Day #18: The Farthest Yet.

As evidenced by the 20 instances of "How Much Longer?"questioned from the back of the van, today was the farthest we have driven from point to point. From the north entrance of Yellowstone in Montana to Custer, South Dakota. Despite the rain, we made great time.

We left Yellowstone at the perfect time.  After enjoying two full days of 70 degree weather and sunshine, a front moved in last night just as we were visiting the Fishing Bridge and Yellowstone Lake.  Within moments, the air temperature dropped 10 degrees, the wind became almost unbearable at times and it began to sprinkle. Nevertheless, we had made the most of our days in the park. In addition to the wildlife witnessed on day one, we finally did see a couple of grizzlies, Big Horn Sheep and their lambs and even a coyote. Yellowstone is full of life and great scenery.

One of my favorite things to do is to visit each Visitor Center, review the exhibits and watch the movies. (Can you hear that sound? That is the sound of my children groaning as I make them sit through another National Park movie). In the end, it pays off.  They learn a lot and education is key. Isn't that one of the primary reasons for this trip? Besides, they were so excited when they got to become Junior Park Rangers:

The kids take the pledge to become Junior Park Rangers.

A person could certainly spend a couple more days at Yellowstone and still not see everything. While we were only there 2.5 days, we did manage to traverse the park from north to south and east to west visiting some of the major points of interest.  The most startling thing for me, actually, was the varied landscape between the north and west side of the park which is a bit more stark and full of more of the hot springs and geysers and the east and south ends of the park which is greener and more mountainous.  And of course colder, as evidenced by the ice that was still on Lake Yellowstone:

Yellowstone is a treasure. And I am thankful I got to visit there.

As mentioned, today dawned early and....rainy. What a surprise. This leg itself was mostly uneventful as we were just pushing to get to Custer in time to still visit Mt. Rushmore this evening.  Tomorrow morning we have plans to visit Wind Cave National Park and then will move on to Denver to catch up with friends [whom in most cases]  that we haven't seen since we moved from there 8 years ago.

The good thing about Rushmore itself is it is a quick visit.  A couple of hours at the park and you are done. The tragic thing is there is so many things to do and see right around here in the Black Hills. I am positive we could spend a week here alone and still have destinations unseen.  In any case, after our 8 hour drive today, we "let" the kids rest for an hour, then ushered them into the car once again for the short trip over to Mt. Rushmore to see the Presidents.



In case you don't know, that would be (L to R) Washington, Jefferson, Roosevelt and Lincoln.



Fun Facts From Today:

Number of times a child asked me "Are we there yet?" = 20 (a new record high)

Miles driven today = 515

Number of wrong turns = 0

Total number of miles driven to date = 3,713

Number of states traversed or visited to date = 7

 

Conversations Overheard in the Car and Elsewhere:

Me: "Come on Son. Give me your hand while we cross the street."

Diego: "Don't call me Son anymore. Call me Junior Ranger."

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Scene: The van, the girls are singing along to their ipod in the back.

Diego: "Sisters, can you please turn yourselves down so I can hear?"

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Nufi: "Hey kids, look at that sign over there!" (the roadside says Crazy Woman Creek Road)

Silence.....

Ana: "Mami, I didn't know you had a street named after you!!"