Saturday June 30, 2012

We got the phone call this morning that Pinkie (Dan’s great-grandmother) had died in the night.  Dan was very sad and spent some time crying in the tent.  I tried to help him by talking about what an amazing person she was and that she had lived a very long and happy life.  He was rather solemn all day.  After breakfast, the boys and I drove to Wind Cave.  Dave chose not to go as he thought the cold and damp might aggravate his bronchitis.  We took the longest guided tour with 450 steps!  It was actually a very nice and unusual cave as it has 95% of the world’s box work.  Our guide told us that a 16-year-old boy was the first to map it – 10 miles of it, at any rate, with only a candle and a roll of twine.  He must have been very brave!  The cave tunnels run for 138 miles in one square mile of area.  We took an elevator down 195 feet to begin our tour.  We walked up and down stairs and along a concrete path in and out of caverns.  At one point our guide had us sit on benches and then took out a candle and turned out the lights – it was amazing to see how little was visible by just candlelight.  She then blew out the candle and it was as dark as I have ever seen.  I held my hand on my nose and couldn’t see my wiggling fingers!  The boys said it didn’t make any difference whether your eyes were closed or open – you got the same effect – complete darkness!  On our way out of the cave, Alex got ahead of us and we got behind with ten other people.  We somehow lost the rest of the group and ending up in another cavern.  I said that we should stay all together and that the guide would find us, which she did in about 15 minutes.  The boys were excited about the adventure when it was over!  We got back to camp and had lunch.  After gathering all of our dirty laundry, we headed into Custer to the Laundromat.  I elected to do the laundry while Dave took the boys for a walk down the main street of town.  There wasn’t too much of interest, but they did manage to find a rock shop where Dan bought a “treasure” for Ella.  The sky was darkening while the clothes were washing and the laundry attendant turned on the TV.  There was a warning being broadcast about severe thunderstorms.  They said that 6 miles sough of Jewel Cave the hail was as large as hen’s eggs!  Thankfully the storm skirted us and we got nothing.  When the laundry was done we packed it into the truck and drove again down Needles Highway.  That was voted the most popular place to visit again.  We gave the boys 20 minutes to climb and Dan made it to the top of one of the rock spires.  He was out of sight from where I was standing and Alex came to ask me to come and take a photo, but there was no way I was going to scramble up the scree zone to get a shot!  Back at camp, we set up to make dinner: pasta with sauce, salad, and garlic bread.  Unfortunately, as Dave and I were straining the pasta, the pot handle let go and the pasta went all over the ground!  Dinner was garlic bread with sauce and salad.  After dinner, the boys played pick up the ziti!  We wrote in our journals, had popcorn and read some more of Tucket’s Travels.  Alex opted not to attend the Ranger talk on Guns, Ghotsts, and God of the Black Hills.  Theo and Dave started down and I went to look for Dan.  He was in the tent crying.  We talked some about Pinkie and I think he eventually felt a little better.  He said he wished he had been there to hold her hand.  It is so hard at this age to understand that the extreme heartache will soften with time.  I tried to tell him that some day he will be able to think of all the happy times they had together.  We went to bed after the program knowing that we have to pack up camp tomorrow morning.