Still Alive, Still Kick'n

Greetings:

It's been quite some time since I've stared at my blog.  A lot of wonderful things have taken place and luckily I only have two biggies that have been less than positive.   First of all, my ISU class ended, my DMACC class ended, and the summer program ended.   Of those three, I was most grateful for the children's program conclusion.  I always have a ton of energy and enthusiasm for that part of my job in May and most of June.   By July it's stressful and I start to "check out".   It's not the most professional thing to admit but I do really start to count down the days.   The staff and employees involved with the program this summer were great so it was awesome  to not deal with personnel problems.   Even the children were well behaved for the most part, we only had a few issues with the participants.   I still need to write a thank-you to the staff and a separate one for my program assistant.

I'm working on preparations for the fall semesters.    I teach three classes for ISU and they all take place on MWF.    My only obligation on Tuesdays and Thursdays will be occasional visits to student teachers and Swim & Gym in the afternoons.    I'm filling-in for a professor for one of the courses.   I've never taught the course before but she was willing to let me use her materials since I'm a substitute.   I'm also fairly prepared for the graduate student orientation too.   Coordinating the event in the past years has made prep pretty easy.   I make notes on what didn't work well or what should be included.    It's easy to create an agenda in June and it falls together rather easily.

We were fortunate to take a vacation to South Dakota the last week of July.    I had never been that far west therefore Gavin had not ventured that direction either.   Jon had been to the state and its attractions before but it had been years.   We had places to visit and hotel reservations made but didn't have a strict plan.   We took off on a Saturday and planned to drive 4.5-5 hours to the northwest to stay in Sioux Falls, SD.   I made a reservation and a Ramada with an indoor swimming facility.   Most of it was geared toward young kids but they did have a pool, water basketball area, water slide, and decent hot tubs.   I wanted to swim on this trip so that was accomplished the first night.   We stopped at the falls the next day before we left to head west.    They were pretty.    We were able to have a picnic near by (great money saver).  

 

 

 

We headed toward Rapid City the next day.    The first stop along the way was the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.    The art on the building was pretty cool and was neat to see the history behind the public attraction.

We went onward toward Wall, SD to visit the Wall Drug Store as the roadways are plastered with advertisements for the tourist trap.   Jon got his free class of ice water.    I got my $0.05 cup of coffee and we both had a freshly made donut.    I bought some taffy and fudge.   It was a healthy stop but a cool place to see.

We pressed on and made our way to Rapid City so we could find our next hotel and find a place to eat.   The amount of open space in South Dakota is amazing.    It blows Iowa out of the water.   The restaurant we visited used to be the city's fire house so it was a pretty neat setting.    We used the pool again and braced ourselves for the next day.

We went to Wind Cave National Park the next morning.    We took the long way through the Black Hills and drove through a part of Custer State Park too.   We didn't see a ton of wildlife but the open terrain was beautiful.   We took a tour of the cave that was about 1/2 a mile in length.    We tried to visit another local cave but the tours were sold out for the day when we arrived.    We drove by Hill City and found a Flintstone campground that Jon remembered from his childhood.   We also drove by the site for Crazy Horse.   They aren't working on the sculpture so we weren't about to pay a fee to get closer to it.   You could see it very well from the highway.    We went to Mount Rushmore later in the evening so we could see the night ceremony for the site.    A park ranger speaks to the crowd about the national part and a movie is shown about the presidents.   They also turn the spotlights on the monument.   At the very end they have all current military personnel and retired come down to the stage to retire the flag for the night.    It was really cool to see so much patrioism (spelling)?

We also visited a drive-thru zoo before Rushmore.   It's called Bear Country USA.   Some animals cooperated and walked around or moved as we drove through.   Some weren't visible or were napping.    I was shocked by how much it cost but I suppose it's not cheap to run the place, buy food for the animals, etc.  


The negative aspects that I'll mention are the dieting and exericse.    I'm not eating very well and I'm eating out too often.    Not being as active as I should be either.   Two things I can easily start to fix though.    I'm making a salad for supper tonight so that should help keep us home to eat.    I'll save my brainstorming for another blog entry.     Still pondering ideas and plans.