-- Mmm... Raisins... Good...

Sometimes this fur coat of mine is a pain.  These hot temperatures have been trying at times during this road trip.  My dad said he thought it would be cold in these northern states, and lately, I have been really regretting my anti-rain dance from a week ago.  I had no idea it would work so well and now I am paying the price by enduring this heatwave.  I've noticed that my mom seems irritable lately as well. 

Our first task today was a shopping excursion at a store named “Cabela’s” in Rapid City, South Dakota.  It’s a hunting and fishing store with lots of outdoor-type stuff. 

Ain't I tiny?

I wore my Dog-in-Training vest so I could practice how a good-natured doggy should behave in a public store.  My dad shopped for a new hat…
this is the one I picked out for him:

My my mom took me over to a display area. 

There were all kinds of critters and we had a staring contest (they won)-- none of them even moved.  I tried to get a closer look and they didn’t flinch-- every one of them remained frozen in time-- they were so good at it… and they didn’t smell much either.

My mom wouldn’t let me enter the display area to investigate so we headed toward the gun section.  I posed for a quick photo for my brother Richy in Iraq.  He likes guns. 

Ain't I official-looking?

With so many critters in the store, it made me hungry.  We loaded up the Supervan with my dad’s bags of crap and decided to get some lunch.  We saw a Sonic Drive-In and I urged my dad to go there for lunch.  We barely fit the Supervan under the awning…

Eating Sonic-the-Hedgehog for lunch sounded yummy to me.  Unfortunately, they weren't serving hedgehog at this restaurant and so I had to settle for tator tots.

 

After lunch, we took in a movie in Rapid City.  I still had my Dog-in-Training vest on, and I sauntered into the theatre with not so much as a glance from anyone. 

The concrete floor inside the theatre was cool on my belly and my mom brought me some ice water during the previews.  I could get used to this.  When the movie was about to start, my dad got a sweet tooth and my mom made a mad dash to the snackbar for some chocolate-covered raisins. 

When the movie started, my dad accidentally spilled the raisins on the floor in the dark-- right in front of my face.  So what was I supposed to do-- huh?  Of course, I instantly started eating them.  My dad kicked frantically at the raisins so I couldn’t get all of them. 

Mmm ... raisins ... good.    So what if they had a little chocolate on them--

My dad missed part of the movie just Googling “dogs chocolate” on his cell phone because he was worried about me getting a tummy ache or something. 

I slept through the movie and I think my dad wanted to do the same.  We watched "Super 8" and my mom and dad weren't impressed.  My brother Robert warned them about this movie being a snore, but would they listen?

When we got back to the Supervan, my mom stuffed a bunch of crackers in my mouth (to soak up the chocolate raisins I guess).  I don’t know if that was supposed to help, but hey-- I ate all of the crackers with no argument.

We drove west on Highway 85 for a while, then north on Highway 14 to a place called “Roughlock Falls” in Lead, South Dakota.  

The hike in was about a mile and although it was hotter than heck today, the trail was very shady. 

I stopped for a drink from a clear-running stream.

We reached the falls and I obediently posed for my mom ...

On the way back to the Supervan, my mom and I took a rest on a bench ...

And after my rest, I felt like I was the king of the hiking trail…

 

Then it was off to our final destination for the day-- Devil’s Tower National Monument in Wyoming.

Here is a post-sunset photo of the monument --

Since we arrived at the KOA Kampground so late, the presence of squirrels was undetermined.  My mom says I won't be able to go squirrel-hunting until the morning ... 

It's going to be a long night.

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