Day 13: Pack up and head to the Hills!

So we were pretty lazy this morning. We had a campsite to break down, and a wet tent and dining canopy to deal with. After Emily , Pete and I took showers (and might I say what a very nice facility they had), we headed back to the campsite to help break everything down. It took us quite awhile, but we finally made it out of there by 10. After a quick stop for pastries and drinks, we were on our way.

But not very quickly on our way as we were about to pass through “Buffalo Central” in Yelowstone. The valley we passed through had more Buffalo per square mile than any where else we had been. They were everywhere! And what a funny noise they made. We did get some video, but I’m not sure how to add it to this blog. If I figure it out, I’ll put it up. We kept having to stop for Buffalo in the road. What a funny reason to have to stop!

Anyway, after a very slow go through Yellowstone, we finally made it out of the park and we were on our way to the Black Hills. We stopped in Cody, Wy for gas and a quick break. This looks like a fun town and a place I’d like to come back to sometime. After that, we headed across Wyoming. I worked on the past few days blogs, and I checked on the weather for Custer State Park. Storms. Great.

We found ourselves slowly making our way across the Bighorn mountains. There is nothing to slow you down like mountain roads. Finally, we made our way through and got onto the interstate! YAY! The kids watched movies, and Steve drove while I published the last few blogs.

As we got closer to Custer State Park, I realized that we would be arriving close to 8pm which is the time of the Crazy Horse Memorial light show.

We also checked on the weather for tomorrow and saw that it is going to be a HIGH of 62 (isn’t this the BAD lands, as in HOT lands?!?) and more rain will be moving in during the evening. The middle of the day is at least supposed to be nice. Then, on Wednesday when we’re supposed to be leaving, the HIGH for the day is supposed to be 54!!! This is really crazy. We may have to alter our plans.

So after a long drive, we finally made it to Custer, South Dakota around 7:30pm.. We rushed to the Crazy Horse memorial because we thought the light show was at 8, and because we thought we could get dinner there. Well, the light show was at 9:15, and the dinner place had just closed! So, we saw the introductory movie, walked around and saw the exhibit, Looked outside at the memorial and left before the light show.

Sadly, the only thing open in Custer on a Monday night at 9pm is Dairy Queen, so that’s where we went! It wasn’t too bad. Besides hamburgers, they did have salads. It was late, we were tired, the sky had looked threatening when we could see it before, and so we quickly found our campsite and jumped into action.
While the tent was damp from the night before, it wasn’t dripping wet, which was good. We were, however, setting up in the dark. The people across the way from us turned on their spot light to help us see which was really nice of them.

We got the tent set up, and the dining canopy (to keep the picnic table dry if it rained), we visited the bathroom one last time, got our clothes for tomorrow and got into the tent. As I stepped in and closed the door I heard it. I told everyone else to be quiet and listen….rain! We had made it into the tent JUST IN TIME!! I am so glad we didn’t stay for the light show. Setting up a tent in the rain would have been awful. It was tough enough to have set it up in the dark!

And so, we fell asleep to the sounds of rain on the tent. I sure hope we don’t wake to those same sounds!