North Dakota and back

Wed July 4th we packed up our car and headed out on the road.  Jason driving, Meggan (me) the co-pilot, and Aunt Karen entertaining Rachel in the back seat.  Prior to this trip, Aunt Karen had been to 48 states.  Her goal for this road trip was to visit North Dakota, and check off her 49th state.  Jason also got 2 new states with North Dakota and Nebraska, I got 3 new states including South Dakota, and Rachel got 4 new states including Wyoming.

travel high chair at camp site

Shirt says 'Red white and cute!'

Wednesday we drove to North Eastern Wyoming toward Devil's Tower and camped there.  Karen had downloaded a Sporcle app to keep us entertained, and several kids apps to amuse Rachel as we drove.  Karen and I went for a run around the tower while Jason and Rachel played in the rocks below the 'huge rock'.  See video of Rachel playing on the 'Jumping Rock'.

Wed night we put Rachel to bed in her sleeping bag and then left her in the tent to go back out and play games.  After some trial and error, this worked.  She got up, walked around the tent, cried, read herself some stories, and eventually fell asleep sprawled out over all three sleeping pads.  We just had to put Rachel back into her sleeping bag when we came into the tent to sleep.

Thursday July 5 we drove to North Dakota to see Teddy Roosevelt National Park (south unit).  Along the way we stopped at a playground and grabbed some home cooking at a diner.  Along the drive, there really was not anything to see -- lots of grass, fields, and the occasional windmill, house, or tree.  We arrived at the park and checked out the painted canyon and badlands area.  We drove around the park, seeing the odd buffalo.  

Swinging with Aunt Karen

Painted Canyon

Buffalo in park

After exploring the park, we decided we were done with the area and that we would head South before setting up camp.  Then a few things happened: 1) the weather turned to a horrible storm with lightning, thunder, and buckets of rain 2) Rachel threw up in her car seat and made quite a mess (unsure why - think she just ate too much at once) and 3) there was nowhere to camp or stay of interest at all until well into South Dakota.

Tired and ready to take Nunu and blankets to bed!

So we got a hotel room in Spearfish South Dakota and slept well in our respective beds.

Thurs July 6th we played in the hotel pool, toured the local fish hatchery, drove to Mt. Rushmore, explored the Black Hills area, and camped at Wind Cave National Park.

Putting a cleaned car seat back together

Mt Rushmore

Campsite at Wind Cave National Park

Friday July 6th we started our day by taking a tour of Wind Cave - a dry, long tunnel that we walked through for more than an hour.  Rachel did great in the ergo and kept saying 'Daddy - you okay?' and 'Karen - watch your head!' as we walked through. The very unique cave formations included 95% of the world's "boxwork" (see photo below).

Rachel's new Hippo camp chair and shoes

Leaving Nunu in the car during the cave tour

After the cave tour Karen took on driving through all of Nebraska.  We didn't see much, except for one playground stop and some trains, before heading into Colorado and back home to Whole Foods for dinner (and another crazy thunderstorm just before we got home).

Overall, we've camped 6 nights in the tent in the last two weeks since Aunt Karen has been here.  Rachel slept really well and even slept past 6:30am on many nights.  Then, on our first night home, she was up at 3:30am standing in her crib saying 'play!' and pointing out all the things in the house she'd like to play with.

Now, back in Boulder, it has been raining a lot and fire worries are gone for now.  In fact, many people are concerned about flooding!!!