7/3/17 Monday Lander

Wow!  What a busy day we had yesterday!  I tried to get to the computer, but the internet was slow and then we just ran out of time.  The first two pics are from the day we got here:  water rushing from the mountains, which are still snow covered at the higher elevations, into Sinks Canyon, and the happy fat trout that the girls were feeding.  Yesterday, we woke up to find a yellow-bellied marmot (about the size of a woodchuck) had gotten into the fenced back yard and was eyeing the garden.  Charlie said he has never heard of one so close to town.  Eventually, he slipped back under the fence and ran away across the field behind the house.  After a wonderful breakfast of homemade sausage and pancakes, we packed a lunch in the cooler and headed out for the day.  Our first stop was to Antelope Springs, where the girls and Jason tried their hands at fishing (Jason didn't need any lessons).  Charlie and Dave did most of the casting as the girls couldn't get the line out far enough.  Despite their best efforts, the biggest catch of the day went to Ella, who caught a huge mass of algae that was floating near shore (see pic)!  I spent my time untangling lines, getting algae off of hooks and taking pictures - I especially like the one of a bee getting nectar from a thistle.  We then drove up to the cottonwoods for our picnic lunch and then back to Agate Flats - off on a dirt road several miles.  The girls had a great time picking up small moss agates.  They counted later and Ella had over 90 of them and Zoe had over 40.  I picked up 3 and Dave got a dozen or so.  I think the young eyes and being closer to the ground is a great advantage.  Some of the cacti were in bloom (see pic).  When we headed back to the car, it was surrounded by cattle from the field across the road.  Our best guess is that the rancher who brings out the hay to feed them drives a red truck as they showed no interest in Charlie's truck - only ours.  They chased off easily and we boarded everyone up and headed back to town.  On the way, I made Dave stop so I could jump out of the car and take the last picture.  It was growing next to a cattle guard in the middle of dry ground.  When we got back to the house, we looked it up and our best guess is that it is a wild larkspur - stunning in such a barren landscape.  We were going to order pizza for dinner, but somehow our order was canceled so we ended up going into town to a Mexican restaurant.  The food was very good and with everyone full and tired, we came back and went right into our beds.  It was a long, full day!  Today (the 4th) looks to be fairly full also, so I may not get a chance to blog again.  We will be going to the parade this morning, the town BBQ for lunch (thanks to Charlie's friend, Jim, for the tickets) and the rodeo and fireworks this evening.

7/2/17 Sunday Lander, Wyoming

We got up this morning and packed up our tents into the back of the truck and got on the road.  We decided that it would save time to not cook breakfast and wash dishes at camp so we went into Custer and found a bakery/cafe.  The food was wonderful!  The girls each had sour dough pancakes, Dave had scrambled eggs and bacon and I had an egg and cheese sandwich.  The girls thought the slogan was hysterical for some reason: "You'll love our buns!"  We then drove to Lander.  At one point, we went through a town, Lost Springs, with a population of 4.  If we had moved in we would have doubled the population!  We drove past a lot of land with nothing on it and explained to the kids that this is why Charlie calls Wyoming the Big Empty.  Wyoming would contain about 18 Connecticuts and the population of Wyoming is only 550, 000!  We also passed a train with coal cars.  We counted 138 cars, which included 3 engines.  We stopped in Riverton for a quick lunch and then headed to Lander to Charlie and Barb's house.  Charlie's daughter, Heidi, son-in-law, Chris, and grandson, Jason are here this weekend also as it is Heidi's 30th class reunion.  We went with Charlie, Barb, and Jason to Sink's Canyon.  The water was really rushing down from the mountains!  We took the kids to a place where the water comes out after traveling underwater.  The trout hang out in one spot and you can buy fish food for a quarter and the girls loved feeding the fish.  The trout were very large and after seeing how much food they eat from the tourists, I can understand why.  Back at the house we sat around and talked for a while and then got ready for dinner.  We had pulled pork sandwiches, salad, and potato puffs.  Barb had made a chocolate bundt cake for dessert and everything was delicious.  The girls have written in their journals and we will do our reading soon so the girls can hit the sack.  I will put pictures up tomorrow.

7/1/17 Saturday Custer State Park

Today we woke up to the coldest temps yet!  It was 42 degrees this morning and is 88 now - late afternoon.  The girls said they were very snug, but Dave and I were quite cold in the night.  It probably is because we are using the same sleeping bags we used in 1985 when we took our own kids out West.  I thought I might order new bags for us and have them sent to Wyoming where we are staying with friends, but because of the holiday, they wouldn't arrive until the day we leave.  Oh, well, we have only one more traditionally cold area for camping and we will wear our socks to bed!  We all showered this morning and then headed to Wind Cave.  We had to wait for our ticketed time for the cave tour so the girls spent that time filling out their Junior Ranger booklets and looking at the exhibits in the Ranger Station.  We had to walk down 300 steps to get into the cave in dimly lit twisting passages, some so low that even I had to duck a bit.  I am posting a photo of the original hole that was discovered in the 1800's.  It is less than 18" in diameter.  I can't imagine how they dared to go into the cave with only candle lanterns as it was very dark.  The girls enjoyed the tour and this was Zoe's first real cave experience as when we did Jewel Cave, we just went down to a large grotto and did not walk along the passages.  There were some neat formations in the cave that I have posted in photos - box formation and lacing (which is really just white calcite).  When we were done with the tour, we ascended to the surface in an elevator - I'm glad we didn't have to climb back up!  Back at camp, we had lunch and gathered our dirty laundry for a trip into town.  Dave and the girls explored the town while I tackled the laundry.  We all got done about the same time and stopped at the grocery store for more ice and carrots for feeding the donkeys.  The girls are now down at the playground and are looking for little kids to donate the toys they got at Burger King on our trip out here.  We were full from our late lunch yesterday so the girls made scrambled eggs and blueberry pancakes for dinner - very tasty.  Tonight they are making ham steaks, which we will have with corn, applesauce and leftover rolls.  We are going to try to hit the wildlife loop after dinner tonight as the girls want to say goodbye to their favorite donkeys.  Tomorrow we are headed to Lander, Wyoming to visit with our friends Charlie and Barb.  We have been straightening the truck at every opportunity today as we will pack it up in the morning.  I will have to post the pics separately as the internet is getting fluky.

6/30/17 Friday Custer State Park

While it didn’t rain yesterday (for the first time), it did rain a bit during the night, but that was okay as we were snug in our tents.  The girls decided to go to the Badlands today so we headed out and got to a small ranger station first where we picked up a map and the girls picked up their Junior Ranger booklets.  After talking to the ranger, we decided to take the non-paved washboard road up on the ridge.  It was a good choice as we saw mountain goats, more buffalo,  tons of prairie dogs in many towns (some of them huge) and a female big horn sheep.  We stopped for pictures and let Ella and Zoe climb down onto one of the mesas.  They had a great time.  When we finally got to the paved road, we pulled off at a spot and went for a walk.  The girls got to climb again and that made their day.  We stopped for lunch at a cafe near the larger ranger station.  Zoe ordered a buffalo burger and enjoyed it.  Ella had a taste and declared it good also.  Ella order mac and cheese, but when it came, we thought she got the wrong order as it looked like chicken nuggets, but it was patties of mac and cheese with a coating and fried - very weird.  She said it was okay, but would rather have had regular mac and cheese.  We went next door to the ranger station and the girls earned another badge as well as got their passports stamped.  We headed back to camp and will eat dinner soon.  Tomorrow the girls have decided to go to Wind Cave.  We will have to straighten out the truck at some point tomorrow as we will be leaving here on Sunday and heading to visit with our friends Charlie and Barb in Wyoming.

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.

photos from 6/28/17

Forgot to mention that in the wind and rain last night, one of the tents near us blew across the road and ended up against some trees - I guess they forgot to stake it down!  Also when we stopped at the ranger station, we were chatting about the storm with the ranger and he said a ranger that lives east of here had hail stones the size of baseballs hit in his area - I'm glad it wasn't here!!!  The photos today are of the eye of the needle, a mule deer, a buffalo, a mom and baby, prairie dogs, the girls feeding the burros, a baby burro, feeding a chipmunk, the girls at Mount Rushmore, and being sworn in as Junior Rangers.