Great Stops

Today will probably be remembered as one of Kelsey and Lindsey’s favorite days during our trip.  This morning we said goodbye to Yellowstone and traveled through the Grand Teton National Park to Jackson Hole, WY.  On the way through the Teton National Park we stopped to spend a couple of hours horseback riding.

We stopped at the Teton Horseback Adventures for a 2 hour trail ride.  Kelsey was thrilled to ride Tony, Lindsey loved riding Peanut Butter, Karen enjoyed riding Tinkerbell and I enjoyed the steady ride on Jughead.  Our trail ride took us through a river and up a mountainside to have a beautiful view of the Grand Tetons.  Fortunately for us we returned back just as it was starting to rain.

Unfortunately this rain and cloud cover obscured the Grand Teton Mountains, so the rest of our day was a washout.  We tried to spot a moose in the rain, but no luck.  We ended our day by checking in to our hotel and having a nice dinner at the Snake River Brewery.

This morning I woke up early hoping to catch a beautiful sunrise in the Badlands National Park where we were staying.  I did get one picture, but then some morning clouds came in to obscure the sunrise.  However, I did have an enjoyable morning sitting on the front porch reading with Lindsey.

We really enjoyed staying in one of the new cottages at the Cedar Pass Lodge.  We would highly recommend them.  They have their own private bathrooms, a mini-fridge and a flat screen tv.  The girls enjoyed catching a little tv since we are without a wireless signal.

After we had breakfast we headed out for a couple of hikes to explore the Badlands.  The second one was more strenuous and included a climb up a wooden log ladder.  Lindsey enjoyed the opportunity to climb on some rocks and we greatly enjoyed seeing the formations and the view from the top.

The heat mid-day caused us to head in to the visitor’s center to cool off and see a movie about the Badlands before we left the park.  We took the scenic way out of the park which brought us close to some bison and prairie dogs.

From the Badlands we traveled to our next destination, the State Game Lodge in Custer State Park in South Dakota.  We quickly checked in and then headed over to Mount Rushmore.  Although the 20 mile drive from the Custer State Park to Mount Rushmore took close to an hour, it was the most beautiful drive of our trip so far.  Traveling through the Black Hills on a two lane winding road was a little stressful, but fantastic.  It included three one lane tunnels through rock, one of which frames Mount Rushmore as you come through it.  We arrived in time to walk the grounds, see the monument and have dinner before the evening light show.  The “light show” was nothing more than illuminating the monument, but they showed a well-done film and did an amazing job of recognizing all of the military veterans in the audience.  The ranger asked all veterans to come down to the stage and then after singing the national anthem each one was asked to give their name, branch of service and the battle or war they had served in.  It was a very moving event and an enjoyable evening.

Today was a long travel day (we covered 633 miles through Minnesota and South Dakota) and our theme for the day was “Embrace the Cheese!”  We chose this slogan after our first “cheesy” stop at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.  Kelsey thought we should change it to “Embrace the Corn!” since the first stop was so “corny.”  However, our final stop of the day was at Wall Drug in Wall, SD.  This was a very cheesy, touristy stop, but we had to eat dinner somewhere.  This is an amazing marketing story of creating a huge tourist stop just from the idea of offering “Free Ice Water.”  We saw the first billboard for Wall Drug announcing it was only 355 miles away

This morning we left Ham Lake, MN (a little north of Minneapolis) from our friend Kate’s house a little later than we planned due to Kelsey and Lindsey having a difficult time tearing themselves away from Kate and her adorable 10 week old puppies Bella and Mitt Romney.  I am sure you will see pictures in Kelsey’s post.

One thing I enjoyed over the last few days of driving is listening to some good music.  I do not know if parts of the mid-west are stuck in the 1980’s and 1990’s or if they just have good taste in music, but we have found some great radio stations to listen to.  The sad part is that most of them refer to this period as “classic rock.”  In between stations we to listen to audiobooks.  Today we started to listen as a family to The Hunger Games.

If our day of driving was not long enough already, I unfortunately made it longer by not keeping an eye on the gas gauge.  We ran out of gas in between exits that had gas stations.  By the time I realized we were getting low it was too far to the next exit.  Thank goodness for AAA and the nice gentleman who is a pig farmer and tow truck driver who was only an exit away at the local county fair with his daughter showing some pigs when our call for assistance reached him.  Fortunately we only needed to wait less than 30 minutes for him to arrive.

The weather continues to be hot along the way.  The car thermometer reached 101 degrees at one point this afternoon.  We ended our day by arriving at the Cedar Pass Lodge in the Badlands National Park.  The lodging consists of these very nice ,newly-built, modern cottages.  They are a little bigger than the shed in my backyard with a full bathroom and a nice porch and chairs to look at the scenery.  Both girls have said that they would love to live in one of these.  We would highly recommend staying here if you are ever in these here parts.

I would like to end with my favorite quote from the day.  As we were driving in the Badlands Lindsey stated, “These rocks are blocking my signal.”  Being out here in the park without a “signal” and lights last night was a fantastic experience as we gazed up at an amazing amount of stars without any lights nearby.  We look forward to seeing more of nature’s beauty without a signal.