Hi! SUPER SLACKERS over here. It has been a few months since we have logged onto our blog and shared an update, sometimes a break is needed, but happy to be back!

We wrapped up our time in South Dakota with a couple special visitors, Korey’s parents!! It was fun to get to show them around where we had been for so many months before we followed each other to Minnesota for the sugar beet harvest. We will share about the sugar beet harvest experience this year later on. Back to a happier note, Korey’s parents drove all the way from Southern California to meet up with us in the Black Hills!

It was so great to get to see them, it had been over a year so we definitely spent a lot of time catching up, having dinner together and they taught us how to play a game called “dime me”….I lost count of how many nights we played that game but it was FUN! Looking forward to seeing them again over Christmas so we can play again 🙂

While in the Black Hills we LOVED visiting Custer State Park so this was the spot we were most excited to bring them. We drove around looking for bison and all of us were excited like little kids, something about watching them is definitely a favorite pastime.  There was also the Needles Highway drive, it was a must. They enjoyed the park as much as we did, what a great day!

Heading to the Badlands National Park and Wall Drug was also a stop we wanted to make with them. The day started out rough though, as we got on the freeway to head in that direction our truck started to lose power. Luckily we found a diesel mechanic that was able to get us in that same day so we had a bit of a detour with dropping the Dodge off and Steve driving. Thankful that they had their truck too so the day wasn’t a wash! (side note about the truck, it ended up only needing a new fuel filter…YAHOO!). The Badlands NP isn’t huge so we were able to make multiple stops on our drive through, hit up Wall Drug afterwards for our touristy souvenirs and make it back to pick up the truck before they closed. While in the Badlands we were on the lookout for the Bighorn Sheep and Bison….no sheep this time but we lucked out and saw Bison at the exit of the park…another oooooh, awwwww, loooook! moment.

Mount Rushmore was on the list to hit up as well, unfortunately this summer there is a lot of construction going on so they did not get the full experience but they still enjoyed it. We got some ice cream, sat around people watching, checked out the gift shop, got our NP Passports stamped (a must if you are visiting NP’s and monuments around the country) and took it all in.

They love little historical towns like we do so no need to convince them to go to Deadwood! They went back on their own a 2nd time because they loved it so much! On our trip together we also went up to the Mount Moriah Cemetery where Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane are buried. A lot of people think Deadwood is just too touristy and full of casino’s, that isn’t false info, it is, but there is so much history to take in that we very much enjoyed all of our visits.

One thing that we all really wanted to do was go to Wind Cave National Park, or Jewel Cave. Unfortunately the elevators into the caves were closed at both parks so we decided to head down to the Mammoth Dig Site and happy that we did! It was so interesting to learn all about the active dig, what they are finding and see the fossils. Pretty neat experience!

Korey’s dad got to hop on a Harley and cruise into Sturgis too….that was fun to hear about, he seemed to have a great time! Oh..and YES, he rode in shorts and no helmet so we were all anxiously awaiting his SAFE return.

We are so thankful that they made the trip to hang out with us while Korey wrapped up his workamper job at Jack’s Campers & explored the Black Hills with us!

More to come soon on our travels to Minnesota for the sugar beet harvest & excited to share what we have been up to since then, along with our plans into next year!