Another month has quickly passed. Big news of the month: cousins Austin and Blakely got married (Congrats!). We had an excellent time seeing everyone at the wedding and hope the little tomatoes we adopted out at the groom’s dinner are doing well.
In other news, we drove to Wisconsin! Jason can no longer claim to have not seen most of the country’s mid-section…though there are parts he may want to forget. By the end of the week he will also have witnessed an estate auction and an official Wisconsin wedding! (Congrats to Rusty and Chica in advance…I will post additional pictures from the wedding if I get some good ones). I have posted driving pictures and a fun video from our trip in my two prior posts, so if you haven’t seen them already keep reading after this post. A summary of our travels: we left Salt Lake City Friday May 13th around 9:30am. We drove approximately 10 hours (stopping for food and gas) and arrived in Custer, SD that evening. The next morning (Saturday) we toured Jewel Cave National Monument, Custer State Park, and Mount Rushmore National Park before spending the night in Rapid City, SD only about 1 hour east of Custer. Jewel cave was very pretty–highly decorated as you’d expect from the name. The most amazing part was the infrastructure they’ve hauled into the cave–we’re talking metal platforms and stairs throughout the entire 1/2 mile tour route along with an elevator to get in! There will be more posted on Jason’s website within the next week or so, and I will update this link as soon as there is: http://utahcaver.com/trips/2011/05/2011-jewel-cave-south-dakota/
Custer State Park was my favorite because of the wildlife (check out my “Beggin’ Burros” video). The roads were crooked and the weather was cold and cloudy, but there were deer, turkeys, buffalo (and their calves), chipmunks, prairie dogs, antelope, mountain goats, and semi-tame burros. It was a very pretty park to see. We’d been hoping that if we stalled a little the weather would clear before we got to Mount Rushmore but we weren’t so lucky. We did get some nice pictures there anyways.
Sunday it was on to more driving! We spent several hours winding our way through Badlands National Park and Buffalo Gap National Grasslands. Badlands was pretty, but we decided it would have been more awe-inspiring if we didn’t live it Utah with very similar rock formations. If you were from the East however, it would feel like you’d been dropped off on the moon. It was cool to see the colors of the sediment and since it’s skirted by the Buffalo Gap Grasslands there was a neat mixture of rocks and greenery (again check out the pictures in the next post). Outside the Eastern edge of Badlands, we got a really neat tour at Minuteman Missile National Historic Site. The Historic site is fairly new and not very publicized, so it was great Jason discovered it during his area research. We were lucky enough to catch one of the tour guides who volunteers his summers to give tours, and was one of the actual missileers on duty back in the 70’s–he told some really neat stories. All-told we spent 6 hours on the road (not counting sightseeing) making our way to Sioux Falls, SD. My take-home message is that eastern South Dakota is really buggy…check out this windshield…YICK!
Monday we got up and…surprise surprise…drove some more! Before leaving town we checked the waterfalls at “Falls Park”…where Sioux Falls gets its name. Very pretty! Our only other stop of significance was at the “Birthplace of the Jolly Green Giant”—at least that’s how Jason sold the stop to me. If you want to know what’s under the Jolly Green Giant’s skirt just ask Jason.
We also did a little shopping in La Crosse, WI (where I went to college) before arriving at my parents’ house at about 7pm—after 7 hours of driving. I think the only thing we missed along the route was the Spam museum, after realizing it was an hour behind us where we’d just come from. We had a very pleasant drive overall…although the trip back will come way too soon!
So far in WI I’ve helped my parents purchase a new computer and a new camera! My mother is thrilled to have on-site tech support for a few days while she figures all these new toys out. Anything new and exciting on their blog for at least the next year should be credited to me 🙂 (http://wifarmlife.blogspot.com)
Tomorrow is the estate sale, and Saturday is the wedding. We’re looking forward to seeing lots of friends and family in the next couple days. More pictures to come soon from the rest of the week and our return trip!
Take Care!
S.~