Not quite as planned

Today began with a bang – literally. As we pulled out heading toward the visitors center for an 8.30 geology walk, our back passenger side tire blew out. Will nearly qualified for a pit crew changing the tire and we made the walk. I should also mention that just moments before the blowout, we discovered that a mouse had helped him/herself to snacks and rolls we had left in the trunk of the car.

After learning a bit about how the Badlands were formed we drove to Wall, SD (home of the famous Wall Drug and the nearest town), and got a new tire, some lunch, and mouse traps at the local hardware store (for all the hype, Wall Drug is fairly useless in terms of practical shopping). Back to the park for some serious hiking the rest of the afternoon. EXCEPT… as we climb out of the car we see the brand new tire is now also flat. Who cares, let’s go for a hike. Nice (albeit short) 1.5-mile walk on Notch Trail. Back at the car, Will is on his back jacking up the car when the heavens open. We toss everything that was previously in the trunk into the back seat and jump in the front to wait it out.

Few minutes later we get out and Will finishes the job, noticing that the spring (something to do with the struts and shocks) has actually broken and left a sharp edge, which is what cut/punctured both tires. (It’s not sticking out far enough to catch the donut spare). Back to Wall. The tire guy sends us to the local mechanic who tells us he can’t really help and we need to go to Rapids City. We’ve decided to go first thing in the morning because it’s over an hour away and this all was taking place around 3.30/4. By the time we got back to the park it was steadily raining and we both just crashed.

It’s nearly 8 now. Still raining. Will just put the mouse traps in the trunk and the front seat of the car. Not quite the day we had planned.

Photos from today:











Our second flat tire of the day. (Oh how this tire mocks us).

P.S. This post could have also been titled, Why no one will be getting postcards from the Badlands. Had planned to get, write and send post cards today/tomorrow at the latest, but it’s not going to happen.

WI to SD

Pretty much a full day of driving, but with two fun stops and an early arrival in the Badlands NP, which left plenty of time to snap some pics before settling into our cabin for the night. Sadly there’s no wifi here, so I probably won’t be able to post this until Wednesday.

First Stop: Hawkeye Point, highest point in Iowa
Hawkeye Point is less than 10 miles south of the Minnesota border, so as we were scootin’ along Rt. 90, we turned south to head toward the high point.

This was quite an adventure since Will brought along only a photo of the site and the GPS coordinates, which would have been super helpful … if we had a GPS. We drove around in circles for a good 30 minutes; Will stopped at a farmers’ co-op and got more detailed directions and we eventually found the place. It’s on private property – a pig farm. The marker is at the end of the corn crib. This is Will’s 30-somethingth HP and my twenty-somethingth. The property owner was mowing her lawn and gave us a smile and a wave as we parked our Jersey plates and walked toward the marker. Funny.

Next stop: Corn Palace, Mitchell, SD
This has been in my sights since Jenn V. crossed the country with her cat, moving from Boston to Seattle, oh-so-many years ago and sent me a postcard from this joint. Sadly they were in the midst of changing the design, so the outside of the palace was not in its usual glory. Here’s a nice picture of one of the murals inside though.


Destination: Badlands National Park
There were storms in the area and the dark skies really made these geological wonders appear even more spectacular. Tomorrow’s agenda includes lots and lots of hiking.

BMOC

So NOW it's official. He's all graduated and stuff. Can you even stand how cute this kid is???

So after a trip out east to work with Uncle Will for a bit this summer, and a trip to Italy with the family, he's off to University of North Dakota in Grand Forks to pursue a degree in airport management, commercial piloting and something else.

It's sort of amazing that there are no photos of him with cute girls, because let me tell you there was a veritable parade of them during the course of the day.

Judy, George Peter III, George Peter Jr., Scott.

With Gram.

Valerie and Linda (Will's sisters - they will NOT stand for a photo so we take what we can get with them!)

Scott and Uncle Will (the ceremony was two full hours).

Congratulations George!

Today was George’s graduation party and that took up most of the day (although Scott really wants to get a game of Risk going right now and I feel a little guilty that I am sitting here doing this when I SHOULD be hanging with the family). Will and I started the day with a nice little hike up Hoffman Hill which is just a few miles from here. We plan to go back tomorrow and maybe I will take some pictures. But for now… here’re some shots from the party.








Nice photo of some grads...


..and then the rock band shot.



These kids today and their texting! I was able to confirm that at one point party guests were texting each other across the room!

Jackson learning all about quoits!

Bubbles...

Ok so at some points during the party, when Will and I weren't kicking George (Will's brother, not the graduate - he was way too busy socializing) and Scott's butts in quoits, we struggled to entertain ourselves.

The Cup Stays in Wisconsin

Well it was a heated competition but the Hayducsko Cup will remain in Wisconsin - even if only for a short time. The honor passed from Young George to his dad.



He looks so happy about it, doesn't he?


The Competitors. Back row, l to r: Will, GP3, Scott, George, Charles (Judy's bro), Linda (actually, Linda was a cheerleader). Front row, l to r: Halle and Ib (exchange student, Malou's mom and her man), Carole, Judy.

The Hayducsko Boys: Will, Scott (nephew), George (brother) and George (nephew).





The champ sinks one.












So close, and yet ... so far.











In other news....
Earlier in the day, before we got to George and Judy's place, we stopped at a Sinclair gas station with this really cool giant dinosaur.

816 Miles later…

Stopped for the night in Rockford, IL (just west of Chicago). Very late. Too sleepy to compose any sort of elegant prose and not much to report anyway… just driving, driving, driving. Toward the end, went through about 25 minutes of nasty-butt storm. Drove by Comiskey Park shortly after the Yankees finished kicking white sock butt. Just a short five hours tomorrow morning and we will arrive at Midwest Chez Hayducsko.