Teresa and Gary - Day 3

OK I am about to catch up.  I just got access yesterday and don't have wi fi access on my phone like everyone else in the vechile.  LOL !  It was nice waking up with just Gary, showered, packed and ready for breakfast by 8 am.

Breakfast was really late this morning!  Between the time change and no fast food restaurants nor any kind of restaurant or gas stations for miles and miles.  But finally we found place to eat, a real train at a western town.  After eating and exploring a little we headed off to the badlands.  They were amazing!  Two boys wanted to explore in the areas without a guard rail or an adult and one girl who doesn't want move off the path even with an adult.  Spectacular view.  Driving through the tall peaks and valleys, Hunter wanted to climb one.  After driving for several miles, we found a spot where the kids could climb one.  They had a blast, until the adults got attacked by biting flies.  The flies even hitched a ride in the van.  The flies led to hours of entertainment and pain.  Kati and Hunter had an interesting conversation about 2 couples on motorcycles.  Kati thought they were sweet married couples and Hunter said nay they were just boy friend and girl friend.

Lunch was a girls outing with the kids, the guys had to stop by cabelas and look!  Hunter prayed for us at lunch, it's was so sweet, we all had to hold hands while he prayed.  Lunch ended with me leaving my cellphone.  Thank goodness, I remembered before we left the area.  Then we were off to Mt. Rushmore with Jessica driving.  Within a few minutes we drove into a crazy summer thunderstorm rolled in quickly, streaks of lighting and buckets of rain.  Everybody pulled off the road and stopped.  During the storm Isaac got sick and started throwing up in a bucket, Bruce barely maintains his gag reflex.  It was interesting watching water flow down the middle of the road with enough current to float a cone.  The sun pops out and on we go to see the presidents that don't do anything.  But the kids were excited we we turned to corner.

On the way down the mountain we see a Fudge Shop, so we drop off Jessica and Melissa while we turn a round to come back for them.  Thirty minutes later Hunter drags them out of the shop.  We have made pictures in the big rocker, and turned around 5-6 times.  Meanwhile the kids are upset that we want take them to the tree house.  To which they reply, they will not be men to their kids on vacation.  Time will tell. 

I had been talking about and seeing signs about a drive through wild animal park.  It took a lot of work but I was final able to talk everyone into going.  It was wonderful.  One of my best memories.

Again we did not have supper until 9:00, when we finally found a hotel room for the night in Gillette.  Eli's quote of the day, I'm hungry, really really hungry.

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.  

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!

Day 2 Bruce - A Flashback of My Childhood!

Day 2 Kid Pic - At the Park in Sioux City, Iowa Blowing of Energy

Day 2 started off awesome!  I woke up to get a shower 6:50 and had to finally threaten Jessica to get up around 7:15 because we still had to drive 10 mins to get the other half of the crew at their lovely Super 8 Motel!  So rushed Jessica to no avail and had to sweetly wake up Kati and Eli as they were still sprawled out on separate couches.  Jessica was not really sure why we had to get up so early since it was vacation and all, but honestly she would sleep to the last minute even if we left at noon.  However, we got a breakfast of champions at Chick Fil A. The only problem was that Hunter wanted pancakes and I told him that he was out of luck because Chick Fil, but thanks to Alli's "why did the chicken cross the road story," he made it through his chicken mini's.  Well, we tell Jonathan goodbye only to be greeted by Mrs. Teresa and her brand spanking new step ladder that she needs to climb into our chariot, so we load up and we were off to a LONG day of driving!   By LONG I mean LOOOONNNNGGGG day of driving. 

Well, the first few hours of the morning went by relatively smooth, I drove a few hours and then passed off to Justin.  The kids were definitely getting more restless in the van at this point, so I decided the best way to deal with them is for me to take a nap!   Jessica and I snuggle up and then quickly pass out (as we were still exhausted from the long hot drive back from out mission trip to Indianapolis and drive in the wee hours of the morning to MS to actually start the vacation.  The next few hours were a snooze to me, literally, but I do remember waking up to some screams of the kids as we finally go through their first major city Kansas City, Missouri.  Not sure which kid it was, but he/she screamed out "It looks like New York City."  I would love to see his/her reaction to really seeing NYC!!!  I am sure the skyscrapers of Kansas City have got nothing on NYC, but I wouldn't know cause I was asleep.  

It's lunchtime now and my nightmares from my childhood begin!  Justin proceeds to inform us that he's not hungry so we all shouldn't stop til he's hungry I guess. So after a few minutes of back and forth of where to eat I blurt out, "Anywhere just as long as you don't get out of the van and start walking down the road!" (This is an inside story from Justin and I's childhood)  Somehow, McDonald's won the bet for lunch. And all I am gonna say about McDonald's is that we got some Redbox movies, food, and some Drama of our own.  

After McDonald's Justin and I decide to let Jessica drive (in hindsight, not really sure why we decided that).  My only advice to Jessica was to keep it under 80, because she doesn't need any more speeding tickets.  Well, about 4-7 mins down the road, Jessica has her earphones in jamming out to Pandora and paying no attention to the speed limit or her husband yelling in the background, "Jessica, KEEP IT UNDER 80, not over 80."  She does like any good wife and pretends to not hear me until I lovingly yell again for her to slow down and finally she realizes she was going about 87 or 88 who knows and slows down and sets the cruise. 

The kids are at this point entertaining themselves.  I put on the "cow movie" that Eli picked out because that is what he wanted to watch.  Alli & Kati are in the back playing on iPad's and Nintendo DS.  Justin and I decide to watch our Redbox movie - A Good Day to Die Hard.  I mean who doesn't like to watch Bruce Willis?  But we didn't get watch all of it as we had to take a potty break and Justin went back to driving.  

The rest of the day was getting long and crazy, but dinner time I took the luxury to google man vs. food for Sioux City, Iowa. I found this place called The House of Q, so I began to say we should all eat there for dinner, it would be good to try out some place different (I am just for anything but McDonald's- not sure who else out there hates this place, but it's terrible!)  Well, the Prime Rib Brisket sandwich was probably the best sandwich I ever had tasted. 

Not much else to say here, but while at The House of Q, I google "Inn" around Murdo, SD.  This would put us around 1hr from the Badlands and 2 hrs from Mt. Rushmore which was our places of interest for stopping on the way up to Wyoming.  Well, a placed popped up called Iverson Inn.  It only had two reviews thanks to Yelp, but both peeps gave it a 5 star rating.  I called the Inn and they had 3 rooms available at an AMAZING price, so I booked them and told him we would try to make it around 11-11:30 as he closed at midnight.  Four hours later, we have finally made it to South Dakota where the speed limit is 75mph which is awesome. I think it should be that way in every state!  It's now about 11:10 or so and the kids are restless and getting really sleepy.  I mean we have all been in the van now for about 13 hours today.  So to help entertain them, I decide we should sing some songs.  Thanks to my good friend and intern for the summer at Agape, Chip, my boys have become Taylor Swift fans, so we sing a few of her songs such as Trouble and 22.  Isaac and Eli are loving it and of course everyone is singing along.  Then we put on chew tobacco, chew tobacco spit for Hunter and Alli to sing along too.  I had to kinda shout at the line where Blake Shelton sings "drinking that ice cold beer" and I sung "drinking that ice cold mtn. dew."  I told Hunter we shouldn't drink beer, and he tells me, "yes we should I do, I drink root beer all the time."  I laughed on the inside and had to agree with him that root beer is pretty good!  We finished out Karaoke night to Matt Redman's - Bless the Lord.  I admit it was a good ending to a long day's journey just praising the one who allowed us to enjoy and endure all the beauty we had seen up to this point.  But my precious baby boy, Eli, was so sleepy he was singing with his eyes closed - bless his heart he was so exhausted.

But now its around 11:40ish and we pull into Iverson Inn only for Melissa, Justin and Momma to make fun of me about the hot pink lights of our hotel. Melissa says, "Bruce this one is all on you!" I do have to admit it did look a little sketchy, but I only had to pay $60 for a 3 queen room and Justin and Melissa and Mom and Dad only had to pay $50ish for their rooms.  Now it was an old Inn, but really clean and smelt like heaven compared to the Super 8 from the night before.  Places like this is what makes the vacation! 

Jessica Behind the Wheel - It was a little scary!

Deep Fried Mac N Cheese - Yum!

A Glance at the Pic Lights at our lovely stop

Murdo, SD - Iverson Inn