West - Day Nine - July 1, 2005

Well, overnight, I developed a head cold so it was a tough night and I was tired this morning. We called Mom in the hospital (hip replacement surgery) to say hi. All went well and she was moved to rehabilitation on Saturday. Today, we headed back to Wind Cave to do a cave tour. We were able to get in right away which was perfect. This cave has 95% of the boxwork formations known in the world. The kids were a little antsier today but managed not to touch any formations. We've been doing the junior ranger programs at each park and as of the end of this day, they each had 4 badges (Jewel Cave, Badlands, Wind Cave and Mt Rushmore) which they proudly wore on their shirts.

At Wind Cave, the park ranger even took their picture and posted it on their website (http://www.nps.gov/wica/pphtml/forkids.html). Noah is eight, Justin is six and Katie is three.
From Wind Cave, we drove through Custer State Park and came upon all kinds of weather - sun, rain, hail, fog, thunder. This was the first time the kids have seen hail which was about the size of large peas. We were planning to do a hike up to a firetower for the view but when we got there, the combination of thunder nearby and a bison walking right towards our car (see above) kept us in the car. We had a grand time watching the bison up close with no one else around.
In the late afternoon, we visited Mt. Rushmore, saw the movie, took some pictures, lost and then found (phew!) Katie's pig. A long day which I was feeling with my cold so they dropped me back at the hotel to rest a bit while they ate dinner.