6/28/17 Wednesday Custer State Park

Not surprisingly, we woke up early this morning.  The temperature this morning was 54 so the sleeping bag sure did feel nice.  While I was in the shower, Dave started the water for hot chocolate.  We had banana bread (brought from home) for breakfast, washed dishes and then went for a ride on the Wildlife Loop in the park.  It was a very successful hunt for new animals,  we saw buffalo (a herd of about 200) including little cute babies, white tail deer, mule deer, pronghorns, red tail chipmunk, red squirrels, a turtle, burros with a couple of soft babies, prairie dogs, a turkey.  We stopped when we got to the herd of buffalo and now the girls know what they sound like ("a low extended growl") and smell like ("poo").  We also stopped when we saw the burros.  We fed them apples that we had picked up at the store.  We patted the babies - they were very cute!  We stopped at the ranger station and the girls were enthralled with the stuffed porcupine.  When we finished the loop, we went up to The Needles - beautiful views and the girls got a chance to scramble up the rocks.  We saw the red tail chipmunks here and the girls fed them right out of their hands (we had some nuts with us).  We came back to camp for lunch and then Dave went for a nap while the girls and I went to Mount Rushmore.  Zoe gave her report on the monument before we got there and we picked up our National Parks passport and a Junior Ranger workbook, which they completed while we walked around the park.  The ranger checked their completed books and swore them in as Junior Rangers and gave them a badge.  We came back to camp and the girls have just gotten out of the shower.  The girls are cooking burgers tonight and they promised they will be the best we have ever tasted.  Sorry about being late with yesterday's blog, but with all the rain, I just didn't feel like getting out the computer and besides it took me a while today to figure out how to get on the hotspot, but now we are in business!  Next I will try to down load some pictures, but I will put them in a separate blog post.