All 4th Graders can get a free National Park Pass and since Ava just finished 4th Grade, we decided to take advantage of it and hit the road for a whirlwind road trip to see 4 different National Parks. We left Waupun at 8:30pm and off we went. Kyle drove the first leg of the drive until about 11pm. Then Grandpa took over until about 1am. I drove from 1-4am and then Kyle drove the last stretch that got us into Pierre, South Dakota. This took us a bit out of the way, but Kyle came up with a plan to try and hit as many of the State Capitols as possible for a quick picture. It turned into a fun adventure. After a quick breakfast at Hardee's and our picture in front of the capitol, I drove the 2 hours to Wall Drug where we were able to get out and have fun checking out Wall. They added a new back area since I had been there last (20years ago) It was nice for the kids to stretch their legs a bit and try the "Free Ice Water". After Wall Drug, we went only 10 minutes south to Badlands National Park. I had never been to the Badlands, but we ALL thought they were SO cool! We got out for pictures and saw a buffalo, big horn sheep on the rocks and beautiful scenery! This is still only around 10:15 am! We left the Badlands and headed to Keystone, South Dakota where we would be staying for the night. We stopped at a pretty sketchy restaurant for lunch in downtown Keystone (we were the only people in the entire restaurant at 12:30--thankfully no one got sick off the food) and since we were still too early to check into the hotel after lunch, we decided to go up the hill to see Mount Rushmore. Grace had been SO looking forward to see Mount Rushmore. (Before the trip, Grandma Val was telling her about the things she would see and said "You will see a mountain with faces carved into them" and Grace responded with "You mean Mount Rushmore?" She must be Kyle's daughter!) At Wall Drug we saw a tourist photo op of Mount Rushmore and she was so excited. She wanted to take her picture with it. Once she saw the real thing, she was AMAZED! What other 3 year olds even know what Mount Rushmore is?) Mount Rushmore was great (although I cracked my phone screen when dropping it on the cement) and we got some great photos (this was the trip where Grandpa Sheridan learned how to use a smartphone camera) Later we checked into the hotel (it had bunk beds!!) and went swimming. After swimming we were going to go down an Alpine Slide that was right across the street from our hotel. Unfortunately when we went outside, we saw a large black cloud in the sky. We decided to go for dinner first and hoped it would be done raining by the time we got back to still do the slide, but no such luck. It kept raining, so after dinner we just went back to the hotel to get some sleep. We had a SUPER BUSY DAY!
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