An epic for you to read

Sorry no pics tried to upload but they were not cooperating will try again soon

Hey everyone,
Don’t know how long the net will hold up so I will try to cover the last few days in short bursts.

Not sure how long ago I got to leave info so I am going to go back a few days and start there. Sorry if I have repeated myself.

Sat 15th met Bunny (Tony’s sister) and Kayo (brother in law) and went fishing. Mark had never been fishing in fresh water and he was the only one to catch a fish. He was so excited.

Sunday 16th Sept we left our nice cosy cabin in Niobrara Nebraska and headed over to Yankton Nebraska to visit with some of Tony’s relations. We went fishing with Kayo and Bunny again today and Mark tried to put a minnow on his line. He said it BIT him. Everyone was hysterical, laughing at him. We met Kenny (his elder brother). We stayed a night at Kenny’s in Crofton Ne. He has the most beautiful gingerbread type house. It would be the type of house that little girl’s dolls houses would be modelled on. We camped out in his yard.
We met some of Kenny’s neighbours including Gerry and Kim and their 3 kids Kyle, Hannah and Abbey. They brought over frog legs to eat. I didn’t have any but Mal did and said that they taste like chicken drum sticks.
I am going to keep in touch with Kim and hope to find some pen friends for the kids.

Monday 17th We spent the day at Kenny’s. We went and bought a trailer and have moved lots of stuff into it. Mal and I went to Bunny and Kayo’s for the night. We went and found a new tent. The other one collapsed. Lucky that we weren’t in it at the time.

Tuesday 18th We were supposed to head out towards Yellowstone today but Tony decided to stay another day to check out the insurance problem that Deb S mentioned. We spent another day with Bunny and kayo and I cooked them dinner. We met their land lords and they were very nice.
Everything was OK with the insurance so we headed off on the 19th.

Wed 19th We headed off to drop Mark off to visit his family on Rosebud Reservation. We went through the Reservation but it didn’t seem very friendly. We stopped at a gas (petrol) station and everyone was Native American and they all stopped to watch us. As we drove through town we saw a guy sitting in the middle of the road on the back of his pick-up. On the roof was a row of pumpkins and on the flat bed were watermelons. It was amazing. I don’t have any photos from the reservation as it was frowned upon and could have caused more problems than it was worth.
We dropped Mark off at a small town called Mission with member of his Native family. We also met a friend of him called Alva. She was an English woman that married a Native Lakota and has been on the reservation for 20 years. She runs White Horse Trading Post and they had the most amazing Native jewellery and artefacts. I bought some pressies here.
After we dropped Mark, we headed for the Badlands-South Dakota. One minute we were driving along and the ground was flat, the next these big rocks just started jutting out of the ground. It was so unusual. The further we went the more of these outcrops we saw.
Finally we hit the interior of the Badlands. It was unreal!!! I took hundreds of photos here. You will find some of theses pics after this. The first night was lovely, calm and warm.

Thurs 20th We headed out for a trip to the town of Wall SD. It is the home of Wall Drug. It started out as a small town drug store and grew and grew. Now it has an old western type township. It is amazing (I know I keep saying that but it is!!!) They have coffee for 5 cents a cup. They shopping was amazing. Lots of shops that sell Blackhill’s gold. It is stunning. I could have spent a fortune there. I did buy Hannah a set of jewellery that I hope she will like for her wedding day. And several other things.

We saw lots of Mule deer and Prairie dogs. They are so funny. They move so quickly that it is really difficult to photograph them. That night we spent back in the Badlands. It was a beautiful night, until about 11:30pm when the wind started blowing a gale. Our tent flapped and lifted off the ground. I thought that we might end up back in Australia. In the morning we had to run all over the campground to collect bits and pieces of our stuff including camp chairs and dishes. Folding up the tent in the wind was really funny. I had to stand on the tarp and it almost lifted me into the sky. I almost floated away when trying to fold the tarp.

Friday 21st We waited for Mark to come back to meet us and then headed out again. Another quick visit to Wall Drug and then headed out to the Black Hills of South Dakota. We stayed at Custer State Park for the next two nights at a place called Blue Bell camp grounds. When we arrived there was a deer standing right in our camp spot. It was amazing. (there’s that word again). The facilities were terrific and we met a couple from Canada. They were lovely and we have swapped details so that we can keep in touch. They have invited us to drop in on them if we ever get to Canada.
I was able to have a chat with Emily, Debbie and Greg but the service was very iffy.

Sat 21st we went to see Crazy Horse Monument. It is huge. It has taken 59 years to get where they have gotten to. The whole project is funded from donations and they do not get any federal funding.

OPPSSSSSS!!! Got to go again we are hitting the road for another day of adventure
Will try to finish the epic asap.
Look for the pics.