Written on Monday, but couldn't connect until Tuesday.

I love Custer State Park in the Black Hills. The ground here is littered with quartz, some of it snow white, and some veined with red, pink, and black. Huge granite and limestone bolders are dappled with quartz and mica. The shiny mica is everywhere -- even the dirt is filled with mica -- some tiny specks and some flakes as large as the nail on my little finger. Everywhere the sun hits dirt or rock or boulder, it sparkles with tiny diamonds.

We're camped in a grove of ponderosa pines. Every once in a while the treetops in the distance start to murmur, then it grows louder and louder until a wind roars through our camp. It made for a nice, breezy, nap after we set up camp this morning, and went for a short hike along the ridge behind our campsite.

We went to the visitor center and learned a bit about local flora and fauna. Next we went for a swim. The lake is (I'm estimating, but I'm not good at this spacial stuff) about 200 yards from our site. It's small, and surrounded by pines. It's a clean lake, with lots of flow and happy-looking fish. It took my a while to get in up to my neck, but Eric jumped right in, of course.

Now Eric's making dinner, after troubleshooting a problem with our Coleman Stove. MacGyver has nothing on Eric. I think he fixed it with olive oil. For reals.

I think that tomorrow we're going to Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse, but we haven't worked out the exact intinerary yet. We'll also see Jewel Cave and Wind Cave while we're here. There's more but I'm too sun-and-swim-sleepy to remember.

At nine tonight we're going to see a talk by a park ranger... not sure what the topic is. Sleepy me!