Getting our groove in South Dakota

Clearly impressed with the mammoth skeletons

The last couple weeks involved getting through a beautiful but VERY WIDE Montana and swinging down into the southwestern corner of South Dakota. For some reason we thought being a bit north of Colorado we'd experience a little less of the late summer heat. Boy, were we wrong! It's been mid-90s since we left the Montana high country. It is so dry here, thank goodness tomorrow a little rain is supposed to come and relieve this heat and drought. Seems like there is nowhere west of the Mississippi these days where they don't worry about wildfires.

These "newbies" are getting a little better at planning out how L-O-N-G absolutely everything takes while RVing. Driving takes about 1.5 times the usual time, finding an appropriate camping spot that can handle our rig is about a day-long adventure (a full day if I'm trying to park it), dumping (you lucky readers got to read the poopy post last time)

Here you get to see me doing the very glamorous art of poop dumping

and filling can be a half-day process. Grocery shopping/laundry can easily eat up more than half day. I don't think I ever realized how "automated" I am at home. I go to the same couple grocery stores and I know exactly what products are there, what I like to buy and where it is. I don't really have to do much math because I already know what's a good bargain. I know where to find gluten free or dairy free. We are SO spoiled in Boulder, being able to buy just about anything. And then add on Amazon same-day delivery (I'm embarrassed to admit) and things are so easy and immediate.

I'd like to take credit for this photo but, alas, I must give it to Ray Thomspon

Leaving Montana was bittersweet. As we drove east, the mountains gave way to rolling green hills dotted with pines, the rivers turned more to meandering streams. So much geographic diversity in Montana. We did not make it to the Dakotas the day we had planned, so we camped in eastern Montana at Nelson Creek Recreation area, a gorgeously remote area in on the southeastern finger of the Fort Peck Reservoir.

We arrived right before sunset and it was so beautiful, I thought I might be able to spend a month there. We set up camp and enjoyed an evening of throwing the tennis in the water for the dogs. THEN...THE WIND PICKED UP. Holy moly, I am not sure I've ever experienced wind like that while camping. I think the phone said it was 30 mph but I am sure it was over 70 mph. I thought our camper might actually topple sideways. And the thing is...it didn't stop. For two straight days, we huddled in our camper, working and eating and sleeping, sending the dogs out for quick bathroom breaks when it died down enough to not pick them up and deposit them miles away. "Hold the door!" I'd yell at Eli, "while I get the dogs out!" "WHAT???" he would retort? "The...DOOR....hold....SLAM...dammit...OUCH!" As soon as the wind died down enough to hook up the truck to the camper, we hightailed it out of the there toward Rapid City, SD. Eli and I got a very quick lesson in the hooking up process.

We had an AWESOME visit from our friends Patty, Gabe and Josephine, who drove up from Boulder for Labor Day Weekend. It was a grand surprise for Eli.

Where are the Waldos?

We visited Mt. Rushmore (I was more impressed than I thought I would be. What an engineering feat!!), the very interesting Mammoth Archaeological site, an active dig site that houses at least 60 mammoth skeletons that have been well preserved since the Ice Age, a very grody (how long has it been since you've heard that word?) hot springs pool about as old as the mammoth skeletons, and the Cosmos Mystery Area, where a gravity vortex makes very science-defying strange things happen!

We also had some amazing shared meals and some cutthroat rummy and Dominion tournaments as well as some nail-biter soccer matches. I don't want to brag, but I took 1st place in the "creativity" category for doing a card shuffle bridge while standing on my head. Stole the blue ribbon right out of Josephine's hands when I went upside down. Sadly, no photos to commemorate that big win. Needless to say, this 54 year old neck was not very happy the next day.

I'm a believer!