This morning started early. After going to bed at 2:00, Evan bumped into the light switch in his sleep and all the lights came on and woke us up at 4:30. Once I finally got them turned off I had to convince Andy it was still dark and he needed to go back to sleep. At 7:00 he woke me up daying "its not dark anymore!"
We got up and moving and Pops and I went to pick up a rental car that would hold all of us for our trip to Mt Rushmore. We got back with the Nissan Armada at about 9:45. We quickly loaded in car seats and picnic food and hit the road. It was about a half hour drive up into the mountains. As you get close you come to a small tourist town similar to Gatlinburg TN.
We arrived at the Mt and Andy was sleeping. As I was trying to cheer him up and get him to look up at the mountain I asked him who the people were. Daddy? Nope. Pops? Nope. Then who? His answer--"Star wars Clone wars". So the whole time we would get to a lookout point and he would say "WOW Star was clone wars". I thought it was pretty funny. Later Gabi pointed out that Rushmore and Star War sound similar. OK I get it now!
Gabi and Evan were impressed with the Mt. They took it all in and enjoyed it and were ready for the ice cream they saw others eating. We held them off and had them watch the info movie about the sculpture. I really enjoyed it. Evan liked that they used dynamite to make most of it.
After souveneirs we went back to the little town for lunch because it had started raining and we didnt' want a rainy picnic. We then stopped at the candy shop and watched taffy being made and maybe bought some. If we did buy some the kids probably loved it!
Then we headed up the mountain to Black Hills National forest on our way to Custer State Park. The views from the mountain were amazing. The kids were entralled with the trees and the rocks and being so high. At one point we stopped at an overlook and climbed up on the rocks. From there we could see Mt Rushmore again, only we were just as high. Back down the mountain and thru the forest we entered Custer State Park. After one wrong turn and a little time trying to find our way around, we made it to the Wildlife Loop. This was the kids favorite part although Andy slept through most of it. They were on a "safari in a jeep" and we were looking for animals. We had picked up a little magazine about the park. It had an insert describing the animals you could see and Gabi started checking them off as we found them. We saw one buffalo by himself that was huge to start off with. We saw lots of deer up close with nice racks. We saw prairie dogs and their families and their holes right next to the road. We found some huge turkeys.
And then the kids favorite part. We came upon a pack of wild donkeys. The car in front of us was feeding them crackers. They were obviously used to this and came right up to the car windows. After they begged in the windows a while we gave in and opened our bag of Chex Mix. Don't tell anyone, we weren't supposed to feed them. They were very gentle. Evan fed one. Gabi says she wanted to, but I didn't hear her. I gave Andy a cracker to feed the one at his window, but he ate it himself. As we were driving away and looking for the herd of buffalo, Andy says "Mama you feed the cows, I feed the hoseys"
Just as we were giving hope for the buffalo we found the herd right before the exit. There were so many of them. They had at least ten babies with them. None were as big as the one we found in the forest while we were lost. We left the park and the wind had really picked up. So we took our picnic back to the RV and ate it on the floor.
A few games of Nerf football and soccer later and after indoor smores, we got the kids in bed. We took the car back to the airport and now are watching the next episode of 24. Tomorrow we head to Gillette Wyoming to stay there during an RV homecoming rally. I think we are staying there for a couple days. I hope they have AT&T!
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