I've got some catching up to do, so lets get started!

We left Matt & Rose's place on the 28th of August, bound for the Black Hills of South Dakota. The day started out misty...

But, by early afternoon had turned into a normal Summer day. We headed West and South to pick up 85 South, it was a nice ride through farm country. We hit the Badlands of North Dakota early in the afternoon, hazy, hot and humid:

We noticed a difference between the North and South Dakota Badlands --the North Dakota Badlands are much greener:

We stopped in Belle Fourche, SD, just North of Spearfish for the night.

We pressed into the Black Hills looking for a place to camp and finally landed at Deerfield Reservoir. Roscoe the Wonder Dog got to go for a swim:

That clump of flowers is pretty strange...

We were going to camp right there at the boat ramp, but decided to investigate a couple of other campgrounds in the area. We ended up at the "Dutchman" campground on the Southeast side of the lake. Nice place but expensive. It seems that the National Park Service has contracted out the management of the campgrounds to a private company --and the price went up, and they suck. Big surprise.

The good news is that we're not confined to the whim of the bureaucrats and moved to a dispersed campsite in the middle of nowhere:

It's a great place to hide and the best part is that it's free!

The Sun went down:

And the Moon came out to play:

On Tuesday, we did the tourist thing and visited Mount Rushmore:

Looks just like the postcard image right?

This is what the "bigger picture" looks like...

Still, it's a real feat of engineering... I just wish someone had remembered to take the friggin tripod off Teddy's head. O.K, it's really a way to get tools and other equipment up to the top, but they're done, so, take it down, the cable runs right in front of the monument. Idiots. Must have been liberals...

I did get a nice profile of George on the way out:

Since we were in the area, we decided to take in Custer State Park. On the way, we came across a lookout and found a great overview of the Black Hills looking North:

Custer State Park isn't anything like Carlene remembers from a previous visit. And I have to tell you, the lack of wildlife was spooky. We did eventually find some Antelope:

And some Bison:

But, for the most part, it was a waste of time and money, save yours if you ever head out this way.

I've spent the best part of the last couple of days reading and not much else. The book "Black Elk Speaks" by John G. Niehardt is worth the time and energy needed to read it. Tomorrow we're going to visit the cemetary at Wounded Knee... I hope the Lakota aren't still pissed...

It's very peaceful here and we're going to hate to pack up next week.