We woke up at 7 today, but stayed in bed for a little while surfing. Then we got up, had breakfast, and did the pet stuff. Ellen wanted to go to Custer State Park, so we loaded up the dog and took off. Lucy was very happy to be coming along.
We stopped on the way to get a sewer hose connector. One of the ones on the hoses I carried broke when I tried to connect the hose yesterday. I glued it, but I didn't trust it. The first place we stopped at was sold out. The second had it. They also had an oven vent to replace the one that broke a couple of days ago.
It cost $20 to get into the park. That seemed excessive, but at the end I was satisfied. We took the "wildlife loop". We saw buffalo and antelope right on the side of the road. Some of the buffalo crossed the road in front of us. We also saw a prairie dog town right by the road. It was crawling with them. Apparently there are burros, elk, and bighorn sheep also, but we didn't see any.
There was a lodge near the end of the loop that served lunch. Ellen had buffalo stew and I had a hot beef sandwich. The food was really good.
We turned off onto the Needles Hwy. Most of it was winding, narrow road climbing up through a forest. There were a couple of tunnels. One was 9 foot wide and 11 feet tall. The other was 8 foot wide and 11 foot tall. No trailers on this road. Near the end was an area filled with groups of granite towers - the needles. The main act was one that had a hole near the top that made it look like a real needle. We got out at the turnout and got a glimpse before it was covered with fog. There was no time for pictures.
The road then intersected with the road to Mt. Rushmore. Visibility went down to 200 feet. When we passed the monument you couldn't see the parking structure much less the mountain. We took the same way back to Rapid City as yesterday. I'm sure glad we got to see it yesterday.
When we got home it was 45 degrees and raining. I had to dump the tanks. The hose connector fix didn't work, so I had to cut off the old one and install the new one. When I was finished I discovered that the new connector is longer and my hose compressor won't fit. I also discovered that the oven vent I bought is too small. Double crap.
Before I went in I lined up the truck to hook up tomorrow. All I'll have to do is back straight to hitch up.
Ellen fixed chicken and rice for dinner. The evening was TV, surfing, and preparing to leave tomorrow.
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