Day 3 - The Badland, Killer Flies, and Mt. Rushmore

 I asked about what time we should leave after we got to the Inn last night, but no one said anything, so Jessica, the kids, and I slept in this morning. They were exhausted, but apparently no one else was as we were the last ones up, and they had to wait on us for about 40mins to get all the kids showered and ready to go!  Who would have thunk that Jessica would have been slow and late again, I mean it's only day 3 and she's been late twice already.

We leave Iverson's Inn which I have to admit turned out to be a really neat place to stay and would recommend it to anyone looking for a reasonable place to stay traveling through Murdo, SD.  But we get to a town called 1880 where we ate breakfast in a Train which was a first for me, but the old train cart made a pretty cool diner!

We then proceed about 40 miles to the Badlands park which is just barren land for the most part with some beautiful scenery and great place for the kids to get out and stretch their legs.  But they couldn't run because one little slip and off they go down the side of the mountain and that wouldn't have been good.  We got some amazing pics there through the Badlands and I will post them at the end, but the most memorable thing about the Badlands was the Killer Flies.  So mom kept saying repeatedly, "Hunter would love to climb that and he would love to climb that, I wish there was a place that he could get out and climb."  Finally 20 mins later of driving through and enjoying the scenery we find a place where people were climbing so of course Mom says to stop so "Hunter could climb."  Justin and I get out and attempt to be photographers while the kids climb this little barren hill, but we were not expecting the torture that came from this experience.  Not the pain of the sun scorching our heads, or the pain of trying to get Eli to actually look and smile for the camera, but the pain of the flies that were swarming us like mosquitos and biting our legs and ankles repeatedly.  Finally after a few hundred bites, we get back in the van to be safe as we continue on through the park.  Little did we know that 700 flies decided to get in the van and take the stroll through the park with us. Over the next 15mins, Justin, Jessica, Mom, and Melissa killed 10-15 flies.  Thankfully, Jessica did not break the window with her vicious hits, but she did manage to smack mom in the jaw with the magazine (but at least she got the fly).

The Badlands were behind us now and we made it to Rapid City where Justin, Daddy and myself make the executive decision to go to Cabela's and she the girls off with the kids to eat lunch.  We meander our way through the store only to come out with some cooking spices!  I have to admit, we could have came out with much more than that, but due to lack of funds, we did the manly thing and just browsed through the store like women browse through the mall.  The only difference is that we didn't spend as much money as a woman would at the mall! (Women don't hate, you know it's true)

After lunch, we head to Mt. Rushmore to see the four heads or the foreheads not really sure which one it was.  Kati and Isaac kept on saying they wanted to see the four heads on the mountain, but all I could think of is foreheads every time they said it.  That was just my little inside humor.  

But Mt. Rushmore was pretty cool and pretty cool.  The weather really cool as summer shower passed through and dropped the temp and the four heads on the side of the mountain were pretty cool as well.  

We journey away from Mt. Rushmore only to be distracted on the way out to BearCountryUSA.  It was like drive through Zoo, but it was pretty awesome.  We saw lions, tigers, and bears, oh my!  Not really, we saw elk, mule deer, sheep, bighorns, reindeer, mountain lions, and several bears.  We got lots of cool pics of the animals at a close range. It was definitely worth the stop.  

Now we are off again to try to make it just a few hours from Rand Creek Ranch which will be home for the rest of vacation just outside Yellowstone!  We had a terrible time trying to find a hotel, but we finally found one not near as blog worthy as Iverson's Inn, but a place to crash for the night.  However, the last 30 mins or so was pretty irritable as Justin again wanted to keep driving but mom insisted we stop because the kids are tired and hungry, but the worst part was whoever kept passing the foul order from their body.  Isaac admitted to a few of them, but someone else obviously continued to pass gas and would not own up to it!!  It's terrible to do that and make everyone suffer with you!  It's not like we could have gone anywhere.