Bye, Son
Very often, while driving, my mind wanders. Sometimes I write passages for the blog in my head. Usually, they waft away like vapors. Sometimes I edit myself, and sometimes those ideas end up on the screen.
That introduction was neither here nor there, but did reflect the drive time today. I’m still deciding what makes the cut, though.
We got up on the early side this morning, as we had a lot of driving ahead of us. We hated saying goodbye to Jim and Karen (I still smile when I hear Pat refer to him as ‘Jimmy’). I felt like my family got a little bit bigger over this trip. Jim helped us load our stuff out, and smiled at my ‘Tetris’ procedure to get everything to fit. Back on the road, we topped up the gas tank at Buc-ees, since it is the cheapest gas I’ve bought in a very long while.
We got on the interstate and headed north towards Wyoming, and eventually, South Dakota. It was pretty easy driving, but not very visually interesting. Carrie had a little camera glitch when she tried to take a photo of the “Welcome to Wyoming” sign that she loves to have for the blog, so it is missing. I did take a pic of the Wyoming flag when we stopped at a rest area.
We did have a little excitement when we encountered a morbidly slow driver on a 2 lane highway. We ended up being 6 cars back in a pod of about 20 frustrated drivers. That never ends well, and of course, some idiots decided to make a bad situation worse and try to pass 15-20 cars at once. Luckily, it was time for another pit stop, so we could let the Darwin Awards candidates duke it out. Come on guys, let’s clean up that gene pool!
We were getting close to our main itinerary item today - Custer State Park in South Dakota, when we saw signs for another park - Wind Cave National Park. It happens to border Custer, so we took a quick detour. More Stamps! Strangely enough, there is actually a cave there to explore. In the visitors center there was a poster saying that the cave could be challenging, and advised to “Try your luck!” I didn’t think that was particularly wise, as the accompanying photo was of 2 legs sticking out of a hole that seemed barely big enough to accommodate a person. Maybe the rangers enjoy rescuing the unlucky ones.
There was the possibility of Bison, but none for us here. There were LOTS of prairie dogs, though. Carrie got some great photos of them, and it was hilarious listening to them chittering to each other. We made it through the park and continued on to Custer State Park.
Once we were on the Wildlife Loop, we came upon a herd of Bison right next to the road. I mean RIGHT next to the road. We got up close and personal with them. In fact, one came up and licked the car in front of us. The herd was migrating toward the road, and we barely made it past them before they totally stopped all road traffic. We would encounter the random one or two grazing on the side of the road. Then, we came upon a construction zone. We sat in the car for many many minutes, thinking it was construction that was holding us up. In fact, there were at least 2 different herds trying to cross the road in different spots. We sat there so long that I started to drift off in a nap.
Eventually, we made it through the bottleneck, and continued through the park to a visitors center that offered bathrooms, and some gifts and treats. I did snag a coffee to wake myself up. We ran into a few other animals that Carrie was able to capture. We even saw some baby donkeys. Carrie was rather annoyed, because it had been made very clear, not to approach the wildlife. She asked why people are so stupid to run up to the donkeys. My response? “Because they are asses”
Once we were out of the park, we drove into Custer, South Dakota. The skies were threatening rain, and we decided to grab dinner before heading to our lodging. Carrie had found a well-reviewed spot that had amazing bread pudding. We had a very multicultural dinner - Carrie had Korean bulgogi, Pat had chicken tenders, and I had a nice Reuben sandwich. We finished things off with a shared bread pudding. It was super delicious, and a great way to end the day.
We made it to Eagles Landing Lodge, where we are staying tonight. It is a great old farmhouse. Though, with one room on the second floor, we do have to traverse a steep staircase. The rooms are super nice, and roomy enough for them to set up their painting station. Oddly, they have super fancy bidet toilets. I’ve never needed a remote control to hit the head before - quite an experience.
Currently, they are trying to catch up on their paining, and I am missing the dry desert - it is warm and humid tonight - yuck! As soon as they are finished, we will put pictures up and post today’s entry. At least it is not as late as last night. I was glad that there weren’t more typos from last night - i could barely see the words as I was typing - I was tired! Tonight is much better!
