South Dakota part 3

So the plan on Thursday was to head out reasonably early. I was up by 6:30 am, wrote my pages and was looking out the sliding glass doors to the deck from the room Pat and I share. The owner had cleared some trees to expose a beautiful vista of the Black Hills. As remote as this house is and as inconvenient as it is not to have cell service, I loved just staring at this incredible view. On this morning, I was thinking "Gee I can stand here and get dressed and there is no one to see me except perhaps the widlife."
At that moment, a mountain lion walked into view about 30 yards from the house!
I said loudly to Pat, who was just stirring "Oh my god! A mountain lion!" she leaped out of bed saying "Camera!"
I dashed upstairs half dressed and ran for the camera, Lorie was up and in the kitchen.
I told her there was a mountain lion and we both ran for the living room window as it was walking through the clearing. I managed to snap two pictures as it entered the trees again down the hill.
After reading the warning about mountain lions in the house book when we arrived, we were a little freaked, but realized over the next few days that it really wasn't likely we were going to encounter, let alone actually see, one. We felt really lucky. Funny thing was it wasn't scary at all. It moved like a giant housecat and was obviously just passing through.
On our way out to the Badlands we stopped at the office. I asked the young man "So exactly how prevalant are mountain lions really?" His eyebrows flew up.
"You didn't see one, did you?" I told him all about it and he was as excited as we were. I told him I got a couple picture and had to run out to the car to show him. Apparantly many of the homeowners on the mountain had never seen one. He lived in the area two years before he saw one.
With all of the mountain lion excitement, our drive out to Wall Drug through the Badlands was fun. The scenery is astounding, almost otherworldy in places, and we saw plenty of prairie dogs, buffalo, mule tale deer, I even had to avoid hitting a turkey in the road.
Wall Drug was kitschy but fun. When we were almost back to the house, we encountered a herd of bighorn sheep grazing by the side of the road.
Then it was time to pack up and head out the next morning. Next stop: Las Vegas

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