Day 0 (Monday, June 10th): We left home on Monday afternoon (early evening) to get a head start on the journey to South Dakota where we were planning to meet up with the rest of the Elwood clan on Tuesday afternoon. We drove about four hours to Rawlins, WY, with a pit stop halfway at Little America to "get some wiggles out" and get into jammies. We pulled into our hotel parking lot just before 10:00 and went straight to bed.
Day 1 (Tuesday, June 11th): The next morning we woke up early (well, some of us woke up early - Cal has turned into quite the little sleeper-inner, at least relative to what she used to do and what the rest of us currently do). We ate some hotel room breakfast (leftover enchiladas from the cooler and/or instant oatmeal - what a combo!), showered and changed, and hit the road (with another park pit stop to start).
Our plan was to get to the campsite and on to Rapid City to pick up Megan since we were the furthest along on the route of anyone else in the family. But delay after delay made it so Mugs didn't arrive till late at night (and my parents picked her up instead, while I was asleep in my snug little cocoon). But that's getting ahead of the story... since we didn't have to hurry so fast to get there in time to pick her up, we spent some time at the park in Rawlins, and then again at another cool park in Casper (where we got to see H&T&G for a few minutes before we continued on).
Sam napped through the Thunder Basin National Grassland route we took. And then, at last, we entered South Dakota! What a beautiful state! We instantly fell in love with the landscape as we traveled through the Black Hills toward Sheridan Lake Campground. We finally found our spot (it was in the group site section on the North side of the lake, but we tried the South side first) but before we could set up our tent a big cloudburst sent us scurrying for our car to stay dry.
Once that cleared the evening turned beautiful and we soon welcomed Heather's family and then later my parents and Ky and Mike (who had come together in the truck). We had a bedtime snack of hot dogs roasted on the fire and headed to bed while Mom and Dad headed to Rapid City to pick up Meg. They made it back around midnight, thanks to a luggage situation, but we were all so happy to see her in the morning!
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| Good morning to these cute boys. |
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| Quite the library of Christian literature available in our hotel room. I was amused. |
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| A great locomotive to play on and explore at the park in Rawlins! |
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| A super park in Casper, similar to the Ryan's Place Park in River Heights that we like to visit when we go to Grandma and Grandpa's house. |
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| We played and ate lunch here for about an hour (or more?). |
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| Some lovely clouds and lovely grasslands. |
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| Directions to find our campsite. |
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| Exploring the Beaver group site in the Sheridan Lake North Campground. |
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| Tent set up and snuggles happening. (I have no idea why Sam is wearing his helmet since my parents hadn't arrived yet with his bike! ha!) |
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| Always have to play the s'mores game with Heather. |
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| Now they're pretending to ride a train. |
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| The first wave of family has arrived and dinner is served! Isn't this the loveliest spot?! |
Tomorrow? The Badlands!
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