We found South Dakota and especially the Black Hills so very green and lush. The cows grazing in the fields were fat and slick, a testimony to the plentiful grass available to them, but again you could see the tremendous presence of those dead and dying red bug trees. We were relieved when the fire danger was rated as low basically based on the ample moisture that fell during the winter and spring!
South Dakota is our intended place of residency as the state has a very attractive program for full-time RVers. We jumped right into getting insurance for me, driver’s licenses for both of us, and voter registrations. All things were simple and easily done as the processes were streamlined and painless to accomplish. We were officially residents of South Dakota after a single day!
We were free to explore the plentiful sites of interest in the Black Hills. I was astounded at not only the variety but the sheer number of things to do. It was kind of a RV wonderland with the granite carving of Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse nestled near to Custer State Park and all its pristine lakes, tunnels and rock spires.
The Wind Cave was one of the largest caves in the U.S. It was made a National Park in 1903 and even today has not been fully explored but guesstimates of it being 140 miles long. It is a dry cave meaning there was little moisture still coming into the caverns, so that was different as we were used to younger caves that still had aquifers feeding them. The caverns were large but the passages were narrow and I spent a lot of time bent over as the ceiling was not set for anybody over 5’10” plus the tour we chose had 450 up and down steps. It was like exercising at 53 degrees Fahrenheit while being at half-mast! It was fun to walk along exploring its limestone caverns. Caves are cool! LOL
That large cave wetted our curiosity, so we went to another Cave that held the largest Dog Tooth crystals in the world. They were indeed large at 18” long and this cave was a wet cave with the occasional cave kiss coming down on us.
Practically next door to our RV resort was a drive through safari like park called Bear Country, The two mile auto trek was full of wolves, Elk, Deer, Caribou, Mountain Lions and tons of Bears. They kept the Grizzlies separate. I wonder why? NOT! This made for some really good close up pictures of animals without the usual wire separation between the animal and visitors. I usually would shy away from these types of displays, but this was so tastefully done, it was really enjoyable. I got some really good photos of animals not normally available.
The icing on the South Dakota stay was a helicopter trip around Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Monuments. It was a special treat to honor Mia’s near perfect report card!
It was really grand to see the carved faces with their brilliant white granite looking straight at us. 
It was quite the feat to take photos as the vibration and plexus-glass of the helicopter made long efforts to get a perfect focus near impossible. I relied on pulling the trigger the instant the landscape came into focus It worked as I got some incredible shots of the monuments and surrounding area.
The Fourth of July burst on to the Black Hills with a brilliant clear day and our thoughts turned to the planned events around Rapid City, but within hours a solid line of thunderstorms descended on area. They lingered for hours with a steady drenching downpour of two-pound raindrops. I can imagine the concern of all those pyro-technicians around the area hustling and covering their fireworks against that kind of moisture onslaught.
We settled in and laughed all day at America’s Funniest Videos, ate cookies and chocolate and had a blast!! Fireworks or not we had a great 4th of July just doing nothing but being together. Sometimes it is just fun doing nothing but chilling out.
We were coming to the end of our stay in the Black Hills. We are headed to the adventure of the Great areas of U.S… the northern Great Plains and the Great Lakes! Our next stop was near the border of South Dakota and Minnesota to gather ourselves for a final push towards the Great Lakes.