One Week Down

We are on day 7 of our trip! I really can't believe how much ground
we've covered, by the end of today we will have gone through thirteen
different states. In this week we have seen and experienced so many
things. It's crazy knowing that some of these experiences will be
once-in-a-lifetime type of things. Then again... There's always next
summer. :)

So, yesterday we made it to Mt. Rushmore. I was shocked how much I
enjoyed it. I had always heard that it was really overrated, but
worth it for the kids enjoyment. So, my own enjoyment was a pleasant
surprise. It was huge, which surprised me for some reason and the
actual attraction was relatively small and manageable. We were able
to drive in, check it out, picnic and get back on the road quickly,
but without having to rush.

After that, we drove as far as we could to get into a hotel because
this morning is yellowstone. We didn't want to camp too close to
yellowstone because of the bear population. (We felt like we run a
high-risk for bear attacks between harper's gremlin cry in the middle
of the night - which could be confused for a wounded animal - and
london's poop inexplicably smelling like movie theatre butter.) So,
we stayed at a little place called the jackpine motel in riverton,
wyoming. If you are looking for a small, quaint, clean and rustic
place to stay in wyoming... This is not the place for you. If,
however, you are looking for green shag carpet and a questionable
odor... We highly recommend jackpine. But, the showers were hot and
the toilet flushed... Which is a luxury these days. It is funny how
quickly our perspectives shift after a few days without little
pleasures like toilets. At mt. Rushmore I filled our nalgene bottles
with ice and water from the soda fountain and the whole family
(included tom) gasped in delight.

Yesterday we realized that en route to yellowstone from our hotel, we
would come within an hour or so of Sacajawea's grave. I did a report
on her in 3rd grade, because she was the only female on the list of
explorers that you could report on. Her whole story amazed me, and I
was disappointed that her burial site and memorial statue wasn't right
on the route. But, tom had set the gps to get to the site while I ran
into the store to restock supplies and just headed there without my
knowing it. I was so happy when I realized what was happening! I
might have cried a little. (But I also cried recently when I got a
season pass to seabreeze, our local amusement park, for my birthday
this year. I like surprises.)

So, we just went to an active native american cemetery where we
visited the grave of sacajawea and her two sons - one was actually the
baby she carried in a papoose (sp?) while she led lewis and clark on
their expedition to the pacific, and the other was her adopted son.
Both lived into their 80's, while she died at 25. She's my hero. So
is tom for going out of our way (when we were already running behind
schedule) to let me go there. This was also cool for the kids too,
because it is also had the first ever school for native american
children. It was also interesting to see different burial customs
that native americans have compared to ours. The kids each put
something (flowers, a coin, a plastic egg with a coin in it) around
the statue of sacajawea, which ended up making for some neat photos.

Next stop, yellowstone national park. The drive is gorgeous, and the
kids each got a piece of clay rock from the wind river indian
reservation when we stopped to take a picture on the side of the road.
Nothing like a road trip on a budget to make you steal souvenirs from
the native american's protected landcape.

there isn't any sand in this desert.

As you can all see from the pictures... We arrived safely at the
badlands. Due to the time change, we actually arrived right around
the planned time! The drive (about 7 hours) went super quickly
without any complaints from the kids. They are already in a good
travel routine. Once we break camp, we pile in the car and get right
to driving. They spend a couple of hours just looking out the
windows, coloring and writing in their acitivity books. We do a
couple of cd's of fun road trip music and they dance and sing. After
we stop to make and eat lunch, we put on a show for them, then they
all sleep for the rest of the drive. They really are rockstars.

So, the drive was a breeze and after the few days prior... We felt
like we earned that! As soon as we got to the badlands, we took some
pictures and explored a little. Almost as soon as we got there, a
small herd of some animal, which is still in question, walked right
across the road super close to our van. One guy said "about a quarter
mile up there are a bunch of antelopes with their babies!". Then tom
called the sheep, which is way less exciting. So, for the sake of the
story, I will go witthhhhhh.... Gazelles. A herd of gazelles were
just hanging around the cars with their babies. It was awesome.

Shortly after that, tom's deep depression came to an end when a herd
of buffalo also crossed the road in front of us, putting tom in the
middle of a lifelong dream - and only feet from real live buffalo.
(Whether or not these buffalo are wild is a matter of serious debate
between tom and I. He takes the position that since these buffalo are
undoubtedly happy and would probably never want to leave the badlands,
then they are wild. I, obviously, disagree because that is the
stupidest thing I've ever heard. A happy buffalo is not necessarily a
wild buffalo. Wild means free. Even if the buffalo don't want to
walk down I-90 to go to Wall Drug, they aren't wild unless they COULD
if they wanted to. I digress.)

So, we set up our tent at a free, primitive campground right in the
badlands (or batmans as harper calls them). Then we hiked up a pretty
steep hill and had dinner on the cliff. The kids did great climbing,
even harper insisted on going the whole way without help. It wasn't
an easy hike, so they were pretty excited to reach the top, which gave
us an awesome view. We ate a fast dinner and headed back down to
camp. We had zero run-ins with rattle snakes, which was more than
some other hikers that we met could say. One buffalo did wander down
to our campground, but minded his own business as we took pictures
(from a safe distance, mom.)

We got right into our tent and did a little family devotional. (Tom
organized some devotionals with some memory verses that the kids have
already all mermorized the first couple lines. They are some verses
from deuteronomy about how god goes before you in your travels,
pitching your camp for you by fire, etc. It is perfect scripture for
our trip. after that we ate backpacker's freezedried ice cream which
was funa and the kids loved it. We slept without the rainfly for the
first time because we did not want to miss the sky. It was beautiful
and worth taking the very small risk of getting rained on.

This morning we got up and actually broke camp and left ten minutes
EARLY! Ahhhh! Granted we had to get up at 6:30am and it still took
us 2 1/2 hours to get going... But we had ten minutes to spare!

We continued exploring the badlands, which we may have appreciated
just a touch more than the kids. Don't get me wrong, they really were
in awe at the vastness of it. At first. A few hours in... Let's just
say that I'm glad the park charges per car and not per person, because
at one point marlie literally had a pillowcase over her head. What
can ya do?

From there we went to the famous Wall Drug. We splurged and got a
pizza and some homemade donuts. It was nice not having to deal with
coolers and campstoves and packing food. We just arrived back to the
badlands for night #2. There is a cactus on our campsite and we have
a view of the beautiful rock formations, as well as the prairies. So
tonight, we will enjoy another beautiful night at "the batmans" and
tomorrow: "Rount Mushmore."

@laracapuano