Day 5...."I <3 South Dakota (and Wyoming too)"

OMG! It is all I can say about this SPECTACULAR country I call home :-0 The scenery we have passed today can't be discribed in words and our pictures just don't do it justice...but I'll try anyways ;-p

There were hills I wanted to run up, roll down, and then run back up again. There were trails I wanted to hike for hours. There were "sand mountians" I wanted to climb. There were places I just wanted to pitch a tent and camp out under the stars. I had never in my wildest imaginations thought that America was THIS beautiful!!!


Soiux Falls, SD:

-We started our day out early in the morning (6:30 am Central Time), and it was pouring rain. I think we are cursed with rain for this trip.

-We had to skip the sculpture garden in Montrose beacuse of the rain, but we saw it from the highway.


Mitchell, SD:

-We started our journey towards the Corn Palace. All along the road there were these amazing billboards that had use wanting to pull over at every small attraction :-p Some of the signs for the Corn Palace were..."Ears to you," "Corn-ceptual art," "Prepare to be a-maize-d," and "You're almost ear." LOL! The palace itself is a huge building that is decorated on the outside with the husks and ears and stalks of corn. It's really awesome!


1880 Town, SD:

-An amazing little side attraction that the billboards pulled us into ;-D It was a recreation of an old style town,complete with railway, a diner, and the obligatory souveigner shop.

-The coolest part of this town tho, were these 3 little kittens that I just wanted to catnap and bring to CA! Two black and whites, and a gray one. They seemed to be the star attraction because everyone was taking their picture :-)


Badlands, SD:

-AWE-INSPIRING!!! I had no clue that South Dakota could be this beautiful. We'd already seen a lot of great rolling hills and cool rivers and ponds, but the Badlands takes the cake. The land is full of these giant sand mountains (for lack of a better discription). Think like the Grand Canyon, only not as deep and made of sand and not rock.

-There was a scenic loop about 60 miles around the Park, but we were on a "schedule" and figured we should keep moving. I wish now that we hadn't left, and Kath concures. Still, the view was amazing, and the photo-op priceless.


SD-44:

-After leaving the Badlands Natl Park, we took the scenic highway towards Mt. Rushmore. This is noteworthy because of the looooooong stretch of road with the sand dunes in the back. And we, being crazy/picure obsessed girls, pulled over the car and posed on this deserted back highway :-p It was too much fun!


Rapid, SD:

-Oh joy of joys...my car is EVIL. We had pulled off at a McDonalds to get lunch, and then brought the car next door to fill up on gas. I fill the tank, check all my fluid levels are good, get in the car and turn the key......NOTHING!!!! The damn car is hydro-locked again, I think to myself. I'm somewhere between pissed and scared, and so am being very high-strung.

-Somehow, I get the car to start by first turning the key enough to have all the power come on (you know, when you can turn on the radio and windows work, etc.). From that position, I can turn the key again and the engine will start. Well, this is not natural...and so we go in search of the BP Station with the garage.

-We find the BP Station and meet these 3 awesome/amazing mechanics (Steve, Scott, and Doug). They lift my car up, check all the wires and power and such. They can't find anything wrong. Then Doug looks at my key and says that I may have stripped the microchip. I give him my spare key, and the car is working much better. There is still the possibility that there is something wrong with my Tumbler, but it hasn't given me any more problems today.

-I could have had them check but they'd have to take the strearing wheel apart, and that would mean time and money (niether of which either of us has a lot of). All 3 guys agreed that it was pobably some fluke and I'd be fine. We drove off with no charge and now knowing some really good people!


Mount Rushmore, SD:

-Well worth seeing! It was a bit smaller then I expected, but then again we were very far away. You could hike up closer, but while we were there it started...yep, you guessed it...raining...again!!! LOL :-) We had some great fun taking trick-pics (one of my favorites from this whole trip).


Casper, WY:

-After Rushmore, I took over the driving. It was a straight 3ish hour shot from Rushmore to Casper. But as is our tradition whenever Kath and I are in the car together, we got a little backwards. The good thing is we figured it out quickly and were soon on our way to one of the most gorgeous drives I've ever been on.

-Stopped for more pictures at the "Welcome to Wyoming" sign...and because we'd missed it, we took some pics at the "Welcome to South Dakota" sign on the other side of the road ;-D

-The landscape is soooooo vast. You can literally see the whole horizon! There are mostly gentle rolling hills full of grass, wheat, and/or graizing cattle. The road would take us up one of these hills and we'd have an even more amazing view. I was much more interested in staring at the view then worrying about driving. hehehehe.

-Luckily the roads were car-less most of the time. There were a few cars, and I had to pass several. The last pass I made was passing a semi-truck :-0 Not recommended! I wasn't even speeding, tho. Highway speed out here is 75 mph, and I just set the cruise control and went.

-Just as the sun was setting and we were just outside of Casper, we saw this amazing sight! A warm-air thunder system coming in from the North, and a cold-air system coming in from the South. We watched as they began to collide and make cloud-to-cloud lighting :-)


We made it to our Bed and Breakfast (the Ivy House Inn) about 9:00 pm Mountain Time. That's 15-16 hours on the road :-0 Kath is zonked out in bed, and I'm ready to crash too. It's onto Utah (yay desert) tomorrow!