The first three nights in Hill City were pretty low key – in other words, we slept in, re-organized the truck and coach, caught up on emails and hit the grocery. The boys read a lot and did art projects.

We visited Rapid City to get dog food and a bully stick (if you don’t know, don’t ask) for Timber and grabbed lunch at Ruby Tuesday. When we returned to camp, Timber got an opportunity to play with a new friend – a golden named Gracie from Ventura, California.

The next day, we stayed at the coach all day with Angela working through the details of our trip to Europe in the fall.  We met a retired couple from Redding, California – our CA license plates have drawn quite a few people to stop by and say hello. For dinner we grilled salmon.

On Thursday we decided to make a quick drive over to Mount Rushmore as dusk began to fall on the Black Hills. Rushmore was pretty underwhelming to the boys. It is an amazing piece of sculpture, but it doesn’t have the same WOW factor that the surrounding granite formations do and it would have taken something unbelievable to stand out. On our way through the memorial, we stopped at the Missouri flag.

The Black Hills are dramatic – towering spires with rounded caps and pine forests rising up along steep hills. The switchbacks and pulls-outs offered amazing views as the sun poured golden rays across the landscape. For dinner, we stopped at the Sage Creek Café in Custer and treated the boys (and grown-ups) to DQ for dessert.