We head out of Custer and decide to stop in Rapid City, SD.  It has a unique thing about their downtown area.  Over a 4 block radius on every corner they have a bronze statue of one of our presidents and something that was special about them or regarding them.  For instance, Thomas Jefferson is standing at a writing desk, writing the declaration of Independence.  Several Presidents are shown walking their dogs or hunting, can you figure out which one that was?  It was great fun to stroll through this part of town and check them all out.  We were mostly interested in heading to the Petrified Forest.

So while the Black Hills are known for their rich minerals, they are also known for their large amounts of fossils, both of plant and animals.  There’s a fabulous museum that shows the history of the area, the fossils you can expect to find and the many that have already been found.  The Black Hills Petrified Forest in Piedmont, South Dakota has some great areas where you can pick from the Rock shop as well as hike through the petrified forest.  When you see fossilized shells on the tops of mountains, it is much easier to see how the whole world was covered by the flood and how quickly fossils can be made from events like this.  This was very clearly made known to us at Mt St Helens in Washington State.  It a matter of a day massive amounts of fossils were made by the lahar flow and the glacial melting.

As we hit the road again, we are reminded why we are heading back to the PNW in September, Kurt’s dad passed away and we are going back to the funeral.  Kurt is very thankful that when we were at his dad’s place in May, even though we had to visit him through a window at the nursing home, that he got to see him one last time.  Kurt’s Dad, Ken Finch, had a stroke and was in outpatient recovery at a local nursing home when we were there for a family reunion.  He was so bummed that he could not see the grand kids and great grand kids and he couldn’t be a part, so we rallied the troops.  

The nursing home that he was in had a COVID outbreak right before we got there, so they had to stop visitation.  Well I knew from being in the Seattle area that many nursing homes set up window visits to try to keep their patients spirits up.  So I got a hold of the director of the nursing home and explained the situation and got permission to do a window visit for dad.  In the meanwhile, we had the great grand kids making big posters and putting messages all over them that we would put up in his room’s window, then when he wakes up the nurses would open his window and he would see them all.  One of the grand kids even drew a complete schematic of the nursing home and showed him the escape route.  Of course they had great fun with it, and he absolutely loved it.  He loved that we didn’t leave him out and we helped him to feel a part of the reunion.  Especially since that was the last time he got to see any of us.  Every time we talked on the phone, it was all he could talk about, so that made all the effort worth it.  

Part of this adventure that we are now on is all about prioritizing what is most important to us and doing it, instead of allowing society to dictate to us how we should live our lives and what we should prioritize.  COVID made a lot of folks slow down and realize they might be on the wrong hamster wheel, or just need to completely get off the wheel.  When we saw our teams struggling, the Lord just said it’s time to hit the road and now we get to be on one of the best adventures of our life and you get to come along virtually.  So buckle up we are heading out of the Spokane area and heading to Seattle!