The Black Hills of South Dakota. We left Nebraska yesterday 8/3 and we drove about 10 hours to reach our destination. We left Fremont in the late afternoon (it's always hard to leave family) and we were blessed with the most amazing sky show I think I’ve ever seen. As we drove across the plains of Nebraska headed west I initially was pissed because we were driving into the setting sun. Once the sun began to fall below the sky line the huge blue and white sky that blanketed our heads turned into the brightest ever changing neon painting. The evolution was almost instant. I became so fixated on the sky that I almost forgot that I was supposed to be driving. My gaze was fixed upon this marvelous transforming art. The bright blue from the east faded into turquoise and creamy whites and where the sun had just slipped away a neon tangerine color shot up from the ground that faded into the brightest pink that was smeared with purple and grey. I wish at that moment that I could have stopped time, pulled over and painted what I witnessed. That experience was like ecstasy for our eyes.
We had no trouble finding our cabin even though we arrived at about 1:30 am. When we awoke this morning to go check out Mt. Rushmore we were astonished by the scenery that surrounded us. The air here is crisp and clean. I find that I'm appreciating every breath that I take into my lungs. The ponderosa pines that surround us have a sweet cream smell that is unlike any other. We actually spent about 20 minutes today smelling the trees (people were looking at us like we were on drugs). The roads twist and turn and just when you think you're in the middle of nowhere out from behind a bend pops a little western themed town. I'm kind of glad that we drove last night because when we stepped out of our cabin this morning the South Dakota scenery was such a nice surprise. The landscape here is so different from Nebraska and really we aren't that far away.
As we were driving I couldn't help but pull over to tour Bear Country U.S.A. Touristy I know but, I love animals and I think it's super cool when they have free reign to wonder and we get to stay in our cars and drive through their habitats. We soon made our way to Mt. Rushmore.
Honestly I thought it was going to be bigger ;) I appreciate the six years of hard work that it took to carve the monument but we were soon ready to move on. We walked a trail around the monument and took off driving to see what else we could find. Wouldn't you know we found a winery! Prairie Berry Winery with FREE wine tastings! We sampled very unique wines. Strawberry rhubarb, pear wine, black currant wine, cranberry wine, sweet plum wine. Yep, we were forced to buy some. We cooked our dinner over our fire outside of our cabin.
Right now I'm setting outside our cabin with the brisk night air biting the backs of my arms while the hot fire warms my little toes.
The motorcycles are already starting to pile up in the small towns, next week is Sturgis (largest bike rally in the country). Every once in a while a gang of bikes will pass by our little camp and I cant help but think about my dad. Tomorrow we'll head off for Yellow Stone National Park where we plan on doing a bit of white water rafting.
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