6/29/17 Thursday Custer St. Park

As promised, the girls fed us delightful burgers with raw carrots.  After dinner, we started a fire and the girls walked to the playground just down the hill to play while I did the dishes and Dave tended the fire so the girls could have s'mores for dessert.  They invited a 13 year old boy from Texas to join us for s'mores and just as we were finishing, it started to rain again.  We cleaned up quickly and dashed to the restroom to brush our teeth and got into the tents to ride out the rain.  It didn't actually last all that long and I thought the girls would come over to our tent for story time, but apparently they were worn out with all of the activity today that they fell asleep.

It got cold in the night.  When Dave and I woke up, it was 49 degrees!  We went to take a shower and left the girls to sleep in.  They didn't get up until almost 7 so I told them how chilly it was and to put on long pants and a sweatshirt.  Zoe couldn't find her long pants so I looked through her duffle bag and didn't see them either.  We decided we would stop back in town after the wildlife loop, which is what they wanted to do first thing.  We saw a smaller herd of buffalo, but a larger group of burros.  We had a few apples left and someone had given the girls a bag of compressed hay pellets so the burros were very happy to see us.  The best part about seeing the buffalos today was that two of them were rolling in a dirt pile on their backs to get covered in dust so the flies would not bother them so much - it was a very funny sight!  We headed into town and picked up more wood for the campfire.  The youth group of the Lutheran Church just outside the park has firewood for a donation - very convenient and I'm sure they make quite a bit a money with all of the campers that come by.  We also stopped at a small all-purpose store and found a pair of pants for Zoe.  We then decided to go out to Jewel Cave, where the girls earned another Junior Ranger badge and got their National Parks Passport stamped.  Most of the longer tours were booked already so we opted for the discovery tour, which mainly explored a large chamber 275 feet underground.  The cave system is 189 miles long - third longest in the world.  We have just come back to camp and the girls are writing in their journals while I am blogging and Dave is working on carving a spoon.  The girls have been busy collecting license plates.  They now have 46 states, District of Columbia, and 4 provinces.  They are making pasta with meat sauce, salad, and rolls for dinner and if the evening showers will hold off, s'mores.