Sod House--South Dakota

September 2012

Shelby was excited to visit the sod house and location of a prairie dog colony at the edge of the Badlands.

Aren't they cute? Prairie dogs communicate with each other via a series of whistles. Studies have shown they even have specific whistles for individual people and animals. Fascinating!

My favorite room in the house---the kitchen.  One of these days, I will learn to cook on a woodstove. I should add that goal to my bucket list. :)

Words cannot express how thankful I am for indoor plumbing. I would gladly live without electricity and every other modern convenience if it meant I could keep indoor plumbing.

I would have spent a lot of time here during tornado season.

This was the best popcorn ball ever! It was the size of my head, seriously. Shelby and I split it for an afternoon snack on our drive across South Dakota.

Iowa sunset
After touring the Badlands, we decided to drive all the way across South Dakota, a bit of Nebraska, Iowa, and half the state of Missouri to reach Grandma's house. We had already stopped at all the places we planned to tour, and wanted to spend the weekend with Grandma. Nothing noteworthy occurred on the drive aside from seeing a dead porcupine along the highway. Shelby and I figured a porcupine, even a dead one, was a rare enough species to add to our wildlife logbook. :)
After 16+ hours of driving and singing every song from the Sound of Music, we finally arrived at 2:00 a.m. Grandma was waiting up for us and we probably would have slept until noon had the exterminator not arrived at 9:00 a.m. for the yearly inspection of the house!

We met Grandma's new kitten. He was a feisty little fellow. He would ambush us and attack our feet.

We spent Saturday and Sunday with Grandma, then drove to Mom and Dad's house for a few days. After that, I took Shelby home to Kentucky, returned to Missouri, and our cross-country saga officially came to an end.