Day Three- Monday, June 20 Destination Badlands, Wall Drug and Mount Rushmore

Waking up on Day Three was an adventure in itself. I love camping, although I have to say if there is one thing I don't really care for (aside from bugs), it would be the fact that you have to leave the warmth of your sleeping bag, and tent (or in this case covered wagon) and walk sometimes quite a distance to the bathroom. So on this particular morning I had begun waking up around 5am as the wind and thunder were making it harder to sleep. I laid there for a bit thinking, maybe I can just fall back to sleep and not worry about having to go down a hill, and across the prairie a little bit to the restrooms. Then at 6am Zach woke me up. He also had been hearing the thunder and had decided to make the trek to the bathrooms, but wanted me to know where he was going. At this point I needed to get up too, but unfortunately it was now not just windy and thundery (is that even a word?) it was also pouring! When you need to go, you need to go, so we grabbed umbrellas and headed out door of the covered wagon with a huge bang as it almost flew off the hinges. We were no sooner out the door then we realized the umbrellas were not going to do us any good and we were soaked! By the time we got back to the covered wagon from our journey we no longer needed showers at all. As I stood there dripping wet I began to think about Pa, and getting caught in a blizzard on the prairie. I realize this was rain, but if snow was falling and whipping around the prairie I could understand how someone could get disoriented and loose their way back home in such a storm.
The plan had been to cook up some pancakes (flapjacks) and bacon on the prairie as that would have been a somewhat common meal for the Ingalls family, but with the rain we decided to pack up the van and head out for the Badlands. It took a few hours to drive across the state to the Badlands National Park. It was a cold, wet day and while we did have moments of clearing as we entered the Badlands we decided to mainly just drive through, instead of doing any hiking. The last time I had been in the Badlands though was during a tornado when my father had just come up to the gate, found no one there and just drove on through, so I figured we were doing much better if this time we were only dealing with rain and wind!
The Badlands are breathtakingly beautiful, as we rounded each corner of the windy road it was hard to not stop and take another dozen pictures. The various colors of the stone against the grey sky were stunning. Luckily, as we drove through the rain began to slow down and by the end we were able to take pictures from the windows without trying to keep the cameras dry. One of our favorite places in the Badlands was Robert's Prairie Dog Town. In this area the prairie grass just has mound after mound of prairie dog homes in in. We watched for several minutes, and even with the rain were able to capture these cute creatures.
Leaving the Badlands we headed to Wall Drug. This tourist trap, is something you just have to stop at! We didn't stay very long, simply walked through 5 gift stores, but it would be easy to spend hours wandering through the stores inside this building. After picking up a few things we hit the road again hoping to make it to Mount Rushmore before dinner.
Mount Rushmore is up a windy road with needle like trees on either side. The drive up itself is beautiful. As you round the corner and see it for the first time you can't help but think about how much work went in to creating this sculpture in the store surface. We had purchased a National Parks pass at the Badlands gate, which did not cover the parking fee at Mount Rushmore. We were both shocked that they will also only accept cash for the parking area. Luckily, we had planned ahead, but I can only imagine how many people don't have cash when they get to the gate. We spent a couple of hours at Mount Rushmore, taking photos and walking the mile long Presidential path. The path had quite a few stone steps and we ended up hot and tired by the time we finished hiking it. It was still chilly out, with a forecast for more thunderstorms so after leaving Mount Rushmore we headed to the Custer Crazy Horse Campground to stay in a cabin for the evening. While I'm glad were were in a cabin, which I'm sure kept us warmer then a tent in 40* and wind would have, I wish we had camped at Custer State Park, which we would head to the next morning.
The sights of the day were beautiful, from God made to man made. Falling asleep in the cabin after a full day of driving and sight seeing we prayed that the weather and temps would improve and for another fun filled day to follow.

Day Two- Sunday, June 19th Destination Ingalls Homestead, De Smet, South Dakota

Headed to the Little House on the Prairie!




Day Two started at 6 am. Vacations are meant to be a time to relax and sleep in, but when you have at least 6 hours to go before your next destination it becomes necessary to get up and get moving. It was hard to pull away from the Fisher's house. Seems that we let too much time pass before talking to each other, each with our own lives and schedules and then visits are also too far apart. We had a wonderful evening catching up and now we were off again. Our plan had been to go up the western side of Iowa into South Dakota, but we were alerted to the fact that several places along the highway we would have needed to travel were flooded so instead we headed north into Minnesota and then west to South Dakota.
The morning started off with a very heavy fog. Once the fog was lifted and we were in Minnesota we saw mile after mile of wind farms. I know that people say they are ugly, but there is something almost majestic about these towering windmills along the highway. They are peaceful and against the farm land even beautiful. Not only did we see the windmills we also saw a lot of flooded farm land. In one place, after crossing into South Dakota we even saw an area of road that appeared to be raised up between two small lakes. The only problem was that they were not two small lakes but rather fields that were simply under water. It brings to mind all the people that depend on farming for their livelihood and how weather certainly effects them.
The other thing you begin to see as you are traveling into South Dakota are signs for Wall Drug. They have many different messages and were quite interesting to read as we went along. Around 1 pm, after a picnic lunch stop in Minnesota, we arrived in De Smet, South Dakota home of the Ingalls family. If you are familiar with the books at all it is in De Smet that they spent the long winter in the Surveyor's house when Pa had gone west to work on with the railroad. The Surveyor's house is still there and we were able to tour it as well as a replica of the school Laura would have first taught in, and the actual school where Carrie got in trouble for rocking the bench. We also went through the family's home. Hearing about the family first hand, and what really happened in their lives was intriguing. I'm interested in seeing if I can find any more of the books about the family, the Caroline years as well as the Rose years from the library. I always loved the television show, so knowing that life wasn't quite like that is always a bit hard to understand. Having read the books though, as a family, we realized that many of the things that happen on the show were added to make a good television series and not because they were true to life.
After visiting the museum and house tour we continued to the grave sites of Ma, Pa, Mary, Laura and Almanzo, Carrie and Grace and their spouses. It was sad to think about the fact that the family line ended there in De Smet with no one left to carry on the Ingalls name. A short ways away from the grave site we arrived at the site of the original house on the prairie. It is now the Ingalls Homestead and offers camping, in either tents, their bunk house or in covered wagons. This tip I had gotten from our good friends the Perry's and so I had secretly reserved a covered wagon for the night. The kids were so excited! It was a really neat experience to be out on the prairie in a covered wagon for the night.
The Ingalls Homestead http://www.ingallshomestead.com/information.html, is a neat place to visit. The kids were able to ride miniature horses, and in a buggy, make corn cob dolls, rope, and do laundry with wash tub and ringer. As a family we were able to explore a dug out home, a barn, and a replica of the house they would have lived in. We also took a covered wagon ride across the prairie and visited a school. In the school the kids dressed up and the teacher led them through a sample lesson. Katie absolutely loved the horses! I know she would like to have one someday, but I don't foresee that happening! The main area of the Ingalls homestead is open to 6pm and while we did see the majority of the things we had wanted to we had not had a chance to look through the house before that time. Just the same the lady who was dressed as Ma, stayed an extra hour to show us around the house and teach the kids about life on the prairie. While we cooked our dinner the kids had a chance to try to wash clothes again and then we settled in for an evening on the prairie. The wind was whipping around so shortly after dinner, and of course some smores, we settled into our covered wagon for the evening. It had been another long day, as we had gotten up at 6am and it was now close to 10pm.
The prairie was beautiful, the prairie grass swaying in the wind, the birds and crickets chirping. As I cooked dinner I could hear cows mooing in the distance, and you could just feel the vastness of the space around you. The sky was huge. Clouds were starting to roll in and as we drifted off to sleep it was hard not to think about Laura and her family and all they went through living out in this area.

Day One- Saturday, June 18th

Day One- Destination Johnston, Iowa and the Fisher Family

The journey started at 4 am this morning. In actuality it stated much before that. Really it began when our good friends Amy and Ted told us about their adventure in following the Louis and Clark trail a while back. From there we began thinking about how neat it would be to travel to the Laura Ingalls Homestead in De Smet, South Dakota. Of course when you begin to think about driving all the way to De Smet, you begin to realize that if you're going to go that far, you might as well go to the Badlands, and Mount Rushmore. From there you realize that if you've already traveled that distance the Rocky Mountains are beautiful as well, and what about the Grand Canyon? Suddenly, you realize you've created a whirlwind trip and wonder if it is even possible.

After much discussion we decided that driving and camping on a two week adventure was feasible and so the planning began. We created a list of places we wanted to see and then determined, thanks to randmcnally.com what order to visit these places. Lists were made, just part of who I am I guess. Supplies were gathered, and the van was packed. Everyone went to bed early on the night of the 17th, and so when the alarm went off at 3 in the morning on the 18th we were mostly awake and definitely excited to get going.

At 3:30 am we woke the kids, gathered the last items out of the house, locked the doors and headed off. Praying in the car before the journey we asked for traveling mercies, for everyone to get along and for an exciting time. At 4:15am we approached a rest stop along the Ohio turnpike. What a welcome site to find that Starbucks was already opened. We grabbed peppermint mocha's to go with the muffins we had made at home and continued on our journey. The rest of the day was spent driving from Ohio across the I's. Indiana, Illinois and finally into Iowa! Drive was the word of the day. We tried to make our stops as quick as possible and after 11 hours and one lost hour due to a time change, we arrived at the home of the Fisher Family!

We were so excited to see them, as it had been 2 years since the last time we were able to be together. We spent the rest of the day catching up with their family, and also took a run over to the home gym of Olympic Gymnast Shawn Johnson.
While we missed her that day, we did get a few pictures of Katie in front of the gym.

Following our run to the gym we picked up some very yummy bbq for dinner as well as a giant ice cream cake to celebrate Father's Day. It was a great visit, and while we certainly wished we could stay up all night catching up we knew that the next day we had more driving to do before arriving at the next location. We headed to bed around midnight, which was really 1 am for those of us that had woken up in the Eastern time zone at 3 am! The next day was on the horizon so we tried to get to sleep as quick as we could. If we could do this leg of the trip over again we'd try and plan a bit more time in Iowa. Seeing the Fisher's every 2 years just isn't enough!

Randolph Family Out West Adventure- opening log

5063 miles and 14 days later I find myself sitting in my office reflecting on the Randolph Family Out West Adventure. It was a journey, perhaps of a lifetime. It was filled with incredible moments, and to be honest moments where we needed to exert our parental controls with a firm voice, but non the less it was filled with MEMORIES. The saying goes Life is not about the destination it is about the journey, so now at the end of the journey I find the need to go back and journal the trip and reflect on the time spent with the family.