South Dakota-Tuesday

Tuesday, August 24

Allie and I woke up and walked down to Common Grounds, a coffee shop, to get some drinks.

On the way out to the ranch, we first stopped off at Aunt Teresa’s house so Allie could visit. What a nice lady! She had some cobbler for us to eat and their house was beautiful. It was built to be the fajther’s workshop, but when he got sick, the townsfolk got together and helped them to make it into a home. The stairs are a little dizzying but it seems like a fun place to live.

We also stopped at Keystone, an equivalent gateway community to Gardiner, only it's outside Mount Rushmore, and grabbed some ice cream and Mexican. The lunch was okay but not expensive so it all equaled out. We also ran through a really neat antique store and I found a butter cutter so that I can make real pie crusts now. This is also the closest I got to finding a mechanical bull. Sigh. At least there is always Great Falls

On the way out to the ranch, we played I Spy which was surprisingly difficult at times considering there was really only the open road ahead of us.

We finally got to Allie’s family ranch which was incredibly beautiful. The house was a kit from Sears that the family had lived in. With only two true bedrooms and one bath, I don’t know how they survived with the many, many children (8?) that they had.

We hopped in the truck and rode around. Emily and I sat in the back of the truck with the pupsters and just enjoyed the scenery.

Allie took us down to her favorite tree and we hung out until dusk.

We went for a moonlit walk and then went to bed.

South Dakota-Monday

We went to the Fair. It was awesome.

There were rides, animals, games and just tons of things to do and see: sheep shearing, animal petting, prize animal lookin', people watchin'. Emily, Allie and I got there early in the afternoon, before the crowd gathered. It looked like pretty normal people for the most part. At least before dusk fell. This was the winning Sheep Buster (sheep busting is like a junior rodeo, basically kids riding on sheep until they fall off). The picture on the left is Ben on "Fluffy" who won with a score of 78. This little guy knew he was a star. As soon as we was off that sheep, he had his fingers thrust up in the air walking around letting everyone know that he was number one!We got to watch one of my personal favorites, pig racing. I'm

sure a lot of people would decry this sport as being inhumane but the pigs sure look like they're having fun.

First, there was a practice run so we could see the pigs strut their stuff. Everyone in the crowd got a ticket and then could put one half of it into the bucket whose color corresponded with that of the pig we though might win. Then the pigs were off again. The pig in the black jersey was always put in backwards. At the end, the pigs get a little treat and the barker pulled a ticket from the bucket and the matching half got some little trinket or prize.

The pig wrestling (or "wraissling" as I tried to make everyone say but using it as much as possible) was the event we had come for. There were four teams (two mens, two womens) and everyone was dressed up in theme costumes. Just before the announcer explained the rules, the pigs were covered in baking oil.

The object of the game was to get the 100-150 lb. pig into the bucket. All four team members must have a hand on the pig as it goes in. They can't grab the tail or the ears of the pig, it's a 10 second penalty. The pig must go in feet first, an upside-down pig was an automatic disqualification. There is a maximum of 1:20 seconds to get the pig out of the tub and put it back in the pig pen. The teams must start in four corners of the arena and have at least one hand on the rail. It was hilarious, loud and just down-right fun. I had tried to talk Emily, Allie and Allie's cousin into making up a team but they were adamant about not going in. The winning times were:

Minute Man Archery club 14.21

Children's Miracle Network 50.81

Cedar Canyon Bible Camp 1:17.06

Children's Miracle Network 1:17.22

We then rode the swing ride and after hanging out at the German polka tent for awhile, we went back to Allie’s cousins house and fell promptly asleep