jolly green giant!

we stopped at a rest area for a picnic lunch and a little time to stretch. I checked my roadside America app, and it turned out that just mile up the highway in the direction we were heading was the jolly green giant statue! definitely worth the quick picture stop. :)

55 1/2 feet tall... he was quite impressive!

crossing Minnesota & Iowa

today was driving. driving. driving. cornfields, windmills and highway. we drove halfway across Minnesota, then dropped down into Iowa, out to davenport on the Illinois border. all in all not a ton to report for the day. we we drove, and it was pretty boring. Christina played on her iPod, and I listened to bad Midwestern radio. ha.

we cheered our road wary bodies up with a yummy well-rounded dinner at the olive garden, and made it to the hotel with enough time for a quick dip in the pool and hot tub.

tomorrow is going to be another big day of miles... but Christina and I made a deal to have more fun to make the drive go by faster. :) im also going to try to find a few interesting stops to break things up.

paying the price

our sunset climbing stop put us on the road at 8:30pm, with 4 hours to drive. I juiced up on some diet coke, and drove drove drove.

I figured (and strongly encouraged) Christina to get comfy and sack out for the drive. little did I know that she doesn't sleep in the car. :( ugh. she was a big trooper. watched a movie, played games and kept me company for all but the last 20 min of the drive. poor kid was a loopy mess! lesson learned.

and to add insult to our valiant effort to make some miles, we crossed into the central time zone on the way so arrived at the hotel at 1:30am.

Christina was asleep in 2 min or less once she sprawled out on the bed. let her sleep till 10:15 this am. quick shower, and we are checking out of the hotel by 11 to hit the road again.

for the next three days, we just need to make miles. not sure where we will end today... just going to hit the road heading east, and go from there.

sunset and rock climbing stop

leaving the badlands, the sun was going down and the light was just awesome in the valley. we stopped at the final pullout, and it turned out to be an area you could run around and climb all over the rocks. Christina was in HEAVEN! we scrambled (in flip flips) up and down the ledges until the sun ducked behind the rocks. the smile on Christina's face getting back into the car was priceless. I think I even got a "wow, national parks can be fun when you can climb and stuff. I am going to come back here someday!".

I drove away into the sunset a proud auntie robin, with a little tear in my eye. that one sentence is all I set out to accomplish on this trip. :)

dinner and on the road again

leaving the park, we stopped for postcards (of course!), and got dinner at the little lodge there. Christina chomped down a yummy buffalo burger, and we agreed not to tell our furry buffalo companions about it.

we added our new badlands sticker to the car top box, and set off on our way. I had decided no matter how slow we took our day, I wanted to make it the remaining 4 hours across SD today. I was pretty much resolved that it was just going to be a late night, but luckily I was well rested and relaxed. leaving badlands at 7:30 would put us into Sioux falls around 11:30. told Christina to relax, and settle in for the drive.

pretty scenery = happy (big) girl!

along the way, between my many scenery stops, we came across a bighorn sheep crossing the road. he hung out for a while, and Christina was so excited and got many pic with the zoom lens. as we carefully drove by, he sat down on the side to the road.

the badlands!!!

it was after 5:30pm by the time we made it to the badlands, not that we had driven super far in the day (yet!), it's just that all the little stops add up. not a problem though, the late afternoon light lit up the dramatic landscape wonderfully.

after one mandatory scenery break out of the car for Christina, and half a plaque reading about how the area was formed, she was off the hook to sit in the car while I made many "auntie robin scenery stops". I get why this is boring for kids, but the beauty of the area really took my breath away. :)

wall drug

the signs for wall drug start easily 100 miles away, so being good road-trippers. we had to make a quick stop.

pretty awesome for a road stop, gift shop and cafe! we got mint chocolate chip ice cream, that actually tasted like real mint! :)

"where the heck is wall drug"? in wall, south Dakota!

and, we have a new addition to the traveling side show, "cheddar jack" the jack-a-lope. "we believe"!

mt Rushmore!

we made it to mt Rushmore, with a huge thunderstorm looming over our shoulder. our melted souls took a deep breath, ate a granola bar, and mustered all our energy up to go take a look at our stony forefathers.

I think I have heard it said many times "it smaller than you think it's going to be", and that was both of our first reactions. still really impressive however! we wandered around a bit, watched the 15 min video about the history and making if the landmark, tool pictures, hit the gift shop (which was packed!) for our postcards, and we were off. luckily the rain skirted to the side of us, but all our pics are cloudy.

jumping back in the car heading to the badlands, we both were starting to regain some normal energy. Christina was back to writing postcards, and speaking in multiple syllables. :)