The post office and UPS people have been busy at our house the past few days. On Wednesday alone UPS had dropped off two packages and the mailman delivered the mail to the house because he had a very large package that wouldn’t fit in the mailbox. And then today, UPS was back again with another delivery. The fruit that Donna & Earl had bought for us was delivered. The only problem was I was gone and Nancy didn’t think to look by the front door to see if there was anything. She was talking to her Mom around 6:30 when her Mom asked if the fruit was delivered. Well she went and checked, and sure enough it was. I had one of the tree ripened oranges and it sure was good. A whole lot better than you find in the store – plus when you peel it, the skin is so thin you don’t throw away half the orange like store bought ones.

Yesterday was also busy because Nancy and I had signed up, along with another couple, to provide the meal at the Church’s Wednesday Night Youth Formation program. Nancy and Linda decided on chili dogs. Well, between the two of them we ended up with a full 18 quart roaster of chili. As it turned out, that wasn’t any too much. The kids must have liked it because there wasn’t much left. The big pan of brownies and four dozen cookies disappeared too.

We had a big meal on Thanksgiving. Nancy made me cut up the Yams (she sure picked up some large ones) and peel the potatoes and help with a few other things. Brenden’s family came over for the meal. We had a good time. Brenden’s Dad had to go to work so he had to leave early.

Today we went on a road trip. We started out heading into Rapid City to top off the Exped with gas. Then headed down Hwy 79 to 36 to Custer State Park. We took the wildlife loop and saw lots of buffalo, antelope and some Big Horn Sheep. And of course we did what we usually do, and take some of the gravel roads – much more interesting. We then headed into Custer and ate some lunch.

We headed up Hwy 385 to Deadwood. It was different seeing the hills with snow. When we got to Deadwood, we parked the Exped then walked down to Salon #10. Dad had talked about getting beer there so that is what we did. At least that is what Dad and I did. Matt had a Coke and Nancy dropped some quarters in the slot machine with Cathy watching her. They then headed down the street to see what they could find while we finished our drinks. But before we left, Dad had to try his luck with the slot machines. It cost him $1.25 for his first experience with them. After that we headed out to find Nancy and Cathy, which we did at the jewelry store across the street.

Our next stop was to head up Spearfish Canyon to see the Spearfish Falls. Only 11 days earlier, the Spearfish Falls made a return after an 86 year absence. What had happened was Homestake had diverted the water from the Little Spearfish Creek (the same creek that produced the Roughlock Falls) to an underground pipe system to run a generating plant. On November 17th, the pipes were closed so the water returned to falls. They are located at Savoy. It is about half mile walk down the hill to see them. It was pretty spectacled to see them especially in the cold weather with frost and frozen water. Fortunately we got there soon enough that there was enough light to get some good pictures. They may show up under photo’s some day.