MAIN STREET ARTS & CRAFTS FESTIVAL-HOT SPRINGS,S.D.

This is a favorite festival that we try to attend every year. It was hot as usual 86 degrees, lots of vendors, live music and food!!! We sat and listened to several musicians, thankfully in the shade!

We had a pulled pork sandwich for lunch, really yummy!

Friends of the Library was having a book sale about a block from the festival, a dollar a bag for books, so Darrell and I found some great books! We always go to Pamida when we're in Hot Springs, found me a few plants to replace some in my pots. We also had ice cream at the Dairy Queen and stopped by the grocery store before heading home through Custer State Park and look what we saw!!!

THREE HUGE BUFFALO!!

FATHER'S DAY CAMPING AT #10

We left Friday, June 19 for our "traditional" Father's Day Camping Trip to Deerfield Lake, Whitetail #10, our favorite camping spot at Deerfield Lake. The lake is full of water and overflowing! What a beautiful sight to behold!! After 7 years of drought, I never thought I'd see the lake this full again!!

Driving into the campground and across from #10 a tree had uprooted the night before, thank God there were no campers in that spot! We met the new camp host Damian, and found out  the night before there was a storm with high winds and about 6 p.m. the tree had just uprooted, probably due to the wet grounds from all the rain. A young boy that had come for the weekend to camp with his family, was so upset by this, that they had to take him home, he refused to camp here!  I have to say it was a sight to see this magnificient tree had just fallen over!

We got every thing set up and went for a short hike, there were threatening clouds all around us, and felt lucky we didn't get rained on or worse! Whitetail was almost full by the time we got back, we had supper, and went to bed early, we were tired! It did rain during the night, with a little thunder, but no high winds or lightening!

After a lovely breakfast, complete with brewed coffee,  we drove over to  Dutchman Campground, just to check things out, and  it was closed,  temporarily,  due to falling trees!!! That kind of freaked us out!!  We found a trail and went hiking/ throwing the ball for Maggie, as we walked. We found all kinds of little streams and dams! And everything was so lush and green!!

                                  

Maggie and Marlee enjoy hiking and exploring,  they didn't bother crossing on the logs here, like we did, they went full steam ahead right through the water!! And Marlee proved to be the daredevil again, going to the highest point in the forest, logs, stumps...the weather was perfect for hiking, and we all got some much

needed exercise.

                                 

On the way back to the truck, I threw Maggie's ball and it ended up in a pine tree, we thought it was probably gone for good, and Maggie was having a fit!! We couldn't even see it!! After 15 minutes of trying to get it down, Darrell finally was able to get it for her......her hero!!! She was what we call a "happy

camper!"

                                 

We had a wonderful lunch of hot dogs, beans, smores, roasted marshmellows over the camp fire, and then it was rest time!!!

                                

Marlee took a much needed nap in her favorite spot in the camper! She loves napping and watching what is going on in the campground! She's so nosy!!

                                  

After napping, we went for another short hike, with threatening clouds all around us again, and felt lucky again that we weren't rained on or worse, by the looks of those clouds. We made pizza for supper and went to bed early again.

The next morning we drove around the lake and found this family of Canadian geese and enjoying watching the babies on the shore and in the water.

                               

After a much needed  break and some "down time" we had to pack up and go home, realizing that once again we had been fortunate enough to visit "God's Country" once again!

                               

NUMBER FIVE RUMMAGE SALE OF 2010

It was a cool, cloudy day for our fifth rummage sale of the year, but, we were warm and dry in our little Community Hall. A couple of other neighbors went in with us, and as you can see we still have alot of "stuff", and they did too, so we had a full community hall, we just didn't have many people. The Rapid City Journal was full of garage sales, and it was a slow day. I called one of our "good" customers, as she had asked, and she and her husband made our day!!  I sold some Black Hills Gold jewelry, Darrell sold some tools, my July 4 and Americana items did not go very well, which surprised me, but when we counted our money, it was the best sale yet! We made $452.60, which, we were very happy about!! The rain held off until we had everything back in the garage.  Already anticipating our next one, which I'm thinking will be July 24, if the hall is available, I already have a neighbor who wants to go in with us.

We had free coffee and homemade cookies (delicious) and all in all it was a fun day visiting with neighbors and customers!!

CAMPING AT HORSETHIEF LAKE CAMPGROUND

On Friday, May 21, after Darrell finished work, we went camping at HorseThief Lake campground, we had reserved site #17, which Marlee and I picked out when we were up to the lake fishing. We thought it was the perfect spot, the one closest to the lake, and it turns out we were right!

During tourist season this campground is very busy and our plan was to camp there before the tourists arrived and with the "free" weekend at Custer State Park, we practically had the whole campground to

ourselves! This was our view out the camper window.

                                    

The weather could have been better, it was cool and cloudy, with sunshine ever now and then. It rained Friday and Saturday nights, but we were snug as bugs in our little camper. Darrell did a little fishing with no

luck.

                                   

Maggie and Marlee had fun playing on the rocks and chasing chipmunks and squirrels, they didn't have any luck either.

Marlee, of course, is the dare devil this year, last year she was the scaredy dog.

We tried to go hiking Sunday morning, but with all the rain and snow runoff the trail was a small creek, we got up so far and had to run around.  We did a little visiting with the campground host and found out they fulltime and host all over the country with their four dogs!

And for a very short time we joked that this was our "little corner of the world". We had such a good time, and felt very lucky we were able to enjoy this without a large number of people.  No more camping trips for awhile, we need to stay home and finish some projects. Father's Day weekend we have reservations  at Whitetail, which has turned into kind of a tradition. 

CHADRON STATE PARK & VOLKSMARCH

We left Rapid Friday about 1:30 to go to Chadron, Ne. to camp at Chadron State Park and walk our first Volksmarch since 2003. We arrived there about 3:30, the sun was shining, no wind, short sleeve shirt weather, it felt good with all the cold, rain, snow and wind that we have had lately. Sometime during the night the rain started,  pretty lightly at first, but the longer it rained, the more intense it got. When we got up in the morning, the whole sky was grey with no break anywhere in the clouds, and it was raining pretty hard. We were afraid we weren't going to be able to do the Volksmarch, we had decided we didn't want to walk in the pouring down rain. Anyway, by 10:30 the rain had stopped, it was still cool, cloudy and windy, but we decided we had a small window  of opportunity, so we took it. The 6.2 mile walk took us two hours and we never got wet. Maggie and Marlee walked with us, their first Volksmarch,  and enjoyed themselves so much and never acted tired. The walk started in this park in downtown Chadron, we were glad to be walking on sidewalks and streets and keeping out of the wet grass, the dogs were grateful too.

There were very few campers at Chadron State Park, we practically had the whole place to ourselves.Even though, the weather could  have been better, we had a great time! And, of course, we got to see how the new dually was for pulling.

FOURTH RUMMAGE SALE OF 2010

Saturday, May 1st. was the annual Rockerville Community Hall rummage sale. We set up Friday night, and weren't the happiest about our spot. We were in a dark corner of the building, with very little space on the floor to pile things. We were able to get quite a bit of  "stuff" on our two tables though.

 

It started at 7:30 a.m., and there wasn't a large crowd of people when they opened the doors. We didn't think we had the crowd of people that we had in past years the whole day. It was just a slow day, probably too much going on all over town. The food was delicious, tho, caramel rolls, pies, sloppy joes, coffee. It was a cool day with alot of wind. We were able to find homes for alot of our "stuff" that we had hauled to previous rummage sales, which we were very happy about. The sale ended at 2:00 p.m. and even though it had been a slow day, the two tables of rummage "stuff" is all the rummage "stuff" we have left. We're going to have to dig deeper for the next sale, that we are thinking of having sometime in June. We made $210.30, which isn't too shabby for a half a days work!

SPRING FISHING IN THE BLACK HILLS

After 3 days of steady rain, on Sunday, April 25, it looked like it was going to be a nice day, the sun was trying to push it's way through the clouds, so, we decided to take Marlee and go fishing at Horsethief Lake. We got up there about 7:00 a.m., and it really looked like it was going to clear up, we even saw a little blue sky.

So, Darrell got his fishing poles in the water, and I got all set up with a good book and coffee, and Marlee was busy checking things out. Lo and behold, here come the clouds and wind! In a matter of minutes, it went from clearing up to a stormy day.

Darrell started getting bites and catching fish right away, they were small ones and he threw them back.  Marlee and I took a long walk through the closed campground and picked out a camping spot that we plan on using the weekend of  May 22, we had to keep walking to stay warm. We found a beautiful waterfall near the lake, with all the rain, the water was rushing over the rocks, it was a sight to see.

                                      

As long as we walked  we kept warm, getting back to the dock where Darrell was fishing, Marlee got cold and crawled inside my hooded sweatshirt. I read my book, drank my coffee, and Marlee slept, all nice and warm.

After a few hours, Darrell got cold too and decided to give it up, the fish were biting, but it was pretty slow. On the way home it started to snow, and by the time we got home, it was snowing pretty good.....spring fishing in the Black Hills, you gotta love it!