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Holy Hail!!!- An Independence Day Trip Report
- Thread starter HouCuseChickie
- Start date
MinnieM123
Premium Member
Ugh. Sounds awful. Glad you are o.k., but obviously shook up from the car accident.
Thank you! Unfortunately, the medical issues are going to be stress for a while. So just trying to keep my mind busy.
It was really scary! K knew the kids. Well, knew who they were. Definitely not part of her friend group or even fringe groups. They were a couple of dropouts from her school AND their baby. It amazes me that people still drive like lunatics when they have a child with them. It looked like they were either street racing or involved in some kind of chase.
So, just when we started feeling a little bit normal after the accident drama, new… totally different… drama showed up yesterday with nonstop helicopter noise. We thought it was a manhunt, which is also dramatic, but then the evening news came on and they were showing live footage about three to four blocks away from our house. I went outside and could see the news chopper from our backyard. Long story short…home burglary…one burglar (armed) put up a fight and was shot and killed by police…second burglar fled but apprehended. There were two other burglaries in the neighborhood this week, so we’re hoping these are the guys. Ok…moving on from the drama…
Since we were in Custer and we messed up the road with the tunnels the previous day (although, it was a beautiful drive with cool tunnels), we planned to use part of today to drive the correct road. The road with the tunnels that were carved to face Mount Rushmore (if you go in the correct direction) is Iron Mountain Road.
www.ironmountainroad.com
The website says to roll your window down while you drive to help you enjoy, but we experienced temps in the upper 40s (on the 4th of July!!!) in the upper elevations of the road. It was also drizzly, so we were going with the windows up.
Outside of my one pic we got of one of the pigtail bridges and a couple of the pics with tunnel names, it's really hard to tell where we were on the drive based on pictures. I do think it's funny to see the Mount Rushmore pics be super light as we emerge from the tunnel from the camera trying to adjust to the rapidly changing light conditions. I also think we missed pics of the first tunnel and view because my camera crew wasn't helping out...hence, why I also sound kind of snippy in one of the vids below. There are also a handful of pics that have some trees in the framing. For those, we were actually stopped at a lookout viewpoint area near the top. In all honesty, we were hoping to find a bathroom, but found a nice view instead. It was odd, because the girls and I found the view deck (were hoping for some kind of toilet by the detailed displays at that stop) but wound up having to drive down the road another 5 minutes to get to one. At least I was able to locate it on the map. In any event, we've got two short vids and a bunch of pics as we drove the Iron Mountain Road. It'll probably take a couple of posts to get through them all.
Since we were in Custer and we messed up the road with the tunnels the previous day (although, it was a beautiful drive with cool tunnels), we planned to use part of today to drive the correct road. The road with the tunnels that were carved to face Mount Rushmore (if you go in the correct direction) is Iron Mountain Road.
Iron Mountain Road | Visitor's Center & Store | South Dakota
Iron Mountain Road is a unique road designed to showcase the Black Hills and Mt Rushmore in Keystone South Dakota. The Visitor Center & Store is located about half way on this amazing road.
www.ironmountainroad.com
The website says to roll your window down while you drive to help you enjoy, but we experienced temps in the upper 40s (on the 4th of July!!!) in the upper elevations of the road. It was also drizzly, so we were going with the windows up.
Outside of my one pic we got of one of the pigtail bridges and a couple of the pics with tunnel names, it's really hard to tell where we were on the drive based on pictures. I do think it's funny to see the Mount Rushmore pics be super light as we emerge from the tunnel from the camera trying to adjust to the rapidly changing light conditions. I also think we missed pics of the first tunnel and view because my camera crew wasn't helping out...hence, why I also sound kind of snippy in one of the vids below. There are also a handful of pics that have some trees in the framing. For those, we were actually stopped at a lookout viewpoint area near the top. In all honesty, we were hoping to find a bathroom, but found a nice view instead. It was odd, because the girls and I found the view deck (were hoping for some kind of toilet by the detailed displays at that stop) but wound up having to drive down the road another 5 minutes to get to one. At least I was able to locate it on the map. In any event, we've got two short vids and a bunch of pics as we drove the Iron Mountain Road. It'll probably take a couple of posts to get through them all.
We ended up in Keystone after the Iron Mountain drive…land of cheesy mixed with woodsy western!
Kendall wanted to make one last drive by Mount Rushmore since it was the 4th. It is interesting to see the color changes with the rain washing over the stone.
We drove through this way the previous day and saw a lot of climbers and rappelling. They were all back out in the rain.
We still had a lot of day remaining, so I picked some more unfinished business… a drive through Deadwood.
ajrwdwgirl
Premium Member
Wow! I'm glad it wasn't worse for you.
Yes! I keep seeing it in slow motion and hearing k’s slow-mo accounts…both of us still shocked that my split second timing on braking and swerving made a world of difference.
Whew…it’s been a long day of back yo school shopping. Can’t believe these girls go back on Wednesday! Ok…back to South Dakota.
No pictures, but it was nearly a 90 minute drive from Mount Rushmore to Deadwood. It was a scenic drive through the hills…passing small lakes, cabins, and camping along the way. There were also some little Disney reminders…like a town named Nemo. There were all kinds of bighorn sheep warning signs as well, but I didn’t spot a single one along this drive.
We did eventually arrive in Deadwood. We contemplated getting out, but it just seemed like it was a lot of bars and cheesy shops. It’s not that it couldn’t be fun, but driving through and seeing it felt like enough.
It was a neat area, but it was time to move on. As we were leaving town, David and the girls spotted a large cluster of bighorn sheep perched on some rocks. Nobody got any pictures for me and I wasn’t up for turning around to try on my own… but apparently there was a large group of bighorns in Deadwood.
Not to sound morbid, but speaking of dead…in one of the tunnel videos there may have been a sign that said “Think” or “Don’t Die.” I never noticed these last time we were here, but apparently it’s been a state program for decades. It crossed my mind because this next part of the drive was loaded with these signs as well as memorials.
Our drive next took us to Sturgis. The last time we were here, the rally was going on and I wouldn’t dream of going near the place. I really just wanted to see if there was anything special to see. Aside from a stop at a convenience store to use their oddly frilly restroom, there wasn’t much to it. Obviously, it had its share of bats.
After this, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and rest for a bit before dinner. With the holiday, the police presence was steadily growing throughout the day and it seemed like it would be nice to escape the police state for a bit.
No pictures, but it was nearly a 90 minute drive from Mount Rushmore to Deadwood. It was a scenic drive through the hills…passing small lakes, cabins, and camping along the way. There were also some little Disney reminders…like a town named Nemo. There were all kinds of bighorn sheep warning signs as well, but I didn’t spot a single one along this drive.
We did eventually arrive in Deadwood. We contemplated getting out, but it just seemed like it was a lot of bars and cheesy shops. It’s not that it couldn’t be fun, but driving through and seeing it felt like enough.
It was a neat area, but it was time to move on. As we were leaving town, David and the girls spotted a large cluster of bighorn sheep perched on some rocks. Nobody got any pictures for me and I wasn’t up for turning around to try on my own… but apparently there was a large group of bighorns in Deadwood.
Not to sound morbid, but speaking of dead…in one of the tunnel videos there may have been a sign that said “Think” or “Don’t Die.” I never noticed these last time we were here, but apparently it’s been a state program for decades. It crossed my mind because this next part of the drive was loaded with these signs as well as memorials.
Our drive next took us to Sturgis. The last time we were here, the rally was going on and I wouldn’t dream of going near the place. I really just wanted to see if there was anything special to see. Aside from a stop at a convenience store to use their oddly frilly restroom, there wasn’t much to it. Obviously, it had its share of bats.
After this, we headed back to the hotel to clean up and rest for a bit before dinner. With the holiday, the police presence was steadily growing throughout the day and it seemed like it would be nice to escape the police state for a bit.
We wanted to do something nice for dinner. @Songbird76 recommended a place that serves a nice filet, but K didn’t want steak and didn’t like the alternatives. At some point, one of us suggested we return to the restaurant tied to the cabin style motel we stayed at last time. The food was excellent, the atmosphere was great, but it’s also really popular. David called while we were driving from Deadwood to Sturgis and was able to get us on the list for like 6:30…just in case we were still up for it after our rest.
At the end of our rest, everyone was still on the same page, so we headed back into Keystone. The police presence was even more intense than it was earlier, so we were being super cautious. We still made it on time, got a decent parking spot, and were seated immediately. There was quite a wait, so it was very helpful that we got on the lost.
So a big yay for dinner at the Powder House!!!
It’s too bad we weren’t able to get in a breakfast here this trip. They have a massive cinnamon roll that Sam absolutely loved last time.
First up…David got a Moose Drool. Only one of the trip and it was the canned version. It was still great!
The bread also really hit the spot.
I think we all got salad, and there was a fight over the baby corn. I guess we all love baby corn.
I think we got the artichoke dip appetizer, but no pics. No worries as dinner came out pretty quickly.
I had the bison medallions in a red wine and mushroom demi-glace w/mashed potatoes. Sam and David both had prime rib. David also forgot that most parts of the country don’t offer baked potatoes like Texas, so he ordered it loaded and they thought he meant twice baked. I had to walk him back from it and have him settle for butter and sour cream, since he doesn’t like twice bakeds. It’s certainly not the first time it’s come up for him, but he always acts like it’s the first time!
At the end of our rest, everyone was still on the same page, so we headed back into Keystone. The police presence was even more intense than it was earlier, so we were being super cautious. We still made it on time, got a decent parking spot, and were seated immediately. There was quite a wait, so it was very helpful that we got on the lost.
So a big yay for dinner at the Powder House!!!
It’s too bad we weren’t able to get in a breakfast here this trip. They have a massive cinnamon roll that Sam absolutely loved last time.
First up…David got a Moose Drool. Only one of the trip and it was the canned version. It was still great!
The bread also really hit the spot.
I think we all got salad, and there was a fight over the baby corn. I guess we all love baby corn.
I think we got the artichoke dip appetizer, but no pics. No worries as dinner came out pretty quickly.
I had the bison medallions in a red wine and mushroom demi-glace w/mashed potatoes. Sam and David both had prime rib. David also forgot that most parts of the country don’t offer baked potatoes like Texas, so he ordered it loaded and they thought he meant twice baked. I had to walk him back from it and have him settle for butter and sour cream, since he doesn’t like twice bakeds. It’s certainly not the first time it’s come up for him, but he always acts like it’s the first time!
Kendall..the kid who swears she hates pasta…ordered pasta.
We then had a really great laugh with Sam.
It’s actually kind of sad. She was on an antibiotic treatment for 3 months for an issue with her toe. The meds were strong enough that she had to be tested twice to make sure it wasn’t diminishing her liver function. In any event, she was suffering from an uncommon side effect… canker sores. I think she had 4-5 in her mouth at this point. The biggest was right in the corner of her mouth, causing her to drool and slurring her speech. This series of pics happened after a drool and slur fest.
After that…it was dessert time!
Sam wanted crème brûlée, while I wanted rhubarb crisp.
We then had a really great laugh with Sam.
It’s actually kind of sad. She was on an antibiotic treatment for 3 months for an issue with her toe. The meds were strong enough that she had to be tested twice to make sure it wasn’t diminishing her liver function. In any event, she was suffering from an uncommon side effect… canker sores. I think she had 4-5 in her mouth at this point. The biggest was right in the corner of her mouth, causing her to drool and slurring her speech. This series of pics happened after a drool and slur fest.
After that…it was dessert time!
Sam wanted crème brûlée, while I wanted rhubarb crisp.
After that, it was back to the hotel. I had to check with the front desk about check out since we were leaving around 5am. David also had to do laundry, which got interesting. The washer worked, but they informed him that the dryer was broken. So he used the hotel’s housekeeping dryers.
After that, we sat up in our room to watch fireworks. I thought about turning on the radio to hear the soundtrack, but none of us were feeling it. Disney has spoiled us
Still, it’s nice to have a hassle free view.
After that, we sat up in our room to watch fireworks. I thought about turning on the radio to hear the soundtrack, but none of us were feeling it. Disney has spoiled us
Still, it’s nice to have a hassle free view.
Now, in his defense, the standard for a baked potato side in TX comes with a lot. When you ask for a loaded potato here, you get butter and sour cream, as well as cheese, bacon, chives (an/or green onions), and sometimes jalapenos and/or diced raw onions. He thought my parents were strange when they served just sour cream and butter on their baked potatoes. It wasn't until a trip to NJ where it happened in a restaurant that he got to see it wasn't just them.
I can't remember exactly what he said about twice baked this trip, but it made the server laugh.
Chapter 10: July 5th- What the heck was I thinking?
On paper, the drive for this day seemed reasonable, but I was questioning all of my life choices when the alarm went off at 4 something in the morning. After checking out and turning down the front desk staff’s offer of yogurt and apples for the road, I plugged in our next hotel’s information into maps and really started feeling the dread. I don't know if my original travel math was off and I forgot to recheck it or if I had a delusional "We can do this!" moment.
This portion of the trip was all about looking at college campuses for K. Initially, in my delusional planning, I thought we could get in even more, but I had no choice but to scale it back to things strictly along the way. The first leg of today's drive was Rapid City, SD to Lincoln, NE. That alone...not counting stops (or speeding)...is an 8 hour drive. The next stop was Stillwater, OK, which is another 6 hours. Had we gone with our original plan to stop just south of Norman, OK, it would have been 7 hours! And to think I was contemplating adding on an hour+ to see South Dakota State in Sioux Falls as well as the Dignity statue in Chamberlain, SD. I wanted to see the statue more than she wanted to see the school, so I let priorities determine our plans for this. Looking at it now, it doesn't feel like it would add all that much time. It would have also been primarily interstate driving (I90 to I29 to I80 to I35), which tends to go faster than smaller country highways. That's probably how I was thinking in initial planning, but I wasn't factoring in time to stop and see for any of it. In any event, we regrouped and decided to make our focuses Lincoln and then Stillwater...which was still a 14-hour drive, not counting stops. Kendall was begging to drive, so I also had to find a good time to work that in as well. Oh yea...and we'd be losing an hour going from Mountain to Central time, so there's that too!
So, here we were...out the door and on the road just before 5am, but it didn't feel like it. Kind of like Colorado, we were still in an area where the sun rises early. On one hand, it was nice not driving in complete darkness, but the light also made me feel like we were running horribly behind. I guess at least we were getting to see sunrise.
It also gave me a chance to snap a pic of the terrain shortly before you get to the badlands. I thought it was pretty neat how it looks like a grass covered precursor to the craggy badlands just ahead.
No pics of it, but it was nice seeing the rising sun hit all of the badlands as we drove by. We also passed by Minuteman Missile… a place we visited in 2018. We were not stopping today.
The light was also helpful with wildlife. There were a lot of deer crossing the highway, which is kind of scary in an 80mph area. At one point, I remember seeing a tanker up ahead of me slam on his brakes and I could see the deer he was avoiding when I passed. So, it was certainly a pro to have enough light to see them.
I wasn’t planning on stopping so soon in this part of journey, but nature called. It was still crazy early, but what struck me as odd was the number of people sleeping in their cars. I believe this particular interstate goes all the way to Chicago and Boston going east and Seattle going west. In any event, a lot of folks sleeping in cars, which isn't something we've seen a lot when we've done our middle of the night drives on I10.
Moving on, we kept seeing signs for some place called 1880 Town. It looked kind of cheesy, but it did have one thing that really stood out as we were passing. This is not my pic, but it’s certainly a sight! Unfortunately, you can’t really see the leash in the pic, but you get the idea.
Right after this, we turned off the interstate and began our journey south. It wasn’t long before we were in Nebraska. There was a lot of nothing for a while, but we ended up in the middle of something kind of neat that I’d never heard of… the Nebraska Sand Hills. Part of the drive was through a wildlife refuge. We didn’t have time to stop, but we saw quite a few birds during our drive… which almost felt like going past a sea of sand traps on a golf course. This is what it looks like on Google Maps.
(Not my vid)
We had a near miss with some deer on the southern end of this area. We were coming into a town (Thedford- I think) and several went leaping into the street. I slammed on the brakes in time! whew!
While things were still pretty quiet as we turned off in this town and headed into the Nebraska National Forest, we were now heading directly towards Lincoln, NE. So, there were many more signs of civilization as we drove southeast.
On paper, the drive for this day seemed reasonable, but I was questioning all of my life choices when the alarm went off at 4 something in the morning. After checking out and turning down the front desk staff’s offer of yogurt and apples for the road, I plugged in our next hotel’s information into maps and really started feeling the dread. I don't know if my original travel math was off and I forgot to recheck it or if I had a delusional "We can do this!" moment.
This portion of the trip was all about looking at college campuses for K. Initially, in my delusional planning, I thought we could get in even more, but I had no choice but to scale it back to things strictly along the way. The first leg of today's drive was Rapid City, SD to Lincoln, NE. That alone...not counting stops (or speeding)...is an 8 hour drive. The next stop was Stillwater, OK, which is another 6 hours. Had we gone with our original plan to stop just south of Norman, OK, it would have been 7 hours! And to think I was contemplating adding on an hour+ to see South Dakota State in Sioux Falls as well as the Dignity statue in Chamberlain, SD. I wanted to see the statue more than she wanted to see the school, so I let priorities determine our plans for this. Looking at it now, it doesn't feel like it would add all that much time. It would have also been primarily interstate driving (I90 to I29 to I80 to I35), which tends to go faster than smaller country highways. That's probably how I was thinking in initial planning, but I wasn't factoring in time to stop and see for any of it. In any event, we regrouped and decided to make our focuses Lincoln and then Stillwater...which was still a 14-hour drive, not counting stops. Kendall was begging to drive, so I also had to find a good time to work that in as well. Oh yea...and we'd be losing an hour going from Mountain to Central time, so there's that too!
So, here we were...out the door and on the road just before 5am, but it didn't feel like it. Kind of like Colorado, we were still in an area where the sun rises early. On one hand, it was nice not driving in complete darkness, but the light also made me feel like we were running horribly behind. I guess at least we were getting to see sunrise.
It also gave me a chance to snap a pic of the terrain shortly before you get to the badlands. I thought it was pretty neat how it looks like a grass covered precursor to the craggy badlands just ahead.
No pics of it, but it was nice seeing the rising sun hit all of the badlands as we drove by. We also passed by Minuteman Missile… a place we visited in 2018. We were not stopping today.
The light was also helpful with wildlife. There were a lot of deer crossing the highway, which is kind of scary in an 80mph area. At one point, I remember seeing a tanker up ahead of me slam on his brakes and I could see the deer he was avoiding when I passed. So, it was certainly a pro to have enough light to see them.
I wasn’t planning on stopping so soon in this part of journey, but nature called. It was still crazy early, but what struck me as odd was the number of people sleeping in their cars. I believe this particular interstate goes all the way to Chicago and Boston going east and Seattle going west. In any event, a lot of folks sleeping in cars, which isn't something we've seen a lot when we've done our middle of the night drives on I10.
Moving on, we kept seeing signs for some place called 1880 Town. It looked kind of cheesy, but it did have one thing that really stood out as we were passing. This is not my pic, but it’s certainly a sight! Unfortunately, you can’t really see the leash in the pic, but you get the idea.
Right after this, we turned off the interstate and began our journey south. It wasn’t long before we were in Nebraska. There was a lot of nothing for a while, but we ended up in the middle of something kind of neat that I’d never heard of… the Nebraska Sand Hills. Part of the drive was through a wildlife refuge. We didn’t have time to stop, but we saw quite a few birds during our drive… which almost felt like going past a sea of sand traps on a golf course. This is what it looks like on Google Maps.
(Not my vid)
We had a near miss with some deer on the southern end of this area. We were coming into a town (Thedford- I think) and several went leaping into the street. I slammed on the brakes in time! whew!
While things were still pretty quiet as we turned off in this town and headed into the Nebraska National Forest, we were now heading directly towards Lincoln, NE. So, there were many more signs of civilization as we drove southeast.
We arrived in Lincoln around lunch...maybe late lunch. We had been snacking along the way, so nobody was starving. We headed straight to the University of Nebraska to drive around. Maybe it's because I was the driver...maybe it's because of all of the summer construction at the school...but I didn't take a single pic. It's a nice-looking campus with a manageable size feeling. I did get an oddly flat feeling from it all. It's hard to describe, but there are some places that feel strangely flat for me. It's not a bad feeling, but I feel the same way driving through parts of the TX panhandle. It's hard to explain, but I felt it in Lincoln.
After driving around, we decided to grab a quick bite at a nearby Wendy's just to get something in our bellies before the next long leg of the trip. No pics here, but you can see how close we were to campus and get an idea of the visuals of the area.
After lunch, I handed over the wheel to Kendall. She was thrilled, and I was my typical nervous self. It's not that she's a bad driver, but I just worry how she'd respond when confronted with a dangerous driver. Like the situation with us the other day...would she have been able to read that fast enough to keep herself from being in an accident? I know a lot of that was just pure luck, but it's the stuff that plays out in my mind when she's behind the wheel. She drove from Lincoln, NE to Wichita, KS...so, around 4 hours and close to 280 miles. She prefers driving a truck, but with my adaptive cruise control and lane assist, I worry a lot less about her drifting or having to gauge distance with cruise.
Along the way, we discussed possible stops in Manhattan, KS to see K State and Wichita to see Wichita State (again). We have good friends who went to both, but it just wasn't a high priority for her and we were all just wanting to be at our stop for the night. I took over driving because we were coming up on a lot of construction...well, after we stopped at a very bizarre truck stop. One of the big rules was no large bags. I wasn't leaving my purse in the car and nobody said anything, but it was still odd. There were just a lot of strange people in there, aimlessly milling around, that made us a bit uncomfortable. So, I was happy to leave. We ended up making it to Stillwater, OK right at sunset.
Everyone was getting cranky again, but we kept telling each other that it was our last night on the road. The room was huge and afforded us an option with the bed situation that we hadn't had all trip. We'd been lugging an air mattress along because the kids don't like sharing sleep sofas. Somewhere along the way, it developed a leak. It still worked well enough, but not ideal for multiple nights of use. With two queens and a sleep sofa, we convinced David to take the sleep sofa while the girls and I took the bedroom. I seriously think this was our best night of sleep all trip, but it took a lot of whining and crankiness to get to this point.
Everyone also wanted some food. It was on the late side and we had to be up early for our tour the next day...
...so, we found a Whataburger over by the university. It was nice to sit and eat, even if it was just fast food. We also got to see a little bit of the school. I'm not sure what it was, but I felt a certain peace in the area. It would be interesting to see if I felt that way the following day.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby a bit before bed. The girls managed to find the checkers and had a nice game before we went upstairs for the evening.
While we had a long day ahead of us on the last day of this trip, we were looking into sleeping in a little for the last morning. Ultimately, I think we were all still amazed that we made our driving goals for this day. It was A LOT!
After driving around, we decided to grab a quick bite at a nearby Wendy's just to get something in our bellies before the next long leg of the trip. No pics here, but you can see how close we were to campus and get an idea of the visuals of the area.
After lunch, I handed over the wheel to Kendall. She was thrilled, and I was my typical nervous self. It's not that she's a bad driver, but I just worry how she'd respond when confronted with a dangerous driver. Like the situation with us the other day...would she have been able to read that fast enough to keep herself from being in an accident? I know a lot of that was just pure luck, but it's the stuff that plays out in my mind when she's behind the wheel. She drove from Lincoln, NE to Wichita, KS...so, around 4 hours and close to 280 miles. She prefers driving a truck, but with my adaptive cruise control and lane assist, I worry a lot less about her drifting or having to gauge distance with cruise.
Along the way, we discussed possible stops in Manhattan, KS to see K State and Wichita to see Wichita State (again). We have good friends who went to both, but it just wasn't a high priority for her and we were all just wanting to be at our stop for the night. I took over driving because we were coming up on a lot of construction...well, after we stopped at a very bizarre truck stop. One of the big rules was no large bags. I wasn't leaving my purse in the car and nobody said anything, but it was still odd. There were just a lot of strange people in there, aimlessly milling around, that made us a bit uncomfortable. So, I was happy to leave. We ended up making it to Stillwater, OK right at sunset.
Everyone was getting cranky again, but we kept telling each other that it was our last night on the road. The room was huge and afforded us an option with the bed situation that we hadn't had all trip. We'd been lugging an air mattress along because the kids don't like sharing sleep sofas. Somewhere along the way, it developed a leak. It still worked well enough, but not ideal for multiple nights of use. With two queens and a sleep sofa, we convinced David to take the sleep sofa while the girls and I took the bedroom. I seriously think this was our best night of sleep all trip, but it took a lot of whining and crankiness to get to this point.
Everyone also wanted some food. It was on the late side and we had to be up early for our tour the next day...
...so, we found a Whataburger over by the university. It was nice to sit and eat, even if it was just fast food. We also got to see a little bit of the school. I'm not sure what it was, but I felt a certain peace in the area. It would be interesting to see if I felt that way the following day.
After dinner, we headed back to the hotel and hung out in the lobby a bit before bed. The girls managed to find the checkers and had a nice game before we went upstairs for the evening.
While we had a long day ahead of us on the last day of this trip, we were looking into sleeping in a little for the last morning. Ultimately, I think we were all still amazed that we made our driving goals for this day. It was A LOT!
erstwo
Well-Known Member
It's a long story, but I once arrived in Chamberlin, SD in the middle of the night (got the very last room at the Americ Inn) and was convinced I had reached the end of the earth, like I had landed in some alien land. The next morning, it was the rest stop on the side of the interstate (with the statue) and the sight of the Missouri that convinced me I might not have reached the end of civilization after all.
Every time someone mentions Chamberlin (which is not very often!) I think of that trip.
Also, while in Yellowstone a few weeks ago, I sat at the bar at the Old Faithful Inn with a couple from South Carolina whose daughter is the city commissioner (director? something like that....) for Sturgis - I asked them what that was like and they said she really enjoyed it - I was shocked, I just don't see Sturgis as a cool, hip place either but she loves it!
Enjoying your report!
Every time someone mentions Chamberlin (which is not very often!) I think of that trip.
Also, while in Yellowstone a few weeks ago, I sat at the bar at the Old Faithful Inn with a couple from South Carolina whose daughter is the city commissioner (director? something like that....) for Sturgis - I asked them what that was like and they said she really enjoyed it - I was shocked, I just don't see Sturgis as a cool, hip place either but she loves it!
Enjoying your report!
It's a long story, but I once arrived in Chamberlin, SD in the middle of the night (got the very last room at the Americ Inn) and was convinced I had reached the end of the earth, like I had landed in some alien land. The next morning, it was the rest stop on the side of the interstate (with the statue) and the sight of the Missouri that convinced me I might not have reached the end of civilization after all.
Every time someone mentions Chamberlin (which is not very often!) I think of that trip.
Also, while in Yellowstone a few weeks ago, I sat at the bar at the Old Faithful Inn with a couple from South Carolina whose daughter is the city commissioner (director? something like that....) for Sturgis - I asked them what that was like and they said she really enjoyed it - I was shocked, I just don't see Sturgis as a cool, hip place either but she loves it!
Enjoying your report!
Funny...we've stayed at several AmericInn's and they've all been in the Dakota's. That's awesome that you were able to see the statue! I just went onto Google Maps just to see the proximity to the river and both the statue and hotel show up without any extra info. While it probably would have set us back an hour, part of me regrets not continuing on I90 to see it.
Oh wow, were you at the Bear Pit? We have such fond memories of that bar from our 2005 trip. While I wouldn't want to be in Sturgis during the annual rally (didn't enjoy all of the bike traffic during our 2018 trip), I could see how it could be nice at other times of the year. Many of the houses we passed were cute and between Spearfish and Rapid City, there seems to be enough civilization in the area to not feel like you're on an island.
Chapter 11: July 6th- Are we there yet?
We have finally gotten to the last day of the trip...and it's a long one! At least, that's how it felt.
This part of OK had been getting a lot of weather and today would be no exception. I never took a screenshot of the radar, but there were showers and storms all around. I guess it was noted on the school's forecast outlook for the tour. I took a look outside and you can kind of tell that the skies look a little iffy.
We grabbed some breakfast in the hotel, checked out, and then it was off to Oklahoma State for our tour. It was a bit confusing since they were also doing new student orientation, but everyone was super sweet about getting us where we needed to go. We could only have three on the tour, so David stayed behind in the car and took a nap. Due to our time constraints and travel demands, we couldn't take the full tour, so he'd also be on-call to get us from wherever we were at "go time."
Upon arrival, Kendall checked in and received a nice swag bag including a t-shirt. We were there early for the honors program presentation, so we had our pick of seats in a medium sized lecture room.
The honors presentation was really great. It made me want to go back to school! After that, the room filled up with everyone else that would be touring with us. We went from maybe about 15-20 kids to A TON! Still, the presentation was good and we were still really enjoying what we were seeing. It was also interesting to see how many people had traveled great distances for the tour. After that, we were divided up into groups for tours. It was rainy, so they gave us OSU ponchos. We also got OSU waters to keep us hydrated. We've been on a number of tours and so far, and this is the only one that did any of this for the kids and families. They even covered the cost of our parking (I've paid $10-15 on the last two tours we've done). I took a number of pics on the tour as well as a short video of when we heard the bells/chimes playing.
I made the mistake of wearing sandals on the tour. My feet were starting to hurt and I accidentally stepped in a puddle, so one of my feet kept sliding around. I felt bad being that person lagging behind, but what could I do? We made it about halfway through the tour when we decided it was time to call it and move on. I let the kids go in and hear what the guides had to say about our final stop while I called David and waited for him to arrive. While I waited, some people who were grandparent age stopped to sit with me and inquired about the location of some building. I had no idea, so we all had a good laugh about being a bit lost. At least a passing student was able to help.
While K still has her #1 on her list (David will be taking her to her official tour in October), she really liked OSU a lot. With her grades and state cooperatives, it could be a good choice for the budget. It's honestly just such major stress for these kids and certain of our state rules make it worse. Still, I'm glad she found a school that she really liked in case things don't work out with her #1. I'm also glad that she's considering the $ aspect. She could be ranked at the top of her class and not see a single cent from her #1, but she could get thousands from these other schools. It even made her think twice about some recent outreach from an Ivy and their lack of merit aid. At least it's got her thinking about her financial future.
We have finally gotten to the last day of the trip...and it's a long one! At least, that's how it felt.
This part of OK had been getting a lot of weather and today would be no exception. I never took a screenshot of the radar, but there were showers and storms all around. I guess it was noted on the school's forecast outlook for the tour. I took a look outside and you can kind of tell that the skies look a little iffy.
We grabbed some breakfast in the hotel, checked out, and then it was off to Oklahoma State for our tour. It was a bit confusing since they were also doing new student orientation, but everyone was super sweet about getting us where we needed to go. We could only have three on the tour, so David stayed behind in the car and took a nap. Due to our time constraints and travel demands, we couldn't take the full tour, so he'd also be on-call to get us from wherever we were at "go time."
Upon arrival, Kendall checked in and received a nice swag bag including a t-shirt. We were there early for the honors program presentation, so we had our pick of seats in a medium sized lecture room.
The honors presentation was really great. It made me want to go back to school! After that, the room filled up with everyone else that would be touring with us. We went from maybe about 15-20 kids to A TON! Still, the presentation was good and we were still really enjoying what we were seeing. It was also interesting to see how many people had traveled great distances for the tour. After that, we were divided up into groups for tours. It was rainy, so they gave us OSU ponchos. We also got OSU waters to keep us hydrated. We've been on a number of tours and so far, and this is the only one that did any of this for the kids and families. They even covered the cost of our parking (I've paid $10-15 on the last two tours we've done). I took a number of pics on the tour as well as a short video of when we heard the bells/chimes playing.
I made the mistake of wearing sandals on the tour. My feet were starting to hurt and I accidentally stepped in a puddle, so one of my feet kept sliding around. I felt bad being that person lagging behind, but what could I do? We made it about halfway through the tour when we decided it was time to call it and move on. I let the kids go in and hear what the guides had to say about our final stop while I called David and waited for him to arrive. While I waited, some people who were grandparent age stopped to sit with me and inquired about the location of some building. I had no idea, so we all had a good laugh about being a bit lost. At least a passing student was able to help.
While K still has her #1 on her list (David will be taking her to her official tour in October), she really liked OSU a lot. With her grades and state cooperatives, it could be a good choice for the budget. It's honestly just such major stress for these kids and certain of our state rules make it worse. Still, I'm glad she found a school that she really liked in case things don't work out with her #1. I'm also glad that she's considering the $ aspect. She could be ranked at the top of her class and not see a single cent from her #1, but she could get thousands from these other schools. It even made her think twice about some recent outreach from an Ivy and their lack of merit aid. At least it's got her thinking about her financial future.