Oh Give Me A Home, Where the BUFFALO Roam

Day 5 - You know that song: Oh give me a home, where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the antelope play. Yeah, I just lived that song today! 

States: 6 - No new ones 

Capitols: None today

Books read: no time to read books 

License Plates Found: 38 + 4 = 42!  (Alaska, Maine, VT, and VA for today)

Crunches/Squats: 35 

Our day started with a carb-o-rific breakfast at the Days Inn. Yum.

We then started our way to Custer State Park. Thank you to Janice Miller for the recommendation! It was SPECTACULAR! We could not have asked for a more beautiful day for hiking and enjoying some nature. I was telling Celeste yesterday that I wanted to see buffalo. That is all I really wanted to see as far as animals go... I was not disappointed today! As we drove up to the park ranger to pay our money to get into the park she inquired about our window decorations. After filling her in on our travel plans she informed us that a herd of buffalo were hanging out near the visitors center. Let me tell you, she was not lying about a whole herd! There were at least a hundred buffalo just grazing and blocking traffic. Sorry in advance for the amount of buffalo pictures I took; I really did only pick a few out of 50 to share. 

The park ranger was really nervous about the buffalo. I, on the other hand, was not. I jumped out of the car for my picture! The park ranger started yelling for everyone to get behind their cars...

Celeste jumped in a picture with me instead! This really nice older gentleman took our picture. He was a fellow Texan! He just completed one of his goals to make it to all 50 states before his sister. I am so happy we made part of his journey!

We then started our drive on Needles Highway. We found this hole in a rock. Duh! We took pictures!

I even went inside the hole.... yay Moss!

A creek next to the rock.

Cathedral rock formations.

We must seem like nice people because everyone wants to talk to us! This nice lady offered to take a picture for us. She is a fellow teacher from California. (she teaches middle school PE in case you were curious)

We were heading for Sylvan Lake on our scenic drive through Custer State Park. Look how beautiful it is! Our pictures don't capture the true beauty of this place. You must come here and experience it for yourself! We did about a mile hike around the lake. For the most part it is pretty easy. There is one moderate part where you climb up a little. If you look in the background of the picture below you can see some boulders - that is what we climbed up.

I got a little adventurous and went off the path. I'm so glad we did!

Look what I accomplished! I'm usually too scared to climb rocky paths but not today!

Watch out for falling rocks!

After eating some lunch at Sylvan Lake we headed to Bear Country! It was pretty cool except one thing - It is $16 a person! You do get to see bears though... so it was cool.

We then left for Mount Rushmore. This has been on my bucket list for about 4 years now. The guy at the ticket booth was sooo nice! We will be going back tomorrow for the lighting show. We weren't going to wait 4 hours for the show. We were getting hungry.

You have no idea how happy I was at this moment! It is much smaller than I thought it would be but I'm so glad we made it here!

Look what I found... I now need this! I am having regrets not getting it.... but it is $100 for all the magnets and another 15 for the magnet board... I'm going to sleep on it and maybe purchase it tomorrow if I still REALLY want it.

 Another shot of the magnificent heads. I'll fill you in tomorrow about why each of the presidents was chosen. (The booklet is in the car and I am too tired to go down and get it.)

For dinner we traveled back to Rapid City to eat at Firehouse Brewery. The downtown strip is pretty cute! The food was AMAZING! I had Schnitzel with mashed potatoes and beer cheese soup. YUMMY!!! We then asked our waitress for a milkshake place. This guy who works at the restaurant told us about Armadillos which is at 3rd street and Main. It was only 3 blocks away! We high tailed it to get milkshakes before the rain came.

This place did not disappoint! It was so yummy and just a local hot spot. The best moment was when this teenager ordered a large milkshake and his name was called. His face looked like a kids on Christmas morning! He was so excited!

 I want to thank all of you who are following us on Facebook with our photo game. We have fun picking out postcards to send and taking the pictures for it. We post at different times of the day. We have a jam packed schedule tomorrow -- when we have service we will post on Facebook! Again, thanks for reading!

Celeste has a blog too! Check it out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/

One last thing - we finally looked up the Lyrics to "This Land Is Your Land" which we couldn't figure them out the first day.
If you want to see a great version of it here is the link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ui1ZIOFJ6a4

And here are the lyrics in case you are curious:

This land is your land This land is my land
From California to the New York island;
From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters
This land was made for you and Me.

As I was walking that ribbon of highway,
I saw above me that endless skyway:
I saw below me that golden valley:
This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps
To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts;
And all around me a voice was sounding:
This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling,
And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling,
As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting:
This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there
And on the sign it said "No Trespassing."
But on the other side it didn't say nothing,
That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people,
By the relief office I seen my people;
As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking
Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me,
As I go walking that freedom highway;
Nobody living can ever make me turn back
This land was made for you and me

Welcome to the Wild Wild West

Day 4 - We made it to the wild wild west. If you are ever going to experience what it felt like to live in the western days make sure you make it to Colorado, Wyoming, and South Dakota. It is so different up here than it is in Texas. First, the stats - 

States: 6 - (Wyoming and South Dakota are new) 

Capitols: 2!  WY and SD

Books read:Still working on HP 1 

License Plates Found: 33 + 5 = 38!  (Kentucky, OR, AL, Mass, and LA for today)

Crunches/Squats: Day of Rest

Our day started with loading the car. Let me tell you, we are not traveling light. It took only 2 trips with our stuff, but it is a lot. I think that we got it down how to pack the car! We are getting into a routine. I mean, we still have 16 days left with all our stuff so we are going to be expert car packers! 

We then left for our first destination - the Denver Capitol! Yes, we are finally getting to a capitol. I can't complain because I have had soooo much fun the past 3 days but I am loving me some capitols. You can sit/stand on a step a mile above sea level. It faces the Denver Mint if you are looking for it. 

A wonderful woman from El Paso took our picture. Gotta love us some Texans!

As you can see, the dome is being worked on. It was still a gorgeous day and the capitol did not disappoint.

After a stop at the capitol we left to find a... STARBUCKS! We found one and got our caffein fix for the day. 

We then made our way to Wyoming. It is about an hour and a half drive from Denver to Cheyenne. We stopped at the welcome sign to get our picture. We almost blew past it but safely got over just in time. As you can see, another car did the same thing! 

We stopped at Wyoming's new welcome center. It was FANTASTIC! Look at all the cool stuff they had in there. I definitely would come back some day.

After some fun at the welcome center we made it to Cheyenne. The weather was amazing! This is capitol number 16 for me! You can see much of their history from just the outside of the building. There were Native Americans, Buffalo, a cowboy, and some pioneer women. What a rich history!

I LOVED downtown Cheyenne! It reminded me of the Lone Ranger movie. The speed limit was 25 and I could just imagine horses and cowboys. There are decorated cowboy boots all around the town. We took some pictures with them (all on my phone and I can't figure out how to get them from my phone to this blog).

We also found true north!

After a short trip to Cheyenne it was time to get back in the car to head to Rapid City, South Dakota. We had about a 5 hour drive ahead of us on highways (not interstates). Look what was ahead of us! RAIN! I was the passenger at this point so I took many pictures of the land and sky. It took my breath away! You could see for miles and it was so different.

I was imagining that game: The Oregon Trail that I used to play as a kid.

There was no one on the road with us...

So, what always comes with rain clouds?

RAINBOWS! So, we saw this rainbow and I freaked out (and so did Celeste). My initial quote was "It's like it's glowing"! I know, stupid eh! But, I was trying to snap pictures with cameras and phones and I mean, it is glowing...

To get the best pictures we needed to stop the car. Where did we pull over? Oh, we didn't.
Me: "Are you safely pulled over?"
Celeste: "There's no one on the road!"
Me: "oh"

Double Rainbow!!!!!

I'm getting rained on so I made this face!

Well, after the excitement of the double rainbow we got the afternoon blues.
Celeste: "I don't know how I'm ever going to get through the middle of the day hump."
Me: Do you think it is pie time?
Celeste: "Oh yes!"

We had bought pie at Village Inn before we left Castle Rock. (Thanks Melissa for putting the idea in our heads about pie!) Mine was Peanut Butter goodness. Celeste had Chocolate. It really helped us in our middle of the day hump.

We are also enjoying our game on Facebook: Where in the world are Michelle and Celeste. We each get a winner for the day and we will send a postcard from the state we are in. We needed a post office in Wyoming so we asked Siri to help us! In Manville, WY (population 97) we found their post office. What an adventure!

Almost to South Dakota!

We made it to South Dakota!!!!

Thanks for reading! Check back tomorrow!

Celeste has a blog too! Check it out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/

The Hills Are Alive; With the Sound of Music

Day 3 of our Capitol Challenge Road Trip. We are expert planners on a mission to see as much as possible in 20 days. So far that has been a success! Here are the stats for today: 

States: 4 no new ones today

Capitols: 0 -- I know... tomorrow this part will be updated! 

Books read: none... still on the same chapter as yesterday. 

License Plates Found: 19 + 15= 33!  (Georgia, Michigan, New Jersey, Maryland, Utah, Nebraska, California, South Dakota, Iowa, North Carolina, Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, and Idaho for today)

Crunches/Squats: 55! 20 in the morning to make up for yesterday and 30 this evening. Tomorrow is a day of rest. 

Number of people asking us about our trip: 0 but MANY people read the stuff on our car. We are just going to shout out to them what day we are on :) 

OK, so let's get back to today's adventures. Our morning started out by getting some breakfast at Village Inn. It was great! The pancakes were the best I have had! We did not buy pie today but we wanted to! Thank you to our host Melissa for taking us in and giving us the BEST hospitality! 

Our next stop was Hammond's Candy Factory. This is a FREE tour. Yes, you read that correctly, FREE! If you are in Denver it is worth the stop. It was really neat to see all the workers hand making the candy and then packaging it and getting it ready to ship out.

After candy it was time for Tea. We drove to Boulder, Colorado to take the Celestial Seasonings tour. Guess what! Are you ready? This was FREE also! Our tour guide was really funny and we had a great time listening to all he had to tell us. Then, you get to sample tea! Oh, did I mention that they also give you 4 tea bags if you take the tour?

We then took some long winding roads into the mountains. Our destination: Rocky Mountain National Park. So, the plan was to hike and eat at Bear Lake. Well... that was closed. As the ranger crushed our dreams we walked to the gift store to use the indoor plumbing. As we stood there in the gift shop trying to figure out what to do, a very nice lady who worked there saved us! She offered to help us and gave us a GREAT idea. She said to take the scenic drive up the mountain to Alpine Visitor Center. There were breathtaking views of the mountains, valleys, glaciers and much more. This seriously saved our day. I regret not getting her name so that I could thank her.

This is our first stop. We thought this was an amazing view... it is! But, there are so many more amazing views to come!

Oh yeah, that is an Elk. It was just grazing right off the road. What do people from Texas do when they see wildlife up close and personal? Take a picture of course!

Look! Snow!! I could not believe that there was snow still on the mountains!

The Hills are Alive, With the Sound of Music. We could not stop singing that song. I just wanted to sing and dance on those mountains!

Looking at all the snow

We were almost 2 miles above sea level!

"It's like we're in a cloud." ~ not said by Celeste!

61 degrees was really cold. The snow was not really melting. But, we are from Texas and July is 100 degrees usually, so we dressed for that!

We took one more picture before leaving the mountains.

We ate at Rio Grande in Boulder. It is located near Pearl Street. If you are ever in Colorado and craving Mexican food this is the place to eat!

Well, it was a LONG and eventful day. I can't believe it is only day 3! It feels like we have been on vacation for WEEKS! Oh wait, we still have 17 days! Thanks for reading!

Celeste has a blog too! Check it out! http://34justme.blogspot.com/