Blog

South Dakota Sights

After camp breakfast (cold oatmeal, made with lukewarm water heated over the remains of the campfire), we headed out to Mt. Rushmore.

In spite of the cold beginning, the weather was glorious today. We had a great visit with the presidents, including a brief tour with a guide who was clearly still honing her skills.

From there, we thought to stop by the Crazy Horse monument on our way to Jewel Cave. But when we drove in, we discovered it was nearly $30 just to get a closer glimpse than you do from the road. Oh, and also for the opportunity to buy souvenirs. So, we turned around after taking a picture.

We went onward to Jewel Cave, only to learn that we should have called ahead to make reservations for a tour. So, we made reservations for a late afternoon tour, and drove back to town for some lunch.

We had lunch at the Cowboy Cafe in Custer City, where I had a buffalo burger, just for some authentic something or other. It tasted unsurprisingly a lot like hamburger. It was drier, and I think that’s because it’s a leaner meat, rather than overcooking. But who knows.

After lunch, we went across the street to the mini-golf place that only took cash, and played a round of 18, which takes nearly forever with a family of five. Two of the children took turns being cranky.

From there, with a little time to kill, we stopped at the National Museum of Woodcarving, also about $30 to get in, but it seemed more worthwhile than Crazy Horse. After having paid, we learned that it is really a gallery of one person’s work. An amazing artist, to be sure, but I found the name to be rather deceptive.

Then finally, our appointment at Jewel Cave. And the cave did not disappoint. We had a tour of about an hour and a half, which started with a 27 second elevator ride down 230 feet. It’s an amazing cave, with many large caverns, and they’ve built in platforms and stairs and catwalks and sidewalks for a great walking tour (lots of steps, though!) The kids did not get bored, even though much of the crystal structure was the same throughout. This guide seemed much more at ease and practiced. Highly recommended.

5 July 2009
None of the Comforts of Home

Thank God it didn’t rain. I think the last time I camped at all was with Susan and some grad school buddies at the Delaware Water Gap long before Emma was born. To label me out of practice would be generous. We packed gear for summer camping — our borrowed tent is a glorified screen house with a rain fly (no offense, Alexx — thanks for the tent!) so when we woke up this morning in 41 degree weather, we were all a little chilly. About 4:30 in the morning, Susan, Tyler and I were awake, with Tyler shivering, and me pretty cold as well. Tyler’s sleeping bag is essentially a folder over fleece blanket, and as we had lost his sweatshirt, all he was wearing under that was regular pajamas. So he climbed in with Susan. I think they went back to sleep, but I could not. At about 5:30, Clara awakened, so we went out and started a camp fire. Fire == Good.

I’m also a little put out as I am lacking DC adapters for some things, including my camera battery. And I can only charge one of the two laptops, so at the moment the “server” laptop is shutdown so that I have this one for actually doing stuff.

But we’ve survived, and even decided not to go to a hotel tonight. We are hopeful that the weather will be warmer for our next camping experience, in Utah.

5 July 2009
A Day in the Life

This morning, we woke up in our hotel outside of De Smet

Had breakfast at a local restaurant

Drove across a good part of South Dakota, with a rest stop along the highway for a picnic lunch, then continued on through a small portion of the badlands, then hit the famed Wall Drug

Where we had an ice cream break,

then we headed to our camp site, at Oreville Campground in the Black Hills National Forest.

4 July 2009
Badlands

The badlands of South Dakota are quite amazing. Pictures won’t do it justice, but here’s one anyway

The structures are amazing, and they come in many different colors and textures. The feel of the clay soil beneath youyr feet is very different from “regular” soil, especially when wet! And of course, we did have some rain today.

4 July 2009
Little House

As Donna correctly answered, Mitchell is the town famous for the Corn Palace. Turns out we decided to go to De Smet instead. De Smet is the home of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s Little Town on the Prairie. They had lovely exhibits there, including a re-creation of the home that the Ingalls family built there. The kids got to make rope, and corn hust dolls, and a little button and string toy. They also got to go on a wagon ride and visit a one room schoolhouse, and ride a horse. And once again, the less than stellar weather kept the crowds down.

3 July 2009
Across Minnesota

Today, we ventured across the entire state of Minnesota, with only a couple of stops. We stopped at a Dairy Queen in the late morning for a treat, then for gas later in the afternoon. We covered a lot of ground today, and the kids held up well. Tomorrow also promises to be a long driving day.

3 July 2009
On Alaska?

After the water park, we didn’t want to have too long a day of driving, so we only drove as far as Onalaska, WI. Upon arrival, we realized we might have felt better if we had driven a few more miles over the Mississippi into Minnesota. This Comfort Inn is essentially in a little shopping plaza. That’s where we start today’s journey, which may or may not include DeSmet and Mitchell, both in South Dakota. Comment if you know what’s interesting about those places, without looking them up!

3 July 2009
Water, Water Everywhere

Today, we hit one of the major attractions of our trip — the largest water park in America, Noah’s Ark Water Park. We arrived at around 11:00, and had a nice picnic lunch on the tables outside, then enjoyed about 4 hours of wet fun!

2 July 2009
Literally Blew a Fuse

We brought along a new powered cooler for the car,

so that we could keep slightly more interesting food than bread and peanut butter for picnic lunches. Prior to coming through Canada, we hadn’t used it, as we didn’t want to deal with any customs issues. But yesterday, we used it for water bottles, then after grocery shopping we filled it with a few items. At a certain point, I noticed that its fan wasn’t going, and it’s simple enough to have no thermostat, so I was suspicious. When we got to the hotel, we brought it with us, as we also have an A/C adapter for it. I looked for a switch or a fuse, and finding none obvious on the unit, I took apart the cigar lighter plug where fuses often are, but this proved more difficult than it should have, due to either a junky CLP or it being melted due to a current overload? Anyway, while the wire in the fuse wasn’t visibly broken, the fuse showed signs of being blown.

After dinner, we drove over to Home Depot which was right behind the restaurant, and while they didn’t have the exact same fuse (8A), they did have slow blow 8A and normal 10A fuses. I bought both. So far, the slow blow 8A is holding up.

2 July 2009
A Plague of Mosquitoes

This morning we are in Madison, WI, at another Comfort Inn. After Whitewater, we drove for a little over an hour and ended up here. When we got out of the car to go into the hotel, we were greeted by a cloud of hungry mosquitoes. Some followed us into the hotel, and a few were still following us when we went into the room. For dinner, we drove basically across the highway to the Texas Roadhouse, but coming back we ended up having to follow the highway for about a mile, then I took the next exit to find a place to turn around, but that was a divided highway as well, so I made an illegal U turn at the next light, drove about 3/4 of a mile back, made a legal U turn, then was able to get onto the entrance ramp to the highway, going in the right direction, go get to our hotel.

2 July 2009