Last night, Oops had an allergic reaction to most likely the pine pollen that painted the ground, the table, our shoes, and just about everything in the campsite with yellow powder. We showered quickly at the campgrounds shower (surprisingly comfortable and clean) and then headed into the town to look for coffee and a vet. We had coffee and tried to catch some wi-fi at a local coffeeshop which resides in the old bank building(built in 188?). The wi-fi was a little too slow to use for finding a vet, but one of the locals called up the neighborhood vet to let her know that we were on our way. We stepped across the street to the Baker’s Bakery for a hot meal - we split a monstrous breakfast burrito with a spicy, yummy green chili sauce. After that we high-tailed it to the vet’s office where they were really busy, but took pity on Mr. Oops and squeezed us in for a visit. The vet had to shave even more hair off from his tail (he had to have some spots shaved before we left Austin), clean him up, dust him with some anti bacterial powder, and take his temperature. Poor guy, he also gets to take prednisone andantibiotic. To add insult to injury, he also left with a cone on to keep from scratching and biting. We hope to get him healed up before we try to cross the Canadian Border so he doesn’t wind up in quarantine. A big thank you to Dr. Sharon Seneczko for taking care of Mr. Oops in between a full schedule of surgeries (we saw a husky being wheeled through half sedated) and office visits.
After the trip to the vet, we drove through Custer Park and stopped several times to take pictures and enjoy the serene lakes throughout the park. Next, we took the Needles Highway through the park, which was just amazing. There were waterfalls and deer along the way and we even stopped to soak our feet in a refreshingly crystal clear creek. Needles Hwy is so named because of the needlelike spires that you drive through at the top of the hills. When we got to the highest point of the drive and got out of the car to view the “needles”, it started to rain so we got up under an
outcropping to wait it out. Suddenly we hear a child screaming in terror. A family, everyone from Grandpa and Grandma down to the little girl we heard screaming, of ardent rock climbers decided today would be a good day to introduce 8 year old Suzy to climbing up and rappelling down a pretty much flat faced cliff. When the rain started she really lost it but was finally talked down. She looked like a disaster survivor as they led her to the car. Shame on you Grandma and Grandpa! Our drive up and down the Black Hills caused a terrible smell to come out from under the hood of the car so we stopped in Keystone to let it cool down. We had buffalo sandwiches at Ruby’s Saloon and then strolled through a couple of the gift shops.
Even though the car seemed alright after awhile, the smell had been really awful and we have many, many miles left to go so we decided to go back to Rapid City for the night (about 30 miles off) and take the car in for an oil change a couple hundred miles early and have everything checked out before heading to Deadwood on Wednesday. The car checked out fine, evidently brakes will make that smell sometimes when over taxed but it is not a problem if they are allowed to cool down. The car must be alright because the mechanic didn’t even want to get any money for fixing anything. We checked into a cute little local motel called the Lazy U. Even though they advertise wi-fi, we weren’t able to keep a connection. Kevin talked the owner into letting him work on the router and repeater setup he had so we could get connected. He got the system up and running but unfortunately we still had to pay for our room.More pictures for Day 9
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