The tooth fairy....

I've had some on/off pain in a wisdom tooth for several months and a visit to my dentist confirmed that I needed to have the tooth extracted.  My dentist recommended a very good oral surgeon for the job and today was the big day. Out it came, stitches in, antibiotic and pain pills picked up, and I'm home.  Not feeling so great, but the pain pills are doing their job.  Unfortunately, the combination of them, the antibiotics, and a very limited diet has resulted in nausea.  The tooth fairy better come see me!!

Show me the way to go home...

"Show me the way to go home...

I'm tired and I want to go to bed..."

Does anyone else know that old 1925's song?  My ex-father-in-law, sweet soul that he was, used to sing that, especially when he...

"had a little drink about an hour ago

And it went straight to my head"

So, we DID find our way to go home, with the help of GPS and our maps!  We're glad to be here after a couple of weeks of car traveling. It's so different than being "home" on our boat. 
Sweet Smokey had lots of care and loving while we were gone, but she - and we - are glad to be here.  But it WAS a great trip!  ok, time for some kitty-lap sitting and relaxing.

Bedbugs!!!!

NO, we did NOT experience them, but we did learn from a hotel about checking http://www.bedbugregistry.com/ to see if a hotel has had any reported bedbug incidents.  Actually, this saved us from several suspect hotels (we aren't exactly staying in Hiltons). Check it out before you make reservations.

We are in Grayson, WV; home tomorrow.  Yeah!  We're a little tired of driving.  But the trip has been great and we've seen a lot of beautiful places, not to mention beautiful grandchildren!

4 Presidents and a wild wilderness

Mt. Rushmore is one of those places I assumed I'd never see.  Not even sure which state it was in... But, here we go, bright and early, into the Black Hills of South Dakota, to Mt. Rushmore.
http://www.npca.org/parks/mount-rushmore-national-memorial.html?adwords=1&gclid=CIzspPGI-KsCFYxU7AodGCF0AA
 Wow, it's impressive!  You can see it from the highway, but we opted to pay the $11 parking fee  (good for 1 year and no admission fee....) to see the boys up close.  It's awesome to see as you approach it from the park entrance.

But when you get to the viewing terrace, the work becomes incredible.  One eye is about the height of a man.  The sculpture took almost 20 years to complete.

There is a nice Presidents' Walkway around the base of the mountain, letting you view the sculpture from other angles.  The part we liked best was the presence of a goat family, confidently grazing just next to the path.  Baby was the cutest.

The parents were close by.  One was grazing also, the other one was on watch.

A much smaller denizen of the park was just as cute....

Next, off to the Badlands National Park.   http://www.nps.gov/badl/index.htm  I've never seen anything like it and I can't describe it well enough.  The park is made up of geologic deposits, full of fossils.  This is the most desolate, barren, ruggedly beautiful place I've ever seen.  Here is a sampling of our pictures but they can't begin to do the park justice.

 
One of the park area is Prairie Dog town.  Lotsa little ones, running amok, calling, and chirping at our intrusion.  They are fat, little rolly-polly guys.

Stayed at a really dumpy hotel last night, sped through SD today, and are spending the night in Grinnell Iowa.  Home (and Sweet Smoke) are calling.

Home on the range (South Dakota range, that is)

Home, home on the range...

Where the deer and the pronghorn antelope play

Were the buffalo roam (in the road)

Where seldom is heard a disparaging word

And the skies are not cloudy all day

And those prairie dogs!  My gosh, they are cute, but the fields are overrun with them!  Imagine a field full of over-sized hamsters....

We drove from CO today through eastern Wyoming on our way to the Black Hills of South Dakota.  WY is beautiful in it's own strange way.  Endless highways

All going through barren land

We made our way to the southwestern corner of South Dakota, to the Wind Cave National Park.
The park consists of over 132 miles of cave, all layered beneath a square mile of land.  It's the 5th longest cave in the world, as measured by total length of explored passages.  The wind through the cave is caused by changes in the barometric pressure as air in the cave is constantly trying to equalize the pressure within the cave to the outside.  When the barometric pressure falls, wind rushes out of the cave.  When the barometric pressure rises, the wind rushes into the cave.  Cool, huh!  The natural entrance to the cave is only 10 inches in diameter.  Needless to say, we took the man made entrance!

It was impossible to get good photos inside the cave.  If you are interested, please check out the webpage.  http://www.nps.gov/wica/historyculture/index.htm

As we drove toward Rapid City for the night, we passed the Crazy Horse Memorial.  http://www.crazyhorsememorial.org/   Started in 1948, the project has never been finished.  It's been on hold for a long time, but is "in process".  VERY impressive!

Tomorrow we'll visit Mt. Rushmore!  Then the rest of the day in the Badlands National Park - after that, we start the long march home.  It's been a great trip.

 

Estes Park and the Pumpkin Patch

Sunday was one of those chrystal clear, sunny, perfect days.  We left Longmont early and drove the 45 minutes to Estes Park, at the base of the Rocky Mountain National Park  http://rockymountainnationalpark.com/.

So beautiful!  All views are breath taking.

The snow has already falled on the peaks.

The  leaves on the aspen on the higher elevations have already blown down, but the lower trees still have the bright yellow leaves.

Elk live in the park - and thrive!  This is a normal herd, a harum of about 30 female cows per one bull.  This group was just at the outside of the park.

The bull was relaxing behind them, carefuly watching his little household, strategically placed between his many cows and about 15 aspiring younger bulls.

After our wonderful ride we met with the rest of the family at a pumpkin ranch.  Great fun for kids!  Simon really likd the pumpkin field.

Evelyn prefered the "train" ride.

It was a great time for all!

The trip so far...

We left Roanoke waaay to early on Wednesday and headed westward, across the many states.  First, the mountains of WV, already showing fall color.

Of course, you can't leave out the shinning dome of the capital building in Charleston, WV.

The next photo is the St. Louis Arch, high in the gray sky of MO.

The wind turbines of western KS, hundreds and hundreds of them dotting the skyline.

Then the flat, flat, flat praries of the Midwest in eastern CO.

FINALLY, 2 1/2 days later, the high Rockies in the distance.

By lunchtime on Friday we reached our goal - newest grandson Kiran, 3 months old now.



And wow, have the 3 year olds, Simon and Evelyn, grown!

They had a most excellent tea party with Bompa.

Today promises 86 degrees and sun - yeah!  We all plan to go to the local farmers market here in Longmont and then a pumpkin patch.  I think there is some pumpkin carving in our future!