Yellowstone - Day 2

June 23, 2013. I can honestly say that I probably just had the worst night's sleep in my life! After the wind, rain, and hail stopped, I could not get comfortable on the hardest mattress in the world. I tossed and turned and finally it was 4:30 and nearly time to get up! At 5:30 Gin was up too, so we started our day. But the rental van had a tire that was going flat! Oh, brother!

Camp breakfast of cereal and fruit, repack the van, and we were on our way. Mitchell had a small flea market we girls shopped at while the guys got the tire repaired. Wonderful and kind men at a service station let the guys use their building and tools to plug the tire and we were again on our way.

We stopped at a great Lakota Indian Museum and School. This picture is me sitting in front of the fountain in front of the school. 
Their culture has always fascinated me and I enjoyed the stop. They house some of the props from the movie, Dances with Wolves, one of my favorite movies of all time. It always makes me cry when Wind in His Hair yells down to John Dunbar as he and Stands with a Fist are leaving that he is his friend and will always be his friend. Gets me every time.

We piled back in the van and headed to the Badlands. Beautiful weather of mid- 70's and sunshine is surrounding us and we hiked and laughed and took pictures throughout the park. It is a piece of this earth that seems to be from another world. I wondered to myself as we were driving through it, how the pioneers must have felt when they came upon this stretch. I can't help but think that they must have been totally bewildered by what they came upon. Would I have had the fortitude to cross this desolation? I am not certain I would have. What brave people they were.

The Badlands is something that I vaguely remember visiting as a kid and it truly is as wonderful as my memory tells me it was. I don't know, there is something about rocks that calls to my soul. We had a great time and the varying ages of our group makes for interesting conversations! We took lots of photos and did some major photo-bombing with each other. Silly fun with family is simply the best!

Also, in the Badlands I purchased my National Parks Passport. Each time I visit a National Park site I will have it stamped with their special stamp with the date. Eric has one and I will have to race him and see who can fill it first!

Next stop...Wall Drug! What a menagerie that store holds! It has so darn much stuff in it that is almost sensory overload. Happily, I am easily finding the stick nails that I collect and picked up another there. A picnic lunch under the shade of a tree next to, of all things, a train, completed the afternoon.

Carved into the granite hills of South Dakota was our next stop, Mount Rushmore. It truly is something that everyone should experience once. I loved seeing Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt, and Lincoln all in a row in that order. But I found my eyes wandering to Washington's right and looking at the rock that I knew had originally been intended to be Jefferson. Grandma Alice visited this sight in 1932 and her photos clearly show the beginnings of Jefferson on Washington's right. But the granite proved to be flawed and he had to be blasted off the mountain and put to the left of Washington. I know that I truly hold a piece of American history in that photo. Thanks, Gram.

Back to the van we go for a trip to Custer State Park for a stay in the Blue Bell Campground. This is where we spent the night in a really nice cabin which was larger than the last one. It was very new and the bathrooms were great too. The quiet and darkness is a bit unnerving for this city girl, but after popping a few Tylenol PM, I was pretty certain I would sleep. Living in Orion I am used to street lights in the window and the noises of the night drifting. But the moon was brilliant! We were able to experience it with the scent of pine trees and the sounds of frogs. Wonderful!

I could not get reservations in the same campground as ours so the guys left us for French Creek Horse Camp which was not very far away. But the next morning they told us they had been awakened by the whinnying of horses and when they stepped out they found that a small herd of bison had stayed the night right next to their cabin! And we were off for new adventures!