Oh Give Me A Home, Where the BUFFALO Roam

Day 5 - You know that song: Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play. Yeah, I just lived that song today! 

States: 6 - No new ones 

Capitols: None today

Books read: no time to read books 

License Plates Found: 38 + 4 = 42!  (Alaska, Maine, VT, and VA for today)

Crunches/Squats: 35 

Our day started with a carb-o-rific breakfast at the Days Inn. Yum.

We then started our way to Custer State Park. Thank you to Janice Miller for the recommendation! It was SPECTACULAR! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for hiking and enjoying some nature. I was telling Celeste yesterday that I wanted to see buffalo. That is all I really wanted to see as far as animals go... I was not disappointed today! As we drove up to the park ranger to pay our money to get into the park she inquired about our window decorations. After filling her in on our travel plans she informed us that a herd of buffalo were hanging out near the visitors center. Let me tell you, she was not lying about a whole herd! There were at least a hundred buffalo just grazing and blocking traffic. Sorry in advance for the amount of buffalo pictures I took; I really did only pick a few out of 50 to share. 

The park ranger was really nervous about the buffalo. I, on the other hand, was not. I jumped out of the car for my picture! The park ranger started yelling for everyone to get behind their cars...

Celeste jumped in a picture with me instead! This really nice older gentleman took our picture. He was a fellow Texan! He just completed one of his goals to make it to all 50 states before his sister. I am so happy we made part of his journey!

We then started our drive on Needles Highway. We found this hole in a rock. Duh! We took pictures!

I even went inside the hole.... yay Moss!

A creek next to the rock.

Cathedral rock formations.

We must seem like nice people because everyone wants to talk to us! This nice lady offered to take a picture for us. She is a fellow teacher from California. (she teaches middle school PE in case you were curious)

We were heading for Sylvan Lake on our scenic drive through Custer State Park. Look how beautiful it is! Our pictures don't capture the true beauty of this place. You must come here and experience it for yourself! We did about a mile hike around the lake. For the most part it is pretty easy. There is one moderate part where you climb up a little. If you look in the background of the picture below you can see some boulders - that is what we climbed up.

I got a little adventurous and went off the path. I'm so glad we did!

Look what I accomplished! I'm usually too scared to climb rocky paths but not today!

Watch out for falling rocks!

After eating some lunch at Sylvan Lake we headed to Bear Country! It was pretty cool except one thing - It is $16 a person! You do get to see bears though... so it was cool.

We then left for Mount Rushmore. This has been on my bucket list for about 4 years now. The guy at the ticket booth was sooo nice! We will be going back tomorrow for the lighting show. We weren't going to wait 4 hours for the show. We were getting hungry.

You have no idea how happy I was at this moment! It is much smaller than I thought it would be but I'm so glad we made it here!

Look what I found... I now need this! I am having regrets not getting it.... but it is $100 for all the magnets and another 15 for the magnet board... I'm going to sleep on it and maybe purchase it tomorrow if I still REALLY want it.

 Another shot of the magnificent heads. I'll fill you in tomorrow about why each of the presidents was chosen. (The booklet is in the car and I am too tired to go down and get it.)

For dinner we traveled back to Rapid City to eat at Firehouse Brewery. The downtown strip is pretty cute! The food was AMAZING! I had Schnitzel with mashed potatoes and beer cheese soup. YUMMY!!! We then asked our waitress for a milkshake place. This guy who works at the restaurant told us about Armadillos which is at 3rd street and Main. It was only 3 blocks away! We high tailed it to get milkshakes before the rain came.

This place did not disappoint! It was so yummy and just a local hot spot. The best moment was when this teenager ordered a large milkshake and his name was called. His face looked like a kids on Christmas morning! He was so excited!

 I want to thank all of you who are following us on Facebook with our photo game. We have fun picking out postcards to send and taking the pictures for it. We post at different times of the day. We have a jam packed schedule tomorrow -- when we have service we will post on Facebook! Again, thanks for reading!

Celeste has a blog too! Check it out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/

One last thing - we finally looked up the Lyrics to "This Land Is Your Land" which we couldn't figure them out the first day.
If you want to see a great version of it here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui1ZIOFJ6a4

And here are the lyrics in case you are curious:

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me