Tues, September 2

We woke to bright, shining sunlight although it was still quite chilly.  We filled up the cooler with more ice, enjoyed Belgium waffles in the motel, and talked with the office staff about stuffed animals who join travelers on road trips.

Within only 30 miles, we traveled past amazing land formations, green fields, barren rocky landscape, and lots of cattle grazing.  Wyoming is not only beautiful but quite varied as well.

We've been enjoying our morning worship times together.  We each pray for our day and for God's grace and provision.  We then each take turns reciting memory verses we've learned, talking about the Word we've shared, or singing hymns and praise songs that relate to what we've been talking about.  Next, we listen to our new King James Bible on CD; today we were listening to Genesis 1-21.  Finally--and totally unrelated--John entertains us with jokes from his Animal Jokes book.   Following are some of today's favorites from the bird section.  (See answers below.)

1.  What do you call a woodpecker without a beak?

2.  How do you describe an ugly crow?

3.  What is another word for a sick bird of prey?

4.  What do you call a large swallow?

As we approached the Big Horn Mountains, we realized that the stunning snow-capped mountains we saw ahead were home to the same road we would need to pass over.  Indeed, as we neared the summit, we drove past freshly fallen snow.  We pulled over to play in the snow and take pictures.  (See the video at the end of this post.)

Bunny enjoyed the white powder, too!

The landscape continued to unfold before us as we headed across the state.  John had a good eye for animals that were running along the side of the road.  He spotted this small herd of pronghorned antelope galloping on a hill.

While we stopped at a truck stop and ate lunch out of our cooler, Bunny looked at the road on a statue of a long-horned steer covered with painted scenes from Wyoming.

A coal train meandered through the hills beside our car.  We think it may have been half a mile long!

Late afternoon found us entering South Dakota and heading for a famous monument.

The four presidents (Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln) greeted us from their hill top.  Did you know that George Washington's nose is 21' long?  That's a foot longer than the other noses.  Also, the way Borglum made Roosevelt's glasses was ingenious!  We enjoyed the museum which included all kinds of interesting artifacts, film footage, and cool information about how the monument was made.  We watched a short film clip of F.D.R. at the ceremony where Jefferson was unfolded.

Somehow we don't think the Memorial staff will consider adding Bunny to the monument, but we have some other really great suggestions.

According to the brochure John read, there are only 200 mountain goats in the Black Hills of South Dakota.  We got a picture of 2% of their population!  Now, these aren't really mountain goats at all.  Anyone know what they really are?

As we headed for the Badlands, the sun set more quickly than we could drive, so we sadly missed seeing all the gorgeous landforms of the Badlands.  Here's a picture of what we missed seeing because it was just too dark.

Driving late into the night, we finally collapsed into our beds in Plankinton, SD.

Answer to jokes:

1.  A head banger

2.  Crow-tesque

3.  Ill-eagle

4.  A big gulp

Following is a video of the kids playing in the snow on the mountain top.  Remember, we left when there was a heat wave in Northern California and weren't really prepared for snow!