South Dakota Trip - Drive and Day 1 (Animal Day)

Saturday at 7Am we headed out on our 600 mile road trip to Rapid City, South Dakota where we would pick up our RV and spend a week in the Black Hills and the Badlands. Around noon we stopped in Micthell, SD for lunch at the Corn Palace.At lunch in honor of the corn palace we feasted on corn dogs and corn on the cob. After lunch we continued on our journey. Around 3PM we met up with our friends Bob, Deb, Sam and Eliana. They were returning from their vacation which coincidentally was very similar to what we had planned and we were crossing paths. We let the kids play for awhile while they gave us the highlights of their trip...then it was back on the road for us. Next stop Wall Drug! "America's Favorite Roadside Attraction!"...read about on there website.

At Wall Drug, we ate dinner, shopped around, took some fun pictures(see above) and played in the spray park. After which we drove another hour to our hotel in Rapid City.
The next morning Isaac and I woke up early and he wanted to play with his cap gun, given it was 6AM we went outside for a walk and waited for the girls to wake up. We had breakfast and headed to Bear Country. This is a drive through "Zoo" where we got to see lots of different animals but as you would expect from the name the highlights were the bears and bear cubs!

After Bear Country we decided to do some of the scenic drives which were not advisable with the RV, due to the size restrictions on the tunnels (more to come on that tomorrow). We headed to the Black Hills National Forest where the buffalo(bison) roam and the deer and the antelope play, where seldom is heard a discouraging word and the skies are not cloudy all day... As we were driving through the park we found the herd of bison which must have been 200 to 300 bison. They walked right by our car so close we could almost touch them!

You can see how big they are....several were larger than our car! During our drive through the national forest we stopped a few times along the way to check out the views. The first time we got out and climbed a bit we stumbled upon a view of Mt. Rushmore...this was the first time any of us had seen it!

After our drive we stopped at the Reptile Garden on our way home.

The kids were able to visit with a giant tortoise, among other reptiles; Crocs, Alligators, Kamodo Dragons, snakes, skinks and birds. After that we called it a day and headed to dinner and then back to the hotel to rest up for "RV day". At dinner we discussed names for the RV...lot's of ideas were tossed around but we settled on Oli's choice...."The Buffalo Protector" which stuck for the rest of the vacation.

See all the pictures and some videos here.