Home From The Hills, Part 1

We weren't sure I was going to make it, right up until the day before we left.  But finally the hip was painful-but-functional, and at 4am we packed up the van and took off for our little vacation in South Dakota and Wyoming.  Wagon, ho!!

Scott took care of the first major stretch of driving, and then Handsome Son took a nice long stint, leaving his dad the last bit before we pulled into our first destination: the Badlands.

Oh, it was both wonderfully familiar and magically different!  In the autumn of two years ago, the grass was golden and blended beautifully with the weird and wonderful rock formations.

This spring, however, the rangers tell us that there is more green in the Badlands than there has been in living memory.  Imagine, pools of water in the Badlands!!

It was different, but it was still beautiful, and we all were very happy to be there.  We stayed for two nights at Cedar Pass Lodge - the cabins were very small and basic, but there was a/c and very comfortable beds, and the view was gorgeous.  What more could you want?  Not much, obviously...

Well, you might want some Indian Fry Bread.  The Cedar Pass Lodge has a little cafe, where at night they have taco fixings on fry bread, and in the morning they have fry bread with a wonderful blueberry sauce.  Not bad at all...

You also might want to attend the Night Sky talks at the ampitheatre near the campgrounds - a fun presentation is followed on clear nights by the opportunity to use some very nice telescopes, so that you can gape at distant galaxies and nebulas and planets.  We didn't get the opportunity to use said telescopes this time around, but we did get a spectacular view of a close-passing storm - I've never seen pink lightning before!

On the day after we arrived - and after eating our fry bread and blueberries, of course - we drove through the Badlands Loop, and then spent time driving around the Black Hills.  

Between driving on the Needles Highway and the Iron Mountain Road, we stopped for a wine tasting and wonderful lunch at the Prairie Berry Winery.  Then off we went for more Eye Candy.  Along the way we met some old friends...

And some new ones...

And basically spent our time feeling at one with the universe.

Then back to Cedar Pass for the night.  What a wonderful time we were having!!

to be continued...