Day… Day… I’ve lost track of the days…

I’m sitting at the public library in Custer, South Dakota which is about 12 miles from the Bluebell Campground in Custer State Park. I biked here, which just about wore me out. About halfway into the bike ride I remembered that we were in the Black HILLS. I’m not looking forward to the return trip. On the other hand, I did bike right next to a running herd of buffalo and around a mountain pass with a view across the Great Plains. To allow me the pleasure of biking to to Custer, Jen has taken the kids fishing to Stockade Lake. Hopefully, I won’t get the kid-has-a-fish-hook-in-the-eye cell phone call.

Since the last post, we spent a night in Cedar Pass Campground in the Badlands National Park (see picture on left) . The Badlands are stunning. It’s a lot like Bryce National Park but with greater contrast with the flat Plains and less color. We all took a 3 mile hike into the peaks and spires. Very cool.

After the Badlands, we took a travel day through Rapid City to pick up a rental car and then to Custer State Park which is just south of Mt. Rushmore. Yesterday, we spelunked in Wind Cave National Park, lunched next to Crazy Horse monument, visited Mt. Rushmore and then drove home on Needles Highway. Today is fishing, biking and hiking day. Tomorrow, horesback riding in the morning and then off to Wyoming.

I think the kids realize that this is a seldom-in-a-lifetime experience about 20% of the time. About 60% of the time they are just having a good time. The remaining 20% of the time they are totally oblivious. For instance, while driving through the scenic loop of the Badlands, Quin and Zachary passed the time battling each other’s cut-out Transformers that they learned about after watching the video. While the kids may have missed out on the Badlands scenery, Optimus Prime and Megatron sure enjoyed it. However, any wildlife, even the 300th deer that we’ve passed, always elicits a shout of “Deer!” or “Rabbit!” Also, anything that involves climbing is very well received.

Frankly, the RV camping routine is a lot of fun, but it's also a lot of work. Basic things like meals, showers, cleaning up, bedtime and other routines are not routine. This is compounded by the inevitable unpredictable RV item. For instance, yesterday we had to move our campsite three sites over because of reservation logistics. While that is only about 300 feet, it requires us to move the RV, re-hook it into electricity and re-level it. For the uninitiated, "leveling" requires that you jack up various of the four corners of the vehicle to make it level so you can extend the "side-outs" which doubles the living space. For our RV, we have an automatic leveling system which analyzes the level and then sends down any of four hydraulic jacks to raise the RV to the appropriate height. With particularly unlevel camp sites, it is not uncommon to have one or more RV tires off of the ground. This does not inspire confidence, particularly not in Jen. For really unlevel surfaces, like the one we moved to, the necessary jacking up can be greater than the jack's extension. When this happens a light on the auto-leveling system says "Air Dump." These words are usually followed or preceded by other words unmentionable in a family blog.

We solved the problem by adjusting our RV such that it sits crossways across the parking pad to reduce the angle. The RV and the pad now look like the criss-cross of airplane runways. Whatever, it works. It's time to end this blog as my guilt at leaving Jen with the kids has finally overcome my reluctance to bike 12 miles of mountains. Until the next post...