Adventures Of a Teenage Drifter

Chapter 4 ** Day one in the Badlands**

Waking up with Ethan's arms gently wrapped around me gave me a content  feeling, I now realized I have missed this in my life since I stayed away from relationships with guys in high school. His light snoring and his breathe against my hair gave me goose bumps as I smirked gently unwrapping my body from his arms while he just rolled over and hugged a pillow, I held a chuckle watching him. I got dressed then Judge and I went to the dog park, letting him run and do his morning thing. We walked back to the van as Judge laid down stretching outside, I went in softly kissing Ethan as he turned smiling I said “ Hey you, morning and you better get up as it is now 7:30 and they have a pancake breakfast here each morning.” Ethan leaned up kissing me softly then said “ Sounds good with me, a kiss and pancakes, what guy would complain right?” I chuckled as he stretched then got up and dressed in clean nice tight jeans, a dark green shirt and put on his nikes as I sat on the edge of the side door waiting for him.

Ethan smiled at me and kissed my neck as he stepped out of the van while I blushed then he closed and locked the door, I put Judge on his leash and we headed off for the pancake breakfast. There was quite a few families and three groups of teens around our age here in the KOA, so while Ethan got our breakfast from the cook, I sat with Judge and let all the smaller kids pet him as he just lapped up all the attention. One of the guys from a group of the other teens stopped Ethan on his way back to me and they talked as I saw Ethan nod with a smile then he came to me setting down our food. I chuckled as I started eating and Ethan told me the others wanted to know if we all could get together later for the movie and a party tonight. I raised an eyebrow as Ethan smiled at me saying he was cool with it if I agreed and we could let the guy know since Ethan said that group was going to do The Basic Tour--- Mt Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Needles Highway, Custer State Park And Norbeck Reserve also so we would see them somewhere along the way.

The roads and tunnels on this route are quite narrow, so Ethan decided to rent one of the cars from the concierge desk making us leave the campground fairly early, after filling up with all you can eat pancakes and loading Judge in the back seat. We turned right on Hwy 244, then left on Hwy 385, and follow Highway 385 to Crazy Horse which is a work in progress mountain started in 1939 by Korczak Ziolkowski. Korczak has since passed away but has left all his designs and ideas in detail to his wife, Ruth and nine children, who carry on the traditional and skill of their father today. We took two hours to explore the Sculpture's museum and the Native American museum with art filled rooms and traditional handmade bead work being made right there. Then Ethan took the Needles Highway which was a spectacular drive through sky-piercing granite columns.

Then we went into Custer State Park on the Wildlife loop, the biggest sight is the park's 1500 buffalo herd and we also saw prairie dogs, pronghorn, donkeys. After finishing the wildlife loop, we stopped at the State Game Lodge for lunch,then visited the "summer white house" of President Coolidge. Next we took the Iron Mountain Road and found out the significance of this Highway, besides the beautiful view of the forest, is the three tunnels, which two framed Mt. Rushmore and had pigtail bridges. After that we went to National Presidential Wax Museum that had all U.S. Presidents from George Washington to George W. Bush.

When we returned back to the KOA it was early evening and he and I talked about how great our day was, then he kissed me deeply whispering “ Baby you will never know how much this day means to me, one of the best ever.” I smiled answering “ I am glad you are here to share these days with me handsome, definitely made today an awesome memory in my book.” As we walked back to the van Judge ran around burning off energy since he was cooped up a lot in the car making both of us laugh when he rolled in the grass. Ethan pulled out the steaks we had in the cooler and started grilling them as I smiled getting the mushrooms sauteed and potatoes fried up. I chuckled when Ethan tossed Judge a good size bite of steak when he shrugged and blushed since I caught him saying” You know he won't eat his food if you keep spoiling him. “ Ethan smirked answering “ Okay sexy, he can still have the bones when we are done though right?” I nodded as he smiled then turned back to the steaks.