The Black Hills of South Dakota

We arrived in Hill City yesterday afternoon.  We're camping at the Mount Rushmore KOA, one of our favorite campgrounds.  It's more like a resort.  It has lots of activities and things for the kids to do.  They even have nightly wine tastings for local wineries for adults. 

Shortly after we set up camp and pulled out the awning, it started to drizzle.  We bring the rain, that's for sure.  It didn't rain for too long, but it rained hard for a bit and then finally stopped. 

Jeff took the kids to play miniature golf while I built a fire to make dinner.  The fire pit was a bit soggy, so it was a challenge to get the fire going.  Once I got the fire starter brick solidly lit, it went much better.

I made a good-sized fire, and once it was pretty hot, I pulled the grate up on top of the firepit.  Tonight's menu:  fettuccine alfredo, grilled chicken and asparagus.

I boiled the water over the fire, and cooked the chicken in foil packets with garlic and rosemary.  I brought out the electric griddle and tried to heat the small pot for the alfredo sauce on it, but it didn't work very well.  Instead, I pulled the chicken breasts out of the packets and finished them on the griddle so they got some browning on them, and made the sauce in the RV on the stove.  I threw the thin asparagus spears on the griddle with some olive oil once the chicken came off.

It was pretty easy to boil water over the hot fire.  The noodles cooked very well.  All in all, dinner was delicious. 

Afterward, Jeff went back to the RV to finish watching Race to Witch Mountain on TV.  Henry went in and out, and Ruth and I hung out by the fire.  She pulled out her book of campfire songs from the Chimney Rock gift shop, and we sang some tunes.  It was a clear night sky, so we looked at the stars.

The night was pretty cool and we left the windows partially open in the RV.  While Jeff slept, I read my book using my iPhone flashlight app as a reading light.  One thing is for sure, the iPhone has been very useful on this trip.  I'll write about that later, along with what we did today.  Now, we're off to the Lighting Ceremony at Mount Rushmore, one of our favorite things to do in the Black Hills.