Happy Birthday, Dortha!

We've been looking forward to this day for some time now. Actually, since just after Christmas, when Dortha and Mark were at our house for dinner and got to use the electric pepper mill that Jim got as a gift from his aunt. Dortha nearly took it home with her then and has been looking for one ever since. A couple of months ago, we ordered one for her birthday. We've had it all wrapped and ready for weeks. Finally, the day arrived and we were excited to give it to her when she and Mark and Caden came over this morning. But not nearly as excited as she was when she opened it!

That got our day off to a great start, and then we continued the fun celebration of Dortha's birthday with a buffalo burger lunch at The Wrangler in downtown Custer. This is a restaurant that has recently reopened in a new location after a fire destroyed the previous one.

A trip into Custer State Park was next on the agenda, so we could ride paddle boats. Well, some of us got to ride paddle boats. It seems Legion Lake has a restriction on how heavy people can be and still ride in the paddle boats. Both Mark and Jim are just a little bit over the limit, so they stayed on shore to take pictures while Dortha, Caden and I paddled out.

This duck flew in and landed just a foot or two away from our little boat!

That's a workout! I'm sure we earned several "activity points" with that ride. After our water adventure, Mark wanted to see if we could find some buffalo picture opportunities, and off we went. Success!

Dortha mentioned taking one of the side roads off the Wildlife Loop in the park, and we started off. We'd gone maybe a mile or so up a gravel road when Mark noticed he was getting pretty low on gas. Oops! That was the end of that exploration, as he turned around and headed back to town. Whew, we made it without having to hike.

When we got back to the rv park, we visited with Larry and Geri up on the porch for a little while before enjoying the cake I baked for Dortha, along with some fat and sugar free ice cream.

What a fun day! For more pictures and Dortha's account of the day, check out RVing With Poppa. Happy Birthday, Dortha, I'm so glad we got to enjoy the day with you!