Visiting South Dakota

We spent the last week touring South Dakota Badlands, Mt Rushmoore, Deadwood, and Theodore Na. Park. Fun was had by all.

Since we were camping of course it rained. When we awoke the first morning and found our world soggy, we immediately went to plan B ..... find a restraunt and drive to sunshine. Mt Rushmoore would wait till tommorrow. We enjoyed Deadwood our first day. Deadwood is famous as the final resting place of Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane. Hickok was shot while playing poker. He had black aces and eights, now known as a " dead man's hand".

The Town of Deadwood

Holly found 6 pennies left on our parking meter and decided to play the penny slots. She won a dollar and quickly cashed out. The cashier was impressed with her earnings. Now being an expert gambler she decided to give advice in the above friendly poker game.

The next morning is was raining even more persistently, but Pete bravely got up and cooked us a fine breakfast of bacon and eggs. MMM Delicious. Seeing how it was quite glum, out we decided Mt Rushmoore could wait one more day. We came up with plan C ..... drive to sunshine. We headed to The Badlands 2 hours away.

As you all know, no family vacation would not be complete without rain AND emergency roadside vehicle repairs. Pete once again proved to be quite handy. We are glad we brought him along.

On the way to see one of God's wonders, we stopped by a wonder created by man called Wall Drug. It started out as a simple drug store located out in the middle of no where. Now it is quite a spectacle. You just have to see it. It was here that Pete and Holly met a giant Jackalope who gave them a magical ride through the Badlands, showing them things never seen by tourist before. Wall drug also has the best homemade icecream.

Pete met an angry Buffalo, but was able to go head to head with it and stare it down.

Boo Boo and the Badlands.

We drove back to our camp site 10 miles from Mt Rushmoore. And finally the sun was out. Surely tomorrow we would be able to see Mt Rushmoore.

YAY! We finally made it! It was worth the wait. It took 14 YEARS to build. Amazing that now days we have all kinds of modern technology, and we don't produce anything worth looking at or that will be around for 100 years for people to wonder at. The next day we headed to Medora, North Dakota. That night a very powerful thunder storm hit. Our little tent bent over in the wind, rain pounded and the lightening struck and blinded our eyes. The thunder roared like a freight train. It was very exciting. A small river began to form under our tent, but we did stayed dry all night. Pete said he liked camping with Holly because the weather is such fun.
Tomorrow I will finish the story of our trip with a couple more pictures. The blog quite uploading for some reason. Stay tuned.