Mountain Goat and her "kid"

Wed, 6/18/08

Black Hills, SD: At around 4:00 a.m. we had another thunder storm with lots of hail. The guy across from went off on his bicycle this morning when the sun came out for a while. And then BAM! another thunder storm. Hope he’s okay. We’re going into Hill City to do laundry, work on the computer, and buy some groceries, so we don’t care how bad the weather is today. Had wanted to bike the Mickelson trail which goes for 105 miles up to Deadwood. It’s a gravel trail like the Katy Trail in Missouri and goes through some really pretty areas. We could bike into Hill City or Custer. Our own fault though. We didn’t do it when we had the chance. We leave tomorrow for Deadwood—a short drive of about 50 miles is all.

Mt. Rushmore at night

Stockade Lake

Bad clouds that kept following us around...

Tue, 6/17/08

Black Hills, SD: This morning was pretty warm when I stepped outside. And all these bushes around us have started blooming with these pretty white flowers and they smell so good. Mike started a fire and we hung around for a while. Got talking to the people across from us. These guys came in a couple of days ago. They have the cutest cairn terrier puppy. Played with him for a while. We planned on going to Sylvan Lake and walk the trail around it. Told Mike we’d better get going since clouds were rolling in. I packed some food and drinks in my pack and we headed over there. It was looking threatening, but we started out anyway. We got about halfway around and the trail started heading up on these huge boulders. Started sprinkling and heard some thunder, so we decided to turn around. Good thing we did. It had turned to hail by the time we got back to the truck. Had lunch in Custer and then drove over to Stockade Lake and walked around it for a while. The nasty looking clouds followed us. Another beautiful lake though. I love the Black Hills. They are so beautiful. Headed back to the campground and shortly after we got there it started raining. I got my keyboard out and put batteries in it to see how it would sound. When I bought this new keyboard I didn’t know you could use it with batteries. Comes in handy when we’re not on electric. Played for a while and then we got ready to go over to Rushmore for the evening show. The ranger gives a talk, they show a movie and then they illuminate the sculptures. They have a large amphitheater under the sculpture and a stage and movie screen. It was okay, but too long for kids. A clear, beautiful evening..

Mon, 6/16/08

Black Hills, SD: This morning early it started raining, which turned to SNOW, which tuned to sleet, then hail. Lovely. There was still some on the ground when we left for breakfast at 10:00. Went to the Best Western restaurant for breakfast so we could use their wi-fi. Worked on computer stuff for a while and then we headed back to the campground. Kicked back the rest of the day.