When Mark and I met Jon and Gail on a remote, gorgeous beach in Baja California, Mexico, this past spring, we hit it off immediately. Jon Crane is a renowned, accomplished, and outstanding painter and his lovely wife, Gail, had just published her book Mystic Travelers around the same time I released Plunge. The four of us had a lot to share – stories, food, drinks, and art.
Jon and Gail (who travel with their cat, Cosme) in front of their truck camper
Gail and Jon sign our copy of her book.
“Mystic Travelers” by Gail Crane
The couple spends half a year on the Baja peninsula in their truck camper and the other six months in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where they built an incredible home based on Jon’s vision and skills. Ever since I read about their place in Mystic and saw a photo of their unique house in Gail’s book, I’ve wanted to visit. So, when we found ourselves in the Badlands, two hours east of the Black Hills, we got in touch with our friends. Would they still be home mid-October or had they already left for Baja?
Exploring Badlands National Park with TT
Mark and Liesbet in the Badlands
We were in luck. Jon and Gail were still around for a couple of weeks and more than happy to see and host us. But there was one problem… They live in the middle of nowhere, deep into the black hills, and the first snowfall of the season had arrived when it rained in our neck of the woods. No worries. We’d amuse ourselves for a couple more days and assumed the snow would be melted when we ventured into the hills.
We stopped in Rapid City to do some shopping and say hi to a bunch of presidents.
(As always, hover over or click on images in galleries to read the captions.)
Mark looks for the president route on his phone.
President Barack Obama and one of his daughters
President George W. Bush
President Thomas Jefferson
President Franklin Roosevelt
President Harry Truman
President Martin Van Buren
Then, we left civilization and were greeted by this. Yikes.
Entering the Black Hills
What just happened?
Mark and I are warm-blooded humans. We don’t do well in cold weather and we certainly didn’t plan on seeing any of that white stuff when driving across the country, except, maybe, if and when crossing the mountain passes in Colorado!
The road condition deteriorated the further we drove.
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