Day 37

I was right about one thing - there would be a war at our campsite! With an early bedtime the night before the kids were up early and the Cowboys and Indians were restless. Thank goodness they kept themselves in the fort area of Grammie's RV.

I was up early too but more to go through my 500 emails waiting for me. When we get home we are back to our very busy, scheduled life so it does my brain good to get some of this taken care of now. Dave was up early workinng today, luckily with 4G in the campground. Grammie was up early cooking homemade biscuits and grits for us - YUM! Once we were all full and finished with dishes I decided we should all hit the showers. My clean-soap-smelling kids have vanished for the summer!

Our plan today was to chauffer Grammie around the fun roads she is unable to travel in her RV and to turn in the kids' junior ranger books. Grammie and the kids decided to add ice cream to that list for lunch too! The drive north on Iron Mountain Road was even better than our drive south! Through the two of the tunnels we had the perfect preview of the presidents on the mountain. The other tunnel was fun just because it had a skylight in the middle!

We parked back at Mt Rushmore just as it started sprinkling. Grammie checked the weather and it looked like a small pop-up storm that would be over in 20 minutes. We raced up to the terrace and down to the exhibits to finish up Brayden's book thinking it would be over by the time we finished. They were sworn in by a park ranger who had spent a few years in Pensacola at UWF. We have found so many people that have lived or visited and loved Pensacola!











That was when Grammie received a text from Dave saying there was hail at the campground. Luckily he had the RV to duck into and Lola to protect him. The kids decided to take pictures with George's nose to show everyone how big it is then we headed to grab ice cream.

The storm was all around us but it was still just sprinkling.

I think the new standard "single scoop" has been upgraded as our sweets have been huge on this trip! That means it takes Ryan 45 minutes to slowly lick hers to the cone but it was raining so it was fine. We are all trying to teach her to take bites, but she would rather savor every drop. Maybe we should take a lesson from her!

The kids faces popped with surprise and joy as we walked to the parking lot when they spied the elusive mountain goats on our list to see. These two must be park annual passholders as they were very accustomed to people and the area. They were very tolerant of a lady trying to hand feed them grass and others trying to take selfies with them.

Our drive back to the campground was going to be down the Needles Highway. While this is still the Black Hills area the rocks are completely different from the ones just a few miles away. We decided they looked like magnified versions of Laney's drip castles she makes at the water's edge. Just outside the park gates we stopped briefly to take a picture of the profile of Washington before we started our drive back.

This drive had the same one-way tunnels and hairpin turns, but there was an exciting addition to the road this time - gigantic tour buses!! I still have no clue how these buses were fitting through the tight-for-me one-way tunnels. As we went through all of us sucked in and held our breath hoping to make it, I can't imagine the feeling of riding on those buses! I spoke with a guy that watched one come through just before us and he said it took them at least 5 minutes to eek through. My mouth dropped as the bus slowly appeared out of the tunnel with a "student driver" paper posted on the front. Here is a picture of the tunnel the bus went through with a road sign to the right for perspective - crazy!

One of the other stops on my list was Sylvan Lake. The temperature had dropped 20 degrees since we left the mountain and I was the only one with a jacket (I don't share well with others) so we only stayed for a few minutes. I could imagine swimming or kayaking there on a warm day!

By the time we got back Dave was finished with work and ready to jump in the car with us. We have so much stuff packed in my little car it takes us a few minutes to reorganize and relocate bags to Grammie's RV. I'm not sure what we're going to do when we get back and add a dog, a cat, and a guinea pig to the mix!

The kids had originally planned to go to Jewel Cave National Monument first then head to a quirky wild west town Dave had added to the list. Our time was fading fast and I didn't want them to rush through either so they made the decision to just go to the town and enjoy themselves. We have seen a lot of caves, but we'll definitely be adding Jewel Cave back on our list as it looks very unique.

Four Mile Old West Town caught our eye immediately with all the humorous signs and collection of antique everything out front. We were greeted by an eccentric woman who told us the story of the old town. She swore the kids in a sheriffs to make sure the adults were well-behaved on the tour. Then she handed me a tape player and sent us on our way. Yep, a cassette tape player. I think I used to have one of those.


We visited all the old buildings, all of which were restored original buildings or rebuilt to their original size. We went to the saloon, the newspaper, the bank, the doctors office, the dentist, the seamstress, and many more. This place was an overwhelming collection of all kinds of antiques placed in each of these buildings with extensive explanations in each building. As we reached each building, we played a short bit of the cassette for the introduction then we entered the building and read all about what was inside. After about 10 buildings my brain was on overload and I just started listening to the tape and looking around. I learned SO much!

 The kids were shocked when we walked into a small log cabin near the end of the first row. There were two beds, a long dining table and a very old stove crammed into an area about 12ft by 12ft. This was a typical house for 8 people. They especially loved playing with all the old typewriters, cash registers, tools and toys.

This place was definitely an enormous labor of love for the owners as there was so much history and knowledge we were all blown away. She appreciated all our kind words and gave the kids some stickers. Dave bought them a Sassafrass soda and we headed to dinner. Custer had a few spots that were supposed to be good and we settled on the one that had the most options for us. Thank goodness we did because they served us the best garlic parmesan french fries we've ever had! Another recipe for us to try to make at home!

By the time we got back to the campsite we were all exhausted and ready to go to bed. We would be on the road again tomorrow headed for another spot from Dave's list!

Day 36

So I guess we traded the barking dog for a crying baby breaking the silence of a beautiful campground at midnight. And 2am. And 4am. I commend the parents for bringing their toddler camping but ohmygoodness two nights in a row makes me feel like I have babies again. It definitely does not mix well with driving during the day. At least our drive today was relatively short!

I got up early and organized the laundry. At least I could get something done instead of starting my day off angry! When I finished and was packing it all away the best thing happened - I found my flip flops!  I'm from Florida and I spend just about every day of the year in flip flops. I'd spent the last 5 days in tennis shoes or hiking boots and I was running out of socks. I may have done a little dance.

We have had a pet roach with us on this trip. He has found his way into food, sleeping bags, on pillows, and in the RV. He had actually been missing for a few days when he showed up in Ryan's cereal! We all kinda missed him and were glad to have him back.

Breakfast ended with a full out impromptu game of ball tag with camp balls. The balls were flying and even if you weren't part of the game you were ducking every few seconds to avoid being hit!

After packing up we headed to the Visitor's Center to turn in the girls' junior ranger books. We all noticed the flag a half mast and wondered who had passed away. When I turned on the radio to see we realized it was September 11th. Most years I enjoy when I lose the dates and days of the weeks after about 10 days, but today I felt bad I hadn't at least thought about the day today.




After we both filled up with gas we stopped a couple miles down the road at the county jail where Sundance Kid was held. It was just supposed to be a quick photo stop, but we ducked into a museum to learn a little more about the history of the area and ended up spending about an hour learning about all kinds of things! We learned more about buffalo jumps, arrowheads, crime sprees, the westward expansion, one room schoolhouses and much much more.

Brayden gave away his cowboy & indian playset to his cousins but as soon as he saw a similar set today he had to have it. He missed playing with those guys and Ryan decided to spend some of her money on a set too. We were about to have a big war at the next campsite!

The museum guy gave us some advice about our next stops so we made a plan and got on the road. Dave wasn't working today so he definitely wanted to see Crazy Horse and Mt. Rushmore so we made them our priority. We found the South Dakota sign and tried our best to look like the presidents. then we arrived at Crazy Horse shortly after later ready to explore.

None of us knew much about the mountain carving but we were both excited to see it. We started at the museum with a movie and were blown away at the history of the project as well as the ongoing plans. We had no idea just how large it was. We had no idea it was a privately-funded project. We had no idea it was still underway. We had no idea the scale and intensity of the project. To say we are impressed is a huge understatement.

Then we walked into the collection of Native American historical documents and artifacts and we were amazed again. I could have spent three times the amount of time I did in there but I knew the kids would be pulling on me. I did read the original letter Chief Standing Bear wrote the sculptor asking if he would be interested in working on the his idea. The colloection of photographs, clothing, jewelry, weapons, and documents was overwhelming.

We made our way outside for a better view of the sculpture and a look at the 1/34th version of the project. This was when I realized this project will not be completed in my lifetime for sure. They are just starting the index finger pointing to Crazy Horse's land. There is so much more!!

Grammie decided we should make a pact to come back in 20 years to see what progress has been made. I'm pretty sure we won't be driving that time!

Next we toured the location of the family's original house. The sculptor, his wife, and their 10 kids lived right in the spot where we were standing with a beautiful view of the mountain. It was a very interesting glimpse into their life and a look at more of the art he created.

After one more peek at the mountain we all headed back to our vehicles and got on the road to Mt. Rushmore. This was the one spot Brayden mentioned wanting to go when we first started talking about this year's trip so I knew we had to make it happen. The kids immediately grabbed junior ranger books and started working.

The view of the mountain was wonderful and we stayed awhile on the terrace appreciating the time and effort put into it. We headed down to the museum exhibits and movie next. This project had quite a bit more backing from donors and the government so it was able to be finished in 14 years. We learned a lot about the plans, the workers, and the project while we were there. The kids even tried their best to draw the mountain for one of the activities in their books. Laney even ran over to hug a tree for one of her activities too!

We found out on the way out that Grammie would not be able to drive the two fun roads out of the park toward out campground - Iron Mountain Road and Needles Highway so while she drove around to our campsite, we headed down the Iron Mountain Road. The views were spectacular and the fun of driving it for me was even greater! In only 17 miles the road has 314 curves, 14 switchbacks, 3 one-lane tunnels and 3 pigtails, turns which loop over their own road, allowing the road to climb rapidly.

We made it into our campground just as Grammie was setting up at her spot. While I got veggie burgers started, the kids and Dave set up the tents and helped Grammie finish setting up so we could eat before dark. The macaroni ended up pretty cold, but the rest of the dinner was delicious. It may have had something to do with the fact that we were all quite hungry.

Dave and Laney decided to retire for the night so the rest of us stayed up and enjoyed a fire for awhile. Thinking back it had been about 4 weeks since we'd been able to make a fire with all the fire bans due to all the extreme dry conditions. When it was time to add a new log and Ryan was falling asleep in my lap we drowned the fire and go to bed. More driving on crazy roads tomorrow!