Hello from Lincoln, Nebraska! We are Bob and Annette Bozeman. Bob retired in 1997 after 33 years as a rural mail carrier, and I keep the books for our church. This July we did something we had talked about for years: we took two of our grandchildren, Tyler, who is 9, and Amanda, who is 7, on a trip to the Black Hills. Just the four of us, six days, no parents. Our daughter Kimberly cried in the driveway. The kids did not.

Click on any little picture to see it bigger. The dates in the corners are from my camera, which prints them on every picture whether you want it to or not.

We left Lincoln at 6 in the morning and drove about 500 miles, out across the Sandhills, where we gained an hour, and up through Hot Springs to our motel in Custer. Amanda asked if we were there yet before we got out of Lancaster County. A thunderstorm came through just as we checked in and the temperature dropped twenty degrees, so we dug out jackets and ate our ice cream outside the motel anyway, because Grandpa had promised ice cream.

Tyler: "It's July. Why is it cold?"

We drove the Wildlife Loop in the morning and got into what the ranger called a buffalo jam: the whole herd crossing the road in front of us, and one big bull who stood right in front of our hood for five minutes and looked at Bob like Bob was in his way. Tyler counted every single one. Then the begging burros came and stuck their heads in the windows, and one of them ate Amanda's map.

Tyler: "Forty-one! Write it down, Grandma. Forty-one."

In the afternoon we took the Needles Highway, which winds through the granite spires and goes through some very narrow tunnels. I got out and took the picture. Bob drove. Here is Bob:

We finished at Sylvan Lake, where the kids threw rocks in the water for an hour, and then the motel pool.

We got to Mount Rushmore early, before the buses. The faces are 60 feet tall, and from the viewing terrace they look smaller than you'd think until you see the size of the people on the trail below. Tyler wanted to know how long the noses are. About twenty feet, the ranger told him, and he has told everyone he has met since. That's Tyler with the sunburned nose. We kept putting sunscreen on him and the sun kept winning. Then on to a motel in Rapid City.

Amanda: "Which one is Lincoln? Like our Lincoln?"

A day trip over the line into Wyoming to see Devils Tower, which was the very first national monument, back in 1906. It rises 867 feet from its base, and it's made of long gray columns like a bundle of pencils. We walked the trail all the way around the bottom, which is a little over a mile, and through Bob's binoculars we could see two climbers on the side, like specks.

But for Amanda the whole trip was the prairie dog town by the road at the bottom. Hundreds of them, popping up and down and squeaking at each other. This one stood up and posed for me. Amanda spent the rest of the afternoon making her case.

Amanda: "If I keep him in my room nobody will even know."

East to the Badlands. We drove the loop road and stopped at every overlook, and the kids climbed on everything they were allowed to climb on and a few things they weren't. It was hot as a griddle in the afternoon. We stayed for the sunset, and I think this is the best picture I have ever taken. The stripes in the rock turn pink and orange and you can't stop looking. Then a motel near Wall.

The long drive home. Both kids asleep by Murdo. Kimberly met us in the driveway and asked if they had been good, and Bob and I looked at each other and said yes, and mostly it was true.

• A cooler of sandwiches. We ate lunch at picnic tables every day and saved a fortune.
• A motel with a pool. An hour in the pool at the end of the day and they sleep like logs.
• One souvenir each per day, their choice, their money. Tyler saved his up for a pocketknife. Grandpa approved it. Kimberly will hear about it later.
• Car bingo. I made the cards myself: a cow, a windmill, a motorcycle, a license plate from far away.
• Early to bed, for everybody. Especially Grandpa.

We'd skip doing the Badlands and the drive home back to back. Next time we'll stay two nights out there and break the drive. And we'd give Custer State Park a whole extra day. The kids want to go back for the bison. Amanda wants to go back for a prairie dog, and the answer is still no.