Another morning fueled by Texas Waffles, we hit the road to introduce the boys to a little more American culture. Yesterday we spent the day learning about American history and today, we are teaching them about American Pop Culture. But before that, we decided to detour through SMU. The campus was beautiful, and thankfully both boys said we didn’t have to worry about them coming to school this far away (Whew!)

Again, we were mystified by the Texas interchanges. Why do they not just have a regular cloverleaf like every other state? Our only guess is that it is one of those “everything is bigger in Texas” things

And then we headed north to Parker, Texas to the best known ranch in all of Texas… Southfork!!

Mike and I both spent Friday nights watching JR and Bobby Ewing and their crazy family. The boys couldn’t understand why so many people watched one show? We explained that you didn’t have 150 channels, you had 3! And we didn’t watch YouTube or have “influencers” who you imitated. You watched SueEllen, Pam and Luci to get the latest styles and fashions for the ladies (Who didn’t hot roll their hair trying to get Luci’s curls?)

We hoped on the tram (they were thrilled for another picture), and off we went. Our tour guide was the funniest lady! When one guy told her he was from California, and she said “that’s nice. Don’t move here.” 🤣

Oh my word, we are IN SOUTHFORK!!! How many breakfasts did we see them eat here? Or hear JR say “Mrs. Teresa, get me some coffee.”

Or see SueEllen pull up here in her convertible?

Now about the pool? This pool seemed gigantic when we watched it on television… not so much in person. We learned today that to increase the size, they filled the pool to even with the concrete and floated mirrors in the pool to increase the size in shooting. Also, when Bobby was seen swimming laps, because he was so tall, they would tether him under the diving board, and then the crew would move a screen along the pool to give the illusion that he was swimming through the pool. The magic of television!

We saw the dining room (the forks have “portion control guards” on them so the cast could only take small bits during filming), Mrs. Ellie’s kitchen (they never told us who the lady was sitting at the table?), the living room and bar (Mike and I were the extras for our guide), Luci’s bedroom and SueEllen’s bathroom.

We also got to see Jock’s Lincoln Continental, a long horn cow and I posed with JR himself!

One of the funniest displays was the Ewing Family Tree. Notice the bottom… it’s a chart of all the relationships of the more friendly characters 🥴😬🤣

Overall – Awesome tour and flashback to our childhood!

Since boys had been so great indulging Mike and I in our morning tour, we headed back to Plano, Texas for a surprise… Fowling!

What is Fowling? It is a combination of football and bowling (and maybe a little cornhole) A few friends created the game in the parking lot of the Indy 500 back in 2001. Now there are 8 Fowling Warehouses in the United States – and more franchises available.

It’s like bowling except you take turns throwing footballs are your pins until one team knocks down all their pins. And just like a bowling alley, we ordered appetizers and drinks and had a great time.

Perfect stop for the Browns!

Next stop, Waco. Unfortunately, we couldn’t visit Waco’s most famous folks, Chip and Joanna, since it is Sunday, and Easter Sunday at that. But we still made a drive through Baylor – beautiful campus and huge! – and then a drive around Magnolia and the Silos. Magnolia has two full blocks of buildings, gardens and grassy areas. Perfectly manicured as only Joanna can.

We left the Silos and headed off to see 2 nearby items we found on roadsideattractions.com. (I love all things kitschy so these are my people). First, a 1929 Gulf station fully restored by 2 brothers who just wanted a place to work on their old cars. And second, Darwin the Gorilla, a 4 foot tall cement gorilla in someone’s yard. He is painted in whatever holiday or occasion. Today, he was a bunny, and it was absolutely worth the 3-minute detour!

We made it to Austin and after dropping our bags, we headed to dinner. We were in the mood for burgers, and the front desk recommended we try the Texas Chili Parlor. The outside didn’t look like much, which usually that means great food.

So the inside matched the outside but again, in our experience that means awesome food. This had to be one of the most eclectic crowds we’ve seen, but everyone was nice, and no one bothered us. Texas Chili Parlor has been open since 1976 and told the story of Chili or as Texans call it “a bowl of red.” Elizabeth Taylor even ordered 10 quarts to be shipped to her in Rome when she was filming Cleopatra.

Bellies full, we got back to the hotel for a little swimming on the roof which was too cool with the capital in the background.

Tomorrow is all things Texas as we tour the State Capital and the Texas State Museum before heading down to San Antonio.

We started this morning with Texas shaped waffles and didn’t stop until 11pm. Sprinkled in some American History, some exploring and shopping, and some Rodeo in the Stockyards of Fort Worth, and that’s a perfect vacation day!

The breakfast at the Hampton Inn was great especially the waffles 😉

We have also discovered where the wrestling gene came from…

Filled up with Texas waffles and sweaty from wrestlemania, we hit the road to explore Dallas.

First Stop: Dealy Plaza and the Texas Book Depository. The boys were not excited about this stop. They know the story of JFK but really had not heard a great deal about his assassination. BUT I am counting today as a win, because when we left they both said it was “pretty good.” We arrived before our tour time so we headed out to explore the Plaza and the Grassy Knoll.

Second gunman on the grassy knoll? Mystery solved

We headed inside for our tour of the Book Depository

We freely admit that we believe there is more to JFK’s assassination than a disgruntled Lee Harvey Oswald, but it was unsettling to be in the exact spot where they claim he was…

And see, it’s not just us… it’s on a plaque and that makes it true 😁

We explored downtown and found the JFK Memorial, and of course more plaques!

Most Texas pioneers settled in the “three forks” area in cabins like this, and we found another plaque!

With some time to explore, we HAD to find a sneaker store for Leo

The shoe store was in Deep Elam, a section of Dallas known for its jazz and blues clubs

We grabbed some drinks and snacks for lunch, and enjoyed the people watching… because there was a lot special folks to watch🤣🤣🤣

The Dallas Skyline and their crazy overpass interchanges are too cool (photo credits to Leo)

We scooted back to the hotel and changed to head to the Fort Worth Stockyards! Some of us used the drive to recharge…

Uptown Fort Worth was a typical city with standard architecture with a few interesting designs

And then we turned into the stockyard area. It was like going back in time and it was awesome!

Twice a day the cattle are walked through downtown, then the cowboys eat and then they rodeo… so when in Texas, the Browns did the same thing

We found the home of RFD TV (Rural Free Delivery) and Cowboy Channel. Mike likes the farm equipment show so he was happy with this find 🚜

You can’t visit Texas without a Rodeo! The Stockyards Championship Rodeo is the first indoor rodeo and runs year round on Friday and Saturday night in the Cowtown Coliseum 🐮 We love Rodeos – they always start with with a prayer and the Pledge of Alliance 🇺🇸

This is the real deal rodeo and we had the best time from the opening act to the last ride.

Michael and Leo got a little Cowboy fever from the Rodeo and decided to try out the mechanical bull… others of us decided the recovery from the bull would be too painful 🤣

Another view of Dallas’ skyline and we headed back to the hotel

Tomorrow we leave Dallas proper and head back to the 1980’s in Parker, Texas

We hit the road again clicking off state number 33 on our quest for all 50…. TEXAS, here we come!

This is our first Spring Break that required air travel. We have covered all states within an 8- hour radius of home, and that is the maximum daily travel distance for our crew. So off we went… wow! Good Friday travel is hectic! But with extra travel time and an extra measure of patience for the RDU parking situation, we made it to the airport, plane and ultimately – TEXAS!

Rental car located, off we go to downtown Dallas. We even found a bridge or two to qualify for Leo’s STEM assignment.

We are stepping away from our normal Holiday Inn Express this trip because we need more room. The boys are now like a man-child(s) and we need hotels with pull-out couches. (After more that one night sleep wrestling together, it’s like traveling with the Hulk). So Hampton Inn & Suites in Downtown Dallas for the win! The 17th floor has great views of the city and plenty of room. The front desk recommended we check out “The Exchange” for dinner… think fancy food court. Delicious and so fun! Leo tried out the Nashville style chicken place, Michael and Mike tried the Tex-Mex and I tried the fish tacos at the Seafood stall. Food was fantastic and pretty reasonably priced – that’s a win!

And then off we went to the American Airlines Center to watch the Dallas Mavericks/ Chicago Bulls game 🏀 It was a great game… came down to the last 10 seconds!

Tonight was Luka Doncic/Slovenia night which suited the boys who really like Luka. The half time show from the Slovenia Devils, a trampoline/dunk team and the pride of Slovenia. Their dance routines were the best! Imagine 90’s boy-band meets rhythmically challenged basketball players🤣 awesome!!🤣

The Mavericks ended up losing by 3, but it was so much fun… even if we may have been sitting behind the sister of Fran Stalinovskovichdavidovitchsky from the movie Dodgeball 🇸🇮

Dallas is a beautiful city especially when it’s all lit up. So after we caught an Uber back to the hotel, we saw the benefit of the 17th floor…

Tomorrow, we head to the grassy knoll for a little American history and then the Rodeo 🤠

We enjoyed sleeping in a bit this morning, and had a fantastic breakfast at the hotel. We loaded the newest addition to our cooler family with dirty clothes and the remaining drinks and Gatorades… yes, i am absolutely taking them home! I flew home with a box of unopened Cinnamon Toast Crunch, half a pound of McCafe coffee, filters and ziploc bagels filled with plastic utensils… (hey, this dream doesn’t fuel itself 🤪 )

We said goodbye to Chicago with one last group selfie (the boys are growing very impatient with this)

We made to O’Hare without any problems and although the length of the TSA line looked ridiculous – it actually moved pretty quickly. We grabbed some Auntie Annie’s pretzels and were ready to board when they called our number.

We forgot to ask the agent in Chicago to tape the cooler shut, but surely they would do that, right? Just praying a pile of dirty clothes and Gatorades don’t come out on the baggage claim carrousel 😬

Here our vacation stats:

We drove 2,972 miles;

Mom’s Cafe served 3 loaves of bread, 3 pounds of turkey, 1 1/2 pounds of ham, 3 cases of water, 2 cases of Gatorades, 2 boxes of chips and too many Little Debbie’s to count;

We washed 4 commercial washer loads of clothes (which meant just one load tonight);

And saw 6 more beautiful states. We are home safe and sound and ready to start thinking of where to next?

We left the cornfields of Iowa bright and early… well, vacation early (9am)… so we could maximize our time in Chicago and see all the Windy City, or at least what you see in 12 hours. Challenge accepted!

Coming into the city, we started seeing the skyline, and the traffic

Definitely different than we are used to seeing the last 2 weeks.

The boys liked this parking garage. They said it looked like their old Hot Wheels parking garage.

We were all amazed with Chicago. It really is a beautiful city, although there have been a lot of changes since my last visit 20 years ago, and not necessarily in a good way. But the city itself was still beautiful to see.

Chicago Must-Do #1: Deep Dish Pizza. Why not go right to the best, Pizzeria Uno? Of my goodness, it was delicious!

Bellies full (again), we did some exploring through the city.

Next Chicago Must-Do #2: Navy Pier.

The Pier has changed quite a bit. They’ve built a mall on top floor, as well as giant ferris wheel. The boys and I decided to take a spin to get the full city view. (Mike kept his feet on the ground.) Considering they now charge $30-$40 to go to the top of the tallest buildings, it wasn’t a bad deal. And the views were great!

This stage was the funniest to watch. It is open to anyone to “perform.” I think “perform” must be a fluid term in Chicago because some of these people were… brave. (Whew. I was afraid I couldn’t think of a kind word.) Michael said it best: “this is what happens when everyone has gotten a participation trophy for their whole like.” Yep, he’s definitely our child 🤣

We stopped by the hotel to drop off our leftover pizza, and I think if I had left these three alone, they would have enjoyed some time relaxing. Oh No! We have got to Clark Griswold this City and we’re burning daylight!

Next, Chicago Must-Do #3: The Miracle Mile. We headed back out in the City to hit the Miracle Mile of Michigan Avenue.

We went in and out of a few stores… Nike, Under Armor and Vans, and then we found it! Diplomatic, Inc. The greatest shoe store in all of Chicago… or at least this face sure thinks so!

Leo was in absolutely heaven. To the rest of us, it was a little weird. All the shoes were shrink wrapped? (Leo says it’s because people come in with dirty hands and touch the shoes. Um hello? They’re shoes the go on your feet… on the ground?!?!) There was even a case with the really expensive shoes (over $1,000… for shoes) under lock and key. And they had their own armed security guard… this is serious bug business! We stayed for at least 20+ minutes while Leo looked at every shoe, and we sat in awe that this is a place 🤪.

We are staying in the Intercontinental in Chicago (don’t worry it’s part of the Holiday Inn family 😉). The hotel is older, and the pool was gorgeous. With all we were trying to see, we really didn’t know if we could squeeze in a swim. But we ended up with 22 minutes to spare when we left the shoe store, so let’s make it happen 😍 From these smiles, it was totally worth it.

We scooted back to the room for boys to change, and ran downstairs to catch a cab and head to Chicago Must-Do #4: Baseball Game. We aren’t necessarily baseball people, so it didn’t matter to us whether we saw the Cubs or the Sox. It was cheaper to see the Sox and much better seats. So, off we went.

We had an official ballpark dinner – hot dog and peanuts (which i think could be counted as Chicago Must-Do #4a: Baseball Stadium Food.) The game was a little dull in the beginning. The A’s scored 2 runs early and then it was scoreless until bottom of the 7th when the Sox scored 2 on a homerun. Of course, that was the moment that the boys and I went to get souvenir hats and ice cream 🤦🏻‍♀️

When we came back, it was a whole new game. And finally in the bottom of 9th, with a wild pitch, the Sox scored the winning run and won the game! We yelled and screamed with everyone as if we had been Sox fans for life.

We scooted out to beat the traffic and caught a few more landmarks on the way home. Chicago Must-Do #5: Landmarks!

We made it back in time for another 20 minutes of swimming before the pool closed… nothing like staying until the very end and you’re the last ones in the pool.

So to recap:

Deep Dish Pizza: ✔️

Navy Pier: ✔️

Miracle Mile: ✔️

Baseball game: ✔️

Landmarks: ✔️

Yea, I think we did a great job of seeing Chicago. Imagine what we could do with a whole day?

Tomorrow we head home from an amazing trip. We are exhausted and ready to be home but wouldn’t trade this time and these giggles for the world. I’ll probably start doing a little pre-planning for our next Adventure on the plane!

We started our day in our quaint HGTV motor court with waffles and coffee. The breakfast area was a cute as the rest of motel.

We decided to take the surries out for a spin before we left. These two were definitely not going at a leisurely pace… more like nascar in the parking lot!

One more time, we loaded our Mom’s Cafe boxes and cooler and hit the road. We are crossing Iowa today with a couple a fun stops… although when we mapped out seeing everything we wanted to see, the drive was going to be 9+ hours, so we picked a few that were streamlined and hit the road.

Iowa is the number producer of corn in the United States, and I think we can say we saw a lot of it today. Here’s a few Iowa corn facts we learned: 99% of the corn grown in Iowa is field corn (not the sweet corn we all like to eat); there is one silk for every kernel that grows in an ear of corn; and the number of kernels per ear varies from 500 to 1,200, but a typical ear has 800 kernels in 16 rows.

There was corn rolling on every field… it really was peaceful to just see the rows planted in a line. We decided to stop and have lunch somewhere to stretch our legs and thankfully found the Grundy County Park.

The park was beautiful and hosted a pop-up Mom’s Cafe. The boys threw the football while I got lunch ready and we were all thankful to not be moving for a minute. This vacation has been fun but we have covered a lot of territory with a lot of driving.

We left the park and headed towards Brandon, Iowa, home of Iowa’s largest Frying Pan! It’s built to scale and could cook 528 eggs at the same time. (It was the world’s largest frying pan at 14 feet tall and 9 feet wide until Long Beach, Washington created one that was 9 1/2 feet wide). Either way, it was worth a 20 minute diversion, and some great pictures 😁

I always think of 2 things when I see this much corn… Children of the Corn (probably would have had a heart attack if I heard someone whisper “Malachi”) and Field of Dreams. I think I said “if you build it, they will come” at least 10 times today 😁 Might as well answer the call… since they built it, we went 🤪 (awesome Mom joke)

Fields of Dreams was really fun to see. Full disclosure, we aren’t a huge baseball family. But still cool to see where they filmed the movie and all the folks there, especially the little boys playing baseball on the field.

But, this was by far my favorite… this older couple played catch in the outfield. Just back and forth to each other the whole time we were there. It was the sweetest thing to watch. I’m not sure they knew anyone else was even there ♥️ #marriagegoals

Glad we stopped to make a few memories.

We grabbed dinner at Jenny’s Diner (and almost froze with the A/C! Seriously, I think the temperature was set to “meat locker” brrrr!) But we did get a beautiful picture of the sun setting behind the courthouse.

Tomorrow, we head to Chicago and our last full day of vacation.

Before we could leave Brandon, South Dakota, we needed just a little more sleep and some more waterpark. We were apparently wiped out from our mega-drive and slept right through the free breakfast. No worries, we still had pop tarts, cereal and milk from our VRBOs. We got most of our things packed up, and headed to the waterpark.

They played, and we had coffee. Mike and I realized that watching them laugh and play is just about the most relaxing thing in the world.

We rinsed off and hit the road, again. Not too far today though. As we edge out of South Dakota, we crossed back into Minnesota for a little bit… we knew we were in Minnesota because we started seeing lakes again.

As we neared Iowa, the scenery changed… field after field after field of corn and soybeans, and then here we were: Iowa!

We aren’t going far into Iowa today, but we did get to see the home of Indian Motorcycles

We headed to Arnold’s Park, Iowa – City of 5 Lakes but we were mainly interested in Lake Okoboji and Arnold’s Amusement Park.

Arnold’s Amusement Park started in 1889 with a water toboggan slide. Folks would rent wool suits to slide down it. Things grew from there and it became the community area. In 1999, the area was to be sold to a commercial developer who planned to put condominiums with Lake Okoboji views on the property. The citizens of Arnold’s Park started a Save the Park Campaign and within 6 weeks over $7.5 million dollars was donated to stop the sale, and create the Arnold’s Park Community area and green space. The amusement park is now the oldest amusement park west of the Mississippi River.

The Park is old fashioned and awesome! The rides had signs on them explaining their history.

It wasn’t too crowded or too expensive. Perfect place to spend a day!

We giggled at our teenager who “just had to finish this game” before he could do anything.

And we got really tickled by this young man and his dad who had season passes. They told us which cars went fastest in every division (single, double and junior). I think there are dreams of NASCAR stardom here!

We spent a little time on the go-cart track, and I may have scared Mike to death with my driving especially my drifting in the sharp turns. If you ain’t first, you’re last! 🤣

And we all had a flashback to Leo’s love of lions! If you don’t know, Leo loved lions when he was little. We prayed for the daddy lion at the NC Zoo, and we always rode on the lion at the Zoo’s carousel… waiting however long it took to be sure to get the lion. When we left the carousel, Leo would usually scream at the next rider of the lion to “jit off my lion!” So while he acted like he didn’t want this picture, I think he secretly did ♥️

It was a pretty perfect day at the Park!

But wait! What’s that across the street? Nutty’s Ice Cream. The only way to make this day better – Ice Cream!

We left Arnold’s Park and explored Okoboji a bit before checking into our hotel, Vintage Block Inn and Suites. It is an old Motor Court that has been HGTV’d, and it’s about the cutest place ever!

They had an outdoor area with a mini basketball hoop, corn hole and giant dominoes.The boys liked the outdoor pool, and there were surries (with a fringe on top 😉) to ride around the property,. And they had the biggest and most beautiful plants I’ve ever seen!

I spent a good bit of time timing the “breath holding” which has become Leo’s thing on this vacation. He’s up to 55 seconds.

After we rested a bit, we walked back into town to have dinner at the Okoboji Store. The Store was originally built around an ice rink in 1884, then converted into a general store, post office, boat rental and livery. A restaurant developed for boaters and the restaurant stuck. They had live music (quite possibly the worst singer we’ve ever heard – non-Southern people should not try to sing with a southern accent), and one of the coolest “waiting areas” ever!

It got chilly sitting by the water but it was a beautiful view. Dinner was delicious, and Michael’s branded burger was too cool.

Tomorrow we head out for our last day in Iowa, and then start heading back to Chicago. But for now, we’re snuggled in our HGTV Motor Court for the night.

Today we are crossing the entire state of South Dakota… 5 and a half hours at a minimum but of course, we have a few stops to make it longer but way more fun 🤩

Before we left town, we stopped by Lynn’s Dakotamart for Mom’s Cafe supplies, and caught a glimpse of the Bulls of Custer – kind of like the painted jeans around Greensboro or the pigs in Lexington.

We left Custer and passed by Crazy Horse one more time

And then we were on the road again 🎶 but the speed limit is 80 miles an hour so you can do some moving!

First Stop: Wall Drug. Everyone who has been to South Dakota said we “had to go by Wall Drug” so we did. The town of Wall is literally this one main street that has t-shirt shops, and jerky.

We’re not sure how Wall Drug used to be, but now, its pretty much the South Dakota version of South of the Border. Complete with the signs on the highway saying “10 Miles Ahead.” All they were missing was the “Pedro Says…” part of the signs.

I did see a few signs I could relate to and got the boys to pose for a couple of photos

After Wall Drugs, we headed to Badlands National Park, and found our favorite little peeps – prairie dogs! This one even looked like he was posing for me.

The Badlands are unreal – hills and valleys from the rocky clay ground with the different colors of the soil showing through from years of erosion. It is so strange to go from the green landscapes to this barren looking soil. Every turn was a different view or mountain, and cooler than the last. There were rainbow colored rocks and some bleached by the sun. I can’t imagine what happens here in the winter when it snows.

Although I could have done without seeing this!

But we did get some great family pics for our Map and a few framers!

Remember a few days ago when I said you could see the end of the storm? Well, you can see the storm coming too.

Since we already had hours on the road, what’s 20 miles of backtracking to see a nuclear missle? The Minuteman Missile National Historic Site is in South Dakota and built on and near nuclear missile silos. The Historic site was built in 1999 to represent the Cold War, Arms Race and the development of intercontinental missiles. The missiles were stored in South Dakota because it was the center of the United States and could be in Russia within 30 minutes. The control center and the missile site (the one we were allowed to see 🤨) were about 10 miles apart. The primary museum is small but has a lot of information about the Cold War, and the arms race. Until this, I don’t think the boys really understood how scary it was growing up during this time. I can remember being worried that Russia would invade. Red Dawn was real to those of us growing up in the 80’s.

Anyway, the museum had great information on the arms race and the back and forth conflict with Russia, including the Cuban Missile Crisis. We watched a video on fallout shelters and what to do “if you see the flash.”

The silos and control center were manned 24 hours a day with several soldiers on duty. Any launch always required multiple levels of agreement. From the displays, it appears that there were several times that one person’s rational thought saved the world, and one time it was not too far from home…

From the museum/visitors center, you travel 4 miles to the control center, which is cleverly disguised in plain site. I wonder how many people drove past this area without ever knowing what was really there? The soldiers were stationed here for extended periods of time and had everything they needed on site – a cook, basketball court and eventually a satellite for television. This part you could only enter with reservations and tickets (and I’m sure a background check)

We left the control center and traveled another 9 miles to see the missile silos themselves. The silos are underground, but if you travel down this non-descript road, and up to this non-descript area, you’ll find missile silos. And I’m sure, based on the trust I have in my government, that everything is safe and disarmed 😏

This site was supposed to close at 3pm. As we were leaving at 2:45, the Park Ranger showed up. She locked the bathroom and then started locking the gate when Mike stopped to talk to her. (She reassured him nothing was still armed here but they inspected routinely and kept a dehumidifier running… um, why do you care if it’s humid down there if it’s not a working silo 🧐). But the best part was the people coming behind us, by now it is 2:50. And the park ranger says “hurry and I’ll let y’all in.” Um ya think? It’s not 3pm yet. 🤦🏻‍♀️

But still needed some family pics by the missile! Nothing says family vacation like warheads 🤣🤪🤣

From the silos we drove,

And drove…

and drove.

We did see a tractor trailer hauling one of the blades for the wind turbines. Wow! Look at the size of this thing! And notice the tires on the end, they’re operated like an RC car from the cab of the truck.

We also passed Porter’s Sculpture Park in Montrose, South Dakota. Think of a large collection of large animals and stuff made from scrap metal.

And then we drove some more. We have crossed the entire state of South Dakota today.

The hotel for tonight in Brandon, SD is great and includes a small waterpark. Since we have driven and driven and driven today, we decided to order dinner to go from a nearby restaurant, eat in the room and enjoy the water park until it closes at 10pm.

For the first 30 minutes of each hour, the slide runs and you can’t use the pool or basketball goal, then the last half hour, the slide is closed and the basketball goal/pool is open. Meanwhile there is a large whirlpool and splash/play area.

It was a great way to get rid of some energy and wear them out. The hotel is booked solid tonight and no rollaway beds, so the boys are sharing a sleeper sofa. espeut thanks to the waterpark, they are snoring away right now.

Tomorrow we have a short drive (100 miles) and then a day at the oldest amusement park west of the Mississippi.

We spent Tuesday in an ATV from Adventure Rentals (thanks for the recommendation Dana!)… to ensure specific it was a Polaris RZR 1000 and It. Was. Awesome! ATVs are street legal in South Dakota so we scooted around all day.

The weather did not cooperate for the first half (maybe 2/3) of the day, but it ended up being nice. South Dakota may beat North Carolina for a one day weather swing… 50° and cold drizzle until 2:30 and then sunshine and 80° by 4:30!

We decided to explore Custer State Park first and the trails later in the day when the State Park got crowded. Custer State Park is as beautiful as any National Park we’ve been to, and it is huge! 71,000 acres… for a state park! And we had a ball exploring every bit of it.

And guess who else like Custer State Park? Our old friends the Bisons… now if you think they seemed close while confined in a car, they are some kind of close in an ATV!

And the little prairie dogs just patiently wait for the bison to move along and then they pop right up.

We continued on through the park with some only the sharpest turns we’ve seen!

We kept an eye out for wildlife and just enjoyed some of the off-roading that the ATV let us do.

Due to some road closures, we got diverted and ended up really close to Mount Rushmore, so why not check out a few other views of the mountain?

We made it all the way to the Norbeck Overlook (one mile across from Rushmore) named for Peter Orbock the Governor of South Dakota in 1930 who chose Iron Mountain for the location of Mount Rushmore. It is very high up and with the weather as chilly as it is with drizzle, it was COLD up there, but the views made it totally worthwhile!

As we headed away from the top of the hill, we loved the tunnels and bridges. They’ve clearly been rebuilt but tried to stay with the original designs.

We made our way back down the mountain and kept seeing different views of Mount Rushmore.

As we came out of the Mount Rushmore area, we decided to go ahead and visit the Crazy Horse Memorial. I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was really interesting. We watched a short film on how the sculptor, Korczak Ziolkowski, was selected by the Native American Tribes… He was a Polish orphan from New York who taught himself how to sculpt, and became famous after winning a competition at the World’s Fair. The leader of the local tribes, Henry Standing Bear sought out Ziolkowski to create the Crazy Horse Monument. It took several asks but Ziolkowski ultimately came and lived just in front of the memorial so he could work on it… climbing 700+ steps with each ascent. (Heaven help him if his air compressor stopped working or he forgot a tool.).

The project was started in 1947, and Ziolkowski said at the time that it would not be completed within his lifetime. He was right, not only did he work on it, but his wife worked on it after his death, and now his children do as well.

And look, Mom’s Cafe has a satellite location in the Crazy Horse parking lot!

We headed out of the Crazy Horse, and hit the trails! There are trails ALL over Custer! Some with packed dirt (to go fast) some with rocks (to jar your teeth) and some with cows (who clearly are used to seeing ATVs and people and had no fear of either).

Every now and then you cam up to a fence that you had to open and then close behind you. And some of us may have had a little trouble with this

We rode for hours making it all the way up to the fire lookout. You could see for miles and miles – good spot to spot fires. It was breezy chilly, and beautiful!

We spent hours running the trails and had the best time. And thankfully we found some mud!

And someone may have gotten a little driving experience on the trails… 🤫

We headed back into Custer to turn in our ATV… just a bit muddier than when we left this morning 😉

We did a pretty job covering Custer State Park and the trails for one day

Then we headed back to hotel to shower and relax a bit… and have a 2nd day of laundry

One of my the ladies at Adventure Rentals suggested we check out the Pizza Mill for dinner. Holy Moly! We have now traveled to 31 states and this may be the best pizza we’ve ever had! And they had a beer that cracked us up! We wondered if it came in a white truck that said “truck” on the side 🤣

We obviously needed to end this almost perfect day with some ice cream, but not before this nut did some parking lot dancing, which made his brother laugh and his daddy cringe 🤣

Bellies full (again) we spent some time in the pool and crashed. Tomorrow is our longest drive all the way across

We woke up for our last day in North Dakota. Our 80’s flashback hotel was still just as groovy with its little breakfast nook. If we drive straight through, we will end up in Custer, South Dakota in 4 and a half hours… but when have we ever gone straight through?

These 2 decided to spend a little time in the pool and hot tub while we got packed up and ready for one of our longest drives.

We headed to Theodore (Freddie) Roosevelt National Park for a little sight-seeing, and maybe a quick trail or two since we have a long drive today. Theodore Roosevelt NP is absolutely beautiful. The landscape is sort of a mix between rocky cliffs and green pastures.

Our first animal encounters were the prairie dogs. Oh my gosh, the cuteness. And then their communications. They stand straight up, put their arms out and just scream, and then they fall down as if the yell took all their energy. We watched them for at least 10 minutes and giggled every time!

After we left the prairie dogs, we came up on a lone wild horse… which worried Michael because he was afraid he lost his herd. Leo meanwhile said, maybe he wanted to lose his herd. 🤪 These boys couldn’t be more different.

The view was different on each side of the car. The rocky cliffs were huge, and then we saw a beautiful green pasture with a big ol bull bison.

And THEN we took the next curve, and saw the an entire herd of wild bison!

There were so many of these guys. The coolest part were the bulls standing guard. They stood at what looked like the four corners surrounding the herd, and just kept watch… at least that’s what we thought they were doing.

We were just mesmerized. They are so big but could move so fast. But when it is time to cool off, or get rid of bugs, they would roll in the dirt, and by “roll” I mean waller until they make a rut in the ground and a cloud of dust. Honestly, it reminded us all of Otis.

We finally moved on and saw a few pronghorns playing in a nearby field.

We drove on to see some of the different areas of the park and did some quick hikes to a few spots for pictures.

Of course, these two had to go higher and higher, and look who they got up there with them!

We could still see the herd and the bull standing guard.

We drove on through Freddie Roosevelt Park, only missing one section of the Southern Unit because of road construction. It’s a beautiful park with lots of trails but also lots to see just from driving and stopping at the overlooks. Due to the road construction, we had to go out the same way we can into the Park. As we started making our way back, we realized we had a bit of problem… the herd that we had watched before were now walking along and crossing the road that we needed to leave the park.

We definitely practiced our “no sudden movements” and “no loud noises” instructions… because it seemed like these guys were coming in the car with us a few times.

As the herd grew less, the prairie dogs popped back up.

We left Freddie Roosevelt National Park and started making our way to South Dakota. One of my favorite things about this part of the country is the patriotism. It is everywhere from the world’s largest flag to hay bales covered in red, white and blue.

The scenery continued to be just as beautiful but began to change back to more grassy fields and cattle.

And then Bam – South Dakota!

Oh my word, South Dakota may win the prize for the longest roads… I mean just miles and miles and miles.

Months ago when I ordered our South Dakota book from the South Dakota Department of Tourism, I thought it was a little strange that they inclulded a paper map… um yea, they knew exactly what they were doing. The GPS signal out here is touchy – at best. But we noted a little dot by Belle Fourche, South Dakota as the “geographical center of the United States.” Well now we have already seen the geographical center of North America, so we would obviously want to the see the center of the US, so off we went to find it. Found it – and a plaque!

What we also found was an awesome little museum, the Tri-State Museum and Visitor Center, that is beside the Geographical Center of the United States marker. The museum was really cute with artifacts from the area – literally all the artifacts. Dinosaur bones, old ironing boards, washing machines, hair dryers/curling sets, military items, hats, shoe x-ray machines and a doll collection… literally everything!

Oh my word, these two!

Out back we found a little bit of home, and then we took turns standing in the center of the United States!

We fueled up and hit the road. This time with a stop in Deadwood, South Dakota. Deadwood is where Wild Bill Hickock was finally shot and killed in 1876.

The city has some interesting stores and signs, but it is very touristy now. It was worth a stop to stretch our legs and grab an ice cream, but it seemed like a little Las Vegas with the drinking and gambling.

Although, we did get a picture with Kodi the world’s largest grizzly bear, and found some pretty cool legs, even if they were the world’s tinest legos.

After Deadwood, we headed into the Black Hills National Forest. The Black Hills are gorgeous! And we even found a giant Smokey the Bear.

We really wanted to see the Mount Rushmore Lighting Ceremony, so we decided to go ahead and see it tonight, because we may be wiped out tomorrow (lots planned for Tuesday). So we checked into our latest Holiday Inn Express – this time it is a free stay using points!! – dropped our bags and headed out to dinner at the Our Founding Fathers Brewery. It was a great place for dinner, bar on bottom floor with live music and restaurant upstairs with outdoor seating. Mike and I had some great bison burgers and locally made beers, Blackhills Gold and a Rutherfruity Haze. We also enjoyed our new bison dice game… good think we were outside because the dice were noisy on the metal table!

Then we headed to Mount Rushmore. I have always wanted to see Mount Rushmore, and it was just as cool as I thought it would be… although the speeches at the lighting ceromony left a lot to be desired. The sound quality itself was terrible but the speakers were just bad. You would think for something as grand as Mount Rushmore, you would have James Earl Jones or Morgan Freeman reading an eloquent speech on patriotism and freedom. However, for everything negative about the speeches, the lighting and Mount Rushmore itself were everything we could have imagined!

At the end of the lighting ceremony, the Star Spangled Banner was played and everyone sang. Then they asked all veterans and active duty military to come on stage while they retired the flag (properly) for the night. It was very cool. 🇺🇸♥️

We headed back to the hotel to get to bed. Tomorrow should be great trail riding and exploring Custer State Park by ATV.