South Dakota shenanigans

 Our time in South Dakota was splendid, catching up with friends and enjoying long motorcycle rides.  We camped in Spearfish and saw our friend Doug who Amy worked with at the law firm in Denver. Doug is as much of a motorcycle enthusiast as Dan, so there was plenty of gearhead chatter.  We took a beautiful ride through Spearfish Canyon and saw loads of deer, as well as incredible waterfalls in Bridal Veil Falls and Roughlock Falls.

Then we moved on to Hot Springs as our base camp for riding through Custer State Park, seeing Crazy Horse, Jewel Cave and Rushmore at night.

The bison calves at Custer are adorable!  Crazy Horse is a great memorial with a wonderful museum and live entertainment including hoop dancing and native flute playing.

We took a lantern-light tour of Jewel Cave, similar to what the original discoverers would have seen in the early days. It was neat, but we feel like the regular tour probably would have shown more of the formations we are used to seeing in caves and want to return for it.

We met up with my girlfriend, Sheila, in Rushmore and enjoyed the nighttime patriotic show. They do a neat presentation connecting the faces on the mountain with their contributions to the country and honoring the veterans who were present at the ceremony.  It was moving.

The next few days at the Randall Creek recreation area on the Missouri River were spent enjoying the slow movement of the river in the shade.

Renovations!

 We spent almost a month in Montana where we utilized the machinery and tools in my dad’s woodshop to renovate Josey. She came with a bare bones garage complete with a TV, two benches and a weird metal toolbox attached to the wall.

 

 

We kept one bench and tore out the other. We put the kitty litterbox cabinet in the corner, secured our amazing drawers from the Container store, and built out the cabinetry around them.

 

 

I built the doors with some neat punched aluminum sheeting.

 

 

I really like how this project turned out.  It provides SO MUCH more storage, which allows much easier access to pantry items and I think it really ties the room together. 

 

Then we tackled the dinette.  The bench seating supposedly seated 4 and turned into a bed if needed.  The benches were terribly uncomfortable, they were too tall so my feet didn’t touch the floor. The table was much too big. It just was unwieldy and we wanted to change it to make it more functional.

 

 

We used “luxury vinyl planking” on the floor, making a distinct difference between the dining area slide-out and the rest of the living room floor.  Then we started building the shelving against the wall. This allows me to set the keyboard in the space so I can practice any time the muse strikes.

 

 

We bought this beautiful table top online and now have a smaller table which makes the entire room feel so much more spacious.

 

 

It was such fun working together with Dan to make our ideas into reality. We love this new space and are already thinking about the next project!