Badlands

  We are in our 10th day of vacation. Our intent was to just get to Rapid City and take in Mount Rushmore. We felt the need to put in a good day of driving in to keep us on pace for California. Afterall, we do need to eventually start at some point, back... but not just yet. Although, as we were traveling along, I was like The Badlands National Park is on the way. Not to mention we kept seeing all these Wall Drug billboards along I-90. As you can might imagine, there is not a lot on the side to view, so these billboards infiltrate the mind with STOP HERE. (Not to mention we had read about it in a nifty book given to us)
  Well, we went to The Badlands and so glad we did. The views are majestic.

 The boys had a blast running around The Badlands, singing Secret Agent Man as they climbed some of the rock formations. After each jaunt they came back begging for drink. It is truly amazing how vast and open The Badlands are. We were able to see animals roaming free in the wild. That in itself was worth the detour.
 
  After spending considerable time exploring The Badlands, one gets hungry and longs for some sort of civilization. What better way to embrace such things then to stop at Wall Drug Main st. It is it's own mini town. We ate at the Wall Drug Cafe where coffee is 5 cents and ice water is free.

  We took in the new T-rex and took the kiddos pictures with the Giant Bunny. You'll just have to settle with Luke, Craig and the Bear as the Bunny is on my camera charging right now from sheer exhaustion of taking so many pictures.

  After some sun and fun, we continued to Rapid City to our hotel. We showed up too late to make it to Mt. Rushmore evening lighting, so we just hung out at the pool with a most cool water slide that the boys were more then willing to test out. Then off to bed it was.