Day Four South Dakota - July 16, 2009

First thing in the morning, at around 6:00 am, I packed up all our wet belongings and Matthew and headed into town to find an open laundromat. This happened to be at the Exxon station on Main Street. We headed in, started two loads of laundry, and then purchased chocolate-covered mini doughnuts (yes those wonderful waxy kind). Of course we wandered through the "casino" to get from the laundromat side to the gas station side and got into trouble for that. Never even dawned us, silly Iowans. Once the laundry was done, and we had mysteriously gained a pair of 16w women's shorts, we headed back to camp.

Sebastian headed to the office to look into the weather forecast, which included colder temps and more rain. Needless to say, we upgraded to a cabin and headed out for the day while they cleaned it for us. Our destination was Devil's Tower, and Gabriella slept nearly the whole way. Matthew amused himself for most of the trip, however, he did fall asleep for a short time (although he still says he was just resting his eyes).

When we arrived at the first National Monument ever, we ate a picnic lunch and then headed to the visitor center. We discovered that we were just in time for a ranger talk on the geology of Devil's Tower, which very nicely explained the theories on how it came into existence. We were also able to see climbers on the tower using our binoculars.

After the talk, we headed out for the trail which circles the tower, and discovered that it was 1.3 miles of up and down. Not large hills, but enough to get a 7 year old in a whiny mood, which is always entertaining and annoying when the child is also melodramatic and a gifted actor. We attempted to enjoy the views as much as we could, and witnessed yet another group of climbers on the other side of the tower. A portion of this group had reached the top of the tower, and we felt like cheering for them.

As we continued around the tower, a discussion began on climbing the tower and whether or not Matthew would be capable of climbing it. It was pointed out that he had repeatedly complained about being tired on the trail, but he insisted that climbing the tower would be easier and that he could beat us all to the top. But we all did express a wish to climb it when the kids were older.

When we returned from the hike we stamped our passports and went to the next ranger talk, this one about Native American heritage and myths. Our ranger was a 20 year old Lakota, with the Lakota name of Pretty Horse Woman. She introduced herself in English and several Native American languages and it was fascinating to hear the very distinct differences in the language. She admitted that Lakota was very gutteral and I teased Sebastian that with his Dutch heritage it shouldn't be that hard for him to pick up that aspect of the language.

After Devil's Tower, I was exhausted and just not in the mood to cook dinner, so when we reached Hill City we went to Subway, causing the kids to bounce with joy. We took our sandwiches back to the resort, got the key to the cabin, packed up our things, and moved in. When I walked into the cabin I squealed as I discovered we had a fully functioning bathroom all to ourselves. Ah, the relief!

After dinner, I unpacked while Sebastian and the kids enjoyed the pool. After the pool, we drove back into town to enjoy Dairy Queen and stop in a couple of the shops that were still open. We finished out the night with more s'mores. Matthew and Gabriella both complained about the smoke getting in their eyes, so they stood over the fire with sunglasses on. Matthew was inspired at one point to imitate Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves and did a dance around the fire. Of course he nearly fell in twice, so I put a quick stop to that.