Kit and Carol on the Road

We know for sure we are in The East now. We walked through a patch of poison ivy today –being careful to stay on the trail of course. When we arrived in the Black Hills and had to pass through Deadwood, I was almost ready to turn around. I could not in my wildest imaginings have guessed a place could become so “touristified”. Luckily much of the Black Hills is still “wild and pure”. Our camp is very nice—almost like a state park but at twice the price. We LOVED the Michaelson bike trail which passes by here. It’s a 109 mile trail and we only rode 13 miles of it (round trip=26). Made a truck trip to see Mt Rushmore but the “free remote” parking lots were all blocked off so we saw it from the highway. No highway parking robbery for us. Did the same with Crazy Horse today. Visited an awesome quilt shop, a winery, and had buffalo fajita wraps at the local brewpub. Life is fine. Today we drove the Needles Highway and the wildlife loop of Custer State Park. Saw the obligatory buffalo, pronghorn, and prairie dogs. In between we did a 3 mile loop hike through high mountain pine and a green wet canyon where we saw the aforementioned ivy. Now it’s time to do laundry. Tomorrow we pack up and go to Nebraska. Diesel is still $2.69 and grocery stores are pretty lean.