Raindrops keep falling on our heads

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Well, its been an interesting few days. The Badlands (16th and 17th) were hot with no water where we camped. We saw lots of wildlife including bison and many, many prairie dogs and 2 prairie rattlesnakes (yep, that was a big 2, one on each of our little hikes). Also saw proghorn antelope, a lone one followed by a pack of coyotes. No worries, they didn't catch it. Lots of delicious plums we munched on as we walked around on the prairie. Then headed over to Custer State Park. Very pretty and we found a good site on the creek, not far from the lake. Hot showers. Perfect. Well until about 6:00PM and then, it occurred. The rain. And not a little rain, a lot of rain. I'll let Moose fill you in on the rest. Lets just say I'm glad we located beer within the park prior to the rain.
Squirrel

I would call this blog, "Mother Nature opens a can!" Basically we got our ass kicked the first night in the Black Hills by a torrential downpour that the guy across from us said, "was the worst rain he'd seen in 19 years of camping there." The guy at the auto parts store said we got 4 inches in an hour. There were tornado warnings all around us and one guy rain into quarter size hail on his way in. We know how to pick 'em. Our campsite turned into a stream and when the bottom of the tent started leaking we abandoned ship and drove into town (Custer). We also discovered, to our great concern, that our rainfly is no longer waterproof. This is a HUGE problem that we will be working to get corrected immediately. John, we will be in touch. Also, during our escape, I got soaked and started to seriously lose body heat. I'm sure many of you will not be surprised (I can hear the collective "Told you so, skinny boy" from here). When I started shivering I had to go sit in the car and warm up while Susan got the bags out of the tent. Is she awesome, or what? However, we regrouped, spread stuff all over the motel room (the Bavarian Inn), got some dinner, sleep, and thought, "It could have been worse."

Also, the Calumet Inn in Pipestone may be historic but it also sucked. We were one night and gone. The Badlands Wilderness, unlike the campsite, was great. You can wander free (that's where we saw all the wildlife) and if it had not been for the damn snakes I would have hiked in a couple miles and camped in one of the many beautiful places. But when I suggested this, Susan politely said, "Hell no." You know how she is.

Today we went back to the campsite, moved across the road to higher ground, and hung all our stuff to dry. We're hoping for the best as there is a 30%!c(MISSING)hance of thunderstorms tonight. Wish us luck!
Moose

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Comments

[Alan Kines]

Badlands Be Bad
Well, it sounds like a bit of up and down in the Badlands. I hope your spirits weren't dampened as well. It is historically hot here in the mountains of western N.C., so we are sweltering a little bit. But no downpours, which is unfortunate since we really need the rain. Now that we're living on well water, we watch the forecast like never before. All is well here. Happy trails to you.

[Lori]

The risks of camping out-
Yeah-its called "weather"- what'd ya expect???????

[jack]

Deadwood?
You should check it out for me. I heard they have casino gambling. I wonder how much it crapped up a quaint little tourist trap. That must have been scary all that weather and just a tent.

[Diana]

Seems it never rains in southern California
Don't want to get in trouble, but just returned from beautiful, sunny, moderately warm San Diego where we participated in a Tiki conference. Activities included sitting by the pool, imbibing lots of rum drinks and listening to surf guitar, exotica and other lounge music from bands like the Calypso Cats, Martini Kings, TikiTones, etc. We promise to share our finely honed Tiki skills by making you expert Mai Tais when you visit CO in October.

[Lindsey]

the buttkicking....
yeah, mother nature totally kicked your butts. something similar happened to me on discovery, so i will not make fun, only empathise. hope you guys are having an amazing time traveling the country and seeing all the sights. we really envy yall. will you be done by christmas? :) p.s. uhm yeah, i CANNOT believe that you did not thank us on your first posting! what the crap? :)

[vingo and company]

Life in the not so slow but boring lane
Greetings from Ktown and vingo gang. School is started (I am a middle school teacher) and the children still do not recognize their own name when the roll is called - (huh?). Middle school is going relatively well for the girl child, although she lost "team time" (think recess) for coloring in math class. Go figure - the art teachers kid is coloring in math. Bad news for Pepper the wonder dog, took him to the vet Saturday, he's blown the acl joint in his back leg and has to have major (think expensive) surgery to walk again. Bummer. The boys are fine, much mourning your absence at movie night. Have fun, keep in touch. the vingos

[sue]

Well, that's just so cool that you're in the BADLANDS, because when I was helping LB study for her social studies test last night, BADLANDS was one of her words. ANd she'd illustrated it very nicely, but without snakes, bison, hail, tornadoes or torrential rain. Send the rain over here, to this parched DESERT (another of her words) we call E TN. And next time you're nigh to hypothermia, just think about all of us sweltering in this hellhole. More cheerful thoughts later. Have fun!!!