Heading Out West

This summer, we decided to attempt something that we really haven't before....a summer vacation. As this is Jeff's busy season, we wanted to visit somewhere that wasn't terribly far away, and we wanted to go somewhere new. After much research (by me) and gas price calculating, we decided on a trip to the Black Hills. Because we are such avid outdoorsmen, we decided to camp there. (actually we had to decide between a hotel and eating, and eating wins every time) Unfortunately, 3 days before we planned to leave, one of my patients mentioned the rattlesnakes there. Who knew? I certainly didn't! I hightailed it back to my office to Google it-turns out that yes, there are rattlesnakes, as well as garter snakes and bull snakes. That almost ruined the trip for me. I could only picture waking up to a snake sharing my body warmth. Yuck.

The morning of our departure, I was up at 3 am to shower and finish packing the car. I was planning that we would leave by 4. Why so early? I'm not sure-but I was determined! I should add that prior to this trip, the last time I slept in a tent was girl scout camp. I'm not sure if Jeff has ever slept in a tent. We had to borrow a tent from the neighbor, and another neighbor supplied us with a lantern and cooking stove-they were worried we'd starve (right)

So, at 4am, we packed Ross in the car and took off. Midge (the GPS) did not like our choice of route, but she adjusted. We drove all the way to Mitchell, SD with only a few quick bathroom breaks. Why did we stop in Mitchell? For the Corn Palace, of course!





Seriously, this place was completely covered with corn. I forced my family to check out the inside with me-expecting it to be a palace. Instead, it was like an old high school gym with crap for sale in it. Oh well, live and learn.



After a quick lunch, we were back on the road-Jeff and Ross both quickly fell asleep, leaving me to enjoy the beautiful trip across SD alone. It was dull. Really dull. Thank goodness for MP3 players. Both of the boys slept almost all the way to Wall, which foiled our plan of counting all the Wall Drug signs we saw. They also missed out on seeing a cow with the largest horns I've ever seen (they slept through it on the way home too-even worse, because the cow had his buddy~a camel in the pasture with him)

We took another break in Wall, at the world famous Wall Drug. We actually managed to not buy anything there-but we did have a cup of free water (remember, we're on a budget).






After our pit stop in Wall, it was time to find our campground. It was located very close to Mt Rushmore, about 5-6 miles from Hill City. Well, Midge decided that we should take a random tour of Rapid City first, including trying to send us on non-existent roads. We finally found our way out of Rapid City, and found our campground. We stayed at the Mt Rushmore KOA-it was the perfect place for beginning campers to stay. We checked in, found our camp space and started to quickly unload our car. Why? It was starting to thunder...then sprinkle. We threw the tent up in like 5 minutes, carried our beds and bedding in, and it started to storm. And I mean STORM! Ross and lasted almost 30 minutes in the tent before getting completely frightened. We had to leave Jeff in the tent for ballast, as the wind was alternating between making the walls fall down and picking up the whole floor. The storm lasted around an hour-at least 2-3 inches of rain, and the temp dropped from mid 70's to 40 degrees. Yes, 40 degrees, and we were staying in a damp tent.