BYGTWSO!-Day 38

I finally made it to Mount Rushmore!

Woke up in the Elk Mountain Campground at Wind Cave National Monument. First thing, headed out of the park, we ran into a herd of bison all over the road, so we crept along. We slowly drove around a curve and what did our eyes behold? Bison mating! You just don't see that every day. In the middle of the road. We had to stop. At least we had the courtesy to avoid taking pictures of that.

In college, I had this great roommate, Tiki. She told me that when she was young, her mom made up a game for road trips to keep the kids occupied while looking out the window. There was no official list, but some examples were: cat in the window=50 points, blooming rose bush=25 points, etc. Tiki said the BIG points came when you saw something really special like a cow peeing! A cow peeing was like TWO HUNDRED POINTS! All I could think when I saw the bison mating was, "That's got to be worth like a thousand points!"

We drove through Custer State Park which borders Wind Cave National Park and because of our lack of time to spend in Custer, it sort of ended up being a fifteen dollar toll road. You're so welcome, South Dakota. After walking the Presidential Trail at Rushmore, we headed for...wait for it...Wall Drug, South Dakota. If you've been there, you know. If you haven't, go. At least once in your life. Big tip: the best buy in Wall is the bagged ice--we got fourteen pounds for $2.50 at the soda counter!

After that, we drove to Badlands National Park. It was so windy and so hot. We thought about hiking, but just couldn't get ourselves to part with the air conditioning in the car. Saw a Bighorn Sheep, a coyote, and a mountain goat today! After that, we drove to another NPS site called Minuteman Missiles, the only NPS site dedicated to the Cold War. And then we drove East on I-90 in a rainstorm. With rainbows.