Well, today has been a most relaxing day – Up until now we have been a bit rushed – trying to get to Mt Rushmore in time to meet up with Mrs. Stanley to get some paperwork to her. Now that we have made it to that destination, and now that we have decided not to go south to visit relatives, we have a much more relaxed itinerary from here on out. The first day, when we left Coure'd Alene, we didn't actually look at our spread sheet that had our trip planned out, until just as we were leaving town, at nearly 2:00 – only to discover we had 8 hours of driving to do to get to the campground we had reservations at, just outside of Yellowstone. So we pulled in there, VERY late (early actually – due to the time change) and bedded down quickly, so as to get up and out into Yellowstone as early as possible in the morning. We spent a nice day, Monday, exploring Old Faithful and other locations inside the park. We saw some wildlife, elk in particular, a couple of buffalo, a couple of osprey and a bald eagle. We were REALLY hoping for a bear and a moose, but didn't get so lucky. We camped back at the same campground that night, and drove, out through the park on our way east, in the morning. We stopped at the boiling mud pit on that trip through, and kept our eyes pealed for moose and bear. When we left the park, the highway took us through amazing territory and the Big Horn National Forest, where we did manage to spot a moose!! Two of them, actually! It was quite exciting.

We actually met up with Mrs. Stanley at the Crazy Horse exhibit, which we were quite excited to be let in for free at, simply because we mentioned that Thomas is half Native American. It was quite an amazing, extensive exhibit of Native American history and art. It will be a VERY amazing sculpture when they are done with it. And, being the first week of August, there were TONS of motorcycles there!! (Sturgis is just a few miles away!) Mt. Rushmore felt almost a bit like an afterthought, though it was awe inspiring too, in it's own way. We also saw some big horn sheep, there, just at the entrance sign. That was cool.

We left there, and found an RV site in Rapid City – where we are right now. We had planned to take the day to do more relaxing things, playing at a water park, etc. Due to it being Tommy's birthday. But we woke up to rain today and had to change our plans. So we have just been here at the campground all day, tidying up the trailer, and getting laundry done, playing bocce ball, and generally getting our lives a tad more organized. As soon as the laundry is done, here in a few minutes, we are going to head out, hit a DQ (thank you Charlene!) for birthday cake - and then go miniature golfing at a pirate coarse we saw in town this morning when we were on a grocery/birthday present run.

From here on out, we only have to cover 4-5 hours of driving each day in order to reach OshKosh on Monday morning, early. God is taking care of our needs, so far, as they come up. But continued prayers for the finances would be much appreciated – and also for and extra measure of strengthening of our trust in Him to continue to do that...