Tennis ball siized Hail

It has been an interesting day.  First thing very early this morning, Art calls to tell me the house next door was broken into and several other homes in the neighborhood have also been violated.  This started a series of calls about what we needed to do to beef up security.  Would not be so bad but it was not even 6am my time.

Chris and I finally got on the road about 8:30 facing the last leg of our trip to Mt. Rushmore.  It was a beautiful day and the driving was pretty easy.  We took a detour from our trek to ride through the Badlands.  What a beautiful site.   After the Badlands we visited the town of Wall...the home of the worlds largest drug store, which carries everything you can imagine, cowboy gear, ceramics, jewelry, leather goods, just to name a few.   I asked the clerk if there was anything they did not carry and she motioned me closer and whispered in my ear, "underwear".

We were watching some storms off in the distance throughout the Badlands and Wall, so it was no surprise that we ran into a little rain.   What really surprised us was the violence and size of the raindrops.  They hit the car so hard and loud that it was mesmerizing.  However, the next thing we knew, the rain turned into hail, at first small droplets, them suddenly we were being pounded by tennis ball sized hail.  Hard!  And by the hundreds.   It was amazing to know that yesterday the temperature in the area reached 100 and today they had hail.   We charged through the storm even though many were pulling off the road.  After we arrived in Spearfish, our home base for a few days, I inspected the car to find at least a half dozen dents from the hail.   Can you say "thank goodness we rented the car rather then put mileage on mine"?

So we are ready to be tucked in for the night.  I am glad the driving all day long is over and tomorrow we get to be full-time tourists.  Thanks for visiting . . . More tomorrow.  Good night all.