The last photo and journal entry from June 6th

Journal entry: "June 6th... Happy Birthday to me! We are spending my birthday on the road this year. We are currently on 90 heading home from Badlands National Park. In my last entry I had mentioned I was unsure whether we would find a spot there on the weekend, well, it turned out to be no problem, however, we chose to spend Friday night in Wind Cave National Park on our way to the Badlands just to break up the drive from the Rocky Mountains National Park. We had arrived at Wind Cave just in time for the last tour of the day... so that was kind of cool. That cave was much colder than Carlsbad Caverns and much more "cave like" in that the passage ways were much smaller and less cavernous. :) It was an interesting contrast to Carlsbad. Camping that night was less fortunate however... we were having dinner when four packed carloads of boy scouts set up in the site next to us. The ranger had apparently approved this since their group site was not yet "open" for the season. We were glad we were planning on just staying the one night after that less than quiet stay. We had arrived at the Badlands near lunchtime, and the camp ground was nearly empty. We had some linguine with a creamy pesto/walnut/parm sauce (one of my favorite camp meals) and then took off to take pictures and play. When we got back around 7pm the campground had filled up but there were still plenty available sites. For dinner that night I tried a new camp meal... Couscous mixed with Trader Joes pre-made Chana Masala, Cucumber slices on the side, and Chickpea patties. It is my new favorite camp meal I think! After dinner we went to the night program where they talked about the night skys and constellations. The rangers used really strong laser pointers to point out planets and stars. I now know which one is the north star and the two stars that the scientists are expecting to become supernovas anytime now. When they do explode they will give us a second sun for 90-120 days! I hope we are not camping in the desert when that happens!

On the way home we stopped here so I could say that I went to the corn palace for my birthday.