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Friday, March 26, 2010

Stuck in Wall South Dakota

Time to catch up this blog, we are now stuck in Wall, South Dakota waiting on an alternator for the Focus (Farkus). We made it to Badlands National Park yesterday with plans to camp out and hike as much as possible for a day or two. The Badlands are amazing with all the colors of Arizonia's Painted Desert but even more brilliant, if that is possible. We stopped at all the viewpoints along the road through the park on the way to the visitor's center and saw thousands of black-tailed prairie dogs, some even have their burrows right next to the roadway. This is the only place in the world where they have reintroduced the black-footed ferret that was all but wiped out in the 70's from dog distemper, habitat loss and reduction in prairie dog numbers. The ferret preys on the prairie dogs and actually take over their burrows for a place to live. It would of been very lucky of us to spot a black-footed ferret and we never did get a chance. We also saw lots of mule deer, some bedded down right in the prairie grass alogside the road! Right as we puled into the visitor's center the car died and would not restart! After I let it sit awhile it did start back up but died before driving fifty feet. We did manage to get towed into Wall and dropped the car off at a small repair shop and the owner was good enough to stay open until we got there. After testing the battery and alternator he confirmed what I already knew...both were bad! Luckily there was a small 35 dollar motel just a block away and here we still sit waiting on an alternator to arrive.  This is a very small town and they have to ship parts in daily as needed, so we should be fixed back up and road ready by tomorrow morning. I am also having problems with this blog posting properly and Sheila has no cell service wayout here. I will try to post some pictures and catch up the places we have seen so far.

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