Leaving Custer

I don't know how I ever lived without the resources that are now on the internet for planning a trip. We've just completed a very successful whirl wind tour of the Black Hills that just wouldn't have been possible using books found in the library. I started with tripadvisor.com, then went to the websites of the places I was interested in. Google Maps let me know if my ideas were feasible for drive times. Roadfood.com gave us a few more tasty stops. I now know that I chose the best campground in the area for our plans. Stockade North Campground in Custer State Park was centrally located for the many different directions our days took us. It was also the 1st campground we came to on our long drive Saturday, a huge mercy. We really lucked out in the spot I chose. I could see a map of the campground online and always reserve a space near the bathroom. Little ones wait until the last second to let you know they have to go so having a restroom nearby is a must. On the map, I could see a playground and throught that would be handy for our times in the campground. Our spot was perfect! Plenty of room for our many tents. Line of sight to the bathroom, playground, and amplitheater for night time ranger programs. Now that I've been here, I wouldn't choose any other spot!


From Custer, our 1st stop was Wall Drug. It's a huge store that takes up most of a city block. My first stop, after taking little ones to the restrooms, was the dougnut counter where I bough a maple glazed cake donut. The donut was crunchy goodness, the glaze ho-hum. Next time, I'd get one plain. There has got to be something for everyone at Wall Drug. Miriam and William enjoyed the coin operated toys and other things to play on. I was so very tempted by the cute western ladies shirts with pearly buttons but figured if I had to have one, I could probablly find one cheaper somewhere else. I ended up buying a sparkly necklace as a souvenir. I also tried their raspberry milkshake which we all shared by dividing it up in the free ice water cups and it was very tasty. I should have purchased two! Each of the kids bought something, Jacob: hot sauce, Isaac:a diving submarine and whistling helicopter, Elizabeth: harmonica, Anastaya: necklace and earings. We spent 2 ½ hours wandering around and still probablly missed something. I thought of you Janice and enjoyed my doughnut extra well in your honor.

my grateful children stabbing me with their new knives

We ate a picnic lunch in the parking lot and set off for Badlands National Park. The formations were very beautiful with such wonderful layers visible in the rock.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of road contruction and we had a 1:30 appointment at the Minuteman Missle National Park so I started stressing ¾ of the way through. We made it to the National Park with literally two minutes to spare before they would have given away our tickets. The tour was very interesting. At one time, there were over 1,000 Minuteman Missles scattered around South Dakota, all aimed at Russia. The missles were decommisioned in 1993 and one of the control bases and silos was turned into a national park. We were able to tour the area where the 8 top side support staff lived as well as the small underground capsule for the two men who had the responsibility of turning the keys to launch the missles. The tour guide was very knowledgeable and was able to make it interesting to the children by telling them stories of funny things the crew would do to break up the monotony.

After we left, with two new junior rangers in the car, we started our drive to Kennebec where we stayed at a KOA. It was only 1 ½ hours of driving but it felt much longer due to the strong winds which kept me wrestling with the van to keep it in our lane. Isaac and I played the liscence plate game from Custer to Kennebec and found 32 different states.

Once at Kennebec, which is experiencing unseasonally cold weather of course, we set up camp, ate dinner, and the kids got to play in the pool. William's teeth were chattering like crazy but he didn't want to get out. Thankfully there were free hot showers where they could warm up.

 

We're off this morning to Waterloo, Iowa and weather.com says 50% chance of rain.  We had a wild weather night.  Thunderstorms raged and in their wake came high winds.  Isaac and my tent was staked down but we could still feel the wind pulling the tent hard enough to rock our air mattresses.  The girl's tent collapsed so Isaac and I are sitting in the laundry room at 4:30 am drying sleeping bags, by the end of the morning we'll dry 5 of the 7 sleeping bags we're using.  A restful beginning to a long day of driving!