Americana Day 2
We crawled out of the hotel with the intention of see all that South Dakota could offer. We saw some cool stuff but we saw more of nothing than anything else. I mean, that is big country up there. Biiiig Country.
We wanted to see Wall, South Dakota; The Badlands; A nuclear Missile Bunker and the Wind Caves of the Black Hills. Success level: 10. And I only had to yell at the kids once.
Did I mention that there was a whole lot of nothing up here?
I mean nothing.
This picture preceded the only fight that day. That was my yell. We were going about 85 down Interstate 90 and I locked up the brakes and yelled at the kids about no fighting on this trip. They thought I was crazy mad for stopping in the middle of the highway. They didn't notice we were the only car for 50 miles each way. They got the point, though.
A first for me. I had never seen a 75MPH speed limit.
We started to see these signs.
Every couple of miles.
It seems this is Interstate 90's version of Interstate 95's "Pedro's South of the Border"
We wanted to see it. I mean it can't be that touristy, could it.
Yes it could. It seems he got his start selling cold water from a well. On the other hand, I thought the pet rock was a stupid idea. Now we know why I'm not a millionaire.
This place had "tacky" written all over it.
Kris even found a new boyfriend.
And the kids even got to cross off "Riding a Jackalope" off their bucket list.
Kat and I were going to follow the White Rabbit down the Rabbit Hole but it seemed a bit to LSDish for us.
These guys didn't miss a trick.
I think Kris was faking being scared.
Just south of Wall is the entrance to the Badlands. A very appropriate name, if there ever was one.
Very Beautiful.
Not so hospitable.
Everywhere you looked was pretty and interesting.
We were all impressed.
Then the girls and I started crawling around on the cliffs.
We enjoyed it but we lost Kathy and Jake.
They were mumbling something about us falling to our deaths and I had the keys to the car.
It would not have been a fun climb up.
But I don't think the fall would have been very much fun, either.
Our weary explorers.
This lady did not like my humor. She thought I was making fun of here fancy camera and her tripod by taking pictures with my iPhone. Anyone who knows me knows that I would never make fun of anyone.
Ever.
Well, maybe once or twice.
And so went our Badlands Adventure.
And on to another cheerful spot.
A Cold War Missile site.
This was cool just to be here. The kids didn't know what we were talking about. "Cold War? What's a Cold War?"
They have the bunker set up for you to go down into and see where the Air Force officers hung out, waiting to kill millions.
I'm glad they never had to use it.
They have a mock up of one of the missiles in an actual silo for you to look into. Very cool.
They even had Bambi.
Our weary adventurers.
This is Ranger Jane in front of the only natural entrance to the Wind Cave. Some fool actually crawled down that hole.
This is how we got in, thank you very much.
These are boxite formations. They call them that because they look like mail boxes. Honest.
On top of my fear of heights, I'm also a bit claustrophobic. And this tunnel was pretty tight.
This kids didn't seem to mind, though.
Kristin, too.
????
The required self shot of Kathy and I.
Our first Buffalo.
Out in this field off the road.
After I took this picture, I yelled "Look out, here it comes". I wish I could have gotten a picture of the look on their faces. Priceless. Then they all started calling me names. Kids these days. No respect to their elders.
I was thinking of going for the road kill but that big old thing would have taken us out.