In the Black Hills ...

July 6
Sorry it’s taken us awhile to post an update on our travels - I can’t believe how the time is flying. We thought we’d have all this time in the evenings to hang out and relax and post updates...not so much! By the time the girls are settled and we’ve cleaned up, it’s time to prepare the next days travel plan. Such is life for these first few days when we really just wanted to cover some ground and “go west”. We said goodbye to our friends Steve & Adrienne in Chicago and drove all day through Iowa (in a word? CORN)
to spend the night in our first true RV Park - “Lazy Acres RV Park” to be exact. It was...um...lovely (?).

Pretty much a parking lot of grass, it lacked any ounce of camping feel, and yet it served our purpose. We just needed a place to sleep before carrying on in the morning. The kids still thought it was fun - playing on the wooden train that was there, as well as the photo op M&M’s (yup, even met the fellow who made all these treasures).
Learning fast all about our trailer - what blows a fuse (oops), how cold the shower can be when you forget to turn on the water heater (the wee Divas were not too impressed with their ice shower), how uncomfortable our bed was (until we bought a super amazing memory foam cover - perfect!).

July 7
Woke up to pouring rain, which is so wonderfully cozy in a tent or trailer...but not so good when you are packing up to leave. Luckily we had a break in the downpour and got out of there quickly. Drove all day to the next RV park experience...the KOA baby!!
The drive itself was gorgeous - decided to stay off the interstate and instead drove through the endless farmland.
We watched it change from flat as far as the eye could see to rolling hills, windmills...then into South Dakota where the scenery continued to be so pretty.
Passed the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder - for all you Little House followers...cool!

Stayed at the KOA in Mitchell and it was...um...another RV Park. Better than the last one, at least this one had a pool. The girls though this was great, except for the moment where a huge frog was having a swim with them - never thought I would see two girls walk on water so fast. OUTTA THE POOL!!
We’re hearing great things about our next destination - the Black Hills - so we are excited and ready for some western scenery.

July 8
What an amazing drive today - in one day we went through lush green corn fields, yellow wheat fields (against a brilliant blue sky - wow) and cowboys herding their cattle.
Then into the hills with some fantastic views, as we passed through Grasslands National Park, and then into the mountains. Ahhh...this is what we came for. This is what we spent the last few nights in RV Park Hell..er, I mean Land for - to get HERE.
Arrived at the Rafter J Bar Ranch campground and it’s GREAT!!! Right in the mountains, it has wide open fields, and forested areas - beautifully maintained, and all the amenities close at hand too. Pancake breakfast every morning for $2, horse-drawn wagon rides, park & pool, and 2 beautiful black horses right beside where we have our trailer.

And yes, we managed to back the trailer into our spot with only 2 tries...not bad. It is so peaceful I could stay for 2 weeks right here. The girls are still having a blast - giggling their heads off in their bed as they try to go to sleep. So far, handling the driving well too (knock on wood). So ends another day.

July 9
Checked out Mount Rushmore today - WOW.

Absolutely inconceivable how they created that monument, and all the vision of one artist. The girls learned all about George, Teddy, Thomas and Abe and had great fun filling out their worksheets to become “Junior Rangers”. They had to answer all the questions about what they had seen, and then back to the Ranger who very seriously made them raise their hands to repeat the ranger pledge. They were then presented with their official gold ranger badges - you would have thought they’d been given the keys to Disneyworld.
Pleased as punch.

After soaking in the stunning views from up there, we went through the little town of Keystone - gold rush town of the 1800’s. Also home to Carrie Ingalls of Little House fame! Then a drive through the mountain passes of the Black Hills and to Custer National Park.

Buffalo roaming everywhere - very cool.


Fed the free roaming donkeys - thought they were going to get right into the truck to look for more snacks!

Then back to camp - a quick stop for some supplies with me getting carded while buying beer (must be the mountain air making me younger - I may stay here forever!!) What an awesome day...

July 10
Went into town today in search of a post office - only to find out (when asking about the hours it was open) we had never changed our watches to the next time zone. We’ve been here for a few days and it didn’t even matter that we didn’t know the right time! It’s funny, we’ve been losing track of days as well - feels like we’ve been away for weeks already.
A bizarre change of pace from home life.

Went through Bear Country USA - drive through the roaming animals to get a close-up look. Pretty neat to see all the bears just hanging around, absolutely indifferent to us driving through Wolves, reindeer, and lots more - as well as animal babies to see. Pretty cute those wee little bears... The girls were most interested in the train ride they got to take - I think Megan was treating it more like an Indy race than a tourist ride... Tomorrow we leave this amazing campground to head on to the next place - the historic town of Deadwood.