Where the Deer and the Antelope Play

We are spending some time in the Black Hills of South Dakota. You do not realize how vast our country is until you have crossed the Mississippi. Once across there are no more traffic jams, tolls, and all you have before you is a vast expanse of space. You can see the weather fronts coming way in the distance, and sometimes they look pretty scary. We have been caught in a couple of downpours but for the most part, the weather has been great. We have stayed put for a couple of days here in the Black Hills as there is so much to see; Mt. Rushmore, the Crazy Horse Monument still incomplete, Custer State Park, where you see all kinds of wildlife, some that we took photos of today. Tomorrow we are heading to the Devil's Tower National Monument. Remember "Close Encounters of the Third Kind?" It was the focal point of that movie. When you are here you really begin to feel quite patriotic. It's really a different world. Everyone has been very nice. An older man stopped by yesterday as we were setting up and gave us his pass into Custer State Park....saved us some money. He said he was leaving and didn't need it anymore. We plan to pass it on. We have made friends with a couple from Virginia who are on the road most of the year have been kind of following along our route. They wrote out a big long list of places to go and things to see on our trip through Canada and Alaska. We met a guy in the gift shop at Rushmore today. He's retired and so is his wife. They work in Theme Parks and National Parks, traveling back and forth between them summer and winter. They live in an RV full time. I also met a nice lady from Texas while doing laundry last night. She had lost her husband of 58 years, and met a man who had also lost his wife. They just got married and are traveling in an RV. She has never done this in her life. Very sweet and adventuresome don't you think? This photo of the buffalo with the birds on its back is my favorite of the day.

As I am sitting here writing this we are in the middle of another violent thunderstorm, pretty scary...hailstones pounding on the RV....hope we don't blow over. Guess it's better than a tornado.