South Dakota Part 1

Hi from South Dakota! Val and I have been here for a couple of days now and have seen a lot of cool things. For starters we meet Sonja's sister Silvia. She was really nice to us and wanted to make sure we saw everything!

This is Silvia who took us on a lot of great tours through the Black Hills.

One of the first places we stopped was the Purple Pie and Ice Cream Palace in Custer, SD. Were we ever surprised to find a big purple pig in front of the store! Neither of us had ever seen anything like it.

We didn't know pigs came in purple...

On our way into Custer State Park we stopped to get our picture taken with Smokey the Bear.

Shortly after meeting Smokey, we saw a group of bighorn sheep. They would have been a lot easier to spot if they had been white like us...

A couple of miles down the road, we meet their girlfriends. They were hanging out in the camp ground dodging the sprinklers. Silvia told us afterwards that it was hard to find sheep in the park because they usually live higher in the hills.

There were buffalo everywhere! We wanted to get out and see them closer, but Sonja and Silvia said it wasn't safe because they could run faster than us and were very big.

Sonja and Silvia found a great place for us to sit in the front of Silvia's car. Right between them...

After we drove around some more and saw antelope, prairie dogs, mules, and a lot more buffalo, we drove through the Black Hills to see Mount Rushmore. It was a little late, but we got to stay for the lighting ceremony. The presidents looked really pretty lit up at night.

The next day we drove a lot. We went all over the Black Hills and through some beautiful gulches. It got a little bit bumpy on some of the gravel roads, but the scenery was totally worth it. In the afternoon we stopped at a waterfall for a picnic lunch.

What did they pack for us?

A few miles down the road we found a really nice spot to sit by the river. We really wanted to go wading with Silvia, but Sonja said we should stay on the shore because the water was cold and we might get wet.

Our first 2 days were really busy. Tomorrow, we get to go to a parade. It might rain so Sonja said we might have to stay in the car, but we'll see!