Where have I been? Here, I'll show you.

R. and I took off for a long long trip two weeks ago. There were two main goals. 1. Go to Ohio to join up with GeoJourney to travel with them for a week or so and teach students about bison use on the Plains and 2. Go to Sam and Kelly's wedding in Ann Arbor. On the first day, we flew from Tucson to Las Vegas to Atlanta to Toledo, a very long day of flying.

We spent the first day in Bowling Green packing and getting ready for the trip. It was a lot of hard work that ended in a trip to Jed's (can't find a link) to eat the BG delicacy "fireballs" which are basically teeny tiny boneless chicken wings. In the morning, we met the students and then took off for our first big drive. That night we camped in Wisconsin in a place that I imagined might look like the big woods.

That night we had a huge huge HUGE storm that sent the students running to the vans. I was running around trying to help people save their tents until trees started falling in camp (three of them!). So there I was. In my underwear. in front of 25 students. all wet. very cold.

The next day, we drove across Minnesota and South Dakota to the badlands. Along the way we went to the Corn Palace!! Bad. Ass.

Here are a selection of Prairie shots plus a big storm that was building up in the south:

Then we went to the Badlands where we watched the meteor shower and tried to let all of our gear dry out:

Then, we drove through Wounded Knee, Custer State Park, and visited a mammoth site.

Then, we climbed the highest point in South Dakota, Harney Peak. It was a gorgeous hike.

Then, we drove to Belle Fourche, Spearfish, and Camp Crook in South Dakota. There we met Mike the Buffalo rancher. We bought a 2 year old bull from Mike. In the morning, we butchered the buffalo using stone tools and traditional techniques. The students were wonderful, and they worked really hard. I will spare you the pictures of Buffalo day. The next morning, we drove to Ranch A in Wyoming. I love Ranch A so much and I wish I could spend the whole summer there.

After that, it was time for Rob and I to head east as quickly as we could to get to Sam and Kelly's wedding.

On the way, Rob was so sweet and agreed to drive two hours out of the way to go see DeSmet, South Dakota, the real Little Town on the Prairie. We were in a huge hurry and it was getting dark, so we didn't spend much time there. I consider this a preliminary visit to scope the place out before we come back with Katie. I wished I had had Laura Ingalls' maps when I was there because I wasn't able to find all of the places I wanted to see. We did see the homestead site:

And some local farmland:
And the house that Pa built on Third Street:

Then we raced as fast as we could to Michigan for the wedding. There are no pictures of us that do not show how tired we were and how much wine we'd had, so here's a picture of Kelly in the car on the way to the wedding:

It was beautiful and we wish them well.

Whew! So that's it. Now we're back. We have mountains of laundry and lots of housecleaning to do, but we're glad to be sleeping in our own bed.