May 10, 2017

It is so nice to be able to change plans on a whim. This morning we planned to go to the botanical garden. The morning turned out to be rainy so we changed plans. We went to the most wonderful rock shop. Custom Gems. Great people, prices, fossils and information. They showed us their personal site collecting map for South Dakota and let us take pictures and gave us travel trips. Based on the information from them and our desire to stay off the interstate as much as possible (2 accidents on the way to rock shop involving tractor trailers turned over) we opted to go to Ashfall the animal Pompeii. This was an amazing site where millions of years ago animals were killed by volcanic ash from a Yellowstone eruption. From there we traveled the back roads to Valentine. This small town has hearts lining its main street. As we were taking a stroll Leighton asked very seriously, “Why do you think everything around here has to do with hearts?” to which I responded, “??????”
We went to the Bull Market for dinner. Hilarious place. I thought they were serving turkey meat balls and thought that would be tasty. The waitress didn’t know how to respond when I asked her what they were made with. She slowly said turkey balls, balls that’s all. Check out the menu pic. Great beer too. They had tasters so I tried a chocolate, cherry brown ale that wasn’t very sweet but was very good.

2 is a small horse fossil.

3 is a barrel-chested rhino fossil.

This shows all the fossils found in this area – they were left as found so everyone could see

We are both looking forward to spending a few days in the same location. Tomorrow we arrive in the Badlands! Yeah.!

Below shows a typical road we were on and the change in terrain from flat to hilly.

The town of Valentine, NE.

Kinda makes your mouth water, doesn’t it.