Day 7
Thursday, July 18, 2013
As we were driving to Billings,
Montana, right after we made a Starbucks run, Ellie suddenly cried
out, “I gotta go POOP!” The words a parent never wants to hear
when you're driving down the freeway with no exits in sight. “HOLD
IT, ELLIE!” We shouted, trying to encourage her as we scrambled to
find the next pull off. It got quiet... uh oh. Ellie's little voice
piped up. “It's okay, Mommy and Daddy. I just pooped a little bit.”
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| Taking a potty break |
Perfect way to start the day.
We did a ton of driving through Montana. The rest of the state was dry with very little scenery. We made one small stop at the Missouri Headwaters State Park. This is where the Missouri River starts.
We tried stopping by Little Bighorn Battlefield but we missed it by like half an hour. Trying to figure out how to turn our whole convoy around was quite the feat in front of those closed gates.
We stayed the night once again at a Walmart in Sheridan, Wyoming. Yay, finally out of Montana!
On a bright note, Juliet's sweet little face is healing well! She's a happy camper, or shall we say, happy RV-er.
=D
Day 8
Friday, July 19th, 2013
Another long day of driving through
Wyoming into South Dakota. Along the way we tried out a new chain of
fast Mexican food called Taco Johns. I'd say it was a good mix
between Taco Bell and Chipotle. Good food that was relatively
healthy, but kind of on the pricey side.
As we've been driving these long
stretches, Caleb and I both have been amazed at just how much open
space there is! 
Whoever thinks overpopulation is an issue needs to
take a road trip all the way from Idaho to South Dakota. Just this
drive alone will show you how much room there is and that there is no
way we're filling up the planet. 
Sure, cities might be overpopulated,
but that's by people's choices. Move out to Montana in the middle of
nowhere... you won't see another soul again if you don't want to.
You'll have to do a 2 hour drive just to find some no-name fast food
joint called “Frosty's AND you can play “Where's the wifi?”
every 10 miles you go.
Anyhow, the landscape didn't really change until South Dakota. Finally, green grass and trees! It was really neat to see pro-life signs along the way. Looking at our own kids and knowing how precious they are, it's always awesome to see signs embracing life. After all, each baby is a gift from God!
We stopped in a cool little town called
Custer where we stayed at the Flintstones RV park. It had some fun
Flintstones figurines around with crazily colored buildings, but the
parking spots were really packed in there. There was a pool and
laundry area too. 
We dropped off the trailer and went to town for
pizza. Caleb checked out a store called Stage Stop Trading Post. He
calls it "the ultimate mountain man store” with everything you could “need”
from animal furs, to rocks, to rattlesnake heads, to bullfrog bags
and old hunting knives and bayonets. Needless to say, I went hunting
for pizza while Caleb had fun in that store.
Later, back at the Flintstones RV park,
the girls had a blast swinging while we watched a lighting storm in
the distance. We headed back to our trailer as the raindrops started
and hunkered down for the night. Sometime in the middle of the night,
a torrential downpour of rain woke Caleb and I up. The rain storms
in South Dakota are pretty crazy. Lighting, thunder... the works!
The rain was rather a nice sound to
fall back asleep to though. =)
Day 9
Saturday, July 20th, 2013
Today we had a big day planned! Leaving
the trailer behind at our RV park, we headed to Jewel Cave and bought
our tickets for a tour at 3:20
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| We did a drive by of the Crazy Horse monument |
(if you ever want to go here, make sure you buy tickets in advance because they sell out fast!). We had a a few hours before our tour began so we made our way over to Mount Rushmore about half an hour away.
I was super excited for this as I have
never been there before and Caleb had only been there when we was very young. When we were only about 10 min. out, it started raining.
“Eh, we're from Washington, we'll be fine.” I said. Ha!
 |
| A chunk of hail |
It started to downpour... like rain so hard you're gonna be soaked in just a few seconds. Then the hail came. Nice kidney bean sized chunks of ice. Oh and not to be outdone, the lighting showed up as well. We had come all this way and weren't giving up now! So onward we pushed.
When we pulled into the parking garage there was a break in the rain so we piled out. We got to the end of the viewing area and then back came the rain and hail. It was fun though as we snapped a few pictures and then ran for cover. Mount Rushmore was definitely a sight to see!
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| T.J's ice cream |
Back to the caves we went! The tour
guide was awesome. She cracked lots of jokes, was super friendly to
the kiddos, and very informative.
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| A map of the labyrinth of tunnels within Jewel Cave |
Downward we ascended into the Jewel
Cave – so far there has been about 167.8 miles discovered of this
cave. All done by volunteers. The narrowest opening they have to go
through is like 7in. high and 12 in. wide. That would be slightly claustrophobic if
you ask me.
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| Climbing the stairs in the cave |
Anyhow, we went down about 375 ft. and got to explore a half mile of its winding tunnels and incredible caverns. This is by far
probably the coolest thing we've done. The intricacies of the cave
were amazing as there was no rhyme or reason to its structure. The
ceiling would soar above us then there'd be a cliff like opening, the
walls would be wide and spacious then suddenly small and curvy where
we'd have to negotiate around the twists in the trail. Up and down
we'd go, following the guide upon a cement sidewalk and steel
staircases built inside.
Our pictures just don't do the majestic cave
justice. Ellie and Juliet even enjoyed it, and Juliet had fun making
all kinds of noise as her voice carried well, lol. If you're ever in
the area, definitely take one of these tours! They have 3 levels of varying length and difficulty depending on your appetite for adventure. We
took the Scenic Tour that lasted about 1 ½ hours and that was perfect
for us!
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| This is the size of an opening in the cave. Ellie makes it look easy. |
We headed back to the Flintstones RV
park and I took the girls swimming. They were hesitant about the pool
at first (neither of them had ever been in such a large pool), but
then they had a blast! Ellie just splashed around on the steps where
she could touch and Juliet swam with me.
Quite a fun packed day!
Day 10
Sunday, July 21st, 2013
The girls love reading books! So while Caleb and I cleaned up the trailer, the girls looked through their books. We loaded up and said goodbye to the Flintstones park.
Then we were off to the Badlands! An interesting name to be sure... so of course we had to check it out even though we had no idea what it was.
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| Caleb made a friend with tire man |
Along the way, we
suddenly started seeing all these signs for Wall Drug. One's like
“All roads lead to Wall Drug.” “Kids love Wall Drug.” “Free
ice water – Wall Drug.” “Something to Crow About – Wall
Drug.”
It was a cool old western town with half of
the town belonging to... you guessed it... Wall Drug. Tons of little
gift shops. We looked around for a little bit, but things were pretty
spendy, so we loaded back up and headed off again to our Badlands.When we first pulled into the Badlands National Park, it was just a big flat plain. Wasn't anything amazing... but every park we've gone to starts out like this. So we kept driving and the road took us downward to yet another amazing sight!
The Badlands are incredible valleys of jagged cliffs
and
towering mountains hidden within the grassy plains.
We left the valleys behind and drove through these hills that seemed to have shot up from out of nowhere. Truly amazing! There was a really neat “Fossil Walkway” that we were able to walk along. Turns out the Badlands have one of the largest findings of fossils in the country. Definitely worth a visit here too!
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| He's such a good Daddy |
We spent awhile in the Badlands so when we were done we took off for another long span of driving.
We ended up grabbing a quick dinner at McDonalds cause most everything else was closed. =( But on the plus side, McDonalds is doing Monopoly right now and I figured, with how many places we're going, we're bound to have a better chance of winning something, haha! Oh, and they have little minion figurines in their happy meals and Ellie loves playing with those!
It was another late night boon docking
at Walmart tonight in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. This actually has
worked out well for us in the saving money department. We've been
very surprised with how much it costs to stay at RV parks. Between
$20-$40 for most average places with even higher prices for the super
nice ones! This is frustrating when you have your own stuff and all
the RV park is doing is letting you use some water, a little
electricity, and a hook up to the sewer. Anyhow, that's why staying
at a Walmart every now and then saves us money. =)
"Don't deny dreams.
They're a gift given to make your life full.
Accept them. Reach for them.
We are not here just to endure hard times until we die.
We are here to live, to trust,
and to create out of our longings."
- Jane Kirkpatrick
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