So after a wonderful visit with family, we were back on the road again.

We stayed the night in Nebraska but didn’t camp.  The next day we drove to South Dakota.  I’d never been through South Dakota before (nor Wyoming or Idaho for that matter), and it was more beautiful than I had expected.

For some reason though, this next scene reminded me of Egypt…

We drove through the Black Hills National Forest where we saw a lot of bison.  We actually got a little behind schedule because a bunch of bison decided to cross the road, and cross back, and reconsider and cross again.

It was nice because they were really close to the car, and since we hadn’t been to Yellowstone at this point, we weren’t yet stricken with fear of being gored (they really emphasize the bison’s capability to attack in all the park materials).  But I had no real desire to get too close to any bison and was glad I could get some nice photos from the comfort of the car.

After the bison made up their minds and headed into the woods, we visited Mt. Rushmore.

We decided to camp in Custer since the sun was starting to go down.

A couple of pronghorns stopped by to hang out by our tent, but I didn’t manage to get any good photos.

Brandon got the fire going…

I made homemade salsa by flashlight and glow of the laptop to have with our campfire quesadillas, and we roasted our veggie dogs (that we miraculously found in Nebraska) over the fire.  It was awesome.

The next day we drove on to Wyoming.

Living in a crowded city like Cairo can make you really appreciate open spaces.

These next photos are from our drive through Bighorn National Forest.

The road wound up through the mountains, and the views were beautiful.

After we got through the mountains, a storm started looming in the sky… just as we started to look for a place to camp.

We finally found a spot, nestled in a majestic little gorge just outside of Yellowstone

Brandon had to gather firewood and almost stepped on a snake while I watched the sky darken with angry looking clouds and worried about whether it was going to rain.  We got the fire going and the tent set up and after just a couple of minutes of wind and rain, the storm blew over.  If this keeps happening I am really going to think that worrying solves everything!

The next morning we packed up the car and headed toward Yellowstone.  We decided we’d need a good breakfast to get us through a long day of sightseeing, so we stopped at the Pahaska Tepee for pancakes.  I ordered the short stack…

But let me tell you, they were the biggest pancakes I have ever seen!   Of course I was up to the challenge…

…but ultimately failed.  After breakfast, we headed to Yellowstone.