Minnesnowta and the Beginning of the End

What an adventure our past few days have been. You've missed a lot.

Being at the cabin was great, as usual. It was super relaxing, and I still managed to get a few "work outs" in. And by work outs I mean tubing and trying to keep floatie away from the dock on a super windy day. It's hard work. Trust me, I'm almost a doctor (har har). I also learned how to play bocce ball and didn't do half bad! I even managed to win (with my wonderful boyfriends help, of course) a game! Eventually I'm going to get around to investing in some Midwest outdoors games so I can practice more than once a year. Watch out.

I also got to experience my first Forth of July. Not really, of course, but the firework shows in Arizona aren't very good. Something about the whole state being on fire every summer or something. I think its a lame excuse, personally. So, I was shown an hour firework display that was pretty awesome. Kevin's uncle stocks up every fifth of July for next year's show. Definitely the way to go. Everyone around the lake and surrounding lakes were shooting off fireworks, so it was like having a bunch of shows in one. But Phil put everyone else to shame.

I really don't know how people live without having a lake cabin to escape to every summer, even if it's a small one. I say that half-jokingly (maybe a quarter) but it really is an experience that everyone should have once. I never knew water sports were so fun, or that escaping from the city life for weeks at a time could be enjoyable or relaxing. Even if we just pitched a tent on the side of some little pond.

We were only able to spend three days at the cabin, but it was a great three days. For the second year in a row we had a short visit. On the way out of Underwood we brainstormed ways to stay longer in future years. Maybe one of them will work.

The goal was to get to Vail in two days, putting us in Vail by Sunday night. We had to plan two eight hour driving days and cram in as much sight seeing as possible, and we did just that. I don't think I have ever seen so much in such a short amount of time.

Right after we left the cabin we stopped at Phelps Mill, since I had never seen it. Its a pretty cool mill in the middle of nowhere, but with a nice park attached. After touring the mill, we discovered a huge turtle trying to cross the road. It wasn't a very big road, but Kevin helped it cross the rest of the way. The crowd appreciated the show :)

The rest of the day was devoted to making it to the Bandlands National Park in Interior, South Dakota. We drove through a bunch of cute little towns in Minnesota and North Dakota, then drove through the boring parts of South Dakota.

When we were about sixty miles from our destination, it happened. This huge storm came out of nowhere. We looked up and the clouds closest to us started spinning and within seconds it was pouring rain and there were sixty to seventy mile an hour winds. We had to pull off the road because we couldn't even see the car parked ten feet in front of us. The Weather Channel suggested getting to the lowest level of the nearest building, but we had nowhere to go. We sat there for twenty minutes with pillows up against the windshield and ducking down as far as we could. I'm still convinced it was a tornado, even though I haven't seen any reports of a tornado in the area. Needless to say, I was sure we were at least going to be seriously injured just based on how much the car, and the stop sign next to us, was rocking. As soon as it cleared a little we got back onto the road and drove the rest of the way out of the storm. Ten miles out, the ground was dry and it was like nothing happened, the area hadn't been touched by the storm. Now that it is long over, we're a little bummed we didn't record a video of it.

The Badlands were pretty cool, but as we were warned, once you've seen one area, you've pretty much seen it all. And it kind of looked like Arizona. But it was weird that it was in the middle of the grasslands. By the time we finally got there, the visitors center was closed and we couldn't get our park stamp. After 30 minutes of stress about the plans for the night we settle on a little campground. This one, again, with free showers and WiFi. But the time we were settled in, we were both ready for bed and called it an early night so we could start early the next morning.

We did kind of miss out by staying the night by the Badlands, though we were able to have breakfast and five cent coffee at the famous Wall Drug in the morning. (it was just as cheesy as I imagined, but the coffee was delicious.) Mount Rushmore was just a nice stop and look, but the Black Hills were gorgeous, and there were so many things we could have done if we had the time. Like explore Jewel Cave National Monument, the longest cave in the country measuring 166 miles. We did stop and hike around the cave, but we didn't have two hours to wait for the next available tour. Now that we know what is out there, we'll have to go back and spend some time in the hills.

Now we are back in Colorado, with plans to go white water rafting tomorrow.

As always, more later.