Head West Young Man

July 2nd we loaded up the truck and started the family vacation out west. We had a lay over and Birthday party for Sophia in Eau Claire and then pushed on to Souix Falls. I original plan was to camp in Yellowstone but after we took a look at the driving distances and the car time that the kids would need to endure we settled on camping in the Big Horn Mountains just outside of Buffalo Wyoming. Still a lot of driving. We got into Souix Falls well after midnight and were back on the road and on our way to Rapid City the next morning. We settled into the hotel and then headed out for a round of Mini golf. Each of us got a legitimate hole in one before we cut the round short due to a massive burst of rain that left us wet and a double rainbow over a neighboring Wal-Mart. We had supper at a microbrewery fashioned from an old fire station in a cool down town setting in Rapid City. The kids had a desert firetruck that required them to do all of the assembly while Lisa and I split a cake roll the size of small child. A little swimming back at the hotel and headed to Mt. Rushmore the next morning. It was very cool to be at Rushmore on the Forth of July. We also had an hour cave tour at Rushmore caves on our way out of Rapid City. Spent a large amount of the day on the road again and were impressed with the apparent poverty and expanse of western SD and WY. Started to see some pronghorn as we headed into the Big Horn Mountains to camp at a newer campground called Tie-Hack. Mule Deer were wandering around the campground as we set up camp and we were greeted with Blue Lupin in full bloom. With the tent up we got back into the truck and drove to Sheridan (Big Horn Equestrian Center) to watch the fireworks against the mountains and managed to get very lost (luckily we had the GPS) when we left and traversed dirt roads I wouldn't have taken at noon let alone at midnight. It was again well after midnight when we crawled into the tent and awoke to drizzle and cool temperatures. I don't think the temperature every climbed above 50. We got a little hike in during the late morning and again saw some mule deer and rabbits. Lisa and Merrick slept in the afternoon and Sophia and I took a small hike again. We all headed down to a reservoir and found areas that still had large amounts of snow. We found elk duds but no elk or moose. We also headed up a pretty steep rock/gravel face only to come back down. Merrick was on my back and Lisa was holding on to Sophia's hand. It was more adventure than we had bargained for and the GPS said it was a 409 feet ascent only to come right back down. We had to go up on all fours so coming down was precarious to say the least. Packed up a lot of wet gear early the next morning and drove to the Bad lands for several hours of climbing and lunch and a hotel with much needed shower. The truck was packed and the kids basically slept in their clothes, as Lisa and I tossed them into the truck at 4 am to start a long drove to Shakopee. The early start allowed us to make several stops including a wonderful lunch layover with Punky and Ken. Actually the kids did some of the driving on this leg of the trip as we hit some of the dirt (minimum maintenance roads) of MN. As Sophia has started reading the Laura Ingells Wilder books we also stopped in Walnut Grove to tour one of many themed museums. Made it to Shokapee in the late afternoon and met up with Mark for some Pizza and beer as the kids played in the pool. The next morning we left for Valleyfair for what Lisa and I expected to be a three to four hour gig, eight hours later with the kids begging for more we left. Strangely both kids puked but not on the rides. Sophia puked the night before and Merrick during lunch while sitting on the tail gate. Lisa asked him why he puked and he just shrugged and said, "I don't know maybe I am sick." Met Mark again that night at a restaurant for a nice supper followed up with a couple of beers near the pool. With that the vacation was winding down as we tried the next day to hit the mall of america, but that was a short trip as Merrick was fried, a short visit in Eau Claire on the way back home followed by the unpacking and normal domestic chores that always await a vacationers return.