Family Vacations... part 2

Okay, now the photos are all screwed up so follow along with me. starting with the one at the lower left... The Badlands. One of the coolest places to see in America. It is so total alien for someone from the cornfields of Illinois. Beautiful in a very stark way. And hot! Wow, was it hot! But it was a dry heat, and it was the first time I had ever experienced a dry heat. I now understand when someone talks about the heat in the southwest and they say, "It's a dry heat." But even more so, it was only that much more proof that God is an artist of the highest magnitude. I would have loved to have done more hiking there, but time was short and I was not prepared for that type of hiking at the time.

The next one up was the view from the top of Harney's Peak near Hill City, S. Dakota. It was a hike of over 8 mikes and took about 5.5 hours to do. The wholel family, including our dog Gunnar did the hike. It was tough for my wife, who has a problem knee, but she did it anyway. And my 8 year old daughter did the whole hike on her own except for a about a 1.4 mile where I had to carry her on my back...going up hill and over rocks and stones about the size of a 50 gallon drum. It was marvelous. And it was the highest point east of the Rockies and west of the Pyrennes, which are in Spain! Quite a rush!

The one above the view of the Black Hills is my son doing some panning for gold, which he did find about seven flakes. It would take much more to make a real small nugget, but he will never forget the experience. My Daughter did the same thing. It was a nice way to end the vacation as we did it on the way back home.

The next one up was my wife and I going down the waterslide nea Rapid City. A real mom and pop outfit. Nice sized (meaning not too big and not overly crowded) and very reasonable. We had a blast. We went there with the cool family we met from Manitoba Canada. While there , we managed to kill the battery in the car where Gunnar was held to try and keep him cool. However, when the battery dies and the keys are in the ignition, and you only have the remote unlock button, nothing unlocks!!! Gunnar was stuck in there for almost an hour before we had someone from AAA come and unlock him. He was hot, but fine. We then had him spend the rest of the time with us, outside the waterpark. We took turns hanging out with him. As you can tell, the photo of us was before we knew our dog was in danger! I was very worried so all I wanted to do afterwards was get him to air-conditioning. All turned out well.

The last one (the top most one)was taken somewhere around Souix Falls, shortly after yelling at the bored, restless kids for the 16th time to be quiet, stop fighting, share the game boy, and just behave. I can't blame them. After so much fun, it was hard to get back on the road home.

I highly recommend the Black Hills of South Dakota as a family vacation spot. It truly was one of the best vacations we have ever had. I hope to go again!

Anyway, enough of the vacation slide show.... I have bored you enough.

Later!