August 11, 2022
A very busy day planned for today. For starters, our youngest grandson, Braxton, turns 7 today. He’s Andrew’s little brother. So whatever we do we have to be somewhere so we can FaceTime him when he opens his presents. We are actually starting our day in Custer. The Custer Community Church holds a breakfast the Monday thru Friday of Sturgis. The breakfast cost us $12 each and it was all you can eat pancakes, sausage, bacon, eggs, and biscuits and gravy. Very good and for a good cause.
After breakfast we went up to Rapid City to pick up our order of bagels from Black Hills Bagels. While we are in Rapid we took our recycles to the recycling center. Then the plan was for Nancy to get her hair cut and get her fingernails done. I dropped her off at the designated locations and I went on over to Sam’s Club and picked up a few items we needed. Then I went back to wait on Nancy.
For some strange reason I wanted to go to the Black Hills Harley dealer. Just to say I was in the madness of Sturgis, at least once. Nancy decided to wait in the truck with the A/C running. It was very windy, sunny and 101 degrees. I made my rounds and survived.
After the Harley dealer we found Piesano’s Pizza again. This time they were open. We went in and had some lunch/dinner. We took our leftovers home. Finally found some decent pizza. We left Bree home today because of the high temperatures. Belinda and Kathy look after her when we do these day trips. She does great for them and we are very appreciative of them offering to look after Bree. They’re buddies.
On the way home we decided to drive thru Bear Country USA again. The awesome thing is that it is one of our free passes from the VIP card. The animals were a little more active this time even though it was very hot. We took a lot of pictures and movies and even walked around the outdoor exhibit this time. It was a great day. We saw a lot of different animals. Here’s the link to their webpage which describes the animals. ANIMALS.
Just as we got home, our son texted us and said that Braxton would be ready for FaceTime in about 15 minutes. It worked out perfectly. We saw him blow out his candle and eat his cupcake after the family had sung him Happy Birthday. While he was eating, we had the chance to briefly talk to Andrew and caught up with Phillip and Michelle. Once he was finished we saw him open his presents. Not the same as actually being there but for now it’ll have to do.
I have to keep reminding myself that this is a once in a lifetime adventure. Phillip also reminds me. I still miss everyone.
