Another day in South Dakota, another pre-6:00 a.m. wake up. Today's beat yesterday's by at least 20 minutes. Which just means more time to have fun, right? Uh, sure.
But first, let me back up. I actually awoke for the first time long before my daughter woke up. 3:15 a.m. to be exact. To a whining 90 lb dog standing 6 inches from my face. If you know me at all, you know that this dog and I have a, shall we say, tumultuous relationship. I actually haven't gotten a solid night's sleep in, oh, about 2.5 years thanks to my 4 legged "friend," because he wakes me up EVERY SINGLE NIGHT wanting to be fed. No joke. In addition to knowledge of U.S. history, I also lack patience, so it's a flipping miracle this dog is still alive, really. However, despite my irritation over last night's 3 a.m. wake up call, I am VERY glad that I convinced my hubby to take him outside despite his protests that the dog just wanted to eat because we nearly avoided a MAJOR incident. The kind that smells for days or weeks on end. And not an easy one to clean up, if you know what I mean. Can you imagine riding in an RV that a dog has crapped in for over a week? Let's just say that this isn't our first rodeo with this dog's bowels acting up in a moving vehicle. Which leads me to my first tip of this road trip:
1) If you can avoid it, DO NOT take dogs on a long RV road trip with you!!! Think about it. You have to take them outside to go to the bathroom. You have to clean up their grossness outside. If they're anything like our dogs, they will beg for your breakfast/lunch/dinner about an inch away from your face. They will get ridiculously dirty in the 30 seconds you take them outside and then bring all that gunk into your living space. You will have way less stress without them, trust me.
After waking up before any of our camping neighbors, we cooked breakfast, showered, and got on the road. We fought the crazy South Dakota winds - drifting up to 4 feet on either side the whole way - to a place called Bear Country USA. To be honest, I am not sure how such a place exists without making each guest sign a life insurance waiver because this is what you encounter at this wildlife refuge:
The evening ended with a visit from one of Pat's nephews and his fiancée. They live in Spearfish, SD and stopped by our campsite tonight for a drink and to catch up. It was great to see them and made me wish that we could stop by Deadwood to see their place before driving to Wyoming tomorrow...next time. Devil's Tower tomorrow...here's to a good night's sleep.
But first, let me back up. I actually awoke for the first time long before my daughter woke up. 3:15 a.m. to be exact. To a whining 90 lb dog standing 6 inches from my face. If you know me at all, you know that this dog and I have a, shall we say, tumultuous relationship. I actually haven't gotten a solid night's sleep in, oh, about 2.5 years thanks to my 4 legged "friend," because he wakes me up EVERY SINGLE NIGHT wanting to be fed. No joke. In addition to knowledge of U.S. history, I also lack patience, so it's a flipping miracle this dog is still alive, really. However, despite my irritation over last night's 3 a.m. wake up call, I am VERY glad that I convinced my hubby to take him outside despite his protests that the dog just wanted to eat because we nearly avoided a MAJOR incident. The kind that smells for days or weeks on end. And not an easy one to clean up, if you know what I mean. Can you imagine riding in an RV that a dog has crapped in for over a week? Let's just say that this isn't our first rodeo with this dog's bowels acting up in a moving vehicle. Which leads me to my first tip of this road trip:
1) If you can avoid it, DO NOT take dogs on a long RV road trip with you!!! Think about it. You have to take them outside to go to the bathroom. You have to clean up their grossness outside. If they're anything like our dogs, they will beg for your breakfast/lunch/dinner about an inch away from your face. They will get ridiculously dirty in the 30 seconds you take them outside and then bring all that gunk into your living space. You will have way less stress without them, trust me.
After waking up before any of our camping neighbors, we cooked breakfast, showered, and got on the road. We fought the crazy South Dakota winds - drifting up to 4 feet on either side the whole way - to a place called Bear Country USA. To be honest, I am not sure how such a place exists without making each guest sign a life insurance waiver because this is what you encounter at this wildlife refuge:
That's right...those are BEARS in the first picture literally 2 feet outside our RV. No fence containing them, nothing. It was incredible. I think my husband was amused that I found the whole concept of wildlife so close to us so exciting/scary-as-hell, but I grew up in the suburbs, so what can I say? It was exciting when we saw a raccoon on our porch.
Next up: Mount Rushmore! Which, as you can imagine, was breathtaking. My only regret is that I didn't read more of the placards in the Exhibit Hall about the construction of the monument, but I was too busy trying to keep my 3 YO from climbing onto the glass display cases and tearing book covers off of books in the gift shop to pay attention to those kind of minute details. That's what Wiki is for anyway, right? Olivia was clearly losing her marbles at that point and probably screamed, "I WANT CHOCOLATE ICE CREAM!" about 56 times on the drive to our campground after that (despite having eaten a Drumstick ice cream cone approximately 45 minutes before we got to Mt Rushmore). It was time to go.
The evening ended with a visit from one of Pat's nephews and his fiancée. They live in Spearfish, SD and stopped by our campsite tonight for a drink and to catch up. It was great to see them and made me wish that we could stop by Deadwood to see their place before driving to Wyoming tomorrow...next time. Devil's Tower tomorrow...here's to a good night's sleep.
No comments:
Post a Comment