The first stop on our trip was a couple hours off course but still in Wisconsin. In Poniatowski, WI, 45 degrees north and 90 degrees west intersect, making it the center of the Northwest Hemisphere. The other three 45/90 intersections in the world are basically unvisitable with two being in the ocean and one in mainland China. So it's kind of a neat little treasure! A little anticlimactic for some children, but still pretty cool. Either way, I'm sure they'll all brag that they've been to one of the centers of the earth. Afterwards, we drove through the night to reach South Dakota by morning.In the morning, we stopped for a refresh at a little park in a Native American town (Lakota, I think). We brushed our teeth and stretched our legs. The girls even received a salamander from a woman cleaning out the nearby town pool. It was much bigger than what we find at home!
We stopped at the Badlands before getting to our hotel. It was super hot and the girls were tired, but everyone perked up and enjoyed themselves. Some were nervous and others pushed the limits of climbing and exploring. The Badlands is definitely full of mom heart attacks. It got voted an A+ visit in the end though!
MOUNT RUSHMORE
Custer State Park today. There were a good amount of motorcyclists out at the touristy things because of Sturgis. Not a big deal, but after going around the Wildlife Loop at the park and not seeing much of any wildlife, we figured the motorcycle noises would be scaring the buffalo into other areas. We ended up using our old people map skills and our Subaru to find the main group of buffalo off the beaten path where basically no one was. So worth it and a fun memory (once the twins stopped screaming that the buffalo were going to kill them, lol)! This was a laidback day in mostly Keystone, SD today. We road in an open car of a refurbished 1800s steam engine for two hours total through the Black Hills and did some walking, shopping, and ice cream eating.
Caved it up in Wonderland Cave and then explored some Wild West things in Deadwood. I wanted to pan gold but I wasn't about to pay for some tired grumpy kids in the late afternoon to do that, haha. We did ice cream again instead. We drove through Spearfish Canyon and explored some waterfalls this morning. Before moving on, the girls played in the water which was extremely cold. The last stop on the route was Rough Neck Falls which was breathtaking!We crossed the border to Wyoming in the same day and went to Devil's Tower. There's a path that walks all the way around it which I would have enjoyed better without giving piggyback rides to girls that "were going to die," but it WAS 90 something degrees out. Some were troopers. My favorite place of the trip either way! On the way out, we found a place to try to lure some prairie dogs out. Kaydence was bound and determined to touch one. To my delight, she never did, but somehow we're coming home with a skull that she found.
On the last day before we headed for the drive back, we stopped by this free fairy tale park in Rapid City, SD where our hotel was. We had a lazy drive back that was interrupted by a terrible storm. We ended up getting home around 4 am and crashing in bed.
