South Dakota- Holy Toledo

Day 19

Current Location: Sioux Falls, South Dakota

We spent the day exploring the wonders of South Dakota, which are few and far between. We got up to a world covered in mist and light rain, but it was all made better by the amazing one dollar all you can eat pancakes at our campground, flipped by Jack himself who has flipped over one million pancakes at that campground...impressive, eh. After stuffing ourselves with pancakes we headed to mount rushmore, which was cool but hard to see do to the mist and light rain; however, we got in free because we did not have cash and the lady was nice, so we saved ten dollars. Did you know that the presidents bodies were actually meant to be carved into the rock, but the rock was faulty underneath their faces, so they could not go through with the plans. In case you don't know your history, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Teddy Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln all adorn the mountain and it actually is quite impressive. The mist ended up dissipating and we were able to clearly see the faces of four of the most influential presidents carved into the side of a mountain. Katie and I joked that pretty soon we will see Obama's face up there next to Lincoln...haha, highly unlikely. The stone is white...it wouldn't make much sense.

After leaving Mount Rushmore we headed towards the deadlands, which was pretty amazing. We drove through miles and mile of green pastures and then all of a sudden were amidst giant towering mountains made of stone and sand. It is called the dead lands for a reason, it looks dead. I climbed a couple of mountains, we took some photos, made some lunch and headed out. We again somehow managed to get past the fee of 15 dollars by coming into the park through some dirt backroad that we stumbled upon. We left the deadlands around 2 and spent the rest of the day driving through good ol South Dakota. We are camping again tonight at another KOA in the dome sweet dome which sadly is breaking apart. Tomorrow we head for Chicago which should be pretty sweet.

Sadly our trip is starting to come to a close. We still have a little less than a week, but on Wednesday we will be arriving in columbus Ohio to stay with Katie's family for a few days. Katie and I are both stoked to get to her house and actually sleep in nice comfy beds, plus Katie is going to take me to Cedar Point, which has some of the biggest roller coasters in the country. It will also be nice to stop eating Ramen noodles. We both have mixed feeling about the trip ending, but it certainly has been an amazing journey in which we have made a bunch of new friends and rekindled old relationships. The best part about the trip so far as just been the unexpected surprises along the way and the random stops that we have made, hopefully we have a few more good surprises in store.

peace



peace