On the Road...Day 1 - Omaha to Rapid City

We finally loaded up this morning, but not without making a huge mess packing at the house before we left! We are proud of ourselves because we actually stuck to our schedule, we pulled out of the driveway at 4:57am on our way across South Dakota and Wyoming for eight total days! Ah, vacation!

 Even though it was 4:30am when the kids woke up they were excited and ready to go...despite one pit stop 10 minutes outside of town when I had to reach for a nearby bowl for Owen to throw up in. He's been fine since. Don't know about that...

 Still excited...

 Two minutes later I looked back and all 4 kids were fast asleep, not even an hour into the trip. phew. Then the sun started to come up, and it was a beautifl pink morning peaking up over the Iowa hills.

 Then the sun came up and was a spectacular view. I'm always up before the sun, but am usually to busy to actually notice it's beauty.

 As we trucked along, we had to first navigate through the flooded areas from the Missouri River and the roads were lined with these trap bags that were half as tall as the car. Please ignore the bug spatter already covering the windshield an hour into the trip. Darn flood brings darn bugs.

 More trap bags set up on Interstate 29.

 What would be a car trip without Tony's infamous bags of Hermans Sunflower seeds....yuck. This is the only thing that keeps him awake, and he tapped into them about an hour into the trip.

 See? He already has a mouth full of sunflower seeds.

 This is one of the flooded exits in Sioux City, IA. With the flooding it's amazing to see all the buildings underwater and the kids can't believe it either.

 Past Sioux City, IA the sun was covered by the clouds and the kids and I commented on how pretty the sunbeams were and how they were God's fingers touching the Earth. It was a reassuring thought.

 As we got a little closer to Sioux Falls, SD the famous Wall Drug signs started to pop up. Since we didn't allow the kids to bring their handheld video games this trip, we started a game that could occupy them for awhile. Counting Wall Drug signs! There are a ton paving our way to the large shopping drug store, what better way to entertain themselves, we thought. Well after our drive Tony and I counted 80 signs....the boys were too busy coloring in coloring books to care.

 If you look closely there is a remnant of a rainbow in front of us!

 Along the I90 path there are many places to stop, and one of them is in Mitchell, SD at the Corn Palace. We didn't go inside but thought it important enough to stop to take pictures. The entire building is decorated in corn silk, corn pieces, and other parts of corn. They change it every year and we though the boys would like it, especially since somewhere in Tony's family there is someone who is somehow involved in the starting of the Corn Palace. Family significance, even if we don't ourselves know the details.

 After the Corn Palace, Tony decided it was my turn to start driving.

 Ahhhh. The Badlands. No one in my family besides me has been here before, so it was a treat to show them, even if the temps were 102 degrees before the heat index and we had to try to eat our lunch in the car and sweated even in that air conditioning.

 This freaked out Owen, but I had to assure him that it was even too hot for them to be out.

 The kids and I posed for a picture. If it wouldn't have been so hot, we'd have gone exploring over some of the dunes.

 Tony posed with the kids too.

 Overlooking the badlands.

 They were torn. They really wanted to go running over the rocky landscapes, skinning knees, and climbing with reckless abandon, but they were also melting in the heat.

 Tony and Tess too.

 My overheated raggamuffin.

 So we decided to walk back to the air conditioned car.

 It wasn't really this hot...but this is what our temp. gage read for outside temps when we started the car, from sitting in the sun. It felt this hot with the heat index, but it was a steady 102 before heat index.

 Then off to Wall Drug.

 For some good old fashioned fun...

 and super melty ice cream.....

 and Jackalope riding.....

 and stagecoach driving.....

 and the T-Rex that trys to eat you every 12 minutes that the boys have been looking forward to for weeks now!

 Wouldn't be the west if we didn't wear our Davey Crocket hats.

 or play with the buffalo!

 or bring the chuckwagon dinner.

 So greetings from the Black Hills - where we will be tomorrow!!!!

 After a long day of driving and playing we finally wound up at our hotel in Rapid City, SD. Not too bad.

 Then decided we needed to play some more at the Free Dinosaur Park where my sisters and I used to play.

 Then to Downtown Rapid to the Fire House Brewery for some good eats and of course a Firemans hat!!!

 Then back to the Hotel for a nice cool dip in the pool before passing out for the night.

Tomorrow our adventures take us to the Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore and maybe Custer State Park. The temps are going to be 102 before heat index again so we are going to try and get up early, but we are camping tomorrow nigh, so it might be like camping in Hell. We shall see. Sooooo looking forward to the 60 degree temps in Yellowstone in a few days! My next post will be Tuesday night where I will update you on Days 2 and 3 of our trip!!!