I'm pretty sure they're all hibernating?

On to the Badlands! In only twice the driving time, via the Indian Reservation. Ooops.


After we left Mt. Rushmore I left my job as navigator to drive for Troy, who was getting sleepy. I had already plotted out the route, to be fair, so we were headed in the wrong direction anyway. But if Troy were driving I think he would have caught on much sooner that we seemed to be heading into nowhere and taking a very long time doing so. But he was sleeping in the passenger seat. I finally woke him up and asked him to check the map for me. And then there was kind of a panic moment when we realized that we were miles and miles south of where we needed to be, on an Indian Reservation, which would soon turn into miles and miles of bad dirt roads.

I put the 4-Runner in 4 wheel drive. I don't think we could have done it in my Corolla, which is what we drove on our first trip to the Badlands, years ago. And pretty soon Troy was thinking my out-of-the-way route was pretty cool. Whew! Half of the Badlands National Park is managed by the Lakota Oglala tribe, but eventually we were on federal land.

There were Bison and Prairie Dogs to enjoy in the beginning.







Seriously, those prairie dogs are soo CUTE! And they sound like little squeak toys.

And then there were canyons and ravines and gullies and hoodoos and spires and mounds.
Looks like the Grand Canyon in some places and the Moon in others.











And we drove all around the park. And around, and around. Here we are looking at fossils of animals found in the park. And it got to the point where Troy was asking "Want to stop for pictures here?" and we were like ".......meh."

Troy still finds it all captivating and wants to take more pictures, but while it was already chilly and windy, it had turned off cloudy as well. Troy thought the scenery might photograph better in black and white. Which I think is true if there are human subjects in the picture as well, but not necessarily of the scenery itself.



I don't know, it's nice to have both I guess. But anyway, the problem was, he had never studied the camera before to learn how to do black and white. But he accidentally stumbled across it one day and did it before, so why on earth couldn't he remember it now? And then he was frustrated. And I was thinking about how different we are because I could never just drop everything else in the middle of touring the park to figure out how to set the darn camera for black and white. I would have just said "Well, I guess I should have thought of that before we left." and mooooved on.

And then I was thinking how frustrated and tired we all seemed to be, and we'd had a really great tour of the park, and how nice it would be to get checked into a hotel and go eat.

Right about that time, Troy pulls over and exclaims that there is a hiking trail right in front of us and we are going to do it! And we all whine. But Troy says "We are not just going to look at the Badlands, We are going to LIVE the Badlands!" And we all whine. But we follow. Like sheep. When we hike, sometimes it's a half a day thing, and that's what I was thinking about. That it was late and I didn't know how much food we had with us and I just never know about Troy. He's kind of a wild card.

But the girls warmed up to the idea early into the hike, I didn't come around until much later. But I did come around. And really, it was what we needed.







And when we got back in the car to continue on we discovered that this was basically the end of the park. So we would have left the park tired and grouchy had we not stopped to hike. As opposed to just tired.

We drove on through as much of South Dakota as we could before heading back down into Nebraska. We ended up in Winner. Pheasant capitol of the world. And they do just hurl themselves at you as you're driving down the highway. Nothing sounded better to us than Pizza Hut, and we were in luck because there was one just down the road from the Buffalo Trail Motel, where we were staying. And the next morning we set off for home because, ONCE AGAIN, we had accomplished everything on our vacation to do list in the allotted time. We are awesome!

Scott's Bluff, Chimney Rock, Crazy Horse, a very sweet older lady, and Mt. Rushmore

Just before you cross into Nebraska from Cawker City you drive by the Geographical Center of the United States. And I think a few miles away the center of North America too, but I could be making that up. Just thought I'd mention that. We'd just seen the world's largest ball of twine, so we were hard to impress at that point.

We spent the night in Hastings at a place called the Rainbow Motel. It didn't look like a great place, but we were tired. It smelled like fried food. Troy went out to my car and got a lavender scented air freshener tree and placed it over the air conditioner to make it smell a little better. And he had to run to Walmart in the morning to pick up stuff we assumed someone else was packing, like hair brushes, toothpaste, etc. But it was all smooth after that.

Loong drive through Nebraska. I'm sure it's just because I hadn't researched all the cool places to stop along the way, like I did in Kansas, but we were thinking the only state more boring than Kansas might just be Nebraska. (I don't actually think Kansas is boring, I love Kansas) And we really needed to get up to Scott's Bluff. We remembered it from last trip and we loved it.

Quick picture in front of Chimney Rock, it's about all you can do there.



But you know, it was an important landmark for people on The Oregon Trail, The California Trail, The Mormon Trail and such. It is very difficult to fathom what those people went through on those journeys, which is why places like this are so cool. But they don't let you hike up to it, so we were on our way again.


Oh, after purchasing a pair of bison socks, of course. Bison. We have them a couple miles from where we live, but Alina loves them and it's what she's drawn to for souvineers.




Scott's Bluff is a very cool place. Not historically. It's named after a guy that nobody knows anything about, they think he was abandoned and left to die at the base of the bluff. No story there. But it's geographically cool. And you can see wagon ruts from the top of the bluff. I think Pride Rock from The Lion King when I look at it, because I relate everything to a Disney movie somehow. This picture is actually what it looked like the next morning when we went, because when we arrived Tuesday afternoon, there were extremely strong winds and a storm moving through. We drove to the top anyway. Troy let himself get very close to the edge up there on foot and felt the strong winds blasting upward after hitting the wall of the bluff. He finds that stuff exhilarating. Kalyn and I let him go off and go out on ledges and climb stuff and just walk away so we don't have to watch him nervously. Alina got upset with us, but we explained that we have to let him go off and do his thing, he usually always comes back. Kalyn said "We've had to do this before, Alina."







It's just so different looking from home. But it was very windy and cold and about to rain or sleet or something, so we did not hike up there that evening. We found a Mexican restaurant in town because it's my favorite, and it's sort of traditional that I get a giant Margarita at some point on these trips. And we'd go back in the morning.






So we get there in the morning and the air is so fresh, the sky is sunny, it had snowed a little on that desert landscape, and Troy and I were in Heaven. I have a book at home called The World's Best Hikes and it's just picture after picture of trails like this. I know not everyone appreciates scenery pictures, but we can just imagine ourselves there and it feels good.

I made it a good portion of the way up. I have a fear of heights, and I do very well usually if it's just me and Troy. But with Alina, I can't seem to manage my panic attack near the top of the trail. Even though it's not really that scary, there's not a sheer drop. But since Troy had the girls and they were fine without me, I went back down to the museum, visited with the rangers and planned to drive to the top to meet them up there, but no keys. So I turned around and went back up the trail to meet them on their way down.





Yes, Troy encourages them to get off the trail and climb the rocks. Ha, ha, ha.



Then on to Crazy Horse! I had read mixed reviews on the Crazy Horse Memorial on the internet. Some people felt that the story of the sculptor and his family was very inspirational. Others thought it was too much about the sculptor, it was taking way too long, and the cost to get in was outrageous. I found the story to be very inspirational indeed. I don't care about it being all about the sculptor, his feats were amazing. And they don't accept federal funding, which is admirable, so I didn't mind paying $27 to get in. And the Native American Museum there is amazing. I found myself thinking about things I saw there days after I left. The monument is HUGE! In a way I wish we'd gone to Mt. Rushmore first because it seemed so small compared to Crazy Horse.

We checked into the Super 8 in Hill City, and when Troy came back to the car he told us we were going to visit the Teddy Bear Town across the street in the morning because the lady who manages the hotel owns it and has the world's record for teddy bear collections. Over 7,000. Kalyn and I went to the front desk to ask about where in town we could get get a swim suit for Alina (didn't bring one) and she couldn't think of a place. But she had some that were left that she washed for guests to use if we didn't mind. We didn't. So we followed her to the laundry room and she told us about how someone called her the day before and told her about a blue teddy bear in a dumpster. So she went down and rescued it, it was covered in oil. She took it to her place and cleaned it with Dawn dishwashing liquid and wondered if that might make a good commercial. How she rescued it, cleaned it, and let it join her collection. We thought it would.





And then we went to Mt. Rushmore. It's very different in the off season. No tour guides, which is nice during tourist season. Some buildings are closed in the off season, BOOO. But absolutely no crowds. We were like, one family of 5 that were there that morning. Weird. Had it been my first visit I would of thought it wasn't a very big deal at all. But I know better, because I've been there with all the people from all over the world, and Abe Lincoln, and the fireworks.



I'm gonna have to post the Badlands tomorrow, because it's late and posting pictures is exhausting! I'm sure there's an easier way and I will want to kill myself when I figure it out.

Does anybody have a slim jim?

Troy has been harassing me with that line all week. Because one morning on vacation for spring break, we were in the little breakfast area of the hotel eating their free continental breakfast, and a guy walks in and says "Excuse me, does anybody here have a slim jim? I've locked my keys in the car." And everybody just kind of looks at each other and shrugs, but I say "Yeah, we do. In the car." Because, even after a moment to process what he said, I guess I thought he desperately needed a beef stick with his coffee and he couldn't get to his stash because he locked his keys in the car.

And, really? Is that such a stretch? But I apparently got his hopes up for no reason, and as he left to call a locksmith, Troy just looked at me totally astounded by my dinginess. (That doesn't read din-ji-ness, does it? Because I meant to say that I'm dingy.) Anyway, I've never heard of a slim jim before, except for the beef jerky. And I do know people who lose it if they don't get their Dr. Pepper, or some other vice, so I didn't think it was any big deal. Troy doesn't understand how I get through life.

But, YES! We got to go on a family vacation this year during spring break. We usually try to go somewhere, but last year we didn't. And it was kind of miserable, so I wasn't about to let spring break go by without our family taking a trip this year. As Kalyn gets older I want to squeeze in as many family road trips as I can. There will soon come a day when she refuses to go with us and I can't force her. Also, I am aware of trips we took when Kalyn was younger and I want to be sure we do the same with Alina. It's a disadvantage to having children 8 years apart. We took Kalyn to Mt. Rushmore the summer before 1st grade. So this year I planned a road trip to Mt. Rushmore for spring break hoping Alina could have a similar experience.

First, Kalyn had to spend a day in hunter's safety class.

By the way, this is a picture of her with a rabbit she shot while hunting with Troy this winter. I was impressed! We ate it, of course. I made Hasenpfeffer.


Isn't that cute? She just became interested in hunting lately and wanted her hunting license. So we signed her up for the class. It happened to fall during the first day of our spring break, which pushed an already restricted time schedule back one day. And we also took the weather forecast into consideration, not wanting to be at Mt. Rushmore in freezing rain. So we left on Monday. We toured some Kansas attractions I had been wanting to visit along the way. We had a really good day with excellent weather on Monday. We packed picnic food and ate at the the Eisenhower Presidential Library and birth home in Abilene as our first stop.




Then on to Rock City, near Minneapolis, Kansas.






Then to Lucas, Kansas to visit the Garden of Eden house. It was built by a Civil War Veteran who settled in Kansas and decided to build a log cabin out of concrete and surround it with all kinds of political and religious sculptures. All built for tourists. He is there on the property still in a coffin with a glass top. His body is mummified. Kalyn was creeped out by it all.





And then the girl who led the tour at the Garden of Eden mentioned that there was an artist named Erica Nelson next door who has the World's Largest Collection of the World's Smallest Versions of the World's Largest Things. And I knew of her, I'd seen her on TV, but I had no idea she was in Lucas. So we wondered over to her yard, where her traveling exhibit is parked, and visited with her.

This is a tree full of chairs, or a "chairy tree". You can see some have fallen to the ground.



And this is the world's smallest mural.

Below is one of her cars, the demon car.



And this is her traveling exhibit. She makes tiny replicas of roadside attractions that claim to be the world's largest ball of twine or what have you.


And then she gave the girls wooden nickels and we were on our way.

And THIS IS the world's largest ball of twine! Here I am admiring it. It's in Cawker City, Kansas. We stopped on our way into Nebraska.



And I'm going to leave this post here, because it's a lot of pictures to post at one time. And also because how can you top the world's largest ball of twine? Stay tuned for the rest of our trip later!