Day 3

We all settled in and fell asleep around 12 a.m. for the kids and around 1 a.m. for Justin and myself in 2 full size beds for our room, 3 full size beds for Bruce's family, and a King room for Mr. Gary and Teresa. The pink glow I am proud to say did shut off sometime after midnight so we were able to sleep peacefully. I still was up by 6:30 a.m. so I decided to go ahead and get a shower and freshen up for the day followed by everyone else in our room shortly after.

We all got up and running and back into the van around 10 a.m. and our destination for this morning is first Breakfast then the Badlands and finally Mount Rushmore. We found a ghost town about 20 miles down the road called 1880 town and ate at a place called the Santa Fe Train Diner that was actually in a real train where we were able to eat in a train car some decent breakfast.

We had a pretty good time exploring this area where there were some film props from the movie "Dances With Wolves" which was taped somewhere around this area. Hunter made my heart drop a few times in a gift shop when he backed into a shelf of valuables, at this point I'm ready to leave this store and get back in the van where we can control the zoo a little bit more efficiently.











I have to say South Dakota is breathtaking so I assume Wymoning and Yellowstone is going to be that much more beautiful.
We just pulled up to the Badlands where the kids are having a fit to take a helicopter ride over them.. who knows? I'll update later.

We didn't ride a helicopter but the Badlands are absolutely amazing, the kids are in awe and so are the adults. As we were driving through Eli said, "When do we get to see the foreheads?" After he was answered we decided to stop and let the kids climb on some of the hills due to Hunter's persistent begging and Mamaw Teresa's nagging to stop for those babies.. after all It's free!

As I am typing this I was standing outside the van with the laptop resting on the seat when this intense burning started around  my ankles. I looked down and there were probably 5-7 flies on me BITING so I jumped into the van swinging the door shut. When I really started paying attention every person taking pictures around was stomping and swatting, these flies are meat eaters. Bruce and Justin both thanked Hunter sarcastically for wanting to stop because not only did we all get bit, about 50 entered the van which led to Bruce opening the door driving down the road shooing flies out. Justin was slapping his flip flop on the ground yelling something about, "Die! Die!" and us all getting randomly bit hopefully not for the rest of the trip. We were driving down the road further when there were prairie dogs jumping out of holes everywhere and Hunter asked, "Can we catch them?" then followed up saying, "Nevermind, we gotta' catch flies!" which led to Jessica killing a fly by Mrs. Teresa's head with a magazine and the backlash catching her in the side of the face, but that darned fly was dead... D-E-A-D! Justin joked she's wanted to do that for years, which got some giggles for sure from the daughter in law row.

We drove another hour or so and arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota where the women and kids dropped off the men folk at Cabela's and we went to eat at On the Border. We got back in the car and drove back to pick up the boys when Mrs. Teresa realized she left her phone at the restaurant. We are all getting really tired and I for one will be glad to get to Wapiti, Wyoming where we will be for 5 nights without driving all day.

We started out from Rapid City being led by the talented Jessica in a torrential downpour and decided we should pull over and wait out the storm on the side of the road. While waiting it out Isaac climbed over the seats to sit with his daddy and grandmother and a crazy smell went through the van that smelled like apple cider vinegar and musty socks and ever since he had a concussion a few years ago when he smells weird things he throws up... needless to say he threw up in the thunderstorm, on the side of the road, in between Bruce and Teresa. Bruce doesn't have a tummy of steel exactly and started gagging with Isaac while he was getting sick in the emergency ice cream bucket. Bruce told his wifey that she handles the throw up he's not
equipped for such and we all had a good laugh about that one. After the rain passed we drove on to Mount Rushmore where Eli continually said behind my ear, "I wanna' see the foreheads! Where are the foreheads?" Well, we got to see the foreheads!

They were a little smaller than I imagined because they are so far away, but actually they are huge and the detail is amazing. One small meltdown came from Hunter in the giftshop due to him just wanting SOMETHING. I told him if he could name what he wanted I'd go back in the store with him and let him buy it.. he told me I don't know what I want I just want SOMETHING!

Meltdown over and we decided to go back down the road a little piece through an enclosed but not enclosed animal exhibit called Bear Country that you can drive through and view all sorts of wildlife. There was a variety of animals from wolves, elk, big horn sheep, etc. and an abundance of bears hence the name Bear Country I guess. The kids were excited but not more excited than Bruce and Justin when they saw elk! ;)  At the end of the drive there was a mini zoo called "Babyland" with of course baby animals so everyone went except Justin and Mrs. Teresa went to get gas.













We drove to Gilette, Wyoming
to lodge tonight at a Best Western with an indoor swimming pool. If we hadn't stopped soon I think the van was going to melt down we are all kind of delirious from being tired. Mrs. Teresa started in on Justin driving about stopping and she claimed we had to stop because the kids were hungry and I needed a bed although no one said a word about any of that and the van was silent at the time. The funny thing is he drove right by the Best Western even though Mr. Gary said, "Hey, there's a steakhouse!" I said, "No Mr. Gary that's where we're staying, you're thinking about Western Sizzlin'." He thought that it was pretty hilarious when we turned around to go back to the hotel that Justin passed that it actually did indeed have a steakhouse inside it. He isn't getting off that easy though, I knew what he meant haha. Jessica, myself, and Mr. Gary were kind of not on purpose laughing at not so funny things standing outside the van watching the kids while Bruce and Mrs. Teresa were checking in and Justin inside the van being responsible getting our bags out started getting angry because we were standing around laughing doing pretty much nothing. I can't help the fact that Kati sitting on rocks saying she was hatching eggs was hilarious and Eli was throwing rocks that Mr. Gary thought were potatoes. Did I say we were all tired? We ate pizza in Mr. Gary and Mrs. Teresa's room and came back to our room to get the kids in bed. Ours are passed out, but I just realized about 10 minutes ago now MY cell phone is missing so, Justin being the great husband he is went downstairs to see if he could find it. He found it over in Bruce's room... *whew* Goodnight family and friends reading, we love each and every one of you! Melissa

Tomorrow: YELLOWSTONE!