Today was moving day, we packed up the camper and drove west to just past Custer, SD and got setup in our new home for the next five days. 

Brian decided to try to book us a tour of Jewel Cave National Monument for sometime in the next couple of days. Unfortunately they are booked up for the next couple weeks. Turns out that the elevator in Wind Cave (about 20 miles away) is broken and they can’t get parts so they’ve closed the cave. 

As a result, everyone is trying to visit Jewel instead (normally a very quiet cave). It was early afternoon, so we headed over to Jewel Cave to talk to the rangers about a cave tour and do a short hike. Turns out they hold a certain number of tickets every day for walk-in visitors. Brian will be waiting in the parking lot tomorrow morning at 7:30 to see if he can get us tickets. The ranger felt pretty confident that we’ll get on a tour.

The hike around the visitor center is kind of surreal, they had a huge fire here in 2000 that burned most of the area (except right by the buildings). We were walking though the forest, but every time you could see through the trees, all we saw were burned stumps, tall grass, shrubs and new trees starting.

Might have our first campfire tonight as it’s in the mid 60’s and supposed to drop to the mid 50’s tonight, yet tomorrow is supposed to be in the 90’s.