Day 6. June 12

 After a breakfast of Rosie’s Coffee and a cinnamon roll and Snickers scone freshly made by Maureen at 3am; we headed off under a cloudy sky to Pukwana, SD. Within five minutes, we quickly passed through three states: Nebraska, Iowa and South Dakota. South Dakota’s landscape of green pastures and rolling hills made for an easy drive even when we encountered a few storms. Passed by Laura Ingall’s homestead in De Smet when the family lived in South Dakota. This is where Laura attended school, received her teaching certificates, taught school at 15 and eventually, married her husband, Almanzo Wilder, who was 10 years her senior. Pulled into the Diamond A Cattle Company (Harvest Host) & immediately hooked up the electricity so we could have air conditioning. Waaaay hotter today than it’s been but fortunately, the heat is short-lived and the high is 20° cooler tomorrow. Fascinating place with cattle, horses, a 19th century furnished school house, a 1930’s adobe air Bnb, rodeo arena, homestead,  6 camp sites and an honest to goodness cowboy called Tucker Ashley. Tucker, the owner, walked us around a little as he regaled us with stories about his rodeo days and family history. The Ashley’s have been on this huge piece of prairie since the early 1800’s. Now the land is divided up among 5 family members. Tucker attended grade school in the small school house eventually moving it to his ranch as an adult. In the curtained corner was the Red Lake precinct voting booth complete with “secret ballot box”. Fiction/mystery writer C.M. Wendleboe has written five western novels using Tucker as his protagonist. The author met him when he was working in South Dakota in the 1970’s. We learned that cattle bunch together not only for protection because they are “grazing prey animals” but also to ward off flies, stress and weather. All herds have a lead cow or Bossy who always gets her way and dictates by ear twitching, head butting or tail swishing. This real working cattle ranch is out in God’s country so looking forward to star watching tonight with no light pollution. Tomorrow, it’s on to one of our favorite places, Custer State Park, SD.