The Cave Dweller

Date: July 18, 2008
Weather: Thunderstorms thunderstorms thunderstorms
Health: Good- getting more sleep that we’ve gotten since having a baby
Morale: Bad- like the badlands or Crazy- like crazyhorse
Food: Root Beer Floats
Current location: Black Hills of South Dakota
Next Landmark: La Crosse, WI
Miles Traveled: approx. 4700

We arrived in the Black Hills of South Dakota and set off to explore all they have to offer. Rowan's first discovery was the world's largest plastic ice cream cone which despite our warnings, he insisted on trying to eat...


Thus- our first mistake was taking a 2 year old who has been in the car maybe a little too much- on a 2 hour cave tour. First- crying really echoes in dark caves, Second- when your child takes off, they easily stray off course thereby damaging national monuments such as Wind Cave, and Third- the looks of people really into the cave are enough to make you want to curl up and hide down there. Nonetheless, Ro loved it and our biggest struggle was getting him out of there. As the tour headed up the shaft, Ro bid us good-bye proclaiming he wants to live there. So, we left him- if you want to visit the little cave dweller, his new address is Wind Cave National Monument. Have fun finding him in the miles of cave maze…


Our second stop was Crazyhorse- Jess, in her cheesy tourist persona, wanted to see the laser show. It was pretty cool, although definitely full of mixed messages. Fascinating that there were no Native Americans working on the sculpture and yet it is a tribute to Crazyhorse and the Native American struggle in general. The sculpture itself was really impressive and will be amazing when it’s done. Ro especially enjoyed the movie where they show the dynamite used to carve the sculpture.


We slept outside Mount Rushmore for a night and survived a crazy thunderstorm. So far, so good with the poppy- no leaks. Then we headed into Rushmore. What a different feeling to Crazyhorse, although just as impressive! Again- Ro enjoyed the dynamite here and there was even a children’s activity where they could pretend to push the lever down on the box to blow a chunk of the mountain off. Amazing how much boys can get into that….


Following Rushmore, we jumped into the car to find the Badlands. On the way, we stopped at the largest pharmacy that is advertised every mile of South Dakota- Wall Drug. Ro had fun at the mini water park behind it...


In the middle of a Midwest prairie, you find this alien like park. It was very cool to see and we did a quick drive through so we could continue to try and get through South Dakota. Definitely reminded us of the land of Mordar from the Lord of the Rings….