Father, Forgive Me... - Monday, June 20, 2011

Father, Forgive Me... - Monday, June 20, 2011
Oh, my! No! It can't be! It IS!

I left the window in the sleeping area of the trailer open last night. I didn't know it until I came back from the bathrooms this morning. I was wondering why the area around the bed was so chilly last night when I crawled into bed. I was warm all night in my wonderfully warm sleeping bag but I had to keep my head covered all night and find a way to breathe.

Trying to figure out why that happened I came up with this scenario: yesterday, when we "crashed" it was nice enough outside that I opened the window as I have done a number of other times. On those occasions I remembered to close it immediately upon awaking. Yesterday, apparently, I just got up and went about my business. No wonder it was 52 degrees outside this morning when Tom got up just after 6am and only 57 degrees inside. Poor guy had the heater on when I got back.

We were ready to leave the Rv Park at 9:06am. The sky to the east was really dark. The was going to be one of our shorter traveling days; only about 130 miles. But that sky didn't look good.

But the views were wonderful. This is land of the red dirt. Just under the sod was this wonderfully red dirt for a number of feet deep.

We were really close to the Wyoming/South Dakotah border and I almost missed taking a picture of the SD sign. It was the only picture I took today because of the rain. The rain cooperated until after we found our first geocache in SD at the Information Center just inside the SD border. By 10:12am it was raining and it was 54 degrees outside with the wind blowing.

We stopped for another geocache in SD but it was raining hard and since we already had one we just decided not to bother. Who wants to sit in a van with wet clothes?

When the rain slowed we decided to start up again. But it wasn't long until the rain started up again too. And it did get heavy for a little bit before it slowed down and stopped.

We had been warned that we might have to stop because of an accident "in 28 miles." By the time we arrived at the area there was a line up in a single lane. There were a lot of trucks, EMT, tow trucks, etc in the area. It seems as though a tracker trailer slid off the wet highway on a curve and the trailer ended up on it's side about 30 yards from the highway curve. I didn't see the tractor unless it had been hauled away before we arrived in the area. But... I did see what could have been the rear wheels of the tractor. They were in a position that would be correct if the tractor were lying on it's side. I only saw the wheels.

Soon we were at our exit and we arrived at Sleepy Hollow Campground at 12:20pm. It was 60 degrees and vey windy.

We worked at setting up the trailer and then it was my turn to take the long walk to the bathrooms. When I came back Tom had the makings of our traditional PB&J sandwich so that we could "crash" sooner. And "crash" we did.

One of our other traditions when we camp is cetain foods are served on certain days. Well, maybe it's only this one food. Today was a rainy day so the menu consisted of corned beef hash and peas. It was wonderful. It tasted good with an egg broken over the hash and served with lots of memories. We added the pistachio pudding. It was good too.

Then it was time to do the dishes. When on vacation and traveling we do dishes as seldom as possible. Well, we came to the end of some things; so tonight was time to do dishes. I thought that we might get a chance to see what the Wall Drug Store was like but after the dishes it was just time to "veg out."

Tom managed to see some beautiful skies and took the camera outside. There was a "sun dog." (if the term is incorrect will someone please correct me) It's when you can see a rainbow when the sun shines through the clouds in just the right way. The image of the rainbow isn't as clear on the picture but then it wasn't as clear as it was when we first saw it. Then Tom took a picture of the sky just to the northwest and it was something to applaud!

We stay in Wall, SD for two nights, Monday and Tuesday. Tomorrow we see the Badlands National Park and Wednesday we are on the road again. Before that we hope to be able to have a good breakfast at a nearby diner. And before that we hope to have a good, night's sleep. Good night!