Comedy and Adventure Day 48 (SD, MN, IA, NE)

Blog Prompt - Sunday was World Laughter Day. Tell me about your favorite movie that makes you laugh out loud.

My Cousin Vinny with Joe Pesci really makes me laugh. I think the main reason is that the judge in the movie reminds me so much of my husband and his court. We really like to watch it and get a good laugh. It is really funny that the funny parts in court are things that really happen.

Travel Notes:

We left Oacoma, SD this morning and stopped in Mitchell, SD at the Corn Palace. It was a really cool place! The building is decorated with real colored corn. Every year they have a new theme and the building is redone in corn which costs about $130,000 each year. I’ve never seen anything like it before! Don also found some antique stores to go to so he was happy. Down the street from the corn palace was Ben Franklin crafts where I found some yarn.

After we left South Dakota, I decided rather than heading south, I wanted to go a little ways into Minnesota. When we got to the visitor center, the lady told us that Pipestone National Monument was only 30 miles north and since we had never heard of it or been to it, we had to go see it. Of course she was really excited that we might see some bison who were calving. She mentioned how excited she was to see a bison with the afterbirth hanging down when she drove by (not my idea of a great sight but I may be weird.) Pipestone National Monument is a sacred Native Indian place where they quarry the pipestone to make the peace pipes. We did a short hike around the nature trail and then headed south.

We went south to Le Mars, IA which is the Ice Cream Capital of the World. It is the home to Blue Bunny ice cream so of course we had to stop and eat some of course! The Wells Dairy sells more ice cream for one company in one city than any other place in the world.

After that we headed to Sioux City, IA where we will spend the night. I didn’t know that this city is actually on the border of Iowa, South Dakota, and Nebraska.

To see more pictures on Flickr – Click HERE.

Grocery Items and Adventure Day 47

Blog Prompt - Standing in a grocery line you notice bizarre or unusual combination's of things people buy (for example: toilet paper, kiwi fruit, and a package of manila envelopes). What has been the weirdest combination of items you have bought at the store?

We always buy weird stuff because we have been grocery shopping once a week. I usually try to buy the stuff we need for meals and include healthy things for snacks. Then my husband throws in all the junk food he thinks he might want at any given time. So when the clerk rings it up, usually the fat free yogurt is beside the chocolate cake and the skim milk is beside the ice cream. Sugar free stuff is usually by the potato chips and so on.

Travel Notes:

We got to the Minuteman Missile NHS headquarters early so we went to the Badlands and did a short hike. It was very pretty but the wind was blowing. Then we met at the headquarters for our 9am tour. Chris, the ranger, was wonderful! He really knew his stuff and seemed very enthusiastic about his subject. We drove out to the Launch Control Facility and took an elevator down to where the capsule is. In the capsule two people, on 12 hour shifts, had the power to turn the keys that were part of the missile launch. Two other people at another location had to turn their keys too in order for the missile to actually launch. It was really amazing to see this. Then we drove to the missile silo and saw a test missile down in the ground in the silo. It was really scary to think these missiles could have ended our world. The ranger mentioned that there are still about 450 missiles in the US.

After our tour, we returned to the Badlands and did some more hiking. The terrain was very different from the other national parks that we had been to. I’m glad we took the time to see this but it wasn’t my favorite national park.

After the park, we headed east on I-90 and crossed into the Central time zone. We ended up stopping in Oacoma, SD because Don saw signs for antique stores. We ended up spending a couple of hours in the stores so we had to get a hotel room in town. We like to get a room by 6pm before it gets dark and we get tired and cranky.

To see more pictures on Flickr – Click HERE.

Adventure Day 46 – South Dakota

Today we headed up the road and had our last look of Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse. We stopped in Rapid City but most everything was closed since it was early Sunday morning. We went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum which was right outside Ellsworth Air Force Base. It was a free museum and really interesting. If anyone lives near here or is going by, it is worth stopping to look around.

After lunch, we headed to the Badlands National Park. We stopped in Wall to see the famous Wall Drug store (they have ads along the interstate like the old Burma Shave ads). Then we drove the scenic loop around the Badlands. It was really different than the other parks we have seen. We stopped at the newly renovated visitor center in Interior, SC and watched the movie about the park.

After the park, we headed back to Wall which was the closest place we could find with lodging. It actually makes my town of Fountain Inn look like a big city! We needed to stay close because tomorrow morning we have reservations for the Minuteman Missile NHS. They will take us to the launch facility and the launch control room.

To see more pictures on Flickr – Click HERE.

Adventure Day 45 - South Dakota

We spent the night in Hot Springs which is known for The Mammoth Site which is an ongoing archaeological dig famous for digging up Mammoths. This morning we went to Wind Cave National Park and took the Natural Entrance Tour ($9 per person) and it lasted about 1 ½ hours. The passageways were very narrow but we got a good lot the box work up close. There were only 20 of us and it was a nice group. We met one guy from Kentucky who moved to Hot Springs and would be working at this park. After the tour, we went to Custer for lunch.

Then we headed to Jewel Cave National Monument to see how this cave differs from Wind Cave. Since we had a National Park pass, we took the Discovery Tour for free and we got an overview of the caves which lasted about 20 minutes. While we listened to the park ranger, we saw lots of stairs and levels that went deep into the caves. So, when this tour was over, we bought tickets for the Scenic Tour into the cave which went deeper into the cave and was supposed to last 1 hr. and 15 min. But 2 hours later, we returned from the tour which was wonderful. I took way too many pictures!

We got a room in Custer, SD outside of Mt. Rushmore. We saw Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial. I had imagined that Mt. Rushmore would have been bigger than it was. For dinner, we ate at the Elk Canyon restaurant and the food was really good. We hope to do Devil’s Tower in Wyoming tomorrow and then spend the night in Rapid City.

To see more pictures on Flickr – Click HERE.

Aunt Het Day and Adventure Day 44 – Colorado/Wyoming/South Dakota

Blog Prompt - Today is May 1st and is Lei Day in Hawaii. When I lived there it was a day off at school, lots of parades, everyone dressed in traditional Hawaiian clothing and our school put on a pageant. Tell me about your favorite local festival.

Our town has a festival the first weekend of October every year called Aunt Het Festival. Aunt Het is a character in a comic strip created by Robert Quillen, a Fountain Inn native. Main Street is closed off and lined with vendors of all kinds. Since We are such a small town, it is neat to see everyone you know and visit in the streets. I especially like it because I live one block off Main Street and we just walked to the festival which lasts all day Saturday.

Travel Notes:

Today we drove downtown Denver to refill a prescription and found the only CVS pharmacy in the state of Colorado. Thank goodness! It was filled without any problems and we were on our way before 9am. As we headed north on I-25, we came to Ft. Collins around 10am and the brewery tours just started so we stopped for the tour. While waiting for it to begin, we shopped in the store and found a train car for Don. It was the only one that they had and it was on sale so we bought it. The tour was nice and we got free samples of beer at the end. I tried a Bud Lite Lime which was really very good.

Then we headed into Wyoming which was a long, boring ride. There was nothing to see or do for a long time. We finally found a small town to eat lunch in. On the way, I called the Minuteman Missile National Historic Site and made a reservation for a tour on Monday morning. I was so excited when the man told me that he would fit us in even though at first he told me that he thought they were full. Then we drove some more on a long boring road until we crossed over into South Dakota. In fact, it was so boring, I got to finish crocheting my first baby sweater! We finally stopped in Hot Springs which is right outside Wind Cave National Park. Tomorrow we will try to do the cave tours!

To see more pictures on Flickr - Click HERE.