Day 6 - Part One - Reason for visiting Hill City

We headed out about 7:45 a.m. Skies with sunny with a light win and temp in the 50's. A great day!

We saw snow on the side of the road outside Rapid City, SD. They had a MAJOR blizzard on May 1 of this year. In fact, some people had just gotten their power restored yesterday. We also saw snow on the side of the road in Custer State Park.

Strange sign of the day: Wildlife at Large. Does that mean they escaped? Strange street sign: Dead Broke Street.

We are staying at the Horse Thief Campground outside Hill City. It's a beautiful campground in the woods. It's still off season here, so it's not crowded here. There is a huge pasture in front of our campsite. Last night before we left to go out (Part Two), there were deer everywhere!

We drove into Hill City to the Alpine Inn. It's a German restaurant that has terrific food. The last time we were here, David ordered bread pudding which he loves! He swears up and down it's the best bread pudding ever. It's described as a traditional bread pudding with no raisins or nuts covered with a caramel sauce. Since I don't care for "wet bread," I had a white chocolate raspberry mousse. It was terrific. The actual meal I had was weinerschnitzel and David had the German plate (sausages, kraut, potato salad, etc.). WONDERFUL! James enjoyed the bread pudding, too.

We picked up Chrissy at the campground and headed to Custer State Park. It was open house weekend, so it was free entrance and camping and the place was crowded. We passed Sylvan Lake as we came in. If you saw "National Treasure," this is the lake that Nicolas Cage stuck his hand into the rock and screamed. The wind was blowing so hard, the fish were stacking up along the bank where the wind blew them out! LOL

We took the wildlife tour through the park. We'd done this before and knew to bring carrots for the donkeys. About halfway through the loop, they hang out around the road looking for "handouts." We had two pounds of carrots. The picture you see of me screaming was the only one David took of me feeding them. Good thing, too! The van you see became a drive-in when David started handing out carrots to other people. The donkeys get quite "pushy" trying to get more carrots and we both were almost knocked over by them. They didn't bite, though! One came up to the truck window and the donkey and Chrissy had a meeting there. She didn't growl or bite, but let the donkey sniff her!

I wasn't feeling well when we got to the end of the loop and decided to head back. David asked what I wanted for dinner, and the thought of food was more than I could take. I'd been queasy most of the day and the thought of food was horrible.

When I finally admitted my right side was killing me, he found out where the nearest hospital was and headed out.

See ya down the road!

Jenny :)