Day 14

We decided to get a late start and enjoy Colorado Springs a bit as checkout wasn’t until 1pm. We got up and got the kids ready and headed back to Garden of the Gods for some hiking. We tried a different area today. It was a ways from the main visitor area and offered some area for the kids to scramble on the rocks. Grant seemed thrilled as he climbed up on the rocks and explored cracks and crevices. We let them burn some energy and went back and hooked up the trailer. We filled up the water bottles with spring water on the way back to enjoy some more of that on the drive. On the way out we stopped at Rudy’s BBQ for lunch and grabbed some BBQ. It was pretty darn good. We headed down I-25 toward New Mexico. The wonderful mountain backdrop gave way to Cedar scrub and the appearance of the high desert. The temperature gradually rose and it seemed to make the departure from those wonderful areas real. We arrived in an old route 66 town named Tucumcari New Mexico, and set up the trailer and baked cookies with the kids as an activity. Tomorrow is a long hall home to Temple.

Day 13

We departed the campsite in the Black Hills somewhat early. A new family had moved into the next site and they were some friendly folks from Wisconsin so we burned a bit of time chatting with them. We decided to take it easy on the drive today and head into Custer for breakfast at a restaurant that had rave reviews on tripadvisor. It did not disappoint. I had a breakfast burrito and it was phenomenal. The kids wanted pancakes and each order was 2 pancakes. We had them split an order hoping it was enough food. Well it was. Not only was my burrito industrial sized, the kid’s pancakes were the size of hubcaps. It reminded me of a trip to Yellowstone in my childhood where I made a big fuss about only getting 1 order of pancakes. The waitress served us pancakes that were tire sized and I could not finish one and had to eat some crow that day. We packed back into the car with some pastries to go and headed out. There is always a sinking feeling when the beautiful hills give way to the barren prairie and the temperature begins to rise. It is a feeling of finality, that it is time to get back to life. The thunderstorm that we watched form and then engulf us out of the prairie seemed somewhat fitting. We drove through Denver and made it to the campsite in Colorado Springs we stayed at on the way up. We were all tired, but Amy and I stayed up to enjoy coffee and a delicious cinnamon roll from the morning’s restaurant.

Day 12

Today was a memorable Fourth of July. A little piece of Americana that reminded us about the simpler things. We started the day a little differently. We had to move our trailer to a different site as when I booked our campsite it was late in the game and they had no sites for the duration of our stay. As such we had to move to a different spot. We waited until the checkout time of 11am and quickly packed up the trailer and moved to the new site. There was one problem. Some Californian that occupied the site was still there. He took his sweet time loading up and finally left at around 11:45 as we sat and waited for the site. Some people are just inconsiderate. We quickly dropped the trailer after some tricky back-in work by Amy. We loaded up and made the 40 mile drive to Deadwood to watch the July 4th parade. The parade started with another B1b flyover. The jet noise scared Harris and he began bawling. The parade was a simple one, but very fun for the children. They had the usual staple of fire trucks, Shriners, and the mayor, along with some other things like specialty wilderness fire trucks and some motocross stunt riders doing stunts in the street. The floats also threw candy to the children. The kids had a blast. Afterwards we went to a museum in Deadwood and looked at some exhibits on Deadwoods history. We then drove back down into the Southern black hills to hill city and had dinner at the Hill City diner again. We then continued on to Custer, where the only fireworks display in the area was going to happen. We looked up some desert shops and found a pie shop on the main drag and got several varieties to eat in a park while the children played. We found a nice little city park, where the kids immediately made friends and began to run and play while we ate pie. Coincidentally, this park turned out to be a prime spot for watching fireworks, and since we arrived early we had a great spot. As the sun fell behind the trees and the children all ran around and played together, some parents broke out sparklers and the kids thought they were great. The cool black hills breeze swept across our faces and an excellent fireworks show took place over our heads, as folks from all walks of life stood together enjoying it. It was a great thing. Everything wound down and as we loaded up the car, Grant began to weep, his reason being that he didn’t want to leave tomorrow. He said that he never wants to leave the Black Hills. He cried himself to sleep. Tomorrow the journey home begins.

Day 11

I guess I am getting older. Rolling out of bed proved to be a chore, as I was stiff and tight from yesterdays hike. Two days ago, we decided to rent an ATV from the campsite. It is one of those Kawasaki mule type ATV’s with seating for 6. We had it for 4 hours. We took everyone out at first, and did some fun offroading on the miles and miles of logging trails that snake through the Black Hills. I had a blast, but Gramma and Alex didn’t like getting muddy and bumpy driving through the woods on muddy trails. We headed back to the campsite and left Gramma and the kids by the activity tent to do tie die T-shirts. Amy and I went back out, and Amy drove. I thought I was driving fast but Amy put me to shame. She was tearing around there like a woodsman. We picked Grant back up and strapped him in and went out some more. It was good fun. In the afternoon we headed back into Custer state park for some wildlife viewing. It was crowded but we got some good sightings of Buffalo and Bighorn sheep. The kids were able to turn in their books for their junior ranger badge. We left the park via a scenic route and ended up at Mount Rushmore. July 3rd is actually when they have the primary festivities for Independence Day and today the place was busy. They had people dressed up as the presidents, and presentations. They had a special ceremony for POW/MIA and had a swearing in of new military recruits from the area. I was looking forward to a flyover of the sculpture by a B1B bomber at 8:10. We went into the concession area to get some ice cream and all of a sudden I heard the scream of jets and the glass rattled on the building. I ran outside to see two jets specks in the distance. A little older lady was standing next to me and looked mad, as she had run out behind me to look for the jets. I asked her, “Did they do the flyover early”? She responded, “They better not have, my some is the pilot, and I cam all this way to see him do a flyover, I’ll kill him if he did it early and I missed it.” I laughed and we came to find out it was a last minute flyover by two F-16’s of the South Dakota National Guard. At 8:10 the B1 did its flyover and we stayed to watch them light the heads up. They are not doing fireworks this year on account of the huge dead stands of trees from the Pine Bark Beetle. Looking across the forest at the amount of forest these little bugs have killed, it is going to be interesting to see how they deal with this problem.

Day 10

Amy and I decided to get up early and do our hike to Harney Peak. This is a 7 mile roundtrip hike we do to the highest point in the Black Hills, Harney’s peak. It is a relatively strenuous hike that climbs up approx 2000 feet and will put a hurting on your hamstrings. The payoff is at the top where the view from the observation post affords views for miles in each direction and the beauty is breathtaking. Since it was a holiday weekend, the trail was a bit more crowded than usual. We left the kids at the trailer with Gramma to do things at the campground, but Amy took baby Harris along and lashed him to her back. This hike is funny because you always question what you were thinking planning such a hike on the way up as your legs burn, but afterwards feel a sense of accomplishment. All in all the hike took us around 6 hours and the weather cooperated. We got back to the trailer to find the children rested and happy so we took our trip to the petting zoo so that they could see the farm animals they had been asking about. It wasn’t a huge petting zoo, but they had fun. After that we went to a place called Storybook Island in Rapid City. Storybook Island is a large playground, where each piece of equipment has a theme from a children’s nursery rhyme. This is all put on free by the local Rotary club. The children played and burned some energy. Another storm began to roll in, so we headed out. On the way back into the hills, we stopped by a place called Bear Country USA. It is a private drive through zoo that features primarily bears and wolves. It was interesting and had tons of bears that are very close to the car, so that the kids got a very good look. At the end there is an exhibit where all the bear cubs live and you can watch them run and frolic. By this time, Amy and I were exhausted so we headed back and crashed out in bed.

Day 9
What a mess of a day. The rains came. We had planned on a day of hiking. Apparently out this way they have had an unusual amount of rainfall. Today was no exception. We heard the rain come in overnight and it was still there in the morning. At 11am the camp workers were putting on a face painting for the kids. We went to that since it was inside and Grant got a monster truck and Alex got an assortment of lady bugs and flowers down her arm. The weather in South Dakota can change fairly quickly so we decided to drive out near Rapid City to see if we could go to the local petting zoo would be open. We stopped for lunch in Hill city and continued on. The weather did not cooperate. Lightning and heavy rains put any designs we had on any outdoor activity to bed. Instead we headed back to the trailer and by the time we got back, the rain had stopped. We decided to light a campfire. Amy cooked a wonderful supper while we hung around by the campfire and just relaxed. Our nice neighbors from Minnesota gave us some nice dry firewood and we just relaxed and enjoyed the evening. Sometimes you need just such a thing.