Rapid City, South Dakota

Had a wonderful day today. Earlier this morning, Lulu was reading a local guide book and came upon the entry for the Stave Chapel: Chapel In The Hills. We spent an hour there wandering around and spent some time in prayer in the chapel. A very beautiful and calm spot. The architecture and history are really interesting -- this is a one-of-a-kind chapel. As we were driving to the chapel, we noticed a large park with a lake and we stopped there. To our joy, it was dog friendly. We let our guys rumble around for 90 minutes -- they swam and got good and tired. They have been spending a lot of time in the car for the last couple of days and needed to blow off some steam. We then got checked into the Ford dealership for Monday at 1PM. We will be staying in Rapid City for an extra two-three days while the transmission is being repaired. Finally, went back to the motel -- I did some shopping and brought back some Mongolian stir-fry. There was a bus-load of Taiwanese students ahead of me -- it was cute the way they were photographing everything. Had dinner out by the pool and struck up a conversation with a guy from near Nashville, Tennessee. He was in stage four of an aggressive cancer and was riding his Harley around the USA. He was riding in the thick of the hailstorm that hit south of here -- had the bruises to show for it. We have been meeting some wonderful people on this trip -- real Americans. You look at the posturings of the media types and they are so false and out of touch with what America is really like. It is pathetic. The conference starts at 4PM tomorrow with the convocation. I will get there an hour or two earlier to check out the exhibits and the tailgating section. The fairground is located right across the street from the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology. They are offering several seminars on metallurgy -- something I am very interested in. Most of the "common knowledge" online has no bearing to what is actually happening to the crystalline structure and I want to bring out every bit of performance that I can. Day six!