Fall Break Trip to South Dakota, Day 1

We did nothing for spring break this year, and I did not want the same thing to happen at fall break. I wanted to go somewhere, and I decided it was time to go to Mount Rushmore in South Dakota. I'd never been so clearly the children had never been. Kent had been, but if he didn't want to go, no big deal. I began looking at things to do in South Dakota and along the way as well as finding places to stay. Kent was not super interested in going and neither was Blythe, but Brandt wanted to go and I thought the two of us would have a fine time.

As fall break approached, Kent asked what we were going to do. As I shared the itinerary, he had a change of heart and said he would like to go. Blythe did not have the same feelings, so in the end, we left her home.

Rapid City, South Dakota, the city near Mount Rushmore, is ten hours from Provo. That feels like a long drive to do all in one day, plus, there are things to see along the way, so we broke up the travel time into two days there and two days back with two full days in Rapid City. I planned on doing things each day so that it wasn't just car time, and I think it turned out pretty well. Some of the things I planned did not come to fruition, but all in all, it was a good time. 

The first day of our trip was a long drive through Wyoming, and not the particularly lovely part of Wyoming. We drove past miles and miles of fields, sometimes with animals, sometimes with rolling hills in the background. There wasn't much to see but we listened to a Walt Longmire book as we drove. Longmire books are written by Craig Johnson and set in Wyoming, although not the part of Wyoming we drove through. Didn't matter. It was a good story wherever we were headed. 

Our stop for the day was at Martin's Cove. The spot is where the Willie and Martin handcart companies sheltered while awaiting rescue in the fall of 1856. There is a visitors' center with artifacts and exhibits about the rescue of the companies. It was very moving to read about the pioneers who sacrificed so much to gain religious freedom by coming west. I wept as I read first-hand accounts of the experiences of those who were caught in the early winter snow. The spot is lovely, quiet and overseen by Devil's Gate. 

I thought the fireplace in the visitors' center was pretty cool with 

all these different types of rocks making up the surround.

That's Devil's Gate in the background.

We didn't go over there, but we should have.

I got a message from Cinder Lawrence who I work with. She had agreed to watch Moo Moo while we were away as I thought Blythe would be staying with Grandma Dawn. Cinder was sick, going to the hospital, and would not be able to care for Moo Moo. This sent us into something of a panic as we didn't want our pooch to be ignored, but the Stovalls agreed to help, Mikayla said she would go over, and in the end, Blythe was home pretty much the whole time we were gone, so she took care of the dog. 

We stayed overnight in Casper, Wyoming in a hotel that was such a scary dive I worried we would be killed in our sleep or roused from our sleep before being killed. It was really dicey. We had dinner at a Wisconsin style pizza place that was tasty, then holed up in the hotel and tried not to be murdered.

Quote from the day:

Brandt: Can we sit at the bar and order merlot (which he pronounced mer-lot, not mer-low)?