busy week

We sure had a busy week at work last week, the days seemed to just fly by. We are both getting more and more comfortable in our jobs and our bodies are starting to get used to the abuse of standing for hours on end.
Monday was our day off and we hooked up with Doug and Rand again for another bike ride. One of the perks of our job here is we are given a "VIP" pass to other tourist attractions in the area. You can use this pass for free (or discounted) entrance with the premise that once you see them you can recommend them to others who are looking for things to see and do.
We decided to use our passes and rode to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD. Several years ago a contractor, while preparing the area for a housing development, unearthed some bones. They determined these were from a Mastodon and a new tourist attraction was born. They have excavated the site and found over 60 skeletons of prehistoric mammals. The story goes that there was a sink hole here that filled with water and the animals became trapped when they came to drink and bathe. The sink hole filled and was covered over time preserving the bones.

We took the guided "bone tour" and enjoyed it although I'm not sure I would have enjoyed it as much if I had to pay the $9.00 per person fee. :-)
Here is Rudee and Rand looking over some of the displays after taking the tour.

Leaving the Mammoth site we headed next door to Wooley's for lunch which was only mediocre. When we came back outside we could see the storm clouds building. A quick look at the radar on my phone showed a large storm had just passed through Custer and was heading east with another storm building behind it. We headed back to the campground with the hope we could make it back before the second storm hit. The closer we got the worse the skies looked. The first storm looked really nasty but was moving out of the area as we traveled through. The next storm was bearing down on us but we made it back and got the bike put away before it hit. Whew!

Tuesday was errand day so we decided to take the truck and head for Rapid City. Our first stop was Best Buy where I returned our Mifi unit, the unit still worked but the screen had quit lighting up. They took a look at it, took the battery out for a few seconds then re-installed it and that fixed it. :-)
We also used the $50 gift certificate we got for purchasing the Mifi to buy a new, small camera. I like having a camera that Rudee can use while we are riding and the larger Nikon is too bulky for her. We found a nice Samsung on sale and also got some money off by applying for their charge card (which we will never use!) and ended up only paying $2.50 for the camera. :-)
We also stopped by our "home", America's Mailbox, and picked up our mail. We have one more title and registration to transfer and our "move" to South Dakota will be complete. We had to wait for the RV title to arrive from Indiana which caused a delay but looks like everything is ready now so we dropped off a check to pay for it all.
Lunch was at the Great Wall Chinese restaurant and was really good. We shared a lunch entree that came with soup, appetizer, fried rice and the entree. All that for under $7.00 and it was very good to boot!
Next stop was the grocery to stock up on food for the next week and then headed home. On the way back we used our VIP card for a free drive through Bear Country USA.

We saw Elk

Mountain Lions

and lots of Bears

Another $32 admission fee saved by the card, pretty cool!
Once we got back to the motor home and got the groceries put away Nathan and Jan came calling. They both work in the gift shop with Rudee and we had made plans to go to dinner. We hopped into their SUV and headed for the Alpine Inn for another steak dinner. Hard to beat a filet minion dinner for $11.95! After dinner we went in search of ice cream and ended up in Custer at the Flintones Bedrock City. We enjoyed our treats and had a great time getting to know Nathan and Jan.
Today is our Monday and we head back to work for another week. That's OK though, we are having fun here in the Black Hills! I'll keep you posted.