Bad Boys Bad Boys

 Day 20

After almost 3 weeks traveling around the United States, we have started to travel south back to Texas. Derek and I have one last stop tomorrow (Sunday) to see and then we will be home hopefully by dinner. We did not stop the fun today though! We left around 8:00 from our hotel in Rapid City to Wall, South Dakota. This is a tourist trap that you should stop at! They have FREE WATER from their well in the "backyard." Of course we grabbed some. 

After Wall Drug we drove about 10 minutes to Badlands National Park. This is a pretty cool park. You drive through the Prairie and then BAM! You will see some pretty cool rock formations, canyons, and some wildlife. They have found lots of fossils in the area dating back 75 million years. When my mom would tell me about the Badlands, she always told me the same story. As a little girl she was always afraid of this area. She always thought that bad guys would hide in the rocks. After seeing this park again, I can see how she would think that. There would be a lot of hiding places! Thankfully, we did not see any bad guys and we made it through the park. 

After Badlands National Park, we drove 5 1/2 hours to Grand Island, Nebraska. We made it to our pit stop around 6:30. We leave in the morning for home. I am super excited to see my fur babies! It has been a long time. 

I'm Proud to Be an American!

 Day 19

South Dakota is BEAUTIFUL! We slept in this morning. Starbucks is in the lobby of our hotel, so I put in a mobile order and Derek picked it up for us. We called down for the car and left for Mount Rushmore around 11:00. It took about 30 minutes to get there and park. It is free to see, but it costs $10 to park. When we got our ticket it came out blank... we would solve that mystery later. To get to the monument you just climb some stairs and bam! it's there!

We went to the gift shop after our pictures. I spent way too much money... but I got a George Washington bobble head! We had to pay for parking next. Since the ticket we got at the beginning was blank we just pushed "lost ticket" and then you pay and a new receipt spits out that is good for the year. 

Our next stop was Custer State Park. Instead of following GPS, I followed a sign for the park. I'm not sure if that was the best idea or not but we were soon on a narrow road that barely fit 2 cars. It was a 45 minute drive through hairpin turns, 25-35 MPH roads, and climbing altitudes. We finally made it to Custer State Park and paid our fees to enter. 

We took the Wildlife Loop road first. We were looking for buffalo. Derek really wanted to see buffalo and this was our best bet. We did end up finding buffalo as they crossed in front of our car! 

After the wildlife loop we headed for Needles Highway. This is another narrow road into the hills. Although it was a little scary to drive we found some spectacular views! 

Once we got back to Rapid City we dropped off our cooler and souvenirs and headed to dinner. We stopped at a few nerdy stores that had old video games, comics and old collectables. We then went to Firehouse Brewing Co. for dinner. We tried their root beer. It was good with hints of licorice. After dinner went to a local cookie place and bought some cookies for the road. Each cookie is about 4 oz and they are HUGE! The place is called Mary's Mountain Cookies. 

South Dakota has been a blast but it is time to head home tomorrow. I can't believe it has been almost 3 weeks since I left Texas. See everyone soon!