I could not do this job without the love and support of my beautiful AWESOME wife Jackie. She keeps me centered. Knowing I get to go home to Jackie keeps me from overdoing it and burning out.

Today Jackie and I had a date day. We spent the day together going to the Black Hills and Custer State Park. We had a closeup encounter with the wild burros and saw many bison. We enjoyed the scenery and loved having the park for ourselves. Being January there are few tourists visiting. No tourists, no traffic.

We then enjoyed a great lunch at the Custer Wolf in Custer SD. They have some of the best onion rings ever, but nothing is better than their bread pudding with a bourbon caramel sauce. Yummm

Then we did one of the things we enjoy most. We took roads we had not taken. We found a neat little hidden lake and then found a new way from Custer to the park taking gravel roads. We do this often. We stay off the interstate when we can. We like taking the road less travelled.

Jackie is a retired special needs teacher. This was a second career for her, having previously earned an MBA she went back to school for a master’s degree in Education. We have been married since June of 2009. The road is sometimes rocky, we did raise 3 teenagers together, but we stick by each other all the time. Without her support I could not have taken this position.

I do want to point out that Jackie has publicly admitted that I am funny, and not only in looks. She does not like to admit this often. But our ability to laugh together is one of the reasons we love each other.

Today we wandered together and enjoyed our time. We saw the beauty in the world. I love going through this journey together and I love Jackie!