Stop 18: South Dakota missed its quota

This stop represented 90% completion of our trip and it was safe to say that we were 90% ready to be home. Rapid City, SD was a two-day stop so we had a little bit of down time and it was right on time. Andy's back/leg was really suffering and he needed to get some work done somewhere with an actual connection to the interwebs. The kids were worn out and didn't even want to swim in the hotel pool (and it even had a big water slide! We were just about to have to go naked because all of our clothes were dirty and crammed into a garbage bag. Two nights in South Dakota was a welcome stop, even after a pretty drive and a rainbow to greet us.

We arrived around 9PM after enjoying a sit-down restaurant dinner (one of our only ones like this but we were tired of eating out of the cooler or paper wrappers. I immediately started laundry while Andy took Alex and Charlotte to the pool--mainly so he could go into the hot tub and rest his sciatica. They had a whopping 30 minutes there before closing and arrived wet and cold back to the room. Everyone just vegged out while I worked on laundry and prepping for the next day. I was up late working on the blog and catching up on other family tasks--I find I don't need as much sleep as the rest of the family and it's easier to get work done when it's quiet.

After breakfast the first morning, the kids went back to the room while Andy and I worked in the dining area of the hotel until around 2PM and then left to explore the sights. We concluded that all the bison have moved to Yellowstone. We were looking forward to seeing the large herds of bison at Custer State Park but by the time we exited the park, our final bison count was only 9. We did see some other new animals and learned a lot about them, so all was not lost. It's a lovely place and we're glad we did it. Here's our final animal count:

Antelope: 10
Horses: 49
White-tailed deer: 10
Burros: 7
Wild turkeys: 1
Prairie dogs: 17
Bison: 9
Mule deer: 18
Chipmunks: 2
Mountain goats: 1
Bird repeating Andy's made-up mountain lion whistle: 1
Motorcycle "hogs": 17
Dead birds after slamming into our windshield: 1

After seeing all kinds of wildlife and cruising the park for a few hours, we headed for Mt. Rushmore for an evening view and to watch the illumination/national anthem/flag folding ceremony. Alex was really looking forward to this stop almost more than any other because he's a fan of the Berenstain Bear books and they go to Mt. Grizmore and he loves that book. At one point he told us, "I'm so excited about this I can hardly contain myself. I have always wanted to see this with my actual eyes!"

There are 6 or so mule deer in this photo.

The Teletubbies might be serving Tubby Custard here.

Sarah thought this hill looked like a Windows start-up photo

Prairie dog hole

Charlotte hand next to a prairie dog hole

The road to the actual monument is winding and goes to quite an elevation. It has carved tunnels and old-fashioned bridges.. At one point, Mt. Rushmore is visible through the trees from several miles away and it's really pretty. We snaked our way to the monument. It was stunning. The girls and I shopped for souvenirs while Alex and Andy headed for some seats to watch the show. There was gallery-style, bench seating to watch the 9:00PM illumination and by 8:00PM, most of the seats were taken. Fortunately (?), because Andy was having such a difficult time walking and needed to sit down, he secured our seats right away and we had a front-row view of the impending illumination.

We watched the sun starting to set and I decided to validate our parking pass early so we weren't waiting in line afterward with hundred of others. I got hot dogs for everyone on the way back and a gal inside cafe casually mentioned that she sure hoped the rain would hold off until the show was over because it really looked like it was going to storm soon. I blew her off and shoved my way through the now massive crowd to reach our seats with the food. No sooner did I plop my buns (hot dog and human) onto the bench did it start to sprinkle. But we're Murphys; we're not afraid of a little water so we kept sitting and waiting. The show started and it was a narrative about the history of the monument and the men etched into the mountain's facade. The winds kicked up and suddenly, to our left, was a large lightning bolt. It looked closer than it likely was but many people left immediately while others--us included--sat and waited it out. Evenutally, despite Andy's mostly quiet protests, a ranger came and told us that we had to evacuate because a major storm was dangerously close. Just then, the rain started to come down and the wind whipped up. It was a rather unpleasant walk to the car--but because we'd already validated our parking pass, we moved right past that line and right to our van.

To pass the time, these goofballs were editing weird photos of each other.

They were having a blast!

It's impossible to tell in this blurry photo how much it was raining.
The wind was also really blowing and people were high-tailing it to the parking machine.
All the people, that is, except us. :) 

We had no phone signal for most of the day for directions and this time of day was no different so we had to follow rudimentary street signs. It made us wonder more than once: How did we get anywhere before GPS? But we did make it back to the hotel and we all fell into bed knowing that the next day would bring another long drive to MN to visit our friends. Alarm was set for 5:50AM. Lights out on South Dakota.