Vacation comes to an end...but not without some interesting happenings

It's Wednesday night, June 13th and the Link's have made it back to Dubuque! It feels so good to sit in my chair in our den watching the movie "Cars" with Chaz and summarizing the last few days.

As you may recall, when we last spoke, we were just finishing up at the KOA. On Monday, we packed up and somehow I remembered how to hook the camper back up to the Suburban. We drove the camper back to Jack's Campers in Piedmont. Not without incident however as the door of the camper flew open as we drove through Rapid City and then a Rapid City street repairman pounded on the Suburban window to tell me I wasn't going to make it through the yellow light at the intersection I was just about to enter. After stopping, rolling down my window and thanking him with my middle finger, we got the camper back to Jack's.

We then went through the Badland's National Park. Again, like everything on this trip, if you haven't been through South Dakota, this is a must see!

The Badland's simply rise out of the grasslands of the South Dakota Plains. Its amazing and as my kid's commented, it looks like God simply put "drip sand castles" in South Dakota.

After driving through the Badlands, we decided to 2 lane blacktop it to Sioux City. We got as far as Valentine, NE where we found a very nice Holiday Inn Express. With two adjoining rooms, after a week in a camper, we felt like we were in a Ritz. Pizza, beer and pop and the day was complete.

On Tuesday, after bandaging Chaz who cut his thumb on a piece of metal in the sunroof, we drove to Sioux City. We took old Highway 12, the Outlaw Trail. Its beautiful country and if you travel through Niobrara, NE stop at Ole's Diner for the best open faced, beef, gravy and potatoe platter on this side of the Missouri River. We got into Sioux City late that afternoon where we spent the evening with our good friend Anne Garreans and her kids.

Here's Sam, Grace and Chaz drying off after a hard evening of swimming and making me chase tennis balls.

Anne, trying to help Grace with her sandal.Jack, Noah and Tabitha taking a moment to pose.

Gracey wrapped up and shivering trying to stay warm. That smile never left her face.

Eliza poking her head up through the ladder

We retired early that night after sittin on the deck with Anne determined to finish my crossword puzzle. Thanks again for the beers, Anne!

On Wednesday, I met Stormy at the airport and we had meeting at American Pop Corn, ie Jolly Time Pop Corn.

I loaded up the family and we headed to Dubuque. After more than 2100 miles of driving, I had an accident in Sac City, IA. I hit a pole at a Subway and dented in the front passenger door of the Suburban and trashed the mirror. I was furious with myself for making such a mistake and through a temper tantrum in the parking lot of the Subway!

The culprit....the sign pole. No damage done to it except for keeping some of the Suburban's white paint.
We made it back to Dubuque about 6:30 pm. We were tired and frankly somewhat sick of each other but at the same time we felt very together as a family...we can share experiences for years to come.