Trip Report 50 Nifty United States....or at least 5 of them

Disclaimer: I have never done a trip report before. This may not be interesting to anyone. This might be ridiculously long and rambly. This might just be plain old ridiculous. So if you absolutely hate it...why are you still reading??

This trip was a long time in the planning. You don't go overseas for a month without a LOT of planning. At least -I- don't. I made lists. I made more lists. I read blogs. I studied menus. I made more lists. I bought books. I made more lists. Because that's what I do.
The first half of our trip was for me to go "home" to visit family. The 2nd half was to do Disney.
So we drove to my in-laws' house and spent the night there since they would be driving us to the airport in the morning.

We started out early in the morning on July 10th, with the in-laws and 2 cars to take us to the airport. Within 15 minutes, we were at a gas station fixing a flat tire. Good start. But, if that's the worst thing to happen, we're doing well, and we had allowed plenty of time for just such an occurrence. (Didn't I say I was a planner??) Good thing one of said in-laws used to be a mechanic...we weren't stopped long.

So we were off to see the wizard....er...the airport. Not exactly a yellow brick road, but we followed it anyway. We got checked in to our flight (with an upgrade to economy plus because the kids are not old enough to sit by themselves. Thanks, kids...stop growing. I want more of these upgrades.) While we were waiting for our flight, we went to McDonalds for breakfast and let the kids play on the interactive floor.

And this is where it gets boring and rambly because we had several flights, because otherwise we couldn't do both Disney AND home. So...we went Amsterdam to Chicago and Chicago to Orlando, Got a hotel room for a few hours of sleep and headed back to the airport to fly to Denver, then drove about 6 hours from Denver to Gillette, Wyoming where we were staying with friends. Just in case you were wondering (which if you were, I have to wonder about your sanity, because really, how could we NOT be exhausted?) we were SHOT after this and I would not recommend 36 hours of pretty much non-stop traveling by air and THEN have to get in a car. But...we made it. Yay.

 

[Gabe1]

Well if you had to get a flat tire, what a pretty area to fix it in.

I'm in!!!

 

[Songbird76]

So, we left off yesterday where we arrived in Gillette, Wyoming. And because it appears that my daughter did not take any pictures of the scenery heading up to Gillette, unless you count a disgusting picture of my son picking his nose to be scenery, I guess you'll just have to take my word for it that it is beautiful. There's really not much exciting about Gillette, Wyoming, and as much fun as lawyers, banks, etc are, I don't think you need coverage of who gets my dad's cows when he dies, so I'll spare you all that thrilling stuff from "home" and stick to highlights. The kids had massive amounts of fun at the city pool, and true to my daughter's nature, she immediately made a friend there. It appears that I have zero pictures from the pool. We also watched Finding Dory, which was cute, and we drove to my hometown nearby so our librarian friend could sneak me into the basement to look at the library booksale early, since we'd be gone already when the sale started. I showed ENORMOUS restraint by only buying 12 books. My husband was not impressed with my will power. My librarian friend, however, was amazed because she thought I would have 4 times that many....and I could have!

This is pretty much the extent of our Gillette trip, with the exception of lunch with my cousins, which I'm sure you are DYING to hear about, so pay attention, because this is all you're getting: It involved beer battered fried mushrooms, and a delicious french dip, which I forgot to take pictures of because apparently food selfies are not my thing.
So, the next leg of the trip takes us to South Dakota, where I spent MANY a weekend with my family when I was growing up. It was only a 3 hour drive to get to the black hills and we made friends with a couple who owned a hotel there, so we went several times a year, either camping or staying with these friends and visiting all the sites. We decided to take a scenic route and went back through my home town (Wright) and had lunch with some friends. Again, I forgot to take food pictures until everything was almost gone. The exception was our last 3 fried mushrooms:

Then we headed to a friend's house, where their whole family was visiting. One of the guys was in my brother's graduating class, they went to our church and dog-sat for us on vacation, so I knew them really well and they had all their kids with them, who are about the same ages as my kids, so they got to play. They taught my son how to play baseball, something that is pretty much non-existent in the Netherlands. He had a blast and didn't want to leave. My husband must have those pictures on his phone, because I can only find the one of the girls chatting.
We drove over to Sturgis, South Dakota, via Hill City.

We barely made it to our campground on time to check in. We would call this cabin home for the next several days while we visited my Brother and his family and some of our cousins who came out from Illinois and Iowa to tour with us. I have to admit when I first saw the cabin, it was not exactly where I wanted to spend much time. When the 2 futons were opened up, there weren't even 3 inches between them, so we had to climb over the foot ends to get out, and it was just the beds, a shelf and coat rack, and a mini fridge. The bathroom and shower facilities were down the path a few hundred yards. But, later I would come to think of this place as just shy of luxury...we could move about freely and safely. The only problem was that the internet was down for "a few weeks", but even that wasn't bad because when would I have had time to get online anyway??

 

[King Racoon 77]

I'm onborad for the TR . Amazing scenery.

 

[Tony the Tigger]

I know that song! It helped me with many tests all through school LOL.

 

[Tinkwings]

I know that song! It helped me with many tests all through school LOL.

Too funny, yes I learned that for choir many decades ago....my children were always amazed I knew my states in alphabetical order.....

 

[Tinkwings]

Cute fried mushroom pic.... And I have been to Sturgis! Isn't that motorcycle heaven? And have you seen any jackalope running amok?

 

[Songbird76]

Cute fried mushroom pic.... And I have been to Sturgis! Isn't that motorcycle heaven? And have you seen any jackalope running amok?

Yes, Sturgis is known for the rally, which we avoided in our planning. That's why we did the Wyoming/South Dakota part first...we did Gillette and left just as the National High School Finals Rodeo was coming in and headed to South Dakota so we could get out of there before Rally started. Everything suddenly gets very expensive and the roads are INSANE to drive on!
The Jackelope picture is coming soon.

 

[Songbird76]

I REALLY miss the scenery "back home". When my husband first came to visit, we made the trek from Laramie where I was going to college, up to my home town with my husband plastered to the camera, hanging out the window. There is just so much to see. The Black Hills of South Dakota are gorgeous. So this leg, I will have to be careful with pictures because I don't have permission to post pics of my niece or cousins. So...we may have to get creative. Wish me luck!
We started our South Dakota adventure with my brother and his family at the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. It was basically a sinkhole where many animals, mostly mammoths, got trapped and were found when a farmer was ploughing his fields and hit something hard. He sold the land to a conservation group and now you can go look at bones, etc.

Then we headed to Wind Cave. We were about to start our tour when my niece suddenly HAD to go potty and of course, the tours run on a tight schedule, so we ended up going on the tour without my brother's family. Wind Cave is known for Boxwork, which looks REALLY cool, but my pictures probably won't do it justice.

Boxwork is the stuff at the top of the picture, left of the middle. And this is what it looks like from right underneath it.

And a couple more of the cave:

 

[Tinkwings]

Keep up the nice job, its been a few years but I have been to a lot of those spaces, and yes it is so beautiful....they forced me to go on the million dollar hwy....and NEVER again, talk about crazy roads....er sheer cliff drop offs...... But Wyoming on the way back through from Colorado to visit my Mom's cousins who are cattle ranchers there....what fun that was. I had to reread, I thought you were talking about Mammoth Cave above and I was amazed you travelled so far so fast! Ha. Wind Cave looks neat!

 

[ajrwdwgirl]

Awesome so far! Looking forward to seeing more!

 

[Songbird76]

After Wind Cave, we headed to Evans Plunge to swim. I mostly just shivered...I remembered the water being much warmer!! But the kids had a blast on the curvy waterslide, so it was all good. We were pretty tired, DS was cranky, and we still had an hour drive back to our cabin, so we headed out after getting some grub. Again, I forgot to take pictures, but since it was just a run-o-the-mill hamburger (It might have been bison...I don't remember), it wasn't anything special to make you go "wow!!!". So you aren't really missing much as far as the pictures go...it was a good burger, but didn't look spectacular.
The next day, we drove over to the Rapid City/Hill City/Custer area. This is where we got our first view of Mount Rushmore, as well as some gorgeous scenery.

We drove through Custer State Park, which was somewhat disappointing. We were hoping to see a lot of different animals, but not many were out and about near the roads. We saw a few Bison from far away, some prairie dogs, a few donkeys, and some antelope, but the big horn sheep remained elusive.

 

[Songbird76]

Keep up the nice job, its been a few years but I have been to a lot of those spaces, and yes it is so beautiful....they forced me to go on the million dollar hwy....and NEVER again, talk about crazy roads....er sheer cliff drop offs...... But Wyoming on the way back through from Colorado to visit my Mom's cousins who are cattle ranchers there....what fun that was. I had to reread, I thought you were talking about Mammoth Cave above and I was amazed you travelled so far so fast! Ha. Wind Cave looks neat!

What is the Million Dollar Highway? I've never heard that term...is that in South Dakota? The road in the black hills is twisty windy, but they've done some work in the last couple of decades...and the Needles Drive still has some tight spaces and drop offs, but it is GORGEOUS. I'm coming up on those pictures now.

 

[Tinkwings]

What is the Million Dollar Highway? I've never heard that term...is that in South Dakota? The road in the black hills is twisty windy, but they've done some work in the last couple of decades...and the Needles Drive still has some tight spaces and drop offs, but it is GORGEOUS. I'm coming up on those pictures now.

It is in Colorado south of Ouray to Silverton......

 

[Tinkwings]

What is the Million Dollar Highway? I've never heard that term...is that in South Dakota? The road in the black hills is twisty windy, but they've done some work in the last couple of decades...and the Needles Drive still has some tight spaces and drop offs, but it is GORGEOUS. I'm coming up on those pictures now.

Think I managed to survive the needles too....my eyes were likely shut though...I am a wimp without proper guard rails....my FIL and husband loved those roads..... So I welcome your photos from the safety of my puter screen.

 

[Songbird76]

By now you're probably wondering, "When do we get to Disney??". Not yet. Sorry. I'm reminiscing here! So, we came out of Custer State Park and we were STARVING. It was 1:30 in the afternoon, breakfast was a LONG time ago, and my Brother-in-law swore there was a picnic spot just around the corner...for about 45 minutes. We had these walkie talkies so we could communicate, which was GREAT fun and there were plenty of Shenanigans...I might have serenaded them with Justin Bieber. So it was really easy to just say "Oh hey, we're stopping to take pictures of Prairie Dogs" or "There should be a picnic spot just around this corner"...but there never was. So we were out of the park and down the road and finally there WAS a picnic area next to a little creek, so we stopped there, had some sandwiches and then the kids wanted to wade in the creek. Pretty soon, my husband comes back and asks me (I was cleaning up) if we had any of those towels my dad gave us. (My dad has a thing for towels. And knives. He doesn't use them himself, just likes buying them and then he gives them to me, and I have no room in my suitcase for 5 sets of towels, so I thank him profusely and then pawn them off on unsuspecting friends.) Well, the ones we had kept were back at the cabin, so no...why? "Because she's your daughter!!" DD had fallen into the creek. No worries, my brother came to the rescue with a trash bag to put on the seat of the car so she didn't soak through. So the men-folk were carrying coolers and blankets and boxes back to the cars when up the hill comes my brother saying it's a good thing there's one more trash bag. Why? "Because you have TWO kids!" DS had also fallen in the creek. Yes...they take after their mother. Just call me Grace. Onwards and upwards...literally. We were driving up the needles highway, which is BREATHTAKING. (Don't believe me? Ask the dishes!)
The first of several tunnels:

This is called the Needles Drive because of the spiky rock formations that look like needles, and then you get to the top and there's a VERY narrow passage through the "Eye". We have a few pictures before we get to that.

Ok, I know, it's not the best picture since I had to take it across my husband (not that any of these are fantastic, since they are all taken through a car window or windshield, but you get the idea), but that's the view from up there:

And here's the eye:

 

[Songbird76]

It is in Colorado south of Ouray to Silverton......

Oh! Never been there, but it looks kind of like Sybille Canyon road before they widened it a few years ago. Beautiful, and we'll get to that, but it was pretty scary. The was pretty much the only way for me to get home from college though. I'm glad they worked on it now though!

 

[Songbird76]

I think this is the point where we split up because my brother's family wanted to go to Reptile Gardens and my son wouldn't go NEAR that place, and we wanted to go to the Cosmos, which my brother thought was a waste of time. So Cosmos it was for us. Corny, but neat.
So, for those of you who have never been there, Cosmos is a place of mystery where gravity doesn't seem to work right. Whether it's that or just the way things are built, it actually makes you feel kind of sick. The story is that these guys were hiking and found this spot where the trees are growing in an arch because the gravity pulls at them and bends them.

So now it's a tourist trap where they do things like make water run uphill, and where you stand crooked.

So after that we met up with my brother again in Deadwood for dinner. DD reminded me to take food pictures!!

And because I just discovered that MY pictures of the Mammoth site were on my phone with these food pictures, and my kids' were the ones on the camera, here are a couple from the Mammoth site.

 

[Songbird76]

Goooooood morning! Ok....let's start this morning with a little break from the monotonous chronological order description of where we went and what we did there. It's time for "Going home: things I forgot about the US edition". Even though I grew up in the States, there are things that strike me now whenever I go back, so I started taking notes. The first thing...we had been in several airports and such within the US for a couple of days before we got to a self-service soda machine. As soon as we did, I was kicking myself, because all this time, I could have been ordering Rootbeer or Dr. Pepper in restaurants!! I forgot that these exist in the US. If I want rootbeer here, I have to go about 30 miles and pay about $1.50 per can. I can get Dr. Pepper in just about any major grocery store. BUT, neither is offered in restaurants. So from then on, it became my standard to get Rootbeer if they had it, and Dr. Pepper if they didn't have rootbeer.
Sizes are WAY bigger. A medium here is a small in the US and anything lager than the Medium in the US doesn't exist here. And considering you get free refills everywhere there, it's pointless to get a big huge drink unless you are taking it to go. Oh how I miss free refills.
EVERYTHING is bigger. Streets are wider, parking spots are bigger, stores are bigger (seriously...our BIG grocery store is smaller than the grocery section of Walmart!), portion sizes are too big to finish, toiletries packaging is HUGE (come on, people...I don't need a gallon of shampoo, but a travel size won't last for a month! Give me a happy medium!), and cars...we got a standard model car...a Nissan. And all our luggage fit in the trunk. ALL OF IT. With room left over. When we went to the airport, we had to take two cars and even then, not everything fit into the 2 trunks and we had to put some of it at our feet. Weird...I KNOW I took a picture of the trunk with the luggage in it, but I can't find it. Must be on hubby's phone? Or maybe the camera that stopped working. We'll have to come back to that later.
Wildlife hangs out in people's yards...probably kind of stupid to even think about this, but it just doesn't happen in the Netherlands. And I suppose maybe it doesn't happen in some places in the US either, but Wyoming is rife with wildlife and towns are small enough that the wildlife isn't particularly bothered by the existence of humans nearby. Especially when those humans provide creature comforts like...shade and accessible water. The kids thought it was the coolest thing ever to wake up to see deer in the yard where we were staying in the middle of town. And our friends assured us that their little tiny dog and the deer enjoy playing together.

I remember when I was a teenager and it was the middle of the night, I woke up to a sound under my window. I was terrified there was a murderer out there trying to get into my bedroom. I heard the noise a few times and finally decided to check it out...it was a deer eating grass in our yard and brushed up against the siding. I felt really silly....there probably aren't many murderers in a town of 1500 people, much less ones that would be clumsy enough to make a racket on their way into someone's home to murder them. That kind of common sense doesn't break through a 14 year old's brain at 3 a.m. Anyway, moving on.
Sales tax....the price listed is NOT what you will actually pay. Things seem SOOO much cheaper in the US..until you add sales tax.
The night sky...I can see the stars here, but there's too much light to see any definition...like...you can't really see the milky way, and even if it's a clear night, you can only see what's right above you because buildings block everything else. But in Wyoming and some of its surrounding area, you can see for MILES. I knew about seeing for miles when it came to landscapes...you could see for 100 miles from my dad's ranch on a clear day. So I knew that...but I completely forgot about the night sky. So. Pretty.
So that concludes our forgotten gems portion...thanks for playing!

 

[Songbird76]

Alright, so back to our regularly scheduled programming. The next day, our cousins from Illinois/Iowa would be joining us for our touring..and yes, my brother had a walkie talkie for them, too. (I highly recommend this if you are traveling with more than one vehicle. It's SOOOO handy, not to mention great entertainment as it offers opportunities for trash-talking, prank playing, and general shenanigins and merryment. True story) So we met them at their hotel, which happened to be on the way from our campground to Mount Rushmore. My niece and my cousin's daughter hit it off immediately and were hugging within seconds like they hadn't just met. Sooo fun. So we headed to Mount Rushmore, which is still spectacular even though I've probably seen it more than a hundred times. I also love the walk of US Flags, though it's changed quite a bit since I was a kid.

So after hanging out at Mount Rushmore (the stairs did NOT help my hip) and eating ice cream for lunch (shhhhh...don't tell @figmentfan423 ), we headed to Keystone to shop. It's a neat little town whose claim to fame is pretty much the existence of Mount Rushmore. It has fewer than 500 people and those there are mostly involved in tourism...shops, hotels, restaurants, museums. It started as a gold mining town, but the mines were closed long ago. So we went shopping and then, knowing my son wouldn't eat where we had dinner reservations, we got him some chicken nuggets at a little fast-food type place. And he wouldn't eat them because they weren't like McDonalds' and he thought they must be oven-baked rather than deep fried. We then went to our dinner reservation in Hill City at the Alpine Inn. You guys....this is one of my favorite restaurants ever. We've been going there since they opened when I was about 8. The ONLY thing on the dinner menu (except the kids menu) is Filet Mignon. If you are not a carnivore, it will be difficult to eat here, but if you like a good steak, and BOY do I, this is your place. Because it's the only thing they serve, they buy in bulk, and because of that, it's cheap AND they are REALLY good at cooking it. If you order it cooked medium, it's going to be medium. It comes with a baked potato, a wedge salad, and toast. They also have to-die-for desserts. My daughter and I decided to each get a different kind of cheesecake and share. So she got Caramel Apple Strudel cheesecake and I got Turtle. The Turtle cheesecake was AH-MAY-ZING!!!! But, my daughter did not like the apple strudel one, so I ended up eating that one and giving her my turtle....now, I liked the apple strudel, but it just could not compare to the ooey, gooey happiness of the Turtle, which of course we completely forgot to take pictures of because we just dug in! I still got a few bites of the turtle because DD couldn't finish it. (It was HUGEMUNGOUS!!!) We had perfect timing with dinner...we no more got seated and it started POURING. And I mean the kind of pouring where, if you even set a toe outside, you'd be soaked immediately. And then as soon as we were done, it cleared up again.
Now, this is the part where we nearly murdered my son. He is a picky eater. And I mean THE pickiest eater on the planet. So, he will not eat steak. (is he NUTS? Don't answer that.) But, the children's menu consisted of a hot dog, mac n'cheese, and spaghetti, the only one of which he will eat being a hot dog. It comes with grapes....which he will not eat. So he ate his hotdog sans bun and was still hungry. When we left the restaurant, we went in search of fries...Hill City consists pretty much of one street. It's a tiny town where the highway runs through and is kept alive by the tourist trade. There is no McDonalds or Burger King, or really much of anything besides where we had just eaten. There was however, a gas station that had fried chicken and french fries. DS won't eat fried chicken, but DH got him fries, which he promptly turned his nose up at because they were more like steak fries...cut larger than he was used to. So he refused to eat them. So this was our THIRD attempt to feed him dinner that night and he threw a fit and refused to eat, so hubby grabbed the fries, threw them in the trash and informed the little angel that that was it, he could starve. We had a discussion later that if he wouldn't eat anything that was different than McDonalds, he was going to have a REALLY hard time eating, especially at Disney, where we would not have a car and there is no McDonalds anywhere the bus transportation could take us to. The message must have sunk in, because later on the trip he tried chicken strips and actually LIKED them.
My brother's family was a bit nervous about the weather, and their daughter was exhausted after 3 days with no nap. So they decided to head to their hotel while the rest of us went to the lighting ceremony at Mount Rushmore, which we barely made because my cousins, having not anticipated rain and cold weather, had worn shorts and short sleeves, so we had to make a trip back to their hotel to change clothes before going back to Mount Rushmore and we chattered a bit too long. But we made it. And we gave all the kids glow sticks, just for fun.

Remember that night sky I mentioned? Well, it was too cloudy to see, but the moon looked REALLY cool.

And then we were all shattered, so we went to our lodging and crashed.