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Wisconsin border
Leaving Illinois was lovely As we prepared to leave emotions ran high as I have hormonal daughters. My 14 year Isabella began to cry while packing. I asked what was wrong she replied, “I am going to miss Patchy.” She was very upset about leaving the cat home, so much reassurance was given that Uncle Matt would make sure her cats were tended to. I was quite moody myself because of nerves as this is only our second-long trip with our kids. I was also nervous about leaving my pets. My pets are 30 + rabbits and 20 + dairy goats, but am reassured that my awesome brother Matt will make sure all the animals are alive when I get home.
The day started out very early 3:45 am to be exact. It was hard to drag our beautiful children into the car. As we were making sure our last items were packed I checked luggage for any meowing. No meowing was noted and the 2 cats appeared to be safe in their normal resting places.
Days before we left my poor husband became afflicted with the horrific virus I suffered with the week before this trip. Now we
are off for days in close quarters with sickness that should spread like the plague through the family. My second thought to pack Lysol was forgotten by the rush of getting on the road. The hope for our trip was to drive for multiple hours without any stops as the first day was from Indiana to Mount Rushmore a total of 1050 miles. Well that thought lasted until Chicago as I had coffee.
We crossed the barren waste land of Illinois next. Illinois is very limited in scenic views. My children began at this point to awaken and reported every bad driver was from “Chicago”. It became a game every bad driver no matter what state must be from “Chicago”. Our next rest stop was the Wisconsin border and I snapped a shot of the sign crossing the state. Wisconsin was a little more scenic with cows and giant cheese signs, but we needed to keep on “truckin” as the grateful dead would say. On a side note the kids absolutely hated the Greatful Dead and whined about the changing the Spotify.
We stopped for lunch a little way after crossing the Minnesota border.
Miles of river
Tim reason for driving to Minnesota The stop had a marvelous trail that we walked to get a view of a little river under an overpass. Packed plenty of goodies for treats and lunch food at least I hope. After our lunch break of meat, cheese, and bread we were off. Here’s where I took over driving.
As we approached the Mississippi River in Minnesota my husband said, “This is the view that makes me do my route to Minnesota. “The view was majestic and it appeared the Mississippi opened up for miles upon miles surrounded by juts of land. Driving in unfamiliar terrane and on an interstate, is nerve racking for me. I am not even a big fan of driving I-94 and I know that road. I gripped the wheel tightly for at least the first hour. My driving took us out of Minnesota into South Dakota. I thought South Dakota would be a barren wasteland, but I was completely wrong. It was incredibly beautiful. Rolling green plains surrounded us that would house ranches of beef cows. Very few trees or towns for that matter crossed this landscape. It would be almost 450 miles of crossing this landscape to get to
Mount Rushmore.
Along our route to South Dakota we were taunted with signs of Wall drug. This store called to us, but before we stopped we had hundreds of miles to go and a driver change to our 19-year-old. I was grateful as we drove through South Dakota the speed limit was 80 and that I was sitting in the back even though my son has been driving 2 years I still get nauseated from nerves when he drives. Along the way Isabella got very sick with a fever and body aches. She just wanted to cry and I sat in the back seat to cuddle my baby. It was by the sweetest thing ever, as my kids at this age never even want you to hug them.
The plains began to surrender to plateaus as we got closer to the infamous Wall Drug. The badlands were so majestic under what seemed like an endless sky line of blue and fluffy white clouds. When we finally made it to Wall Drug the kids reported this was the best advertisement ever. It was not worth the stop with a sick kid although we did get
some overpriced cough drops. It mainly housed stores of trinkets, discount clothing from China, and a bazaar stuff animal exhibit. Everyone knows Jackalopes aren’t real. My next expectation was to see a stuffed bigfoot somewhere, no such luck. We switched drivers with 3 more hours to get to Mount Rushmore and hopefully dinner as everyone was beginning to whine about hunger.
We debated as we got closer whether to stop at Mount Rushmore that night or see it in the morning. As we got closer we decided to forgo food and the hotel. We needed to see Mount Rushmore before bed. This would make the 1050 miles in a car completely worth the drive.
We approached the Mountain of faces and it was quite busy at 8 pm MT time. Visitors were from all over the world and our country. It was chilly after sitting in a warm car all day. My poor Isabella was very whinny because she felt miserable. We got close enough to get a great picture and Isabella began to cry can we go. Only 10 minutes at Mount Rushmore, but I was filled with a sense of patriotism. Tears
filled my eyes as we left the park knowing my kids viewed, if only for a moment an image that would be engrained in their memories forever.
After 15 plus hours in a car we finally reached our hotel in Hill City, South Dakota a 15-minute drive from the monument. The room was big, and even a separate room for the parents. Everyone was starving and per google no restaurants were open except a stray DQ. Tim got to the DQ to find out it was closed, but the owner so kindly opened the store for him. The owner even gave him free ice cream and a carrier, as no one went with to carry the food. I don’t remember much of dinner as I laid in bed almost comatose eating. Everyone immediately crashed after dinner and fell into a deep slumber to be woken early for our trek to Yellowstone.
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