South Dakota, Part II (and wyoming...)

Tuesday:

Day 3 of Driving Stats:

States Completed: Wyoming
Miles Driven: approximately 700 mi
Hours Driven: 10 hrs
Average Speed: 56.2 mph
Meltdowns: 1

Today was long. Just long. However, I am living Fievel Goes West.


Best part of the day: Greeeeen Riverrrrrr is apparently a real place! (Keep reading for a recap of the Badlands, but all I could think yesterday was, "I'm lost. Alllll alone. In a million acre catbox.")

One more quick thing... HUGE thank you to Meg and Misty! The Visa Gift Card bought me 23.5 hours of road trip sanity in the form of Stephanie Meyer's The Host on CD.


Rewind one day...

South Dakota never ceases to amaze.

Ever asked the question, "Where the Heck is Wall Drug" ?? No?? Me neither. But apparently, it's in Wall, South Dakota.

Biggest, most elaborate Tourist Trap to which I have yet to fall prey. To use B's words, "After all those billboards, this had better be everything I'm thinking it's not."



This bulldog sitting outside, longingly looking at the fudge shop might have been my favorite part.



After a quick lunch of carrots and peanut butter eaten in the car... we drove the Badlands Scenic Loop. It was eerily beautiful in a desolate way, shoving jagged rocks against waving prairie grass and into impossibly blue skies.

I felt very Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the prairie just outside DeSmet, SD.



And B took the 'shot of the day' out of the car window while singing 'America the Beautiful.' "For amber waves of graaaaaaain...."



Mount Rushmore was serene and stately, something that stood out to us after miles of fake "Old West" roads and billboards hawking Reptile Gardens and Mystery Caves.

We are really hoping to come back and do some camping in the Black Hills as we loved it here. We were sort of sad to leave!

On to Wyoming ! (see top of the post as lack of WiFi has caused a bit of a back up...)