We’ve been back for a week. The kids loved South Dakota. I’m pretty sure that their overall favorite part of the trip was the swimming pools at the hotel.
Here are some of the highlights:
- Our GPS logging our trip — top speeds, elevation, miles to the next destination. We always had an answer for the kids when they asked how much longer we would be driving.
- Driving through Bear Country following a car with a banana on its roof. Apparently, the bears have no interest in food.
- Total darkness in Crystal Cave in Rapid City. We never knew that you would lose your site if you had no source of light for 3 weeks.
- Petting farm is always a favorite of the kids. The pig race was nutty — the pigs went a lot faster than I expected. There was kool-aid at the end for them.
- The GPS has no fear of narrow, windy, very high roads.
- The Buffalo (or Beefalo as my family calls them) in Custer State Park was amazing. We were lucky to get to see a group of them in and around the road we were on. Bummed that our video camera was in the trunk (we ended up there after we overthought the GPS directions).
- Crazy Horse is huge and the fact that they don’t accept government funding is very cool and definitely worth supporting.
- The drives were gorgeous.
- Wall drug was bigger then we thought and not super cheesy but we are partial to nickel coffee.
- The oddest question is when we were in Sturgis looking for a place for lunch, one salesperson in a store said “that’s tough since you don’t want your kids around liquor” – omg, these kids have WI blood in them, this is not an issue for our family.
- It was shocking our conservative South Dakota is. I don’t think I’ve ever seen that many Anti-Abortion billboards in one place. It was the picture of W in the workout room in a hotel in Sioux Falls that creeped me out. Thank God for the lesbian couple sighting at Mt. Rushmore – it grounded me.
- The walk around Rushmore was gorgeous although a big challenging for the kids.
- Adam discovered the car door was not all the way locked when the keys were inside. Sadly, he discovered this after he call the Volvo Roadside Assistance people.
- There seems to be no veggies in South Dakota.
- Indian Tacos at Cheyenne Crossing were by far the best food on the trip.
- By far the nicest people we’ve encountered on our travels.
Family Highlights/Observations:
- The kids did perfect in the car. We used our friends suggestion of activity bags and we added headphones for music. There was absolutely no need for DVD players for them.
- The pools in the hotel were critical for them. Gave them a chance to exercise after long days driving.
- We packed lunchboxes with snacks for them. Since Owen is a snacker, this was the only way that we could make sure that he ate something on the trip. Eating is not a skill for him, snacking is.
- We had rooms with a separate bedroom – this was perfect for the post-kid cocktails.
- Internet in Sioux Falls was not the greatest but since I’ve switched over to RSS feeds instead of going to the sites, it was manageable.
- We did not take enough pictures. It?s challenging with 2 kids though.
- Owen used this trip as an opportunity to work on his potty training. It went well except that sheer amount of time spent in the various restrooms.
- Alex went days living on chicken nuggets and fries. That was a lot more than Owen ate.
- Breakfast at the hotels were crowded but served the need very well.
- We bought Owen’s t-shirt at Empire Mall in Sioux Falls. The kid never asks for anything.
It was a great trip!
Here are some pictures : 2008 South Dakota Pictures