South Dakota and Minnesota

On the road again!  We drove all day long stopping at all sorts of sites.  First, 4 hours from Basin, we stopped at Devils Tower.  We pulled off the side of the road a took a quick picture of the monsterous rock formation.  There was not much more to it than that.  It was a cool site though.

Next we Drove through the Black Hills, and stopped off at Crazy Horse Memorial.  This place was cool.  I did not really know to much about it, until we got there.  It is not a National Park because it is not funded by the government.  It is a provate project that was started by one man, and eventually his whole family got into it.  Now, the original sculpture has passed on, and his wife and kids, continue to head the project.  It is the worlds largest mountain carving, and it is absolutely enormous. It is really neat, and the history behind it all is really interesting.

Next we saw Mount Rushmore.  Once again it was a quick stop, and take a picture kind of thing.  We could have hiked up right under it, but we just took some pictures and moved on.  We were going to stay in Rapid City, SD for the night, but we kept driving and found the town of Wall, SD, which is home to the historic Wall Drug Store, and Ice water shop.  It is an old western town originated during the Gold Rush, and there are all these little shops, and historic memorabilia.  After walking around the town a bit, We found a cheap hotel in town, and stayed there for the night.

The next day we headed to the Badlands National Park.  It was pretty cool.  It is a lot of different colored sand eroted away into these hills, and cliffs.  There was also a lot of grassland, and warning signs for Rattlesnakes.  We took a little walk on this trail, and it lead us into the grass, and I instantly turn back when I heard the rattle of a snake looking to bite me. Haha.  After the Badlands, we drove, and drove, and drove, all the way to Minneapolis, MN.  We had not planned on going there, but people told us to go, so we did.  We got a hotel right near the mall of America.

The next morning we went into Downtown, and walked around city.  After that we checked out the Mall of America, and rode one of the roller coasters, and the bumper cars.  We spent the afternoon there, and had some fun.  We went back to the hotel, and one of my brothers friends who now lives just outside Minneapolis, came and visited with us for a bit.

This morning we are headed to the windy city, Chicago, IL, where we will stay with another friend of mine for a couple nights. Below are some pictures of our last few days on the road.

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