Columbus, Montana-June 30, 2012

Columbus is west of Billings. It is a tiny little town with not much going on. However, there are many locations around here that are going to be fun to visit. They're all in the Absaroka Mountain range. The highest peak in Montana is in these mountains. Granite Peak is 12,799 feet high. That's not really so high but it still has snow on it. Cute Red Vehicle was so dirty the couple next door came over to look at it. So, as soon as we had everything connected we went to wash it. When we drove in, we yelled at them to come look at our clean car. They are a young couple from Tennessee. I am making a big assumption here that they must be trust fund babies because as young as they are (estimate 35-42 years of age) they travel 6 months a year and spend the other 6 in Tennessee. Money or not, they are really nice and we have enjoyed talking to them. News of the Colorado fires seems better today. There are about 8 fires burning in Montana. We saw lots of smoke today but there's none here in Columbus. Tomorrow is Sunday and as always, we will try to rest and take the day off. I hope you enjoy your day, too.

Occidental Hotel-June 29, 2012

We stopped into the Occidental Hotel last year so we thought it would be fitting to go there on our last night in Buffalo. Tomorrow we head to Montana. This very old hotel is just spectacular. Most of the stuff is original to the last 1800s, down to all of the Tiffany glass. The saloon is loaded with trophies from times long past.

This deer is an 8 point in the south. It is a 4 point in the rest of the country.

Good looking little deer.

This elk which was shot in Alaska is absolutely spectacular. He and I bonded.

I think this is Bullwinkle's brother, Bruce.

We had buffalo burgers at the hotel saloon. (No restaurants here). It was beyond fabulous. No words to describe how much we enjoyed the meal and our waitress, Keisha. It was a great way to close out our stop here. Keisha had pictures of the Waldo Canyon fire on her iPhone that friends had sent it. They were unbelievable and hard to describe. Bless those people. We look forward to next year. Buffalo is a terrific little town. We feel in love with it last year. Nothing changed this year. Before we left to go into town, the turkeys appeared here. There are far fewer living here than last year. But they are just as large.

Is this fat turkey too small to see? He was a healthy sample of the creatures that live in this park.

I think wild turkeys are not as good to eat as domesticated.

This has been a fun stop just as it was last year. We'll probably stop here again next year. Oh by the way, one of the big fires here has been contained so we could see the snow capped mountains as we headed into town. It's a really pretty part of this country. Northward we go. 



Sheridan, WY-June 28, 2012

We had lunch in Sheridan today. We have really enjoyed walking the streets of these western towns that have been revitalized. They have managed to keep the old west feel and appearance but still have nice stores and restaurants. Sheridan is just such a town. The weather was decent and we enjoyed the time walking and looking. Sheridan is also a town that has interesting bronze statues on most corners. However, they don't have a theme like Rapid City, the City of Presidents. One bronze caught my eye. We both laughed. And while we were standing there laughing a local resident stopped to talk to us and suggest other corners. She said they keep moving them constantly so locals have keep walking to find the new location. So, here's what we were laughing at:

Do you have any idea why anyone would think Sheridan, Wyoming

needs a bronze rhino on one corner?

Then as we were driving out of town there was a digital sign that said "On this day in history, someone (I did not catch the name) said that being a good Christian is driving through Cheyenne without loosing one's religion." How interesting that Sheridan would say that about Cheyenne. The smoke is a little bit better today. It appears to us that the fire we saw east of the interstate might be almost out. It was strictly a brush and tree fire, no structures. Another fun day for us!

Crazy Woman Canyon-June 27, 2012

First, let me say we have two fires burning around us in Buffalo. They are not nearly as bad as what is happening in Colorado, but it surely has restricted our view and made everything smell like smoke. We decided to go to Crazy Woman Canyon anyway. Jerry said I wanted to drive so I would not get left behind! Shame on him. It ended up being a one lane dirt road with ruts and rocks. I felt so badly treating the Cute Red Vehicle so roughly. It is now brown and resting in front of the coach. There are two stories behind the name of this canyon. Both end the same way. A white man brought his wife with him into this Indian territory. They killed him in front of his wife. She lost her mind and roamed through the canyon in a state of insanity for the rest of her days. It is a spectacular canyon with a sad history. Perhaps if you have seen one canyon you have seen them all. I don't think so. This one we had to see through all the smoke which changed the perspective quite a bit. There were two things that were not affected by the smoke; the wildflowers and the butterflies. There were flowers in almost every color imaginable all over the place. And I've never seen so many butterflies of so many different types at any one place anywhere. It was fantastic to see all of them. We were greeted at the entrance by a very dainty but long-legged Pronghorn standing in the middle of the road. I won and she had to move over.

The smoke almost ruined this picture of the entry.

The smoke is lighter here. The rocks were almost spooky looking.

See, the road ahead is narrow. We had to take turns passing when another

vehicle approached.

Crazy Woman Creek was not affected by the smoke. It was really pretty.

Bighorn Peak. 12,350 feet tall. Smoke had lifted here for a brief time.

This was a really pretty canyon almost ruined by a cloud of low hanging smoke. We will have to see it next year when there are no fires around here, hopefully.  Another fun and interesting day. Please pray for the people of Colorado who are being so negatively affected by all the fires in that state. 

Wow, it's HOT-June 25, 2012

Why this park is called Deer Park

A dear deer

They are everywhere. There are some wild turkeys, too, but we have not seen them yet. I think it's too hot. We went downtown today and walked a little. We were originally going to Crazy Woman Canyon but we took too long for lunch. We can do that tomorrow. I need to read more about why it it called Crazy Woman Canyon. When we came back home the deer, three of them, were having lunch behind our coach. I tried walking closer. The deer heard me, lifted their heads but did not run, so I stopped and walked away. I do not intend to upset them. It is truly very, very hot though, thankfully, the humidity is not high. Everything is dry and dusty. It was hot here last year also but that was in August. This is not typial June weather. Every place we have been really needs some rain. The problem is that it comes in spurts and in such volume that it does not do much good. We'll pray for cooler weather tomorrow.

Buffalo, WY-June 23, 2012

We arrived here this afternoon to some pretty intense heat. Such is life. Leaving beautiful South Dakota and driving into Wyoming was like walking through an open door and closing it behind us. South Dakota really is very pretty and welcoming. We crossed the state line and the scenery changed dramatically in an instant. The pretty green grass, trees and meadows turned to brown grass and black soil. That means lots of coal which means oil. That in iteself is good for Wyoming. The entire drive here all we saw was endless natural gas wells. It was surprising. I wonder how many people in how many cities depend on this natural gas? The land is not good for anything else. We did go past a huge power plant near Gillette that had no emmisions at all. We both saw that right away. But the interesting part about this big power plant was that it was connected to its own coal mine. And it was a gigantic strip coal mine, the likes of which neither of us has ever seen. They had their own little rail line of ore carts to move the coal to the power plant. It was just amazing. How effecient is that to not depend on an outside source for the coal it takes to run the power plant? We stayed in this park last year but we are in a different section. It's clean and quiet. We think we can see it all here in Buffalo in a week and then we will head to Montana. I am certain going from Wyoming to wonderful Montana will be like opening and closing yet another door. We are excited to do that. I wish you a restful and peaceful Sunday.

Still here-June 21, 2012

We found out that the park we were going to drive to today is full until Saturday. So, we are here until then. We went to downtown Spearfish. I fell in love with the adorable little town. We found an RV park there, so our next trip through this area, we will stay there. Nice houses, clean streets, really neat little place. We really were ready to move down the road, but it's not a big deal to stay here until Saturday morning.

Ellsworth AFB-June 20, 2012

On our last day in this area, we decided to visit Ellsworth AFB and the museum there. It was well worth the trip. After walking the museum grounds and going through most of the museum we took a one hour tour of the base and a missle silo. We all had to be security checked. After we gave our information and got on the bus, we had to stop at an office by the gate for the security check to be conducted. After about 20 minutes the driver came back and asked a woman for her driver's license. I think everybody on that bus collectively held their breath as she stood up and pulled out her driver's license. This was after the driver had told us of felons being caught on his bus in the past. And recently a "dead" woman was on his bus. She had to go in and it took an hour to get that straightened out. Jerry said he had no idea half of our hour tour was going to be spent in the parking lot! As it turned out it was only a typo that caused this poor woman to be singled out. Note: we were not concerned since we had to have a security check before we got our driver's licenses here. We then went to a missle silo that has been decommissioned. The actual missle which used to have a nuclear warhead was still in the silo. It was a tad claustrophobic in that silo and it also had mold in it. But it was definitely interesting. We had so much information and so many facts thrown at us it will provide us with discussions for weeks to come. There were two planes at the museum that impressed us.

B-52 Bomber

B1 Bomber

The fact that really stuck in our feeble little minds is that on radar, the B1B as it is called, shows as being only 9 square feet in size. The rest of the massive plane does not show up. It can fly as low as 100 feet above the ground at supersonic speeds when it drops its bombs. Think about those numbers. That's really impressive. And one other interesting fact is that the drones in the middle east are being guided from this base. That is also very impressive. This was a delightful day full of lots of interesting things. And yes, as the clouds indicate, it did rain on us. Not a problem.

Reptile Gardens

We went back to downtown Rapid City today. We wanted to see more of the president's statues and check out a couple more stores. Then we had lunch and went to Reptile Gardens. We were there many years ago and it was not even close to what it is now. It is huge and we walked until we were exhausted. We did sit down for the Reptilian Show. It was entertaining to see a young man walk among those huge alligators and crocodiles. He even fed them. Then he showed how to sit on one and hold it's mouth shut. I have no plans of ever doing that but I listened just in case.

I zoomed in too much but you can still see the young man sitting on a 'gator

They have a snake show, too, but there is no way I was going to sit through that one. I had a hard enough time going through the building with the snake displays. I did look at two pythons and was absolutely mortified. They were big enough to swallow a very large animal. So gross. Next we went to the center of the atrium building that has birds, flowers and lizards all in the "wild". The birds and flowers were beautiful. I was not fond of the lizard that crawled across the path.

The orchids were beautiful.

The birds were pretty, too.

We came back through a beautiful canyon. It was a much longer drive than taking the interstate but to see such beauty made it worth while. It was a beautiful day though tiring, however, we'd be happy to repeat the day if we had time. 



A slower day-June 16, 2012

Today was grocery shopping day so it was a slower day than usual. We were glad we weren't gone too long because a huge Prevost bus pulled into the park this afternoon. They're my second favorite after Newell coaches. This one was followed by 6 Harleys. When they finally got settled in, there were 14 leather clad people in that bus. Trust me, even though it's bigger than ours, it cannot hold 14 people comfortably. It was pulling a cargo trailer. They only connected power and that is odd. Most people need water. A short time later a taxi drove in. The stuff in the trailer was unloaded into the taxi. We finally understood. It is a band that will be playing somewhere in Sturgis tonight. We can hardly wait til all those people, after a night of drinking, come rolling in during the wee hours of the morning. They are very close to the camp workers so perhaps the noise will be held down because of that. Tomorrow will be our day of rest and small celebration of Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to all the nice men who read this. Enjoy your special day.

Bear Butte State Park-June 15, 2012

Today we decided to go back to Bear Butte State Park and drive through it. It is so pretty in that area. We drove to the education center which was manned by a Native American. We looked at all of the displays many of which were spiritual. Jerry asked if we could drive down a certain road and the man said no, it was off limits. It's a good thing he asked or we would have driven on it. However, it was acceptable for us to hike up the mountain. Hike? Us? Well, we did. We only made it about 1/3 of a way up the mountain, stopped and took in the view and then slowly decended down a rocky trail. It was actually easier going up than down. The view was indescribable. I'll attach a picture but it will not do the scene justice.

Bear Butte Lake and the northern Black Hills

Bear Butte is actually a Native American spiritual area. They have ceremonies there though none were taking place while we were there. Instructions said not to disturb the prayer ceremony and not to take pictures of it. There are countless remains of the prayer ceremonies left in the trees. We do not know what it means except they show the colors of various tribes, but they are fascinating to look at and wonder about.

There are some fascinating knots holding these pieces of fabric together

As we were leaving we saw some young Buffalo babies (calves?) and they made such a cute picture I had to stop. The babies are such a light brown compared to the almost black mothers. I hope they show up in the picture. This part of the country has such fabulous green pastureland there just has to be buffalo grazing to complete the perfect scenery.

You have to have really good eyes to see the babies, so trust me, they are there

I think I need to start thinking about a better camera, so you can see what I see! The wind has kicked up again, more so than it was earlier. We like the lack of humidity, but my hair needs extra attention because of the dryness. That's not a complaint, just a statement. We are having too much fun to complain. 





 

A different sort of day-June 14, 2012

We stopped at the office this morning to make arrangements to stay another week. We still have so many places to see. We made a couple of stops including the Sturgis Coffee Company. They actually roast their own coffee there. That is rather rare. We'll know tomorrow morning if it's any good. Then we decided to stop and wash the car at one of those places where you put in quarters. They usually do very well but this one did not. By the time we got back to the park, the Cute Red Vehicle looked a tad gray. So, we drug out a bucket, filled it with water and washed the car here. We never asked if it was ok. We were too aggravated to care. Then one of us got the brilliant idea that it would help to wax the car, so out came the wax. We bought a special kind of wax in Arizona. It withstands direct sunlight and heat and hot metal. It goes on smooth as melted butter and polishes beautifully. Now the Cute Red Vehicle is actually red again. But if somebody had told me this morning while I was having coffee that I would be waxing a vehicle today I would have said they were crazy. I must be the crazy one because I did it!! And it looks great. That eliminated being tourists today. Oh well, there's always tomorrow.

Lead, SD-June 13, 2012

We decided to go to Lead to take the Homestake open cut gold mine tour. Wouldn't you know the stupid bus was in the shop getting the a/c repaired? So, we drove around in the interesting little town ourselves. We'll go back another day for the tour. Right behind the office where tickets can be purchased is part of the old open cut gold mine. From the edge you cannot see the bottom. It was breathtaking to see.

Can you believe this is an old open cut gold mine?

Lots of coal is visible, too.

Then we drove to the newly completed Sanford Underground Research Facility. So what are they researching? Dark Matter, also referred to as Dark Energy. Since physics makes my brain want to shut down, let me quote from the brochures. Only 4% of our universe is visible to us. The other 96% is dark matter that emits no light. So, a mile down into an old closed gold mine there will be, in just a few short months, 100 physicists studying dark matter and how to measure it. It is a $300 million project. We saw the entrance and turned around and left. We got nervous just being in the car in the parking lot! These men will be studying particles that are undectable. Does this make sense to you? Well, not to either of us. However, if you need more info, let me know. I'll send you a link or two. Then we left that behind and drove on to Spearfish. It was one of those days where I ran out of adjectives. This countryside is so beautiful. Pictures don't do it justice, so you'll have to take my word for it, or see it for yourself. It's just a blessing to see such beauty. We have decided we need to see more of this area so we are staying another week.

May I share two more pictures?

A golf course along the way to Lead.

Taken from the parking lot where we had lunch.

What a wonderful day!





Question answered-June 12, 2012

Remember we went into a restaurant last night with a name on it and when we came out the name was gone. I stumbled upon the answer today on the City of Sturgis website. The name Easyriders is the name of a long standing magazine and apparel business. So, this restaurant, no doubt, received a cease and desist order from the magazine. The City website said the restaurant remains open with no name until the litigation is settled. I can tell you who will win...........the first one to use the name. They can come up with another clever name here and keep on serving that great food. I wanted to mention two unrelated things. 1) No eating establishment here is actually called a restaurant. They are a "bar and grill" or they are a "saloon". We've not seen a "restaurant" since we left Nebraska. Just goes with the territory I guess. 2) Pine beetles are killing thousands of beautiful trees in this state, especially around Rapid City. There are places where people are trying to clear them and pile them up to burn this winter. But for now, if they have a fire, it is going to be like that fire in Colorado. Ok, those are my thoughts for now. Oh, we walked all of downtown today. Our legs are tired.

Odd happening-June 11, 2012

We had several errands to take care of in Rapid City so we made our way back there this morning without the wind blowing us off the road. We had a very fitful night of sleep because the wind was relentless and extremely strong. We'll catch up tonight. After we got home and unloaded everything we decided we would go to a new restaurant that's only about a block from this park. Easyriders is a 25,000 sq ft building plus a huge outdoor area. It is sized for the rally. We were absolutely stunned when we went inside. It was gorgeous! It was professionally decorated and the colors were outstanding. The artwork on the walls were close to being priceless. We've not sat on seats that nice in years, if ever. We thought it was geared toward being a biker bar. Nope, it was a great restaurant. The food and service were both excellent for a decent price. Here's the odd happening. We went in and it had the name everywhere. We came out and it looked like this.

Can you see the black plastic covering the name? No name showing.

We don't have a clue what happened. Did they sell it while we were in there? It's so new I would hate to think somebody is closing down such a nice place. We wondered if the name Easyriders was a trademarked name and they are having to change the name. What a puzzling event. The owner has a rather unusual vehicle parked out front. We think it qualifies more as a trike than a bike or car. It's cute as a button. Jerry asked him where the radiator is and he replied that it was in the back. Whatever this is, it is really unique.

It's really cute and has a very nice paint job on it.

All in all it was a nice day. The wind has settled down for now. We send our prayers and best wishes to the people in Colorado who are watching the pretty countryside burn up with no help in sight. And we send prayers and hopeful wishes to our friends on the Gulf Coast who are about to drown. Houses and roads under water. People unable to go anywhere. If it gets hot they will have to be concerned about mosquitoes and snakes. More prayers go in that direction. Everyone please take care. 



Deadwood, SD-June 9, 2012

We headed for Deadwood today. We'd been there years ago, but wanted to see it again. We obviously came in from another direction because neither of us remembered the beauty of the drive 14 miles down the road from here through Boulder Canyon. It was absolutely gorgeous. Huge green meadows and gigantic trees. We went past the prettiest golf course either of us has ever seen. We just had no idea that South Dakota was this pretty. We're so glad we came this way. Deadwood has not changed a bit. It is still a gambling town. Even the new Holiday Inn Express has machines in their lobby. All restaurants have slot machines inside of them.  It seems that one of Deadwood's claims to fame is this sign.

I wonder if this is really true?

There's one thing for sure, you can walk your legs off in this town. It's not level either. So, you get a great workout. We didn't mind. It was a gorgeous day and we were happy to be out in it. We plan to have a restful day tomorrow. Hope you do the same. 

Famous place-June 8, 2012

Neither of us wanted to bite off a big project today, so we drove around Sturgis. We found the Buffalo Chip and the Full Throttle Saloon. There's a TV show about the Full Throttle. Just like the other places we've seen that are on TV, we were sort of surprised at how small both of these places are. We are seeing them before the thousands of people pack into them like they do during rally week. We did not go into the parking lots far enough to get good pictures so you'll just have to take my word for it. The Full Throttle was open for lunch serving barbecue. No, thanks. Then we drove through Bare Butte State Park. It's very pretty. This "mountain" almost looks like a dormant volcano, but I cannot document that statement.

 Then we drove up a beautiful canyon and found a cave we spent hours looking for many years ago. It's called Wonderland Cave. We were so frustrated the cave was so elusive that we said it was a wonder anybody could find the cave. Derrick, this one's for you. We found it!

We did not go in. We are not into caves.

After we got back, we walked a couple of levels higher in this park to get a good view of Sturgis. The higher we walked the noisier it got. We are on the lower level and it is very quiet here. On top we heard all of the road noise. Here's a view from the top of this park.

We are only a one block walk from town.

We might head to Deadwood tomorrow. Those decisions are normally made over a cup of morning coffee. The weather was great today. No wind. No rain. 



Sturgis, South Dakota-Jun3 7, 2012

We moved up the road a few miles today to Sturgis. That's the little tiny town where they have the huge motorcycle rally every year in August. It's just an ordinary little town now but grows by hundreds of thousand of people in early August. We don't plan to stick around for that. As soon as we got checked in and set up, it started raining. It is not a bad storm, just a steady rain. It sure beats 50 mph winds! We are not complaining. Things were very dry in Box Elder, so right now the rain feels good and smells clean. Hopefully it will let up tomorrow so we can go exploring. There are a number of activities to do around here so we will be here at least a week.

Mt Rushmore and lots more-June 5, 2012

Beautiful Mt Rushmore

There is something so special about this place and no words to tell you what it is. We just sat and enjoyed the spectacular beauty. Well, we had to hold onto our seats as today's wind is the worst we have experienced in many years. It is really starting to affect everybody. But we were determined to enjoy the day. Since we saw the movie "American Treasure" with Nicholas Cage in 2004, we have wondered if there was really a lake behind Mt Rushmore. There is! The last time we were here we left the way we came in. Today we left on a different route and saw Horsethief Lake. It's really pretty. It also gave us a chance to see George Washington from a different side.

Doesn't George look magestic?

 We also stopped at Crazy Horse. Not a single thing as been done to the mountain since we were here last. However, the improvement to the Visitor Center was startling. It used to be just a rock pit with glass around it. Now it is full of tons of beaded Native American clothing that has been donated for displays. Such incredible beadwork. There are hundreds of family photos and lots of original letters that families have given to be put in huge diplay cases. It was really nice to see all of it. But what a waste that mountain is. It will never be finished because the owners are making a big living off of the visitor center without having to work on the carving.

It's only a 6 miles walk, one way, from the visitor center to the top

of Crazy Horse's arm. No thanks.





Then we drove to Hill City to have lunch. We ate at the Mangy Moose. Now I ask you what are the odds we could go to Hill City, SD and encounter a singer from Pensacola, Florida? It only happens to us. So when he sang his first song that had LA in it, he added "Lower Alabama". And who ever heard of live music on a Tuesday afternoon? Tim was a good piano player and a decent singer. We had a great time talking to him.

Doesn't look fancy, but it was good.

Then we walked through town and encountered two of these unusual horses. I think they qualify to be called artwork. It sure made us smile as we figured out all of the everyday pieces that it took to make the creatures. Here's one.

Sorry, this one is not a horse. It's a mule. But fun anyway!



The Badlands-June 4, 2012

Fortunately and quite unlike us, we were up early this morning. We decided to take in a trip through the Badlands, not too far from Wall, SD. We've been there before and knew we wanted to go back. It is so spectacular that printed words or even pictures on this blog will not tell you what it is really like. But I want to share anyway. It is over 242,000 acres of rough and rugged land that makes the formation of the earth come to life. You can easily see how this land was once underwater. This is just an incredible place to visit and enjoy. As with Yellowstone, every entrance is different.

Looking back at where we had entered

The rock appears in a variety of color. The yellow flowers are

a pervasive weed called Yellow Clover. It really has a strong fragrance

This shows all the layers of rock and ash that is prevalent in the Badlands

You can't see it but this Bighorn sheep never took his eye off of me.

He is old and also molting for upcoming summer heat.

What a beautiful place to visit. They have a fabulous visitor's center with excellent displays and lots of interesting information. This is another one of those places that just has to be seen in person to see the magnificence. We are so happy we got to see it again. 

1880 Train-June 3, 2012

This afternoon we rode the old steam engine train from Keystone, SD to Hill City and back. It's in the heart of the Black Hills National Forest. We also rode a train to the Grand Canyon last year. This one was not as nice as that one but great fun anyway. The engineer was close to being a stand up comic and tried to convince us that the South Dakota state fish was the humpback whale. We did not fall for it! Going to Hill City we were in the last car. The engine changed places for the return trip so we were the first car behind the engine. There is something unique about this train that makes it the only one of its kind in the world. I am telling you I think I lost my hearing on the return trip. They have to blow the whistle 3 times every time they cross a road and there are 19 crossings on the route in each direction. Oh my what noise. I just tried and I cannot attach it to this blog. It was so good, too. So, here are some pictures I can attach.

It's easy to take a picture of the engine when you're in the last car.

All along the entire route in both directions, people get out of

their cars or run out of their houses to wave at the train. I waved back!

The Addie Store was used during gold mining days.

Harney Peak in the distance. It's the highest peak east of the Rockies

all the way to the Swiss Alps.

The scenery was very, very pretty. The ride was great fun. The weather cooperated. We are so glad we had a chance to take this train ride. We highly recommend it if you're in this area. There is so much more that we learned but his blog is already way too long. What a great afternoon!

Yes, at last-June 2, 2012

We have our DirecTV back! Yippee!!!! The powers that be decided we deserved a free service call plus a credit on our account. Trust me, after loosing the major part of two days we did deserve it. When the technician drove up today we could see him looking at the top of the coach, sort of like he was saying "I'm not climbing up there!". He didn't have to and we knew that when he arrived but we loved watching his face. He was very, very smart and quickly solved the problem. He had it up and running in no time. And we are so happy. It takes so little to make us happy. It was only a matter of making older equipment compatible with new equipment. We are sad to have lost the time we wanted to be tourists, but it was worth it to be connected with the outside world again. Locally we receive local channels in two different time zones, which is weird, but it still did not keep us connected with the outside world. The weather is really getting nice here so we may just have to find a nice place to walk tomorrow afternoon. I wish you all a very happy and peaceful Sunday.