Lifting weights (Rocks)

The past few weeks I've been working with Kerianne's brother John in moving rocks and making them into rock walls, staircases, and terraces. My mom and dad have insisted that I show them pictures; I decided that since I don't have anything to talk about on this blog yet, I'll just show all of you some pictures. So on the right is a picture of the terraces we've been working on, imagine them filled with rich black dirt and lush green tomato plants (now forget that thought, the Black Hills have been in a six year drought). I was listening to the radio the other day and I heard a deejay say that the thing he likes most about South Dakota is that you can experience the four seasons to their fullest extent. I mean, 110 in the summer, -50 in the winter, summer thunderstorms come complete with F5 tornadoes and baseball-sized hail, winter snow storms often form drifts that cover houses...who could want more?

So when I'm not sweating in the 105 degree heat and hauling large rocks, I'm either reading or playing cards. I don't typically read at all, so when I've read 800 pages in a week purely for leisure, something must be up. I guess I've just been a bit bored and anxious to leave for Thailand.

On the left here is John shuffling a deck of cards for entertainment's sake. I kid you not, we weren't even playing a game but he was shuffling them anyway. I taught them some good wholesome games like Texas Hold-em, Scum (aka scum bucket or Presidents), golf, and rummy (my G'ma's favorite game). I think John's addicted. When he's not satisfying his addiction for reading or cards he's playing the Wii. If you haven't tried it out you should. I find it quite entertaining that rather than make a bigger better faster console, all Nintendo did was create an ingenious new controller and games are suddenly 1000x better.

So I looked at my airline tickets today, I'll be leaving from Denver at 4:45pm and arriving into San Fransisco two hours later. Then I don't leave again until 1am July 4th. So if you know anyone that I know that lives in San Fransisco that I might want to hang out with, you should let me know.

I got shot

Yesterday I went to the travel doctor to get my vaccinations. My shoulders currently feel like I was lifting 300 pounds yesterday, but I keep trying to convince myself it was just needles. I finally uploaded the pictures from the camera to my computer, so you can see them here.

To the left I have one of me standing on a tunnel, bright in all my angelic beauty. This is one of six places where road workers weren't paid enough, so they tunneled through a rock rather than blasting it completely (my theory anyway).

If you walk into the cave and turn around you can see the view in the next picture. Actually, you'd have to get up on top of the rock, like where I am to see this. Actually actually its in a completely different spot on the mountain altogether, but honestly now, who takes pictures of the entire Mount Rushmore? Usually you just see an up-close shot of just the faces.

Kerianne and I have actually considered having the wedding reception up in these parts, by Sylvan Lake. That way all our guests could enjoy a beautiful 6 mile drive in Custer State Park through the mountains and careening around 180 degree corners. We'll see if it works out...

Next we have what I'm certain is a jack-ass on the loose, or a wild donkey if you prefer the more mild approach. I tried to get a good picture of him, but he turned around at the perfect time (or worst time, depending on your point of view). This particular donkey roams the plains but isn't nearly as unfriendly as the buffalo, shown at the end. I also got a good picture of a pronghorn, but who wants to see pictures of animals? I'll save some picture space for the shots in Thailand.

Home on the range

I've gotten all my funding, and I have a ticket for Thailand leaving July 3rd. I'm flying with China Airlines from the US to Taiwan to Chiang Mai. Until I leave I'm staying at Kerianne's house in South Dakota. Since I've seen deer and antelope playing, and skies that are not cloudy all day, its really quite beautiful.

Yesterday we took a drive up through needles highway, a paved road that weaves through large vertical rock spires. Some of the corners are pretty intense, on the edge of a cliff with nothing but a guardrail between you and destiny. We also took a drive through something called wildlife loop. I was entertained by herds of buffalo crossing the road. One particular one waddled into the middle of the road, paused for a few minutes to relieve himself (quite a road obstacle), and then continue to the other side. We stopped to take pictures of a friendly wild mule, and some pronged horns.

The day before yesterday (Friday) we drove through Spearfish canyon. Of course we stopped a few times to take pictures of the canyon. One time I convinced the others to go with time and bushwhack to the top of a rock cliff. I wandered around up on top for a bit and found that there are actually lots of trails, so we ended up taking a trail back down through a deep crevice; it was quite exciting.