Day one of our trip (Friday, May 26) was a long drive (485 miles!) to Minneapolis, Kansas, to a city park with camping hook-ups. This was surprisingly pleasant! The park was well shaded, quiet, and had nice amenities and walking trails. The cost is only $10/night but we couldn't find out how to pay! We caravaned with Jamie and Drew. On the drive, Chris and I realized that I hadn't gotten an oil change in awhile. I don't drive the SUV very often, so we had both neglected to check--and would have liked to have done that before embarking on a 4,000 mile trip! Then... the check engine light came on. We started speculating that it might be related to the oil, but that seemed odd since there is a separate light for the oil. When we got to Minneapolis, we quickly unhooked the camper and I took the car into town to find a mechanic and see about an oil change. The place was closing (and would be closed all weekend for the Memorial Day holiday), but he kindly ran a diagnostic and told me the O2 sensor was the issue. He suggested that we use a higher octane fuel, or try to avoid fuel with ethanol. That was great advice, and we had no more issues! (He also said the oil level looked good and it shouldn't be an issue.)
Noah and Audrey got their baseball gloves out and started playing catch.
Catch quickly escalated to Audrey's black eye.
We went for an evening walk to admire the giant trees!
The next morning (Saturday), we loaded up early and headed to Custer State Park in South Dakota--578 miles away! There we met up with my parents, who had left a few days before and taken their time driving up, stopping in more places along the way. We REALLY liked that campsite!
That night, we decided to go back into Custer to try to grab some dinner (dessert for my parents), and a thunderstorm came through with some hail. As we drove into town, looking for a place that wasn't too crowded, all the lights went out in town after a flash of lightning! We pulled in to the Purple Pie Place we had already spotted, and saw that they also served dinner. Even though the power was out, we popped in to see if they'd need help eating the ice cream before it melted, ha! Luckily for us, the lights came on right as we walked in, and they were able to seat us and serve us.
Sunday morning, we decided to drive the famous Needles highway to go see Sylvan Lake. The highway is known for its tight tunnels and awesome vistas!
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| The stunning Black Hills of South Dakota |
The kids had some fun climbing on the rock formations near the road.
Sylvan Lake was also not a disappointment!
We hiked part of a trail near the lake just for some fun!
We headed back to camp for lunch and worship before parting ways to visit Wind Cave National Park (us) and Jewel Cave NM (Mom & Dad). More on that soon!
