South Dakota

Our family vacation continued after Little Rock, Branson, Wisconsin, Minnesota with a wonderful few days at Rapid City, South Dakota. Beautiful country! Rolling hills--all green--of course, rivers, creeks, lakes, and so many, many family fun activities.

As you probably know from history, South Dakota is know for being Indian country! Indeed it is. We encountered our first Indian at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Amy & Sarah were a little shocked but relaxed a little until seeing buffalo cross the road--not quite an every day experience. We actually had to wait for part of the herd to slooooowly cross the road. There were hundreds of them near Custer State Park.

Mt. Rushmore was one of our favorites! It was not only magnificent during the day as you gazed at the beauty of the monuments, but awesome in the evening lit up in the night sky. Everyone ought to see it. Their evening program was patriotic expressing tribute to the four faithful men of our country's past. Every American can be thankful for our freedom and what these brave men stood for in our nation's past.

The Circle R Dinner Show was our next favorite activity. We enjoyed an exciting horse back ride during the afternoon and then a shoot-out and cowboy dinner show with the most delicious beef and chicken you've ever had served on a tin plate. Old cowboy songs filled the evening with guitar, bass, and that good old country singing (and yes, they did catch the Biscuit Bandit).

A huge maze entertained the kids for quite some time one afternoon--they're goal was to find their way to all four corner posts before returning to their starting post--a true challenge it was!

Bear Country USA was one of those "I can't believe it" places where bears roamed the hills and you drove your car right past them. I think we counted 50 bears! All easily seen from our vehicle. The most precious sight was at the end where there were 14 baby bears playing together--it looked like a scene from a fairy tale. Sarah was convinced she now NEEDS a pet bear to add to her collection.

We continued on our journey through Wyoming where we visited Thermopolis and enjoyed an evening swim in the natural hot spring fed pool. They had two large pools, one extremely hot for the brave, and one moderately hot for people like me. A buffalo at the local park was also a fun climbing adventure before we moved on our trip.