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.