Crazy Horse & Crazy Dogs...

After packing up camp, we hit the road with our ultimate destination for the day being Wall Drug. The day started with a leisurely drive through the tourist-y towns of Custer and Keystone. Harold made the mistake (?) of saying something like, “Okay, you guys just tell me where you want to stop, and I’ll stop.” Of course the kids and I all figured he must’ve lost his mind or at least had given up any hope of ever staying on any kind of pre-determined course of travel.

Anyway, there were two or three “I wanna’ stop” hollers for different stores, mostly rock shops or trading posts (meaning, “You trade me your hard earned cash for my made-in-China junk.”) or souvenir stores. Then we passed this really pretty brown dog (she looks like she’s at least part chocolate lab) trotting down a busy road. All of a sudden everyone is hollering, “I wanna’ stop!!!” So we did. She was (is) a really pretty, clean and friendly dog and the kids fell in love practically before we ever even got a chance to look at her twice. Why, oh, why do we do things like this??????

Harold & I were relieved to find that the dog had a collar with tags, including owner’s name and phone number. The owner was fairly easy to get in touch with, and we figured we’d drop the dog off to her grateful owner and that would be that. Harold, in speaking to the owner, offhandedly made mention that he had eight kids who would love to take her off his hands. The man said, “Fine, they can keep her.” We figured he was joking, set up a place to meet him and loaded up the dog. As the man approached our camper, he re-iterated his offer. He was serious. In fact, he had a lady who was supposed to come to his house this evening to take a look at her. He wanted to do some extensive traveling and the dog wouldn’t be going. He said if the kids wanted her, he’d just tell the lady he’d found a taker (or 10).

I really wonder if something bad happened to Harold the other day. Remember, I said he wasn’t feeling well? Maybe it was an alien abduction or something? What are we going to do with three dogs? And this dog will be in the camper for a week and she’s not little. Really, I’m just kidding. I was actually in favor of bringing her home, too. So far, she’s been amazingly sweet with the kids and she seems relatively intelligent.

Anyway, after we picked up “Chip” (she was already named) we drove past the Crazy Horse monument. I’m going to have to go online and read some more about that. So far, all I know is I agree about the “crazy” part. I realize it’s unfinished, but it’s evidently been unfinished for a loooooong time. Laundry was piling up so we found a laundry mat and I did laundry while Harold took the kids to find a play ground and some pizza. It’s official…I could’ve bought a washer/dryer set for what we’ve spent on laundry on this trip! It cost $2.50 per load just to wash today not including drying! With 8-10 loads, that adds up! I don’t know how people afford it who HAVE to go to the laundry mat.

Wall Drug will have to wait until tomorrow. The day got away from us a bit. We found a little gas station that has RV hookups for $5.00/night where we’ll be staying tonight. I really like being so self-contained. It’s different than the pull-behind camper because there’s less work to setting up and packing up each time. We roll in, make out our beds, sleep, get up, take showers, eat and then roll out. I wasn’t sure how I’d like it, but for this trip, this has worked perfectly. Since we don’t have another vehicle, we have to shop very intentionally to make sure we have everything we need before we settle in for the night, but that’s worked out fine, too.

Here are a few pictures of how we travel in here. Sometimes it feels like one of those puzzles where you have all the little, square, moveable pieces in a plastic frame and you have to slide one piece out of the way before you can move another piece into place, then you have to slide a few more pieces before you can get the other pieces where they belong. The difference is that in our case, the frame is the motor home, and the pieces are us. No denying it’s been tight, but as the old saying goes, love grows best in small spaces.One day when I was doing laundry, a fellow lady launderer and I were exchanging information about our travels. Pretty soon, she asked me how many children I have. When I told her eight, she said, “Boy, you all must really like each other to be able to travel all this way in such close quarters!” Her comment caught me by surprise, and I thought about it a minute, then replied, “Yeah, we do!” What a pleasure to be able to say that! I don’t just love these people I spend my days with—I really LIKE them, too.