this should have a title

this trip is now a year old. I'm testing the new comment system.

Day 8: Rocky Mountain High

I packed the truck for the final time and got everyone ready. Donuts seemed like a good breakfast and the hotel book had an ad for place who's specialty was their homemade bear claws. We drove into downtown Sheridan, turned the corner and found stuffed bunnies in dresses and wicker baskets in the shape of chickens in the place where sugared confections should have been. No longer was this a bakery, it was a country gift shop. I quickly searched on my phone for alternatives and only came up with the grocery store. Oh well, we were almost home.

Packing everyone into the car we headed down I-25, the final interstate. As with most other legs of the trip, the kids dozed off and we listened to more of our Harry Potter audio book. Towns flew by and we made good time until we hit Cheyenne. After stopping there for gas we found that the traffic on the interstate had grown to the point that using cruise control was impossible. Weaving in and out of slower traffic we all missed the "Welcome to Colorado" sign that we had all been looking forward to seeing. Pressing on we got to the exit for 119, made a quick trip through Longmont, and finally into Boulder and to Heather's parents.

The kids jumped out of the car, screaming for Nana. Heather and I limped out, our bodies sore from the long days in the car. Stasia ran into the backyard, happy to be out of the car and happier to see her friend Dingo.

The trip is over. Monday the truck shows up and I get to pile all of our stuff into a storage unit while we look for a house. I've got a couple posts in mind for this blog and then I'm not sure what will happen to it.

Day 7. Downtime

We spent the day at the hotel. The kids did some swimming and got to hang out with the grandparents. Heather's cold, which turned out to be strep, really settled in and she spent most of the day in the room resting.

We all went out to dinner at Los Agaves before having to say goodbye and leave. The food there was good but the service was really lacking. Everyone was glad to be back where people know how to make mexican food, Rochester really didn't have much to offer in that department.

We said our goodbyes and called it a night, tomorrow we would drive the final leg of our journey.

Day 6. Faces in the stone.

We got up and did our normal pancake breakfast. If you are wondering, and I know you are, Aunt Jemima Buttermilk just add water is way better than Bisquick shake and bake pancakes but you do have to find something to make them in. I used my Nalgine bottle, worked great.

We packed up our tent and sleeping bags for the last time on this trip. By this time packing the car has become a well oiled machine. Mistakes that were made in the beginning had been corrected and things had even stopped falling out of the car when I opened the tailgate. Check out the pictures for one of the fully packed car.

Mt. Rushmore was next on our list of things to see and was about two hours from our campsite. This is a busy monument, even on a week day, but we were able to get in and find a cool parking spot deep in the parking garage so that the dog wouldn't be too hot. The faces are a pretty amazing thing to see and think about how they were created. After snapping a few pictures we toured the museum that is under the viewing platform. It was all very interesting and I could have spent more time there but the kids were getting restless and with the dog in the car and a long day ahead of us we went back to the car.

Rounding the first corner when you are leaving you see a nice profile view of George Washington. I pulled over to take some pictures. As I stepped out of the car it struck me that we had finally made it to the west. The dry air, crisp blue sky and the distinct smell that pine trees give off on a hot summer day all let me know that the midwest was behind us and we were headed home. We drove on, twisting through the trees to Crazy Horse, about an hour down the road.

Where I was impressed with Rushmore, I was equally disappointed with Crazy Horse. Because there was no shade parking we were very rushed here, and Heather ended up going back to the car shortly after we got in. Most of the building where you would expect to learn about the monument is actually filled with people selling indian jewelry. A movie is practically forced on you as you walk in the door and overall I just didn't enjoy myself. We quickly found our way to the viewing platform where I took some pictures and left. Until they make some significant progress on that I have no desire to return.

After leaving Crazy Horse we all settled in for the long haul ( about 4 hours ) to Sheridan, WY where we had a hotel waiting. Thoughts of sleeping in a bed, showers and a pool kept our spirits up as we drove through the afternoon. The reason for this out of the way side trip was that my parents were going to be there on there own vacation and when we found out how close they would be at the same time we were already traveling we had to go.

We arrived at the hotel, everyone got a much needed shower and we headed out to Taco John's for dinner. When I was a kid these were all over the front range of Colorado and have the best little potato crisp things anywhere. We had started seeing them a ways back and finally had a chance to go eat at one. Just as good as ever. Come back Taco John's!

That night we all collapsed into our beds, tired and happy not to be on the ground another night.

Day 5. From buffalo to ... more buffalo?

Today’s journey would take us to some place I was really looking forward to, Badlands National Park. It was only 5 hours down the road so we slept in a little and went out to breakfast at the Coffey Haus in Luverne, MN. Good food and good wireless internet so that all you good people could get pictures.

The drive took us across South Dakota on I-90. This stretch of road has to be littered with dozens of odd roadside attractions and at least 10 billboards to advertise them. Most of there were centered around the old west and Indians, but a few strayed from the norm. The one with countless signs and notoriety is Wall Drug. Heather and I had never been and decided to stop there since it was only 7 miles from the park.

I have to say that I’m not sure what I expected, but fighting hundreds of other travelers to get through what basically amounts to the worlds largest gift shop was not it. Kymera had fun though. Raiden got scared by the roaring T-Rex display (think Jurassic Park ) and wanted nothing more to do with the place.

After loading up at Wall Food ( where the person who bagged my groceries also helped me get them out to the car, very cool ) we headed to Badlands National Park. Heather and I chose to camp at the “rustic” campground. As far as I can tell, rustic means no running water and natural landscaping. What rustic also means is that buffalo may roam through your camp at will ( see pics ). Just after getting our tent set up the dog started barking and Kymera, who is my official buffalo spotter, started going nuts. I popped my head out of the tent and there it was, strolling strait towards the campground. It wandered past a couple of people’s tents and then off it went. Pretty cool animals to see.

We drove up into the park before dinner so that I could take some pictures and Heather could get a good look. We were impressed, the kids were bored.

We cooked a little dinner and headed to bed.

Day 4. Sunrise to sunset.

Today we all knew that a long drive was ahead of us. Google maps reported our next leg taking 9 hours 22 minutes. With that on our minds we planned on getting up at the early hour of 6 and leaving by 7, we almost made it too.

I got up around 5 because I wanted to try and get some sunrise pictures over Lake Michigan. When I got up the lake was completely fogged over, not exactly what I was hoping for. I stuck it out though and got some nice shots, some of them can be seen on the trip gallery.

After making breakfast I woke the kids up, everyone ate and down the road we headed. I took the first half of the day, getting us through the country roads and to I-94. Heather took over at this point so that I could try and upload some blog entries and pictures.

It was a couple of hours after that when we found the jolly green giant. Pulling into Blue Earth, MN for gas and nourishment we found that the town not only had pretty cheep gas and a Dairy Queen, but it also had a life size statue of that giant green man who tried to sell me peas. We had to stop and take pictures, you know where to find them.

Further down the road we found that MN is getting into the wind energy act. We saw 5 working wind mills and at least 20 more being installed. Go wind power!

Shortly after that we pulled off the interstate and found our way to the next camp site, Blue Mounds, MN. This place was very interesting, 80% of the park is fenced off and has an active buffalo herd on it. There is also an impressive cliff and a row of stones that is in alignment with the first day of spring and fall’s sunrise and sunset, but we were unable to see those.

Another round of spaghetti and off to bed we went. The longest day of driving was past us now, all short days from here on.

Photos and Map updated

I've added photos to the photo map, check it out. Gotta run and get on the road, off to Badlands today. I'll try and post about yesterday later.