Rocket Motel Custer

Having somehow survived the past couple of nights, despite my debilitating disease, I decided to choose life and see a doctor. Very nice chap he was too. He confirmed my fears when he told me that I had indeed picked up a little known virus more commonly associated with lost cities of gold and temples of doom. For the benefit of the nurse in the room, he used layman's terms and called it an ear ...

... 8 motel, which turned out to be a pleasant surprise, as for the same price as we've been paying in the last 4 hotels we've got a separate room for the kids (with tv), the usual free wi-fi & breakfast and a indoor heated swimming pool – which Fred & the kids are planning to use shortly. Pizza Hut delivered our dinner, which was far more than we could eat, but still yummy. Off to catch up on our two huge loads of laundry, while I sip my A&W Root Beer.....

... rope was stuck in a rather unwanted place.
This could easily become ugly, and just in the same moment some young men from Minnesota came wandering along. "Hi how is it" the standard question around this area was uttered, and the not so common answer "kinda ****ed up" came in reply, skuse mi french.. well it turned out this was not the first time something like this had happened.
But now darkness ...

After a horrendous night we had an outstanding day. We drove through all the sections of Badlands National Park, each turn, each vista more glorious than the one before. Hiked the Door Trail, the Window Trail, the Notches, Fossil Trail, and the steep 2 mile Saddleback Trail. Went off trail and enjoyed exploring unknown canyons and vistas. Loved the prairie dogs—so cute and ...

... you Gary! Curse you!!! We should've told the girl at the front that, yes, we are with the party. Gary and I go wayyyyy back. Back to forest-guy training, . . . and . . . stuff. Yeah. Should've. Now even more perturbed, we head past a shoot-out to a tiny, but good buffet at a Best Western in Hill City. We ate a lot-Phil ate two sundaes. That night was the last at our campsite at Beaver Lake. Our empty neighboring campsite has ...

... hills." OK, by "camped," I mean we slept in the car, and by "black hills," I mean a dead-end road that may or may not have been in the national forest. but for 2:00 am, I was content. (what a day!) The next morning, we drove a bit out of our way through the beautiful, winding, towering-sandstone-wall filled, Spearfish Canyon--which comes highly recommended-- and on to Devil's Tower, WY!

Started from home in Urbandale, IA. Target Black Hills, SD. We made stop in 1880 Town. Overnight in Wall.
Tomorrow reached Rapid City where we made "base camp".
For next 5 days we visited Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Custer City, Deadwood, Ho Spring, Tatanka Museum, Devils Tower, WY.

On our way back home we visited Sioux city.

... the scenic loop drive. It was a really pretty place, with several herds of bison and antelope running around. At one point, a burro actually came up and licked the window of the car! We spent a couple hours there, then headed back to camp, stopping to pick up some brats to grill over the fire for dinner. Made it back to camp around 5 pm, then just wandered around the campground, ate dinner, did a little reading and called it a night.

... we headed off, with air conditioning on full blast, for the Badlands. Why are they called the 'Badlands'? I'd say that whoever came up with the name was most definitely hot, dusty and sore from having traveled over it. Colin said quite emphatically 'I have never seen anything like it'. He tended to reuse that phrase as we visited yet more remarkable natural wonders through out the day. Our next stop was in Keystone were went ...

... highest three chakras. Our tribal ancestors, the indigenous peoples, on the other hand, experienced their world from an collective perspective, without the requirement of being better than the others. Their stronger emotionality, earth solidarity, their deep-rootedness with the wisdom of old can be associated with the lower three chakras, without higher and lower being subject to any hierarchy, but this model of another tradition clarifies the relation of these ...