Fun & Games

If you’ve been following my travel posts, then you read about our trip up and then our trip to the Badlands and Mount Rushmore.

On our second day, we traveled to Deadwood and Devil’s Tower. It was a good thing, too, because it poured hard at the campsite. We were glad we weren’t there. Mud was splattered about halfway up the tent when we got back.

So we got up early and headed out after cooking breakfast. Husband made scrambled eggs and bacon and I made hash browns. There is something wonderful about camp food and cooking it on that two burner stove. I don’t know why it tastes so good. And of course we had our percolated coffee. I even let the kiddo have a cup. He loved it, of course.

Deadwood was on the way to Devil’s Tower. It was my turn to drive. The streets were really narrow and there wasn’t a lot of places to park at the visitor’s center. I ended up following a tour bus up the side of Mt. Moriah to the cemetery, which is where we wanted to go anyway. We parked and paid a whopping $2.50 to enter the cemetery.

The town is really kind of amazing. The cemetery is built on the side of the mountain. It’s a closed cemetery so there are no plots for sale but there. All the plots are owned. We saw gravestones from the early 2000s to the 1800s.

We saw Wild Bill Hickok’s grave. I’m elated to see we share the say birth month and day.

And Calamity Jane’s.

I made my son pose for this picture. He was unhappy to be at Deadwood, I think. He didn’t get what was so fascinating about a bunch of graves, I think, so I had to explain to him who Wild Bill was and who Calamity Jane was. He was still unimpressed.

It was a fairly long drive from there to Devil’s Tower but we made it. It’s an amazing place. I was busy looking for aliens but never found any, sadly. (I made the husband watch Close Encounters of the Third Kind but he had no recollection of Devil’s Tower in the movie. We’ll be having a moviefest later to watch it again.)

We got into the national park free or charge thanks to the husband’s park pass. And since it was about lunchtime when we got in we stopped at one of the parks and had a picnic. At Devil’s Tower. It was TOTALLY fun. We carried the cooler with us and made sandwiches when we got there.

This was across from the picnic table and I snapped a picture. It’s a smoke ring and is sacred to the American Indians of the region.

After lunch, we headed to the monument, which was the first national monument as established by Theodore Roosevelt in 1906. We filled up our hydration packs (which didn’t work so well the first time—and the kid’s had a hole and leaked. So yeah, he was unhappy about that) for the hike around the tower. On paper, the tower trail doesn’t look so long or hard but it’s hilly. And tiring.

We trekked up the mountain to start the hike, which is only 1.3 miles. But for someone who is somewhat out of shape (like me), it wasn’t so easy. Of course, the husband wasn’t breathing hard at all. The scumbag. But he’s been working out so it was relatively easy for him.

On the tower, we could see a couple of climbers. I’m not so sure I could climb the thing but it would be really cool to get on top of it.

The other cool thing we saw on the tower was an old wooden ladder. In 1893, a local rancher prepared a 350-foot ladder to climb the tower. He was actually successful and you can see remnants of the ladder on the tower still today. You can read more about the ladder here. I wish I could have gotten a picture but you can only see it through these binoculars.

On we went until we finally circled back around to where we started. I’m not sure how long it took us be we stopped several times along the way to rest and sip water. Afterward, we headed to the visitor’s center to purchase the obligatory souvenirs. It was SUPER crowded in the small store. When I got to the counter to pay for mine and the kid’s the husband took them out of my hand and paid for them instead.

Since it was still my turn to drive, we head back to the car when I realize I have no keys. I’d put them in my pocket but they weren’t there. Of course I immediately panic. We pulled everything out of the car but no keys. Husband didn’t have them either. Husband goes back inside to see if they’re in the visitor’s center while I continue to freak out and search the car. He comes back a few minutes later with keys in hand. I’d put them down on the counter when I thought I was going to pay for the souvenirs.

I rarely, if ever, do things like that so it was really freaking me out that I didn’t have my keys. Thank goodness he found them. And thank goodness I was going to drive back because if not, I would have never known they were gone. I can’t imagine driving all the way back to Devil’s Tower to see if my keys were there.

Husband drove us back to the campground since I was too flustered.

We hoped to have a quiet last night at the tent but it turns out when we got back, the Rude Family had moved in. They had a ten-room tent plus two others one ONE site and about 20 people. (There is a limit to number of tents and people per campsite…) And they were not only loud and annoying but drunks. AND to top it off, they were taking wood from the national forest to chop for their freaking campfire.

Um, did anyone tell them you’re not supposed to take wood from the national forest? Morons. So they chopped wood…until nearly 11 pm. And they blew up their stupid mattresses IN THE CAR and then carried them to the tent. What kind of moron does that?

We hunkered down in the tent and watched Brave on the portable DVD but by 10:30 pm when they were STILL chopping effing wood (are you KIDDING me?) the husband had reached the end of his patience. He went to talk to our camp hosts.

He got back and a few minutes later the camp host showed up, told them to quiet down, and actually made one of the idiots move to a different campsite. So HA!

But… they weren’t done with rudeness. Kid and I finally fell asleep but sometime later I could hear voices outside the tent. I remember trying to shush them and the next thing I know, the husband is YELLING for them to be quiet because there were three people trying to sleep and one was a kid.

To which their reply, rather loudly was, “He’s mean.”

Well, DUH. I could have told them that. Never eff with the husband when he’s already ticked off. He IS mean. And he’s not scared to let you know it. The kid and I have firsthand experience. 😉

(Love you, honey)

Our retaliation would be in the morning. When we decided we didn’t have to be quiet at 5:30 am when we were packing up the tent site to head home. 😉

Thursday: Getting back home

So yesterday I told you about driving for two solid days to get to the Black Hills. It poured that first night we were in the tent and I wondered what we’d gotten ourselves into. The tent faced east and it was a spectacular sunrise. The orange glow woke me up at 5 am and being the camera nerd I am, I immediately jumped up and unzipped the window. It was breathtaking.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen an orange sunrise quite like this. It was still kind of rainy, though, so I zipped it up and lay back down. I drifted on and off for the next hour. When I tried to check the time on my iPhone, it was completely dead. Not sure why because when we bunked down for the night, it still had about 50% battery left. Husband’s was dead, too. We figured it was trying to hit a network all night or something and it killed it. Luckily, we could charge in the car.

We finally dragged ourselves up at around 7 am. He made percolated coffee for the first time and I snapped pictures here and there of the campground. It was CHILLY! We had to wear our jackets. It was also threatening to rain again. Dark clouds moved in overhead. Since we couldn’t see the radar, it was hard to know what was happening. Luckily, the rain held off just as we poured our first cup of coffee and headed back into the tent.

Getting inside the tent with an umbrella and a cup of coffee was not easy. I managed to spill some of it inside and in my shoes. 😐 We watched it rain again. When it finally stopped, we decided it would be a good time to get dressed and get in the car and head out. As we pulled away from the campsite, I plugged in my phone and got some juice to it. We also got some 4G action and I was able to see the radar. Rain all morning. Clearing in the afternoon.

Initially, we had planned to go to Mount Rushmore that morning but since it was raining, we headed to the Badlands instead. It turned out to be a good decision. My husband asked, “What’s at the Badlands?” I responded with, “Rocks.” He said, “Oh. Great.” I think he thought I was nuts for wanting to go there and look at rocks. But they’re spectacular rocks. 🙂

For Christmas, I got Husband a National Park Pass. Turns out we got into the Badlands for free with it. We both liked that benefit and we enjoyed the Badlands. It was somewhat overcast but when the sun came out it was hot. Not like our Texas hot where it’s so humid you might drown. Just hot hot. If that makes sense.

I was a kid the last time I was there but I have no real memory of it. My hope is that my son will remember it and think it’s pretty cool. We spent a lot of time hitting all the look-outs and snapping pictures but after a while, it all starts to look the same. Even so, the rock formations are amazing. We even saw some longhorn sheep lounging with their babies. So cute! Wish you could see them in this picture but they’re there, if a bit small. I should have bought that $650 telephoto lens, huh?

We went around the entire park and paused on the way out for me to snap this picture. Look at my Chevy! I love my Chevy. It sustained the nearly 3000 mile trip without a hiccup. So happy to have it instead of that POS rollerskate I was driving. I seriously think Chevy should use this on their advertising, don’t you? 😉

It was late by the time we left the park and we were all starving. We’d skipped breakfast and it was well past lunch. If I had been using my head, I would have remembered we had sandwich-makings in the cooler in the back of the car and we could have stopped for a picnic at the Badlands. But I wasn’t using my head. I was thinking, “WE NEED TO GET TO MOUNT RUSHMORE!”

We hit the campsite about 4 pm. The sun was finally out and the rain had stopped. Husband got out the grill and all the food to make our burgers. We stuffed our faces as fast as we could because we were all so famished. The burgers were GREAT. There is nothing better than having camp food. Afterward, we piled back in the car and made the 2.2 mile trek to the monument.

Seriously. I loved camping that close to Rushmore. Check out this profile view on the way there.

 

And then we made it to the monument!

It’s just…wow. It’s a truly an amazing place. Thinking how it was carved with these men who were hanging by a thread on the mountain with chisels blows me away. Initially, Gutzon Borglum wanted to carve them to their waist, but he ran into bad granite and had to stop. Here’s what it was supposed to look like.

We decided to try the trail behind the plaza. Looking at the trail map, it seemed fairly short and easy. “You can do it. It’ll be easy!” says the husband. Famous last words. But there are some nifty little places to stop and look up to see it. Like this one through this crack in a mini cave.

I call this my crack picture and it makes me giggle every time I think about it. I’m easily amused. There are places to look up and see one face with an information board about that president and what he did for our country. Loved that even though I didn’t stop to read every single word.

The trek around the place had lots of stairs. LOTS.OF.STAIRS. “It’ll be easy,” he said. *straight face* But we made it back and as a reward, we had ice cream. We sat in Carver’s Café and talked about North by Northwest and wondered if that was the same café where Eva Marie Saint shot Cary Grant.

By then it was early evening. We debated on whether to stay for the lighting ceremony or go back to the tent. I’m SO GLAD we stayed. They played a little movie about the monument, and then sang America the Beautiful as they lit up the faces one by one. Then we all stood and sang the national anthem. So patriotic! I even got a picture.

And then it thundered and we high-tailed it out of there. We got back to the tent in record time and guess what? It rained again.

On Monday: Deadwood and Devil’s Tower

So I’m home from vacation! And it was great, let me tell you. I’m not even being sarcastic when I write that. Our summer trip this year was to the Black Hills for some camping, then visiting Mount Rushmore, Devil’s Tower, Badlands National Park and Deadwood. In two days. Yeah. We’re insane.

Did I mention we live in North Texas and it’s a 16 hour drive? One way?

Oof.

We spent the last month or so buying gear. Well, I should say the husband was buying the gear. It really hurt his feelings to have to purchase all that fun stuff like a tent, sleeping bags, day packs and all the miscellaneous things that go along with camping. I contributed too. Bought some of those cool blue speckled dishes to take along plus a percolator. Neither one of us has ever made percolated coffee. YouTube to the rescue! Husband watched a video with an Amish woman who showed how to make it. It was pretty darn good, too. But more on that later.

We planned the route so we would drive for two days and sleep in a hotel on the way up and back. That way we wouldn’t be driving later into the night. Plus we were going to share driving duties. I didn’t want either of us to get too tired driving. Cuz it was a lot. of. driving.

I wish I’d thought to take a picture of how packed the car was (I have a Chevy Equinox which was wonderful to drive—comfy and just big enough and great gas mileage!). We didn’t have an inch to spare. The back was piled to the ceiling. The backseat next to the kiddo was too. You’d think camping for three people would involve so much…stuff. But it did. And it was a lot! I guess I never realized how much stuff you need to camp. Cooler, chairs, tent, backpacks, clothes, camp table, camp stove. Ya know. All that stuff.

Anyhoo. We left early Wednesday morning. I’d boarded the cat (which we deemed kitty jail – poor kitty!) because I didn’t like the thought of him roaming the house that long. With the car packed to the ceiling, I took the first shift and drove the first four hours. I think we stopped somewhere in northern Oklahoma so we could trade places. And then came Kansas and Nebraska. I nodded off there just typing that. Just kidding. 🙂

We stopped at the travel center just inside the state line in Kansas for a potty break. I was amazed at how clean the bathroom was. We got lucky in that respect. Lots of those places in small towns had SUPER clean bathrooms. It was refreshing.

I snapped this picture roadside somewhere in Kansas because I HAD to get those clouds and sunbeams. So gorgeous.

And look at this pretty little Lutheran church. We could see it from the road. I can’t tell you where it is because I don’t remember the road we were on but it was definitely rural. Isn’t it cute?

And here’s the long road. An empty road. I love pictures like this. It gives you an idea of infinity. I don’t know why.

Back in the car until we drove into Hays, Kansas. We spent the night there, charged up our phones, enjoyed the last night in a bed and had our last shower. Oh, I didn’t tell you there were no showers at the campsite? Yeah, we were totally roughing it, i.e. we stunk by day three. More on that later.

Day two we got up early and started driving. Again. I took the early shift. Husband isn’t much of a morning person. Not that I really am either but I’m more alert then and found driving easier. We finally made it through Nebraska that day. I think I’ve seen enough cows and corn and hay to last a lifetime. 🙂 I’d never seen so much corn.

It’s a lot. And you know… I got to thinking about it. Nebraska and Kansas are the backbone of America. It’s those little farming communities that help feed us. Those people work hard. I don’t think I really had an appreciation for it until then.

But I digress. We made it to South Dakota that afternoon. Husband took a scenic route so we wouldn’t see Rushmore from the road and spoil it. Not that we don’t know what it looks like but there’s something special about seeing it for the first time in real life. We did see Crazy Horse on that route but we didn’t stop and we never made it back there. The face is done and even from the distance it’s amazing. It will be so cool when it’s finished.

We found our campsite with ease and the hosts were super nice. We checked in and made it to our site – number 30. Here’s a view of the site.

We got the tent up in record time. Then busted out the camp stove and I cooked my first camp dinner.

Let me just back up a second and say that my 11 year old son was AWESOME in the car. Never complained. Never whined. Never asked if we were there yet. He just sat back there and was happy as a lark listening to his iPod or watching movies on the portable DVD player. Thank goodness we brought that. It kept him entertained.

The temps up there were great. Not what I’m used to in summer in Texas. Sixties at night and 80s during the day. In fact, we were wearing jackets by nightfall. We finally climbed into our tent at dark, curled up in our sleeping bags and slept.

Until the thunderstorm rolled through around 2 am. Thunder, lightning and heavy rain. It was interesting. And I thought, “What have we gotten ourselves into?” But we made it through the night and the tent didn’t leak which was a great thing.

It was still rainy the next morning so we had to re-evaluate our daily plans.

Tomorrow: The Badlands and Mount Rushmore