We Are Moving Up!

We are moving up in the camping world, well at least to higher ground! On Monday, we got heavy rains, wind and hail all afternoon. Then is seemed to clear up, but about dusk it started again, first with light rain, then sleet or hail, then rain again. We had gone to bed just before 10, but at almost midnight we had a knock at the door. It was the owners of the resort. They told us that the creek had now came over our road and was only a foot or so from the rig! They told us that we probably should move while we still can, and also gave us a key for a cabin if we wanted to leave the rig there, but wanted us to get out. So, we made a midnight move to higher ground to a spot right next to the one we first had, #29. It was cold (40) and windy with rain. My hands got numb, but we got moved. I left the hose, our cable line, the bikes and whatever else that was outside that I didn't want to grab up a ways on the hill behind our spot-will get it later. Power was out too. Now our house is a disaster as we just moved everything so it would not fall or get broke on the move. We will be here for at least a few days as the water is much higher than the previous pictures. Good thing we have 3 days of sun coming. At least we missed out on the tornados which were to our south and a couple to the north-east. Whew! Between the rains, I have been running a gas trimmer, now for a day and a half, and still need to do more today-(Wed). I have added to my sunburn too. Here are more pictures from Bear Country USA. Enjoy.

Road Trip

On Sunday May 23, we went fishing, but didn't get any keepers. Apparently we didn't have the right bait--mini marshmallows! Then we went on to Bear Country USA by Rapid City. Plenty of bears there. There was even bear guards--one bear pacing back and forth at each gate to the bear area. We saw Elk in velvet, Mountain Lions, Buffalo, Big Horn Sheep, Mountain Goats, Wolves, and of course Bears. You drove your car through this free roaming area. And then you stopped and visited Babyland. Here they had Porcupine, Lynx, Skunk, Ducks, Otters, and a bunch of baby Bears. It was a good day, close to 70 degrees, so I decided that we had to go to Sturgis, where the annual motorcycle rally is held in August. We had to at least go there once since we are close. Well, during the week(s) of the rally, Main Street is closed to all traffic except bikes. We got to drive right down Main Street which had little traffic and saw only a few bikes, but is is evening on a Sunday in May, so didn't expect to see many.

It is Free Fishing Weekend

Well it is free fishing weekend, so April thought she would pick up some recently homeless worms if we get a chance to go. And, No, that is not a boat launch, it is the driveway to the Motel, which has a circle drive up to the hill. If you was staying in the tee pee, you could take the bridge to go pee, . . . or not. We have a couple of sites that we will not be renting out for awhile. Enjoy the pictures while we dry out.

Spring Rains are Here!

Here is a picture of the fire pit that was close to the creek after we had alot of rain over several days. The owners said the creek has not been this high in 12 years. Oops, we got a heavy downpour for a couple of hours last night. So the rest is pictures taken this morning. In the one, you can barely see the top grate of the fire pit (the same one as in the before shot). There are pictures of the activity area where you can pitch horseshoes, play badminton or volleyball, and also a couple of tee pees that you could rent (if you have your own canoe). If it gets much higher, it will come over the road on our side of the creek and we will need our own canoe.

We Moved

We finally got moved to our summer spot. We don't have a fire pit, so we got a portable one to use. Had to have it. April got some rearranging done and the living room is about done. We had about 4 hours of thunderstorms mid-day before the sun came back out. We took some pictures around the 12 acres tonight too so you can see the area. I will get some more later. We had today off, but will be working most every day this week, as it is getting warmer and also closer to Memorial Day when everything starts getting busy. We are still not sure what we will end up doing when the season starts. We have been introduced to several options that we might be doing, with the last April heard was helping with the breakfast daily, but we will be doing alot of things I believe. They hired a couple of housekeepers from town, so we may have less of that to do, but don't know yet. We have been working full days now and that will continue, so I will post a little less, unless something exciting happens. Here are pictures of the Motel, 2 of the creek, one down the road in front of us towards the South bathhouse with a bunk of 4 cabins down further, and our new spot. Enjoy.

Another showing of Winter

Well, here is the weather alert for tonight: THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN RAPID CITY HAS ISSUED A WINTER STORM WARNING FOR SNOW...WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM MIDNIGHT TONIGHT TO MIDNIGHT MDT WEDNESDAY NIGHT.

* PRECIPITATION WILL MOVE INTO THE BLACK HILLS THIS EVENING. TEMPERATURES WILL BE COLD ENOUGH FOR SNOW ACCUMULATION FROM LATE THIS EVENING THROUGH WEDNESDAY EVENING.

* SNOWFALL TOTALS OF 4 TO 8 INCHES IS EXPECTED...WITH LOCALLY HIGHER AMOUNTS ABOVE 5500 FEET.
Whew! at least we are only 5200 feet! It is already starting to stick on the grass (7pm). It is not too much fun taking a nice warm shower, then having to walk through snow to get back home. Tonight the low is supposed to be 32, and only 33 for a high tomorrow. But it supposed to be warming up this weekend--60+. And maybe we will get moved too. Otherwise, it will be next week. Then we can settle in better.

We got a Black Hills Coupon Book today from the owners with alot of buy one, get one deals and plenty of discounts and a few freebies. Thank you.

We had Monday off due to the rain and not much going on. We broke a record for rainfall on this date here--about 2 inches. Just 18 miles away they got 4 inches of snow! The creek was getting high and fast. About 2 miles downstream, there was some flooding. Today the creek is down at least 6 inches, but still fast.

I had to add some pictures from our past days. I can only put 5 on each post. Enjoy.

Crazy Horse and then Lost?

We went to Crazy Horse Memorial today. It is huge. We will go here again. I want to go on the march they have to the face in June. It is just over 3 miles each way and you will stand right at the face of Crazy Horse.

We then stopped at a woodcarving museum, but only went in the gift shop.

We then thought we were going to go down south to hot springs and just look around, but we missed our turn and ended up in Wyoming! Nice day for a ride, but didn't plan on Wyoming.

We stopped for lunch in Custer City. Being Mother's Day, April got a rose and also a very nice lunch. They have a good gift shop too.

I had to buy a 2 liter of coke, it looks like the 20 ounce ones but is bigger. Cool.

Looks like April got some wood, so we will have a nice fire tonight. It got up to a balmy 58 today, so we didn't need our jackets and could sit outside for a change. And turned off the furnace! But will fire it back up tonight again. But maybe spring is on the way.

Back to Rushmore

We went up to Mount Rushmore this morning. We got a good picture profile of George. We also stopped at a lake close to the monument. Looks like there is fish there with a walk path too. Might have to check it out. Also, there are wood piles throughout the area, possible from cutting down diseased trees, not sure why, but they are everywhere.

Reptile Gardens May 7

We stopped in at Reptile Gardens down the hill by Rapid City Friday.

The land turtles were huge, about 5 feet long. The gator under water was a monster too. There were all the usual critters like snakes, frogs, lizards, ect. too along with some tropical flowers, trees and birds.

More

Enough said.