Yesterday as we left the Rapid City area, we took a scenic route that caught a bit of the Badlands National Park (by far my favorite National Park). Despite the 100 degree weather, we stopped briefly and let the kids explore.
We then took a slight detour to hit Wall Drug. We had to see Wall Drug again since we were so close. It has a fascinating history that explains why Hill found a chapel inside.
We drove a bit more and found a beautiful place to stop, the South Dakota Veterans Park. It was lovely and the kids enjoyed reading the plaques and looking at the military vehicles and plane close up while Steve, Emma and I made dinner. I had bought and frozen all of the meat for our trip. We’re down to the final bit so last night Steve grilled steak. We had beautiful, organic mushrooms we bought in Utah and so Emma sautéed those and even added a little of her Mama’s port wine. Steak and mushrooms it was and everything was peaceful and lovely.
Until….
Steve realized a jug of honey (liquid gold to this family) became smashed by a slide out storage tray and shared its golden, sticky deliciousness with a good portion of the carpeted storage tray beneath the RV. We went from peaceful to all-hands-on-deck real quick.
Let’s just say it took a while to extract most of the honey from the carpet. We decided to try rubbing alcohol to attempt to cut the stickiness. It worked great! While we’ll most likely steam clean when we get home, we did a pretty good job!
We drove a few more hours and slept in a rest stop. While we could make it home tonight, we’re making one last stop at a campsite for our last supper to recap and express gratitude for this incredible journey. We’re not sure what is in store for us in the future, but we’re definitely not returning to life as we’ve done it for much longer. We’ve been changed on this trip and acknowledging life’s brief gift has encouraged us to want to live it more fully and differently.
Loved the pictures especially of Hill “smelling the females armpit”. This was something my brother taught my boys to do when they were Hill’s age…just to annoy me. Pictures sure bring back forgotten times.
We just returned from a two week vacation and boy is it hot and muggy here although, it looks much hotter where all of you have been traveling.
Continued prayers for a safe, healthy and happy return back home.
P.S. And Lord, please keep your A/C in mint condition and free of sticky honey.