We planned an ambitious road trip this year. When people asked where we were planning to go, I usually sighed and said, "Everywhere," then quickly rattled off the following locations: Mount Rushmore, Nauvoo, Chicago, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Dallas, Colorado. And then I'd answer their questions with how long we'd be gone (15 days), where we'd sleep (a mix of camping, hotel-ing, and staying with family), and how our kids did in the car (meh).
In summary:
-About 5,000 miles
-12 states
-3 national parks
-2 national monuments (plus another one that we drove by and saw from the highway)
-8 first cousins visited (My kids' first cousins)
-6 second cousins visited (Kids of Eric's cousins, but I didn't put Eric's cousins in the first cousins count...)
-3 nights of camping
-3 time zones
-60 bags of chips (the personal-size kind)
-8 audiobooks (Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets; My Father's Dragon; Elmer and the Dragon; How We Got To Now; The Dragons of Blueland; Ramona the Pest; Shiloh Season; The BFG)
Our first day was one of our longest drives. We were headed to South Dakota when we saw a sign for Martin's Cove and quickly decided to stop in. Neither Eric nor I had ever been there, and it has some significance in Mormon pioneer history. We were there about 30 minutes, and that was good enough for us.
That night we camped and got rained upon quite a lot. Mine and Felicia's tent held up nicely. Eric and Trixie's tent let in enough water that Eric said it was like being sprayed with a misting spray bottle all night. The boys stayed warm and dry in the van. The rain stirred up something that made my allergies go absolutely haywire, and I struggled all day with extraordinarily itchy eyes.
We went to church the next day in Hot Springs and then went to the Wind Cave National Park. It was very cool and definitely one of the most unique caves I've been in. It doesn't have the usual stactites and stalagmites and instead has this weird box-like pattern throughout its ceilings. As our guide started the tour he showed us the spot where the cave was first discovered by a white guy (Native Americans knew about it for centuries, and it is a sacred place for some of the local tribes). The guide held a handkerchief right next to a hole, and it blew out as if a fan was blowing on it. Thus the name.
The easiest way to dress the girls up in warm clothes was to put a layer of pajamas on top of them. We all stayed adequately warm. Felicia added "wow" and "thank you" to her vocabulary while in the cave. Trixie was frequently scared and begged for Eric to hold her.
We had planned to spend time in Custer State Park that afternoon, but the weather got the best of us. (There was hail on the ground when we exited the Wind Cave.) We did see some bison and prairie dogs as we left Wind Cave National Park and drove through Custer State Park. (We also followed the signs instead of looking at the map, so we ended up coming into the wrong part of the state park, which cost us a fair amount of driving time. Even had we not made that mistake, we wouldn't have been able to see or do much with the thunder storms.)
We made it to Mount Rushmore, which I was really excited about. The weather made it tricky to get a photograph since the presidents were often covered in fog.
When we got there, Ike asked, "Why is George Washington crying?" Eric said, "Probably because of the current occupant of White House." (Speaking of whom, he really does choose the best people, doesn't he?)
We knew we'd struggle to get set up for camping since the rain wouldn't let up long enough to do so, so we stayed in a hotel that night. All in all, I'd say Mount Rushmore was worth the trip, despite the bad weather. Trixie apparently thought so too. She asked me this about a week after returning from our trip:
