Blogs from Spearfish, South Dakota, United States, North America

Today we enjoyed breakfast outside on the patio at our Holiday Inn Express in Chadron, Nebraska. I had fun showing Ed the pancake machine. It’s one that you just push a button and it makes your pancake and shoots them out on your plate! It doesn’t take much to entertain me!! I am starting to get my taste back but just certain things. Today I ate a piece of bacon that tasted like bacon. I still can’t taste coffee or many, many other foods! AND I still can’t smell!! Our goal today was South Dakota. What I love about our group is that if we see a sign for a place that looks interesting we stop or head that direction. So today we saw a sign for Wind Cave National Park so we decided we should ... read more

We were up super early (for us) this morning—5:30 AM. We followed our plan to get to the laundromat first thing, arriving there at 8:00! Yay us!! We did our clothes, had breakfast, and were on the road at 9:30. Our first stop was at the Sanford Lab Homestake Visitor Center in Lead (pronounced “leed”) South Dakota. This was a great stop. We took an hour trolley tour of the old mining town of Lead and then a short overview of the Sanford Underground Research Facility which is in the old Homestake Mine tunnels. If you are interested in the “sciencey” part of this, I recommend looking it up on Google. They are in the process of building the world’s flagship Neutrino Experiment. An international team of 1,000 scientists and engineers from more than 30 countries ... read more

2014 09 07 Day 6 Because we didn't get back to the motel until midnight, we slept in. Last night we decided that instead of driving four hours round trip to see Jewel Cave National Park, we would spend the day seeing Deadwood and relaxing. We left the motel around 10, got gas and got the car washed to remove the seven layers of bugs from the front of the car. We drove to Deadwood (about 15 miles) and had a very nice breakfast at Lee St. Station. We then walked through Deadwood which has absolutely nothing to see, unless you like to look at touristy shops with overpriced junk they call souvenirs, or casinos. The welcome center had a small exhibit detailing the history of Deadwood. Deadwood originally was Sioux land. While Custer and his ... read more

2014 09 05 Day 4 We decided, geniuses that we are, that we didn't need to each have our own suitcase, we could combine our clothes, etc. into one suitcase and eliminate the need to bring two suitcases into the motel room each night. So we consolidated two suitcases into one. These suitcases are smaller suitcases that would fit into the overhead compartments on a plane. We also have a larger suitcase jammed full that we don't bring into the room each night. I think we packed enough for a two year journey. I emptied the trunk to store unneeded item in the wheel well, and carefully repacked the trunk. When we got in the car at 8:51 to leave Sioux City, the tire pressure indicator light was on. Unfortunately the tire pressure gauge was in ... read more

So, I realize its been over a month since I last blogged. I apologize to anyone who's been anxiously waiting on a blog entry...although the only person who's been asking is my mother. :) July is now over and I finished my last summer course ending the summer with a 4.0! Which means I am now 3 credit hours (my fall practicum) and taking comps away from being done with my master's degree!! Super excited for December 7, 2012! :) July was filled with a few New Student Registration dates, Preview Days for prospective students, and attending a few on campus meetings and sitting on a search committee to fill the open position in my office. I'm super excited for Erika who will be joining us in a few weeks from NJ and is one energetic, ... read more