Are You Tired of My Travels Yet? :)

Catching up on life and responsibilities is coming slowly and I still have several more travel days to report! 

Picking up from last week - next stop after Mount Rushmore was the Badlands National Park. I will give a plug here for National Park Passes. As a senior citizen, I was able to get one for only $20.  Every park we hit had a $35 entry fee for the carload, but with my pass, we didn't have to pay.  It was a huge savings when you consider how many national parks and monuments we visited! 

Next stop, Badlands National Park. Now I will tell you, we arrived later in the day because we were told for photographic purposes it was best to go around sundown when the colors are less washed out from the hot sun. So we did. We also opted to skip doing the entire tour around the park and just did the two overlook stops recommended for photography. 

After all, let's face it. Anyone who has known me a long time knows I am much more suited to a black tie dinner dance than a hike in the mountains. Even famous mountains! lol. When I was single and would go to watch friends play ball after work, everyone would laugh because I'd show up in a dress and heels. Everyone else went home to change into something 'more comfortable' first. I would laugh that I was perfectly comfortable. I would have loved to have been an adult in the fifties with all the fun dress fashions and the late dinner/ dance parties. But I digress. Hiking in mother nature is not my long suit, and with my heart, it doesn't come easily to me. SO, we opted for two great photo ops and moved on! 

Now I will say the romance writing in me- coupled with the no fear extrovert - did approach one couple. Walking up the path from one photo op to another, I spotted a couple leaning against each other just watching the sunset. It was SO sweet. I walked right up to them and apologized for interupting but told them that they looked so sweetly romantic that I would love to take their picture if they'd give me their camera. They thanked me and gave me their phones. I took a couple of photos of them with their faces and then walked behind them and got the sunset - they were great photos. (sorry I don't have copies but, not my camera lol) 

​But here are my photos! 

Kind of cool huh? But you can see why we might feel that eight more hours driving around for more photos of that wouldn't be my cup of tea :) 

Though I didn't get any photos - our next stop was the town of Wall - it's a big deal in the tourist world. We drove out of our way to see it - and frankly, I didn't get it.  Yes it's a huge drug store, with lots of little shops, I even picked up a couple of small toys for my grand kids, but honestly, I didn't quite understand why so many people feel it's a must see. Have you ever been? 

On the family updates - yesterday - my mother celebrated her 89th birthday.  I'm going to grumble a little so please bear with me. My mom has alzheimers. Though she's not digressing as quickly as the average curb, she's still got cognitive issues. And of course, can't remember from five minutes ago. She opened her birthday card three times in ten or so minutes and was thrilled with it each time. It's a blessing that she gets to be happy three times but a crime that she hasn't a clue what she's already done. The thing that always breaks my heart is mom is SO healthy - she walks and dances and at Christmas time claimed she was too weak to pick up my toddler granddaughter and then a few minutes later when she spotted my granddaughter putting something in her mouth, Mom jumped up, hurried over, picked the twenty plus pound child right up and started dancing with her to distract her - (throw my arms up) so much for too old LOL.  In September we'll all be going to her great nieces wedding, she's going to have so much fun dressing up, dancing, and talking to everyone. Mom is always full of stories (even if they've changed from history) and a true extrovert, fuels on lots of people. 

I still don't have a title for my next series or the books but I'm working on it!  Did I tell you the first book is going to be a marriage of convenience? Actually, a few of them might be! LOL. - we'll see. 

Oh - I didn't mention the fourth of July-  we taught the grandpup how to swim!  At first Loki wasn't all too sure - we had to really tug and coax to get him off that first step - but once he did - he loved it - he'd swim over to us and then turn around and swim back. Then he'd climb out and walk over to my two friends and shake off in front of them.  No matter where they moved to - every time he climbed out - he'd find them and shake off.  Have you ever wondered why wet dogs always have to shake off in front of people? 

well - at this point - I think you know as much as I do about my life so it's time to say tata till next week! 

OH - if you signed up to be notified via email when I post - please make sure that I'm not in your spam folder or that [email protected] is on your contact list so that your email server stops bouncing the emails!  thanks much and hope y'all have a GREAT week!