Day 11 - Busiest Day and farthest from home

---

Today was packed tight with new adventures! Both boys got up once in the night to request a refill of their water cups but otherwise everyone slept ok. After a hotel breakfast, we were on the road around 10 am to drive the 10 miles to the Crazy Horse Monument. The mountain carving for Crazy Horse will be the largest in the world, but is still in progress, only the face is finished. It has been in the works for over 60 years now. Paul got to take home a piece of the rock blasted off the mountain. By noon we were rounding the corner and entering the huge parking garage at Mount Rushmore. We walked to the end of the Grand Terrace and enjoyed the view of the four historical Presidents. Then we went downstairs to the studio and got to learn a little more about how the mountain was carved. On the way out we noticed that one of the original drillers, Nick Clifford, was in the Gift Shop and so we went in to meet him. By 3 pm we had driven into Rapid City and had found Dinosaur Park at the top of a hill overlooking town. There were five dinosaur statues along a path on the hill that people were allowed to climb on and around. Adjacent to the parking lot was a snack shop and gift store. We got a couple sodas and a free bag of popcorn and ate our picnic lunch on the patio. We also found matching dinosaur t-shirts for the whole family! By 4:30 we were on the road again. This time we got onto the Freeway headed East to Wall, SD. The billboards the entire hour of driving were directing us to Wall Drug. Levi finally napped and Paul "rested" in the back as we drove. We got there about 5:30 and found out that they stopped serving food in the café at 6:00. So that made the "what should we do first" question easy to answer. We all enjoyed free ice water (their signature offering to travelers) and food from the café. The parking lots were huge, the dining spaces were huge, and the entire drugstore and accompanying attractions took an entire square block. We parked in front of one of the front doors and were one of two families in our dining room. Apparently a Wednesday evening mid-May is not a big tourist time in Wall. After eating our dinner as quickly as we could, we luckily heeded Paul's advice to make the dinosaur "our first priority." They have a life size t-rex in their new "backyard" that Paul didn't want to miss. Apparently they shut down the backyard area an hour before the rest of the place, so we got there just in time to avoid being eaten by the t-rex, ride the jackalope, and peek at the other fun but closed attractions they have in the back area. Then we headed into the big store area. There were lots of little themed stores (rocks, books, Western gear, candy, Rx, souvenirs, outdoor supplies) all in the same building - in a mall like format. We wondered, bought some postcards and a Frisbee, and were amazed by it all. By 7 they were locking the doors behind us and closing down for the night. After checking out their dinosaur that greets you from the freeway on the Eastern side of Wall, SD, we got onto the freeway headed East again (the opposite way from our hotel!). We wanted to see the Badlands National Park at sunset. We had the kids in their PJs and we were ready to see the sights. It worked. We got some great photos of sunset and we enjoyed the Badland's amazing contrast to the prairie areas that surround it. It was almost 9 by the time we looped through the park and got back on the Interstate in Wall again to head back West to Custer. It was 10:30 pm when we arrived back at the hotel. Both boys had slept a little in the car and they were excited to see their beds. We spent a little time staring the packing process before heading to bed ourselves. We saw 5 different areas today AND drove in the car for 6 hours. Wow. No wonder we're all tired. Both kids have two water cups tonight. Hopefully we'll all sleep better. 8 hours of driving tomorrow back to Southwest Wyoming and starting our way home.

Day 11 Stats

• 2083.7 total miles driven
• 80.4 total gallons of gasoline consumed
• Average 25.7 MPG
• 44 hours, 37 minutes in the car
• 5 additional state license plates and 1 additional Canadian

---