All the in betweens...

Zach was bugging me to get out of here so he wanted me to wrap up the blogging...then we looked at my stats real quick and he saw that a lot of his friends and colleagues have been keeping up with the trip so he wants me to write more. I've got permission to keep at it til 1pm. So thanks for reading, guys!

So let's see....we woke up in the creepy campground in Wall, SD. Then we headed back to Wall Drug so we could take Jakie to the water fountain area. You know, it's one of those where the water shoots out from the ground and you have to try to catch it. Jacob friggin loved it. It was better than we could have imagined!

The day before we were in the Badlands. It was amazing. Just totally awesome. Later that day I realized that I've been an idiot about my camera though. I've gotten in the habit of using the same mode for every picture because the no-flash mode is really what I like the most. Then I started messing around with the landscape mode and the pictures from that came out ten times better than they were before. So I missed out on getting awesome pictures from the Badlands. But the ones I did take are up on flickr.

I guess it was the same day as Wall Drug that was the crazy day. Some of you already know the details because that was before I lost phone reception for two days. But here's what happened: We went to Mt. Rushmore. It was nice, but you know, just a little mountain with stuff some guy carved. I guess we're more into the natural phenomenon. We were actually going to leave and get some distance on the map because we still had a lot of driving time, but Jacob said he wanted to walk around the path. We put him in the pack and that was the last time we saw his little Bob the Builder toy we let him bring with us that day (we usually make it a rule to leave all the toys in the RV, and this was the most important toy). So when we were headed out of the park finally, one of us must have realized Scrambler with the little Bob atop him was missing. Holy Crap. We spent the next hour re-tracing our steps and trecking around the park to all the lost and founds. Finally we decided that it was just gone and we had to leave. Just as we were about to leave I spotted one last information center and decided to pop in to see about a lost & found. The wait in line was incredible and at one point I started to step out of line to leave, but I quickly changed my mind and waited it out. When I got up to the counter and told the lady my deal, a big smile spread across her face and she pulled it out of the drawer.

I'm a big fan of Mt. Rushmore now.

So there we were already two hours behind schedule. We left the park in search of a grocery store and the GPS lady was of no help. Infact, she got us lost. What is the deal with her? We'll be driving around and it's almost as if someone is playing a cosmic joke on us. I don't think there has been one time the lady has helped us out. Bitch.

Finally we found the best grocery store in Rapid City, a Safeway, and I went crazy in there. I really like grocery shopping. When I came out Jacob was just waking from his three hour nap at about the time he should be going to bed. Yay! We attempted to pull out of the back entrance to the parking lot because that was easier than trying to turn around a 31 foot RV. Well, it must have been the delivery entrance or something because the decline out of the parking lot was very steep. The skid plates got caught up on on the curb and the back wheels were just spinning in the air. Great.

Here's what happened right before we left the parking lot: Zach called and made a reservation at a campground 3 hours away. Since it was already 8pm we wouldn’t get there til after they closed, thus we had to pay in full over the phone. It was the first time we had paid before actually checking in, and doing so firmed up the Universe’s plan to get us stuck so that we wouldn’t make it to the campsite and we would lose our money. So I got on the phone to AAA. We are members, so there should be no problem, oh but there was. They wouldn’t cover us in the camper. Thanks for nothing. The woman actually said, “You’re on your own.”

We got the number of a local tow company and got on the phone with them. Before putting us on hold the woman said they would probably have to refer us out to another company as they might not be able to accommodate an RV. We thought we were shit out of luck and scared we'd be there all night. She got back on the phone and said they'd be able to help us afterall. The guy was there in 15 minutes - when have you ever gotten a tow truck within 15 minutes? That was awesome. The guy, actually two guys, got us out in 20 minutes and then only charged $20. What luck! The whole time it was happening though, I was just laughing my butt off at the hilarity of the situation. It was only a matter of time something like that would happen to us because things like that are the theme of my life.

The whole thing only put us behind an hour so we were set to arrive at the campsite now at midnight. Before we got there, there was yet another major bump in the road (almost literally).

Stay tuned for that story....and thanks for all the comments some of you have left. Please leave me more! Zach and I love to read about what you guys think, and send news from home. I'm starting to miss it :-(