Three thunderstorms last night. It was so exciting! (for me at least) April said I was like a dog and I would be barking at every flash and boom. But it couldn’t get any better without hot sauce. Still a little wet in the morning so we had to pack damp sleeping bags.
Everyone except for me washed their hair and we all washed our faces in basins of water. We ate oatmeal for breakfast.
Dad want’s me to say that there weren’t any tornadoes and hail.
– Kristina
8:50 am
Entered South Dakota. Couldn’t stop to take a picture of the sign – in a construction zone, escorted by a pace car.
– William
9:36 am
Stopped in Buffalo to leave a DNA sample. Buffalo is a stagecoach station on route 85 from Regina Saskatchewan to El Paso, Texas.
– Douglas
10:40 am
Belle Fourche – stopped to get gasoline.
11:55 am
While driving around looking for a grocery store, we saw a bright yellow lemonade stand – not cardboard, but made of wood! So cute! And it had a closed sign. As we drove away, I saw a handmade Sign (painted) advertisement: “Lemonade Downtown.”
– Kristina
Boy Scouts of America, troop 368 of Williston, North Dakota have their own van. We saw this as we were leaving Belle Fourche.
– Victoria
1:17 pm
Drove by Black Hills National Cemetery. Lots of graves that look the same.
– Kristina
1:40 pm
We saw a girl on a pink scooter wearing No helmet and flip flops. Crazy! Don’t they have helmet laws here? This is in Rapid City, South Dakota.
– Victoria
We saw a guy driving a truck. It was missing the driver’s door.
We went to Sheels (Outdoor store) to buy a new tent. An 8 person, 2 room Eureka! tent. Our old one nearly broke in the wind/rain storm last night – plus the tent is about 14 years old. John and I bought running shows that are similar to running barefoot.
Right now it is raining big heavy raindrops in rapid City. We are on our way to Mount Rushmore The road is actually flooding. The water is just running/gushing down the street. And it is hailing pretty hard and there is lots of rain (BIG raindrops!) It looks like it’s flooding in the streets!!! It’s so exciting!!! We are in a parking lot under a carport at a motel to escape the crazy weather.
– Victoria and then Kristina
We went to Mount Rushmore today. People like Mount Rushmore. Mount Rushmore is small.
– Douglas
Mount Rushmore is something you should see, regardless about how you feel about it. It’s much easier to see when rain (weather) is not threatening to kill you. (A severe thunder and hail storm was approaching. The one we just finished driving through in Rapid City) Way too many things to see in an evening. Way too commercial (We were expecting to see only plaques to read info from and just maybe a parking lot).
– John and Victoria
Historic Rockerville ghost town. We took pictures.
We stayed at the KOA in Rapid City. We had hot dogs and beans for dinner. Douglas and I went for a swim. We had a bit of trouble setting up the new tent, but eventually figured it out after we found the instructions.
– John