK LOTS OF WATER. Needless to say, we did get back to camp, (the speed limits are 70 out here). I went to bed and just like clockwork, it went away within two hours.

Brad was exhausted again. (I have just had him on the roads way too much.) Tomorrow should be less driving.