We're back!

Yes… I made it.

Not only did we all survive, but we had a BLAST! Perfect temperatures, 5 whole days of vacation, tons of fun stuff to do, and no mosquitoes – it truly doesn’t get much better.

We went to South Dakota’s Black Hills on vacation last week. And let me tell you, we took in almost every “toursity” little thing in the entire area. And believe me, there is no lack of “touristy” little things in that area.

I realize, after my post and camping list last week, that you’re all probably just dying to hear about the actual camping part. Well, it was good. Really. Not dreadful at all. Just peachy-keen. Three nights, in a row, in a tent was not all that bad. Granted, we all had air mattresses, I had a tomato beer and Tylenol PM every night, and Bill rigged his CPAP machine to run off of a marine battery. I’m quite convinced that without that lovely breathing machine in particular, this whole adventure may have ended in catastrophe as my dear husband would likely have been shot by fellow campers who were driven to insanity by his unbelievably loud snoring.

And yes, I brought my hair dryer. And no, I wasn’t the only one.

So, there.

On our last night, we were in the middle of the most amazing thunderstorm I’ve ever witnessed. First, you have to understand that I absolutely love thunderstorms. We watched the lightning edge closer and closer all night. Then at 11:30 pm, approximately 12 seconds after we had all made our last port-a-potty run, packed the chairs away and crawled into the tent, it started raining. And it rained, and it lightninged, and it thundered, for hours. The rain was hard, the lightning was continuous, and the thunder was the kind that makes your ears echo and your insides rumble. It was truly awesome.

The only part that wasn’t so great was getting up Sunday morning and packing away a wet, muddy tent. Oh, well.

And just in case your curious enough to read further; but more importantly, to serve as actual physical evidence to my kids when they say, “but we never do anything...”, here are some of our highlights:

We stopped at Wall Drug on the way to the Black Hills. This is where I first discovered my son’s obsession with gift shops. And Lord knows…Wall Drug is the mother of all gift shops. It almost killed him to have to make the decision between a Buffalo bobble-head and a bag of polished rocks. Who knew he had such an affinity for shopping?

We camped at Center Lake Campground in Custer State Park. It was really nice, although not all that secluded. The kids were disappointed that we could actually see other people.

Fortunately, we were not 4 of the 45,000+ people stuck in the parking lot until 3:00 am after watching fireworks over Mt. Rushmore. We lucked out, found a little side road that runs behind the carved mountain, pulled in near a clearing and watched the beautiful display overhead.

The picture below is the result of what happens when you combine the lack of a tripod and a photographer who has no idea what settings you need for night shots.

We visited Mt. Rushmore, took in a little history of Gutzon Borglum, did some hiking, and met up with my Aunt Judy and Uncle Jerry.Reptile Gardens was probably one of the kids’ favorite things we did. It’s really not as cheesy at it sounds. We got to see a 14-ft long alligator, the world’s most deadly snake, and a komodo dragon. The kids also got to pet a 127 yr old tortoise and a baby crocodile. Bill was like a photography-fiend on this little expedition. When we got back in the car, I looked at our camera and found 38 pictures of snakes through glass cages, 8 pictures of birds, and 1 picture of me and the kids. This is precisely why I take most of the pictures in this family.

The Cosmos was another favorite. They claim that a meteor hit this site many years ago altering the gravitational pull. Really, it’s just a little shack built angled on the side of a mountain. But nonetheless, it made me sweaty, cold, dizzy, and nauseous. By the time I got out of that house, I was green and felt like I just went on one of those virtual-reality rides.

Bear Country USA is a drive-through wildlife park. It kinda reminded me of Jurassic Park minus the dinosaurs. It was cool how the animals would walk right up to your car. As you can see, some were more outgoing than others.

We really couldn’t leave the Black Hills area without going to Deadwood. Not that we’re gamblers, but Maddie had put so many hours of research into Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane’s life stories, it would have broken her heart if we didn’t stop. Seriously, you can ask her anything and she’ll know it. We got to view the gun-slinger show on Main Street, witness the re-enactment of Wild Bill’s shooting, and then see his gravesite at Mt. Moriah cemetery. Maddie’s favorite bit of info: Aces and eights, the dead man’s hand.

If you’ve never been to the Badlands of SD, you really should. It’s pretty amazing. Next time we’d like to go at night under a full moon. Creepy. But in a cool way.


We got back home a couple days ago. Our tent is now aired-out and dry and I'm still washing stinky clothes. It was a really great vacation; but as always, it's nice to be home again!

So...who's up for a camping trip next weekend?