BLACK HILLS ODYSSEY POST MORTEM

We got back safely from our trip on THU with our grand-children Brianna, Hadley, & Bentley, thankful that we were able to return them safe & sound to their parents. We're also thankful that the Lord has provided us with the means to take our grand-kids on a trip like this. Here are some highlights.

* A stop at Wall Drug, mostly so Bentley could witness the animatronic T-rex. [ASIDE:  When we drove from Keystone to the Badlands on THU, we counted 67 Wall Drug signs, which is an average of 1 per mile.]

* Powder House Lodge. Our cabin was a good value for the money, & we were mostly pleased with it, even though the wireless connection was spotty & referring to the kitchen area as an "area" would be a generous label. [It consisted of a shelf with a microwave, keurig coffeemaker, along with a micro-refrigerator.] We did have satellite tv, so the kids were able to watch cartoons, & I was able to watch some Westerns. Plus, there was plenty of shampoo & soap, so I was able to add to my collection.

* Powder House Restaurant. The food was delicious, albeit pricey, & the portions were ample. We enjoyed two meals there, & my favorite was a game kabob, which included elk, bison, & venison.

* Spending time in the restaurant basement on SUN, the day we arrived, as we rode out a tornado warning. No tornado, but torrential rain, lots of wind, & hail.

* For me, sipping coffee in the restaurant before the rest of our crew got up every morning. [And the coffee was "on the house" on THU.]

* The drive through the Black Hills National Forest, even though the kids &, sadly, my wife, constantly trash-talked me for my driving. [What's wrong with taking a few hairpin turns at high rates of speed?]

* The Wildlife Loop in Custer State Park, where we saw bison, pronghorns, deer, & burros. [The burros, who came up to our car windows to beg for food, kind of freaked Bentley out.]

* Sighting a plethora of wildlife throughout our odyssey, including bison, bison calves, pronghorn, prairie dogs, burros, bighorn sheep, white tail & mule deers, vultures(!), & wild turkeys. I paid the kids bounties for spotting these creatures, which cost me a fortune, but it was worth it.]

* The hayride & chuckwagon dinner in Custer State Park, especially the cowboy who entertained us with his songs & jokes. [We're pretty sure it was the same cowboy who entertained us 7 years ago.]

* A hike around Sylvan Lake, also in CSP, which allowed the kids to do some rock climbing. [Because of my history of falls, I was not allowed to participate in anything more than the hike.]

* A visit to Mt. Rushmore. [I think, with a lot of help from our entire troop, Bentley will remember the names of all four presidents engraved on the mountain, including "Tom" Jefferson.]

* A drive/hike to Hippie Hole, which I inadvertently referred to as Hippie Hollow in a previous post. Although our goal of seeing the falls was thwarted, the drive & hike were memorable.

* Souvenir hunting in downtown Keystone. [OK, this was not one of MY highlights.]

* Eating pizza at Cruizzers in downtown Keystone. [The personal pan vegetarian pizza, which Lois & I shared, was delicious.]

* Eating ice cream at Wall Drug & in downtown Keystone.

* The trip through Badlands NP.

* Rousing games of UNO each evening.

FYI:  Lois & I have visited 5 national parks so far this year, breaking our previous record of 4 NPs in one year; & we'll be visiting at least 4 more in October.

ROAD TRIPS

After a brief respite at home, we're off on another road trip. We're visiting our Iowanian family in Ventura, IA, followed by a visit to Nathan & Laura & Calvin & Claire in Eagan, MN. [One of my New Year's resolutions was to make at least 8 road trips this year. We've already met & will exceed this goal, having made road trips to Texas, San Antonio, Minnesota, Florida, Everglades, California, Bass Lake, CA, my Class of '71 50-year reunion in Concordia, MO, & Black Hills.

RESOLUTIONS REVIEW

How am I doing with my 2021 New Year's resolutions? To quote Charles Dickens, "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

> Take at least 8 road trips. We've already taken 9 with many more to come.

> Give up French fries. I'd give myself an A-.

> Get a DNA report from Ancestry.com. Still pending.

> Do my PT exercises at least 3X per week. D-.

> Avoid useless FB arguments. A-

> Add to our national parks & bucket list We've already been to Everglades, King's Canyon, Sequoia, Yosemite, Badlands.

> Lose at least 10 lbs. F

QUOTES FOR TODAY *

* Compliments of Reader's Digest, March 2021

"Be wary of strong drink. It can make you shoot at tax collectors & miss." Robert Heinlein

"A bottle of wine contains more philosophy than all the books in the world." Louis Pasteur

UNO

As I've reported previously, we played endless rounds of UNO during our Black Hills Odyssey. Yesterday in Norfolk, my grandson Bentley beat me 7 straight times before I finally, mercifully, won one round. Bentley:  "Papa, how does it feel to get beat by a 7-year-old?" What a little trash talker! I blame his parents.

UFOs

"Warships 'swarmed by 100 UFOs' over month period." Drudge

THERE IS NO PLACE LIFE CALIFORNIA

"Tahoe rattled by multiple quakes; 'big one' coming?" Drudge

"Newsom announces sweepstakes where 5 lucky winners get to move out of CA." Babylon Bee

MILLENNIALS

"Suddenly wealthy from markets, millennials stress." Drudge  We've come to expect no less from millennials. [I'm sorry IF I've offended anyone.]

CRIMINAL MINDS

"Corvette driver arrested for going 150 on highway." Drudge I never cranked our '78 'vette up to that speed. [OK, technically, it was a CHEvette.]

STRANGERS

"The purpose of government is to make it safe for human beings to deal with strangers. We don’t need the state to regulate our interactions with people we know and trust, but the same cannot be said about our interactions with those outside our circle of acquaintance. Knowing my family and my friends as well as I do, I can be confident that they would not try to hurt me, steal from me, or do me any kind of harm. I can also be confident that if any among them wereto do me harm, my grievance would get a fair hearing among the others in my circle. But none of this obtains when I step out of my circle of acquaintances and into the broader world. Walking in the middle of a city or along a sidewalk, I have no idea whether the strangers I see are saints or sinners. I do not know if they harbor good or ill intentions toward me, or if they harbor any at all."  Cameron Hilditch, National Review Online

COVID

"If the virus was accidentally released from a laboratory, that means it was being researched in a laboratory. Which means someone, and probably several researchers, within the Wuhan Institute of Virology already knew some things about this particular virus when Wuhan residents started showing up at hospitals with strange new viral infections throughout December."  Jim Geraghty, NRO

CENSORSHIP

"Earlier in the pandemic, another group of experts and concerned citizens disputed the recommendations of public-health authorities such as the CDC. These dissenters — who included experts at top universities — questioned the benefits of population-wide restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19. They drew attention to the plight of those suffering mental-health effects from isolation. They drew attention to the fact that business owners, kids from low-income families, and people with substance-use disorders were struggling under the restrictions . . . Diverse perspectives and healthy, respectful debate are essential to furthering our knowledge. And no institution — whether a government agency or a large corporation — should act as the arbiter of truth." Sita Slavov, NRO