Cross Country Day 6: Stuck in South Dakota

An evening in the Badlands! After setting up camp for the evening, we got hit with a crazy thunderstorm (the same one we saw ominously in the horizon the night before)... we seriously thought the van might tip over the gusts of wind were so strong! I convinced Damon to help me haul in my huge rubbermaid bin of My Little Ponies into the van in the middle of the night in our PJs in the storm... I was afraid of the top blowing off and my whole collection getting drowned!

Anyway, we woke up to a beautiful blue, clear sky, and when I peaked out the curtains to check the crack on our windshield, we saw that it had gotten WAY worse!!! : / We called our insurance, and got an appointment to get it replaced the next day. However, that gave us a whole extra day to explore Badlands and Rapid City.

While driving through the Badlands, we saw our only glimpse of wild Prarie Dogs. They were too adorable! I jumped out of my car and snapped some pics of them with my telephoto...

After the Badlands, we made our obligitory stop at Wall Drug, and got many a great photo goofing around in their sculpture garden. Ride'em Jackalope!

That evening, we drove out to see Crazy Horse (impressive!) and Mount Rushmore. We narrowly missed hitting two deer on the road; they sure give you a scare when they get that close to your car!!!

Another great site in the surrounding ticky tack of Rapid City was some place that had a collection of fiberglass busts of obviously their picks of "presidents who should be on Mt Rushmore": Kennedy (ok), Regan (eh, but I see why), and.... W BUSH? Seriously? Weirdest three pairings of "great" presidents ever.. unfort, we didn't get a pic since we were so in shock driving past it both times...

(also, I could not stop confusing "Rapid City" with saying "Park City.")

Cross Country Day Four: Wisconsin Chedder and Spam Museum

Our fourth day cross-country started out with rain, and we drove north up into Wisconsin and then headed west into Minnesota...

In Wisconsin, we saw that yes, they love their cheese! We saw a store advertising "Cheese, Fireworks and Gifts." I think that says it all right there. We also drove past Wisconsin Dells, which looked really neat- they have the largest concentration of waterparks anywhere in the world, plus some really beautiful natural scenery along a river.

After crossing the Mississippi, we made it into the long stretch of southern Minnesota. We went by where they make Spam and have the Spam museum, but alas it was too late in the evening to actually explore the inside! At least we got a photo with a giant Spam can. Ha!

Cross Country Day Three: Chicago and beyond

Early in the morning, Damon and I hiked down to the lakeshore to check out the scenery before heading out to Chicago. I got a little pocketful of sand to go with my sand/rock collection I have...

We then dropped the car off at a mechanic to have a check-up, and took the train into Chicago, where we had lunch at the Billy Goat Tavern, walked around downtown some, went by the Bean and zipped by the Art Museum. Alas, again a case of not enough time; would love to return and give it a few days to explore!! (PS- I totally dug seeing the Bean in person- I had seen so many photos of it before!)

That evening, we picked up the car and made it an hour or so outside of Chicago to set up camp. We totally impulsed purchased some chocolate, graham crackers, and marshmellows, and had ourselves the incredibly healthy dinner of hot dogs and S'Mores  ; D

Cross Country, Day 2: Ohio and Indiana

Day two; we headed out from Pennsylvania and into Ohio. Spent most of the day driving through the state, seeing lots of pretty farmland and rustic barns along the way. All throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minnesota we kept seeing Amish tourist things; they love pimping those Amish out!!!

By evening, we made it to Indiana, where we decided to stay up by Lake Michigan near the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, which was really beautiful.