Sioux Falls through Spokane
In Sioux Falls we stayed with Shannon's friend Jasmine, who is from Strawberry Point, for two nights. The first night we went to see the falls, which were pretty cool.
The next day we went to a Japanese garden where Shannon had her senior pictures taken (with Jasmine [right] and one of her roommates, Sarah [left]).
I liked the garden too.
Events not pictured: driving around looking at downtown, going to a reconstruction of Battleship X (a WWII ship built in Sioux Falls), and having fondu (see elsewhere).
Day 10:
We left Sioux Falls heading for Mitchell, SD, home of the corn palace. There was an entertaining tour guide and a large gift shop.
Moving on, we stopped at a lovely lake for lunch, after which two difficulties befell us: first, our front right tire had been punctured by a nail or something; second, I left the top carrier open and a sleeping bag flew out of it as we drove up a hill. We recovered the bag and as I secured it inside, I swore I would never forget to close the top carrier again. We had to call AAA to help with putting the spare tire on because it was stuck underneath the car where it's stored. By that point it was afternoon, so we headed to Wall Drug as our last stop for the day.
There were many lovely things to see and buy, and we made sure to get our free ice water.
We spent the night in Wall at a motel right next door.
The next day, Thursday, we went into the Black Hills region of South Dakota. We stopped at Cosmos Mystery Area, where standing on a hillside and inside a crooked house demonstrates a mysterious cosmic force (aka gravity).
Mount Rushmore is not far from there. There was a bit of fog at first,
but it eventually cleared up. Looking for the faces as the fog swept away made it a much more exciting experience than it might have been if they were just in plain view.
We drove by the Crazy Horse monument but didn't stop there. In Custer, we got some groceries and had lunch by a little pond, and then there was a hailstorm.
We waited that one out in our car before going to the woodcarving museum, which featured creepy animated scenes carved by a Dr. H.D. Niblack. Many were accompanied by audio descriptions that sounded like they were recorded in the 1950s if not earlier.
The last thing we did in the Black Hills was go to Jewel Cave where we took a short tour of one room of the cave. I don't have any great photos of the cave, but here's one of my trying to squeeze in a small rectangular hole. If you want to go on the spelunking tour, you have to be able to fit through that space.
We drove on to Keyhole State Park, Wyoming, to camp for the night. There were weird deerlike animals that we called gazelles for fun but later found out are pronghorns. We slept in the back of the Blazer for the first time, which was kind of awkward because it was parked on a hill and our bodies rolled sideways as we lay there.
The next morning we had some trouble starting the car. As we drove away, I left the top open again! We didn't lose anything, but as I secured the carrier, I swore I would never forget to close it again.
It was a long drive to Yellowstone, our next stop. We actually didn't make it that far that day, but instead stopped in Cody, Wyoming, where we went to the Buffalo Bill Museum. It includes five museums, of which we looked at three: a Plains Indians museum, a museum dedicated to Buffalo Bill Cody himself, and a contemporary western art gallery.
There was another museum of sorts we saw in Cody that had a bunch of original pioneer/western houses including some that were frequented by the Wild Bunch.
bullet holes in a door
We had dinner at a yummy barbecue place called Bubba's, then drove a little further west to camp at a state park (Shoshone) near Yellowstone.
Day 11:
Got to Yellowstone at about 9am and used our handy National Parks Pass that we obtained at Jewel Cave. Beautiful scenery immediately, but as soon as we saw a sign for it we hit the showers. Then it was a full day of amazing sight-seeing. There are too many pictures to put up here, but here are a few:
We counted the animals that we saw, including bison, elk, and muledeer. We even saw a bear and her cub, but I couldn't get a decent picture. It was amazing to see the little cub climb down a tree and run to its mother. That night we stayed at a campsite in Yellowstone, right on the western edge of it.
The next morning our car battery situation was worse, and we needed someone to jump it. We decided against going north to Glacier National Park and kept going towards Seattle. That involved driving through Montana and a bit of Idaho. We stopped in Missoula for lunch at Two Sisters, a great little place with some tasty falafel and creme brulee.
After the whole day driving we stopped at a motel in Spokane, WA. During the fifteen minutes it took to check in our car almost didn't start, so we planned on getting a jumpstart the next morning to get to Seattle. We watched an E! biography on Drew Barrymore, talked to our parents, and slept peacefully.
