The next part of our Summer road trip took us to Custer, SD. On the way there we took Alternate Highway 14 East. This is NOT a route that we would recommend to anyone! It is one of the most dangerous roads in the nation. There are several areas that are in horrible condition. In other areas, road work is being done to correct this problem. And you deal with steep switchbacks the entire drive up the side of a mountain. And most of the way up there are no guardrails and it is only a two way highway. Very nerve racking, very scary! We stopped at a rest stop at the top and found out that we were 2 miles up in the air. You could see for miles around. Luckily, we were away from the edge at this point. I stopped looking out the window after the first few switchbacks. Jason did the same thing and keep his eyes on the road. He now has a problem with heights due to this stretch of the road. The way down was much easier and we were relieved once we made it to the other side. The kids were preoccupied with their car activities and no one got car sick on this portion of the trip.
We made it into Custer, SD between 4-6pm. Jason researched online and we stayed at a 5 star rated hotel/motel by the name of the Black Hills Mile High Motel. It's a small place, family run I believe, and clean. Bikers that travel the nation have given this place a 5 star rating and they are right. It's not the Ritz, but it was well kept and the staff was very polite and accommodating. After we got everything into our room, the first thing we did was run everyone threw the shower. I'll be very honest, none of us smelt very sweet. Two days of camping, hiking, and sweating caught up with us and we HAD to shower! After showering and getting dressed we went to dinner at a local place and then returned to our room. We slept in the next day and then made a plan for the day.
We went to Mt. Rushmore first. We only did a very small part of the Presidential trail because we knew the kids weren't going to want to do the whole thing. Jason and I did it the last time we were there and maybe next time when the kids are older, they will want to try it. We went back up the trail and checked out one of the gift shops. Daddy treated us to ice cream and we cooled off inside for a little bit. It was a warm day,but nothing like here at home. It was hard explaining what they were looking at, but H and E seemed to understand and they thought it was pretty neat.
Our next stop would be the Crazy Horse Memorial. This was amazing and I am so glad that we decided to do this stop. We almost didn't because it is expensive to go in, but we went for it and we are glad that we did. This project was started in 1948 if I remember correctly and is still a work in progress. It will not be completed in my lifetime, but perhaps my kids as adults and my grand kids will be able to see the completed work. You can go further up to the site, but that is really expensive and not something we could do this time around. We enjoyed the museum full of Native American art-jewelry, paintings, bead work, etc. It was all just so beautiful. And then the memorial itself is just , well, it's just WOW!
We made a stop on the way back at a wood carving museum that had works by one of the original Disney animators. That was pretty cool. The kids were still doing well and wanted to see more, so we headed to our next stop. Unfortunately, that did not work out because the next guided tour available was too late in the day for us. So that stop, which was the Jewel Cave, will have to be seen on our next visit. The other stop was to be the Wind Caves, but we decided to call it a day and head back and have dinner. We went to a steak house and then went back to start packing and get to bed early. We got a total of around 22 hours of sleep over both nights. This folks, is what happens when you stay in the same room as your kids and you don't want them up late. You crash really early:) We had things set before bed for an easy take off in the morning.
South Dakota gave us a treat on our way out. A gorgeous sunrise and the last of the cooler temps of our trip home. This would be our longest drive. The GPS program that Jason used changed our estimated time of arrival several times. We started with an ETA of 2:30am and ended with an ETA of 12:30am. Either way it was a long drive. We out ran a bad storm in Kansas and avoided becoming too bored with the flat brown scenery in Oklahoma. We cheered as we got closer and closer to home. And were encouraged with messages from friends and family as we made our way back home. We made it in at little after 12am. The kids happily went to sleep in their own beds and Jason and I soon followed in ours.
We have thoroughly enjoyed our first family road trip, but are so glad to be home. We hope that we have created memories that the kids will remember for years to come and can someday tell their kids about. We have already started planning next Summer's road trip adventure and some small camping weekend trips through out the upcoming year. We want the kids to see this great country that we live in, to build memories of family time together, to see Daddy and Mommy out of normal daily routine mode, to get to know each other on different levels.
Pictures are coming from the trip. I have completed downloading all of them, but I wanted to get the daily happenings down from the trip before I forgot details. My plan to blog every day and/or write a journal entry didn't work out. So I had to do that first on here.
Also, just soz ya know, we took 9,011 pictures with two small cameras, the Nikon, and my cell phone camera. This total does not include what Daddy took on his cell phone, but he took a lot too:) So the Flickr update and the pictures for here will be coming to you over the next few days or more. Daddy returns to work tomorrow and I will be back on full full time mommy duty. So please continue to be patient, there are some good ones(pictures,) dare I say, some really good ones that are worth waiting for.
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