Badlands & Wind Cave National Parks & Other Sights in the Black Hills Area

“They made us many promises, more than I can remember – They never kept but one; they promised to take our land, and they took it!”

Red Cloud, Lakota, 1891

 

“Fancy yourself on the hottest day in summer in the hottest spot of such a place without water – without an animal and scarce an insect astir – without a single flower to speak pleasant things to you and you will have some idea of the utter loneliness of the Bad Lands.” 

 Paleontologist Thaddeus Culbertson
 

 

Inside Badlands NP

The Badlands National Park is in South Dakota near the Black Hills.  People come to visit the Badlands for many reasons - to see the unusual rock formations, to camp or hike, to study fossil remains, or just to explore another national park.  The Badlands are a place of extremes.  In the summer you may well curse the heat.  The day we were there in mid-July, the temperature was 109 degrees.  We were not doing any hiking in that weather.  In the summer you will quite often experience violent lightning storms.  Winter can be quiet chilly and there can be winds that roar out of the north. 



Bison in the Badlands NP

The park consists of 3 units totaling more than 240,000 acres.  The North Unit is the best known and most easily explored area.  It has the Badlands Loop Road with scenic overlooks and trailheads, and Cedar Pass – where there is a lodge and a visitor center.  This is the area that we explored on our day in the park.  We also ventured onto a gravel road which led out to a prairie dog town, where we did see some prairie dogs.  We were glad we took this detour, even though we were on the gravel road for about 10 miles each direction.  While on it, we saw a heard of antelope and 2 buffalo.  That was all the wildlife we saw while in the park.

Inside Badlands NP

Because if was so hot when we were there, we mostly viewed the park from the comfort of our air-conditioned car, with stops at view points to take pictures.  We had our dogs along with us on this trip, and it was just too hot to take them out of the car, so it did limit us.  I have to admit though, at my age, I am not up to hiking up paths in 100 plus weather.

This park does have a very different type of scenery.  It is very desolate.  George said he could imagine a cowboy riding his horse through this area and wondering how to get out of there.  It is not an area I would want to spend too much time in, even though it does have a beauty of its own.  If you stick to the main area, which is the North Unit, you can easily see the park in one afternoon.  The other areas of the park are less accessible.  Most people who go to the park only see the North Unit.

Inside Badlands NP

There is lodging available in the park at the Cedar Pass Lodge which has both historic and new cabins available. Just outside the park is the Badlands Inn. Camping is also available year-round. They do not take reservations for the camping, it is first come, first served. There are no showers available in the campground. They do have RV hookup for electrical only, no water or sewer.



Entrance to Wind Cave National Park

 

Boxwork - inside the cave

Wind Cave National Park is also in the Black Hills area of South Dakota.  Hidden beneath the rolling prairie of the southern Black Hills is one of the world's longest caves.  Swaying prairie grasses, forested hillsides, and array of wildlife (such as bison, elk and prairie dogs) welcome visitors to the 7th oldest national park in the USA.  Beneath one of the few remaining intact prairies is one of the world's longest caves.  Wind Cave is named for barometric winds at its entrance.  The complex labyrinth of passages contains a unique formation know as boxwork.

  

The Visitor Center to the park is open daily except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Days and contains three exhibit rooms featuring cave exploration, cave formations, early cave history, the Civilian Conservation Corps, park wildlife, and resource management. An 18-minute movie; Wind Cave: One Park, Two Worlds; is shown throughout the day.

Formation inside the cave

Cave tours are offered daily throughout the year except Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's Day. The cave temperature is 53 degrees at all times of the year. A jacket or sweater and good walking shoes are recommended.  All cave tours leave from the visitor center.    The visitor center and the cave are accessible to people with disabilities.

Wind Cave National Park protects two very different worlds; one deep within the earth, the other a sunlit world of many resources. Exploring any of the 30 miles of hiking trails, one of the three nature trails, or just hiking cross-country gives visitors the opportunity to experience the amazing prairie and forest worlds of the park.

Living within the park are many different types of animals. Driving the park roads or hiking the trails provides the opportunity to see bison, prairie dogs, pronghorn or many of the different birds living here.

Elk Mountain Campground is located among rolling hills, prairie and ponderosa pine forest. While camping visitors have a unique opportunity to view the plants and animals of the southern Black Hills. The campground is open all year.

The Black Hills

Besides the Badlands & Wind Caves National Park there are quite a few other things to see in this area.   While we were there we also stopped at the Crazy Horse Memorial, Mt. Rushmore, Deadwood and The Devils Tower.  All of these are in the Black Hills area of South Dakota, an area the Indians consider sacred. 
 

The Crazy Horse Monument is still a work in progress.  They are still blasting away and carving.  The monument will not be finished anytime in my lifetime.  So far all they have done is the head, which took 50 years to complete, and it is larger than all 4 heads at Mt. Rushmore.   When completed it will have Crazy Horse sitting on his horse pointing towards the Black Hills.  It will be taller than the Washington Monument in DC.  While you can see this from the highway, I highly recommend that you go into the exhibit and see what the statue will look like when completed and to see the movie which shows how it is being built and its history.  I found it fascinating, and enjoyed this more than Mt. Rushmore, which is more well known. 

How the statue will look when completed

The original sculptor is Koreczak Ziolkowski.  He sculpted the smaller statue which is on display at the center, and he worked on the sculpture on the mountain, until is death.  The project is now run by his wife, and 7 of his 10 children are still working on it.  Mr. Ziolkowski wrote this about Crazy Horse in 1949:

 

Crazy Horse was born on Rapid Creek in the Black Hills of South Dakota in about 1842.  While at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, under a flag of truce, he was stabbed in the back by an American soldier and died September 6, 1877 – age 35(?)

Crazy Horse defended his people and their way of life in the only manner he knew.

BUT- Only after he saw the Treaty of 1868 broken.  This treaty, signed by the President of the United States, said in effect:  "As long as rivers run and grass grows and trees bear leaves, Paha Sapa – the Black Hills of Dakota – will forever be the sacred land of the Sioux Indians.”

Only after he saw his leader, Conquering Bear, exterminated by treachery.

Only after he saw the failure of the government agents to bring required treaty guarantees, such as meat, clothing, tents and necessities for existence which they were to receive for having given up  their lands and gone to live on the reservations.

Only after he saw his people’s lives and their way of life ravaged and destroyed,

Crazy Horse has never been known to have signed a treaty or touched the pen

Crazy Horse, as far as the scale model is concerned, is to be carved not so much as a lineal likeness, but more as a memorial to the spirit of Crazy Horse – to his people. With his left hand thrown out pointing in answer to the derisive question asked by a white man, “Where are your lands now?” he replied “My lands are where my dead lie buried.”

Inside the gift shop - up close of  the head of Crazy Horse

 

Indian dance show at
Visitor Center

I’m so glad we stopped to see this memorial.  I learned a lot about Crazy Horse, and I was impressed with what has been accomplished.  They take NO federal money, they do not want the government involved.  It is all paid for with donations and the money they make from the tourists.  They could work faster if they took money from the government, but they want to keep it out of their control.  It will take another 10 years just to finish the hand that is pointing, so it is hard to say when the whole statue will be completed.  I know I will never see it.  Probably there will be grandchildren and even great- grandchildren of the sculpture working on this until it is completed.  It seems to be a family project – and talk about job security.  The cost of admission is $10 per person.  There is a center where they have lots of Indian artifacts, tourist information, and a movie that explains the project and its history.  The original sculpture , which is 1/34^th size is on display at the center.  Pets are welcome, even in the movie, as long as you hold them. There is a night-time laser light show during the summer months.  There was a show with indian dancers the day we stopped.



Mt. Rushmore

Not far from the Crazy Horse Monument is Mt. Rushmore, which we visited the same day.  Pets are not allowed inside the Mt. Rushmore National Memorial, which limited our visit there.  They have a grassy area near the parking lot where they are allowed, or they can stay in the car.  I never leave my dogs unattended in the car.  So, George stayed with the dogs while I walked the short distance up through and area with all the states flags and onto the viewing plaza.  I took some pictures and looked around, then went and stayed with the dogs while George walked up.  The mountain is impressive.  Something we have all seen in pictures, and certainly something you should stop and see if you are in the area.  There is a path to go up to the base of the mountain, but we couldn’t do that.  The majority of people who stop here go no farther than we did.  There is no admission fee, per se, but they charge $11 for parking, which you have to do. 
 

Entrance to town of Deadwood

We also stopped at the historic town of Deadwood, where Wild Bill Hitchcock was shot.  They do a re-enactment of that and the trial for the person who shot him in the town, there is a charge to see it.  The town has some interesting old buildings, but it has been taken over by casinos and tacky gift shops.  We did go over and walk around and look at some of the shops.  We had dinner at a Chinese restaurant and it was quite good.  It was fun to see.

Devil's Tower

As we were leaving the area we visited Devil’s Tower, which is only a short distance away, although it is actually in Wyoming.  It is certainly close enough that if you were visiting this area, you should go over and see it.  It is a national monument, so your NP pass will get you into it also.  The Devils Tower is over 5000 feet tall, and is quite spectacular.  You can see it from a distance as you approach.  There is a visitor’s center near the entrance which is worth going into it.  There is also a path that is 2.8 miles – it is a loop that goes up to the base and then all the way around.  Dogs are allowed on the path if they are on a leash.  The day we were there the temperature was 100 degrees, and we didn’t feel the dogs or us were up to the walk.  I did go up the path a short distance to get some closer pictures.

Every year climbers come to climb the tower.  The Indians consider this tower to be sacred, and the climbers are offensive to them, as they feel they are defacing the rock with their picks. 
 

Baxter watching the prairie dogs
at Devil's Tower

There was also an area that had prairie dogs, so we had to stop and let our dog Baxter watch the prairie degs.  He watched from the car, we didn’t let him out, but he was fascinated and was following their every move.  It was fun to watch his excitement. 

We also did a drive through the Black Hills and there is some beautiful scenery throughout this area.  Besides the things I have mentioned there are so many other things you can do while in the area.  There are hot springs, a Bear Country to drive through, Wall Drug which is a famous tourist trap, and just some wonderful mountains, trees, streams and generally beautiful scenery.  You could easily spend a week or two exploring this area.iH

Notes from the Road – 2012 Road Trip with George and the Dogs

"One day your life will flash before your eyes.  Make sure it's worth watching."

Unknown - saw this on a sign in Leavenworth, Washington

 

"People do not quit playing because they grow old...

They grow old because they quit playing."

Unknown - on a sign in Estes Park, Colorado 
 

Driving across the Columbia River to Astoria in the fog

our back seat

On July 14^th we took off on our annual road trip to Washington state, but with a slight detour through Colorado and Mt. Rushmore area.  A bit out of our way, but our goal is to see some new areas of our country.  We have the dogs with us, and they are being good little travelers most of the time.  Sadie tends to be a bit paranoid sometimes, and it is difficult to get her to eat when she is nervous.  That can be a bit frustrating sometimes, but on the whole they do pretty good on our road trips. 

So, our first day was going through Arizona, which we have been through quite a few times, so we were not doing much sightseeing here, our goal was just to get through it and into new territory.  We were stopped and asked if we were US citizens, part of their new immigration policy.  I’m sure a bit of racial profiling was going on, since we are white, they waived us through.  If we had been Hispanic we would have had to produce paperwork.  The schnauzers barked at the officer, but thankfully they did not have to produce paperwork either, they would have hated being deported. 

Monument Valley - I thought this looked like the Parthenon in Greece
before it became ruins, use your imagination.

Our second day on the road we were still in Arizona, but it was new territory, we were in Monument Valley.  I have to say that was a really pretty area, and certainly worth the short detour we took to drive through the area.  We also stopped at a roadside area where we saw a sign that said “See the Dinosaur Footprints”.  An Indian guide gave us a quick tour of the area.  There were indeed footprints in the rocky areas, left from dinosaurs in the mud, which later became hardened when a volcano erupted.  There were also bones and skulls.  Very interesting, and we were glad we stopped.

Dinasour footprints

I had worried about the heat that was in all the news before we left home, with fires all over Colorado, but so far we’ve had lots of rain, would like a little heat and sunshine.  Can’t imagine the fires are still going because Colorado has been very wet.  But the scenery has been mostly beautiful, and very green.  We have traveled on some very narrow roads, high up with no railing, a few white knuckle moments.  The area around Durango and Silverton were particularly stunning.

Inside the True Grit Cafe

We made a point of stopping in Ridgeway, Colorado.  That is where the original movie “True Grit” was filmed – the one with John Wayne.  We got into town late afternoon on the second day, so we opted to spend the night there.  We had dinner in the True Grit Café, which had a lot of memorabilia and pictures on the wall.  George has a good friend who is a John Wayne fan, and he wanted us to take some pictures of the area, so we did, the next day before heading out. 

 

Along the road to Aspen

Our third day we headed north toward Grand Junction.  I was a little disappointed in the scenery from Ridgeway to Grand Junction, not the prettiest of areas.  But once we turned east the scenery got better.  We took a detour off of the 70 and went down to Aspen and across the Independence pass.  Talk about narrow roads, with no railing, and up high.  We were at 12,095 feet elevation.  Road was very curvy and in places it was so narrow that when you met an oncoming car, both cars had to slow and carefully pass each other.  And of course it started raining again when we were up there.  It really poured down and we had thunder and lightning, so quite dramatic.  Sadie has always been scared of rain, and especially thunder.   She was shaking pretty hard, so I ended up holding her in my lap through that part of the trip.  She calmed a bit.  We had planned to stop and walk around Leadville, but it was raining pretty hard then, so headed on to Frisco, where we found a hotel and spent the night.  We had a good dinner in a nice steakhouse restaurant in town.

Taken from porch of Grand Lake Lodge

The next day we headed toward Rocky Mountain National Park.  We entered the park from the southwest entrance by Grand Lake. But before actually entering, we turned off and went to the Grand Lake Lodge.  That is a beautiful lodge with views of the lake.  They have cabins for rent there also, and they are pet friendly.  We didn’t spend the night there, but if I was going to go again, I would seriously consider staying there, the prices are reasonable, and it is a great location. We stopped at the visitor’s center then headed into the park.  We had not gone far when we saw cars parked along the road and people pointing at 2 moose – a mother and a baby – that were in the field.  We stopped and took their picture.

The baby moose in the park

The Rocky Mountain National Park has some spectacular views.  There are hiking paths if that is your thing, but remember that you are at a very high altitude, quite a few people in the park said they were feeling tired and having problems breathing, so hiking will be harder at that altitude.  Quite a bit of the road we were driving on was over 10,000 ft.  When we reached the Alpine Visitors Center we stopped to buy lunch, it is the only place along the way that had food for sale.  I have to say that they didn’t have a lot of choices for food, and it was a bit high in price.  We had 2 hot dogs, 1 bag of chips and shared a small apple juice and it was almost $15.  I would suggest buying some good sandwiches before entering the park, and putting them in a cooler.  There are picnic tables where you can stop and eat.  Also, be aware of the weather in the park.  We started with sunny skies, but we hit heavy rains and hail by the time we got to the higher elevations, so be prepared for anything.

Elk in the Rocky Mtn NP

While in the park we also saw elk, in several different places along the way, and we saw some mule deer.  Of course, there were chipmunks and birds, as well.  We were told that there was a possibility of seeing bears, as there are some in the park, but they are not spotted often.  If you are not planning on hiking, it is possible to see this park in one day.  The scenery is visible while driving, with lots of places to pull over and take pictures, and the animals are there, if you are lucky you will see some.

 

Estes Park, Colorado

Just outside the main entrance is the town of Estes Park, and I thought it was a delightful place, with cute shops, lots of good looking restaurants, and the Falls River runs through the downtown area, with a park area along the river.  It is quite a picturesque town.

We went on to Fort Collins for the night, we had reservations there at the Best Western.  We had dinner in their downtown area, at a pizza restaurant called Beau Jo’s.  They have restaurants all over Colorado, and are now opening places in South Dakota.  If you ever run across one of their places, I highly recommend them.  I have had pizzas all over this country, as well as others, including Italy.  The pizza I had at Beau Jo’s has to rate as the best pizza I have ever had.

Day 5 had us leaving Ft. Collins and heading north briefly and then east.  We decided to drive over to Nebraska to see a small part of that state, since we have never been there.  I have to say that Nebraska – at least the part we saw – looks just as I imagined it would.  It is flat.  Of course there are other states that have lots of flat land, such as Arizona, but what I have to say about Nebraska is – they put their land to use.  In Arizona there is vast areas of un-irrigated land – desert.  But Nebraska’s land is all cultivated.  It is farmland.  We particularly saw lots of cornfields.  There were vast stretches of road where we were the only car out there.  But alongside the road we saw tractors in the field – our farmers hard at work, producing the food America needs. 

I have been reminded the past few days that the states we are traveling through are all red states.  The signs alongside the highway and on the farmlands have all been very convervative in their views, and the hotel we stayed at in Colorado had on Fox “news”.  That was a shudder from me.  It has made me appreciate the fact that I live in a nice blue state, with more progressive views – on the whole.  And I appreciate all our mountains and our ocean, I would have a hard time living in Nebraska, or several other states we’ve traveled through.  But I have enjoyed seeing them.

George in Lusk

We did head back into Wyoming and stopped for a visit in Lusk, where we had lunch.  We were in Lusk, Ireland  in June, and now in July we found ourselves in Lusk, Wyoming.  We took a quick excursion over to Keeline, only to find it was a ghost town.  Our daughter married a Keeline, so we had to get a picture of the town and the sign for them.  Then we headed into South Dakota. 

Crazy Horse Memorial

We stopped at the Crazy Horse Memorial, which was quite fascinating.  I was impressed with what is still a work in progress, but which, when finished, will be spectacular.  I learned a lot about Crazy Horse while there.  Then we went to Mt. Rushmore and saw those carvings in the mountain, which were also quite impressive.  Since we have our dogs with us, we were limited at Mt. Rushmore, as they don’t allow dogs in the park.  George and I had to take turns staying with the dogs while the other went up to the plaza to view the mountain.  We hadn’t had the problem at the Crazy Horse memorial, as it is dog-friendly.  I don’t really understand why they would have a problem at Mt. Rushmore with dogs on leashes walking up to the plaza.  Most dogs are better behaved then most children, and as long as owners are responsible – which I believe the majority are – there shouldn’t be a problem. This is a pet peeve of mine – dogs not allowed in places, and also pet owners who don’t pick up after their animals, and ruin it for the rest of us.
 

Anyway, we ended the day at our hotel in Sturgis where we had dinner at the restaurant next door.  We have reservations here for 3 nights, so time to see the Badlands and Deadwood, and whatever else looks like fun.

Ad for Wall Drug Store

Badlands NP

The Badlands National Park has some very desolate but interesting scenery.  We drove out to Wall first.  We had to stop at the biggest tourist destination in the area – Wall Drug.  It is a famous place, with lots of roadside signs marking your way to it.  They are famous for giving free ice water, and we certainly needed ice water, as it was 109 degrees.  Then on to the National Park.  We drove through the park, first going out a gravel road to see some prairie dogs, and we also saw 2 buffalo and some antelope along this gravel road.  Then we went back and drove the main road loop through the park, stopping at different lookout points to take pictures.  There are some hiking trails – but it was 109 degrees, so we didn’t do much outside the car.  We have our dogs with us, and they had no desire to get out of the air-conditioning either.  Baxter was fascinated with the prairie dogs and the buffalo though.  We made it a fairly quick trip through the park and headed back to the hotel and the swimming pool.

For dinner we left the dogs in our hotel room and headed to the historic town of Deadwood.  We saw a mountain goat alongside the road on our way there, and some deer on our way back to the hotel.  The town itself is now mostly casinos and tacky tourist shops, but there are some good restaurants and we had a nice meal, and enjoyed looking around.

Mountain goat just outside Deadwood

The next day we decided to check out of our hotel a day early and head towards Devils Tower.  It made sense to get a hotel that direction instead of coming back here and then heading that way again the next day, since that was the direction we would be going.

We first headed back to Deadwood and then did a loop through the Black Hills Forest.  It was a really pretty drive.  Then we headed into Wyoming and to the Devils Tower National Monument.  With our National Park pass we were covered to get into this without paying another fee, so we drove in and stopped at the information center. 

Devils Tower Nat. Monument

Theodore Roosevelt proclaimed Devils Tower a national monument in 1906, making it the first national monument.  The tower is 5,112 feet tall.  There is a path that you can walk that is 2.8 miles and it goes to the base of the mountain and then all the way around.  Since it was 100 degrees the day we were there, and we also had the dogs with us, we did not take the walk.  The dogs would have been allowed, as long as they were on a leash, but the heat would have been too much for them.  So we took some pictures and then headed west through Montana. 

Little Bighorn Battlefield

We ended our day by stopping briefly at Little Bighorn Battlefield near Hardin, Mt.  This is where Custer fought a battle against the Lakota, Arapaho and Cheyenne, and where he lost his life.  It is also a national monument, so our passes got us in.  It is a large open area that you can drive through, and there are signs saying what happened in each area.  There are markers where the soldiers died and a few where Indians died.  Last Stand Hill has a memorial marker and 210 soldiers are buried around the base.  Custer was originally buried here, but has since been moved.  There is a visitor’s center, which shows an informative movie.  It is an interesting place to stop if you are in the area.

I have to say that driving across Montana was not too exciting.  Most of Montana is flat, with brown fields on both sides of the road, straight road that goes forever.  It wasn’t as bad as driving across Texas – nothing is, but it was boring.  Finally as we got closer to Butte, there were some mountains and trees, so it got better.  But we were just driving, we didn’t see anything we wanted to stop and see. 

Lake Chelan, Washington

We finally arrived in Washington.  Our first stop was the Wenatchee area where we spent the night.  Then we made the drive out to Lake Chelan.  As a child I camped there with my family.  I had fond memories of the area and wanted to see the lake again.  There is a boat that takes you to the other end of the lake and as a child we took our own boat up there.  Didn’t go up this time, but it is worth going there.  The lake is 55 miles long and there is no road to the other end of the lake, but there is a small village up there and a nice falls you can hike out to. 

Leavenworth, Washington

We then decided to head for Leavenworth, with a short stop first at the Aplets and Cotlets factory in Cashmere, to pick up some of the famous candy.  Yum!  Leavenworth is a Bavarian town in the mountains of Washington.  It is particularly popular at Christmas time when they decorate the town and have sleigh rides.  But we won’t be in Washington at that time of year, so decided to stop and visit now.  It really is a charming town, with good restaurants, and really nice shops.

Then we headed down the Columbia River, with views of Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood.  We watched the wind surfers on the river.  We were anxious to get to our cabin where we will stay for 3 weeks.  It is our home away from home and the purpose of the trip was to come here and stay, and relax.  This place is my happy place.

Dogs are happy to be at our cabin on the river

Bashia and I heading downriver

 We spent the 3 weeks comfortably enjoying our river, and watching the wildlife from the deck.  We saw a pair of snow geese and their baby, lots of ducks, a blue heron, an osprey, and some deer while there.  The dogs hung out on the deck, took walks with me up the road and even got in the water with me.  They had a good time too.  We have lots of family and friends to visit.  Quite a bit of the visiting was them coming to us and enjoying the river too.  My sister-in-law and I even decided to do a inner-tube trip down the river.  We floated 3 miles down to a popular swimming hole, where our husbands picked us up.  I think they were getting worried about us, it took us 3 ½ hours, longer than we thought it would.  We were tired and bruised when we got there.  There were many rapid areas where we hit rocks with our bottoms, and some areas you couldn’t float through because the water was too low.  I had never gone that far down river on a tube before, so it was an adventure.

Baxter enjoying the beach

After our stay at the cabin, we took off for the Washington coast for 5 nights.  George’s family lives there, so we always stop for a short stay to visit everyone.  We got a cute little cabin there in town and spent the week visiting family and eating wonderful seafood.  His cousin Dean gave us 5 crabs that he had caught and he also cooked us dinner one night – fish tacos – my favorite.  The dogs enjoyed out treks to the beach where they could run free, and smell all the smells of the seashore.  The beach has always been a favorite place for them.

 


View along the northern stretch of Hwy 1

After all our visiting, it was time to head home.  We were already at the beach, so decided to head down the Oregon coast on 101, and then pick up Hwy 1 in California.  It is a more scenic drive, although certainly a lot slower.  Especially since I was always saying “pull over, I need a picture”.  George is a very patient driver and pulls over whenever I see something worth shooting.  He did say that he would never again complain about how straight and boring Interstate 5 was, after driving the VERY curvy Hwy 1.  It did take us an extra day to get home, but it was worth doing, as the scenery is spectacular.  We only went as far as Bodega Bay on the northern stretch of 1, then turned inland and picked up the 5 so that we could get home. 

So now we are home again.  When we drove up our street the dogs sat up and got big grins on their faces.  They couldn’t believe we were home again.  It was good to see our home.  Our daughter had been coming over weekly to take care of the place, so we knew everything was okay.  We had a stack of mail to go through, empty cupboards to restock, and clothes to wash.  So that takes care of another adventure.