The Black Hills. 2018. The first best family vacation we had taken. The trip that started it all. The vacay that inspired R&R Real Perspective.
But more importantly than sparking creativity, the Black Hills brought our family together. It was the middle of June, but the highs were in the 50’s and the sun hardly shone through all of the rain and fog. We trudged to all of the sights with soaking wet clothes and sopping shoes with the best of attitudes. We absolutely loved everything. The memories made on that vacation will stay with us forever, I do believe.
We had a blast but wondered what it would all look like when the fog had lifted and the sun was shining. We knew we would have to go back and find out.
The next year we took the kids to Wisconsin Dells, and had a terrific time there. We could have stayed at our resort forever! But not wanting to repeat, we wondered where we would go the summer of 2020?
We always try to coordinate our big family trip around the “Minnesota Lake” trip - which is about 6 1/2 hours from home. And that kind of limits our traveling radius since 7 hours on the road is about our max in a day. Since we don't typically vacation for more than a week, it really does narrow things down for us. We couldn’t decide on anything. I just kept putting it off and putting it off. And then Covid-19 happened, and we didn’t have to decide on anything. (I’m not sure if that’s a good or bad thing!) We knew a big trip was more than likely out of the question at that point anyway.
We went to Minnesota for a few days in the middle of June, and that was really all we had done this past summer. Like….that was IT! For some reason though, when August rolls around, a sense of urgency or maybe the “coming to an end” sets in, and we just have to get away before school starts and summer disappears.
At 10:00 a.m. on a Friday, Jake asked me what I thought about us going to the Black Hills for the weekend. 14+ hours in the truck over 2.25 days. Sounds like a good idea.
We worked until about 3:00 that afternoon, packed our bags and Jake’s truck, the girls left instructions for our family who would be taking care of our pets, and left Pender at 4:00. We decided to take a somewhat scenic route…going through Hartington to see where Heartland Docs is filmed (Kamryn LOVES that show). Then made our way through Niobrara. Oh my beauty. That highway is gorgeous. G-EE-ORGEOUS.
I only pay attention half of the time, as far as what highways we’re on, what towns we’re driving through, what direction we’re going, etc. But at some point, we decided we didn’t want to take the scenic route anymore, having already added an extra 30 minutes to our trip. We would be arriving in Rapid City around 11:30-midnight. We wondered if our 30 minute detour would come back to bite us in the butt. You should wonder, too! So we ended up in South Dakota somewhere…driving past Bonesteel, where my youngest brother had his first teaching job. How we got there, I do not know.
Then we stopped in Gregory, South Dakota for “gas station din din” (which was pretty terrible) and headed into the Buttes. I couldn’t find anything on the great Googler about these particular buttes (if that’s what they were even called). Have you ever seen this area of South Dakota? It’s so stunning. It just takes your breath away as you drive through these rolling flat-top hills. Grassy mountains. If we could build a house on the top of one of these…my oh my…it’s like a different world.
But then we made it to the interstate, and we saw the familiar billboards boasting of Wall Drug and 1880 Town (which is flippin’ awesome. Wall Drug is not awesome, but 1880 Town is. It was closed this summer though.).
So we drove and drove. Saw some fields of sunflowers….you know, the giant kind that follow the sun. They are really something. And the sun began to set as we drove past all of those humongous yellow flowers. My cellphone did nothing for the sunset that night. The entire drive had been one breathtaking landscape after another!
But then…oh….did I mention that the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was starting the day we decided to head to the Black Hills? So yah…there were motorcycles everywhere! We stopped at the gas station in Murdo, and it was PACKED. I couldn’t help but think, “There’s gotta be so much Covid and who know what else here.” And that was just at the gas station in Murdo.
So we drove and drove, and it was just getting darker and darker. And at some point, Jake decided to roll all of the windows down in the truck. For some reason, the girls and I are instantly thrown into panic-mode. We must just be afraid everything is going to get sucked out the windows? I dunno. But we don’t enjoy it at all.
So the wind was swirling around and the girls were begging Jake to close the windows (the windows had been locked). So Jake started to close everything up, and when he got to the back window (the little middle window), Kindrey started screaming. For whatever reason, she had stuck her hand out the window and Jake had closed the window on her fingers, but because not all of the windows were closed yet, it was still so loud and windy, and he had no idea why she was screaming. I told him to “Open the window! Open the window!” and he was like “What?! What?!” And I had to attempt to shout, “Her hand is in the window!” So he finally realized what we were yelling about and opened the window. Kindrey was certain her fingers were broken. I was certain they were not, but I knew it must have hurt. And we were 30 minutes from Rapid City. Thirty minutes. Ouch. We just got our butts bitten by the scenic route.
We arrived in Rapid City in the dark at Comfort Inn & Suites. So…as you can imagine, with Sturgis going on, the majority of the accommodations were booked by the time we started looking mid-morning that day. Ha. Oh boy. We ALMOST, and I am so proud of Kamryn, booked the Alex Johnson Hotel. It is supposedly haunted, and I was like, “Oh, come on! Let’s just book it and not tell the kids!” But Jake told Kamryn, and she was not into it. But after some time, she said, “If the haunted hotel has a pool, we can stay there.” From the mouth of babes. You can obviously tell what her priorities are. “Who cares if a ghost attacks me. I just want to go swimming.” Well, Alex Johnson does not have a pool. So our awesome almost ghost hunting adventure came to a quick end. I really wish we would have stayed at Alex Johnson.
While it appeared to have been updated and clean, I will still never stay in a Comfort Inn & Suites again (if I can avoid it). See…the walls are incredibly thin. Incredibly. All I could hear the first night was our neighbor making the most bizarre sounds…or he was talking really loudly, but you couldn’t understand him. I just kept envisioning a cracked-out biker dude. So disturbing. I hardly slept. And the second night, there was someone jumping on the bed or off the bed above us. I know what you’re thinking….but it really just sounded like kids goofing around. Jake was kind enough to play some music the second night, and I fell asleep much quicker…but still…
So, we went out to Rapid City with very few plans. We had seen some of the sites the first time around, and with all of the bikers and Covid, we wanted to avoid being around people as much as we could. We decided to just head towards Custer State Park and see what we came across.
Immediately, we found Bear Country USA. We visited this park the first time we went to the Black Hills, but our girls love animals, and it was early and not crowded yet, and the sun was shining, so we thought it would be a perfect way to start the day.
The animals were out and just so animally. The Arctic Wolves were sleeping on the road…so you had to drive around them…it was the cutest. And it was feeding time for the bears, so they were all out…eating meat (it was a little grotesque, I suppose). But they’re animals…so what did we expect?
After we drove through the park, we were able to park our vehicle and visit the outdoor exhibits, which we did NOT do the first time we were there because it was raining! It’s a really neat little park.
Then…we went to Hill City to ride the 1880 Train! So here’s an interesting fact. The company that I work for sells Locomotive Fuel to the 1880 Train. Neat, huh?! We arrived at the train station about 15 minutes before the scheduled departure. Bought our tickets and loaded onto the railcar. We picked the outdoor car. It was just an absolutely perfect day weather-wise.
The train goes from Hill City to Keystone and then Keystone to Hill City. You can do a round trip, one way, or go one way…stay wherever you are for an hour or so, and then catch another ride back to where you started (you know what I mean….like it doesn’t have to be back to back…you can go explore the town). But we didn’t want to explore Keystone. Nothing wrong with Keystone. We just had other things to do and the train-ride is 1 hour one way. Who has 3 hours to waste on a 24 hour vacation? Not us. We had seen Keystone the first time (actually spent quite some time there), so we knew we weren’t missing anything.
So we chugged up the hillside and listened to the conductor (I don’t know if he was the conductor, but he was the guy narrating the train ride). He pointed out the tallest mountain peak. Talked about the mines. Talked about the old structures. It’s all so interesting really. There’s a lot of history in that area!
I think the girls enjoyed it! When we got to Keystone, we got off the train to take a potty break, and wait for them to get the engine moved to the “new” front of the train. We loaded back on, and relaxed for another hour as we went back up the hill and then down again into Hill City. Which is a really charming little town.
They had blocked off their Main Street to cater to the bikers, “motorcycles” only. That was our cue. Leave this city at once!
It was lunch time, but we weren’t going to find a “safe” place to eat there, so we kept heading towards Custer State Park. We figured we’d find something to eat somewhere. But then we saw the sign for “Crazy Horse” and headed that way. We didn’t get to see that last time (and we probably literally wouldn’t have been able to see it through the fog).
So we drove to Crazy Horse Memorial, and there were a million bikers there. Probably not a million, but they had an entire section of the parking lot roped off for the bikes. We parked...took some pictures, and then went inside to check out whatever was inside the main building. People. There were people and Native American artifacts. It’s a really neat exhibit. We walked through it, admiring all there was to see, and then found the café. We ate our lunch and then went outside to watch the Sioux dancers that were about to start.
So here's another random fact. I actually grew up in Walthill, Nebraska on the Omaha Indian Reservation. I went to school in Walthill through 5th grade, and there were pow-wows occasionally held at school during assemblies. And when Dances with Wolves came out, Rodney Grant came to our school and gave a talk during an assembly and signed autographs on his pictures and handed them out. Everyone thought he was the neatest. Maybe he was? I was probably 8. What does an 8 year old know? But it was all quite fascinating. Dances with Wolves is kind of a big deal in the Black Hills area. ;)
So, anyway, we watched their demonstration for a little bit, but we had to go onto our next thing!
We drove to Needles Highway, and the number of motorcycles we saw was just in sane. Have you ever been on Needles Highway? It’s scary. Like…don’t look over the edge, you’re going to fall to your doom. And the on-coming bikes were hugging the center line around the curves as Jake hugged the shoulder as best he could. It was a nail-biting good time!
It was beautiful. Really. It’s worth every bit of missing fingertip. Kindrey fell asleep early into the drive….which was a good thing…she gets carsick easily and the winding back and forth would have definitely done her in!
We made the trek back down the hill, and breathed a little easier once we got onto the main highway. But we needed to find something else to do! Driving around and admiring the scenery is a great way to pass the time, but we needed to get our blood flowing! As I searched for our next destination, we drove right past Mount Rushmore. We did not stop. The first trip out, we attempted to see the awe-inspiring monument 3 times. Three. But the fog was so terrible, the first two times, the folks told us we probably wouldn’t even be able to see it. So we turned around. But the third time was the charm. We waited forever in the giant line of vehicles on the highway to see them. Forever. And the amount of traffic was just crazy. And it was still wet and gloomy, but we could at least see the carvings. But that was then, and this was now. So you know, it was a perfect day, so we just drove right on by…but we could see them from the highway….so we snapped a pic….just for ol’ time’s sake!
Anyway, I found a Cave Tour! Yay! Black Hills Caverns. We followed the map to the address, and thought….welp…here goes nothing, and we went inside to figure out how to buy tickets for the next tour. It was quite simple. And we were informed to wait outside, and they would call our name when the tour was ready.
So I have to side-bar a little. The first time we went to the Black Hills, we went to the Cosmos Mystery Area. It’s this little attraction where they take you on a tour of this wonky house that’s crooked and supposedly there are strange “forces” that make weird things happen. Okay – it’s all optical illusions. The way your mind tries to explain what it’s seeing is more of a mystery than what you’re actually seeing. And it wasn’t worth seeing again. But the entire thing was run by high school kids. They were selling you the tickets. They were giving the tours. It was kind bizaare.
So…I mention that because the CAVERNS were run by high school kids, too. Our tour guide…and literally….he just walked us and our tour companions through the cave because he had no idea what to say…was giving his first solo tour. Naturally. But we walked and walked through the cold dark caves anyway. Stopped awkwardly at some landing in the deepest part of the cave (where two people had gotten married years ago) so that we “could take pictures”. No one took pictures. It was very uncomfortable….and we waited forever for the tour to continue.
But as the tour neared the end, and we climbed back up to the surface, I was thankful for all of the ellipticizing I had been doing…while the folks in front of me were panting and wanting to stop and rest, I was feeling a-okay. 5 points for exercising!
So anywho, when we got back outside, it was raining! Or hailing! Or both! As the thunder rolled, we walked around the gift shop, and waited for the storm to subside a little before running like crazy people to the pick-up.
We drove through the rain to go back to our glamorous hotel, and couldn’t help but think about Sturgis and all of the bikers. There goes their evening!
When we got back to the hotel, the girls and I went back to the room, and Jake stood outside under the hotel canopy and listened to the booming thunder – it echoed into the mountains! The rain poured down and little pea-sized hail covered the ground. Thankfully, that’s all it amounted to. The storm lasted for about an hour, and the sun came back out, in time for a beautiful sunset. I guess the bikers were going to be able to have a fun night after all.
The girls could have cared less about the weather – they made a fort under the sofa bed in our hotel room, and waited for us to take them to the indoor pool – you know, Kamryn’s one hotel requisite.
Jake and I relaxed in the lounge chairs while the girls swam and swam. There were only a couple of other kids in the pool, so they had plenty of room to do whatever they wanted. And naturally, Kindrey made a friend. Kamryn was not quite so into the other kids. I don’t remember how long we sat there, but it was starting to get late for the girls, and we were exhausted. Or mostly I was on account of the sleepless night I had the night before.
We got back to the room and got ready for bed. Jake and I turned on the Golden Girls and Friends, and both girls were intrigued. Neither show is really appropriate for kids, so we finally decided we all just needed some shut eye. We shut off the telly, and Jake turned on some tunes to appease my annoyance with the paper-thin walls, and I woke up feeling a lot more refreshed.
We were planning to head home that next morning, so we packed up our belongings and loaded into the truck. We grabbed some breakfast from Burger King, and made our way to Wall Drug. You see, Kamryn had brought some money, and it was burning a hole in her little purse.
She wanted to buy more toys. I wanted to say no to “more toys” so badly. The girls have too many toys, and I was tired of having to pick up all of the gazillion pieces because they never seemed too bothered by the constant clutter. I had been wanting to go through their toys and minimize the collection, but I had been so busy with work or spending time outside with the family, that I just hadn’t had the energy to do it. But I knew I needed to not be such a Negative Nancy about the toys on vacation and would deal with it all when we got back.
So we drove to Wall Drug and perused the stores, looking for the perfect toy. I had decided I wanted some wind chimes and thought I would surely be able to find a set that would make me happy. We looked and looked, and made mental notes of what we saw. Kamryn had only brought $25, but conveniently had left it in the truck. So we told her that we would pay for her toy and then she could pay us back. I can’t really remember what the actual deal was, because Kindrey got a toy, too. To me, it doesn’t quite seem fair that Kamryn had to pay for her toy, but Kindrey just got one? Did Kamryn offer to buy a toy for Kindrey, too? Oh it’s all such a blur, and it really doesn’t matter.
Kam found a horse set, Kindrey found a Barbie, and I found windchimes. Jake got a free Wall Drug sticker for our garage fridge. It was a fun morning. We went back to the truck and Kamryn gave Jake her money…$25….in ones. We cracked up! We put them in the sunglasses compartment in the top of his pickup. This is an important detail. Remember the money in the sunglasses compartment.
Okay – so our next stop was going to be The Badlands! Oh this place is just incredible. You can’t help but imagine what it would have been like to come across this area for the first time. How beautiful and desolate. I’m sure the bikers enjoyed the ride through this park, too…there were a lot of them!
We stopped and took a few photos, found the place we had originally visited on our first trip to the Black Hills and climbed the same rock. It’s kind of fun to think that we can always go to that one area and create new memories every time. This time, Kindrey decided to go down the “wrong” way even though we told her she would get hurt. And so she didn’t listen and ended up scraping the back of her legs on the way down. It was quite traumatic. And at that, it was time to continue on through and start heading back home.
The drive home wasn’t super exciting, but we did stop in Chamberlain, SD to check out a resort. We thought it might make for a great summer vacation with the boat. It was really pretty and they have an indoor pool, and there was a coffee shop nearby. I was sold.
Then we went to McDonald’s for lunch. In the drive-thru, Jake decided he could pay for lunch with Kamryn’s money. So he opened the compartment where he had stowed the money and dollar bills scattered everywhere! We did not pay with cash.
But that was really the only exciting part of our ride home. The girls played on the iPad, Nintendo Switch, or played with their new toys. I crocheted. Did I mention that? That I had spent a significant number of hours on that trip crocheting my sun hat. OMG. I think I injured my thumb. Anyway….that was pretty much it! We got home and unpacked and just relaxed.
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