192: day 3

Day 3:

 This teeter-totter experience did not end well. Jayden got off without thinking that it would send Ryder flying. Ryder flew off, banged his head and elbow on the ground and probably woke up people in nearby city with his screams of pain. We are not a quiet bunch, especially when we're hurt!

 finding DINO & Barney

 {looks like George is wearing shades}

 {for my sister who wonders if I go anywhere without my cup..the answer to that, nope! If only I had moved it over an inch..I'd be giving President Washington a sip}

The eyes were just amazing and so life-like..I was just in awe of the precision and craftsmanship that went into these carvings...even down to Teddy Roosevelt's glasses. 

 {all taken with my window up..I didn't have time to be mauled by a bear. Wasn't in the schedule!}

Day 3 was another jammed packed day.  I was up at the crack of dawn. It was a glorious sun rise in the black hills of South Dakota. I took a peaceful walk around the campground while the boys slept and saw dear grazing and prairie dogs frolicking. This morning we got a first hand experience of how good people can be.  Apparently, Jayden's ipod fell out of the car when he was getting out. We were sitting down at breakfast and a nice man came up to us from another booth and asked us if we had just gotten out of a silver car. I said yes, and he informed me that we had dropped an ipod and their was someone about to pick it up.  I ran outside and this twenty-something handed it over. Not sure if that was his intentions, but I got it back nonetheless. Crisis averted!

I knew that I wanted to go back to Mt. Rushmore one more time, on our way out of town. I wanted to see it in the day light with blue sky! I got just that. It was a perfect day..very hot though. Hotter than even South Dakota is use to. We took a few more pictures and headed up to Rapid City. We went to Bear Country..a drive thru-like zoo. It was pretty incredible. The animals come right up to your car window. They're well fed, so they don't bother you, but that was as close as I needed to be to a huge bear. I got so close, I could see his very yellow teeth! I felt so bad for them though because it was so dang hot and they were panting! The boys loved it..I loved it! Afterwards, we drove about an hour north to the town of Belle Fourche {pronounced Bell Foo-sh} which is the geographic center of the nation. I love stuff like this, even more so when they have a smashed penny machine, which they did! I will say, that it was standing on the center of the nation that I had my first melt-down of the adventure. I had sent Skyler to the car to grab my camera and he came back and said he couldn't find it. Sickening panic struck! I emptied my purse..nothing. I ran to the car and started taking everything out..nothing! I started hyper=ventilating and felt the tears welling up inside. Where was my camera? The camera that had probably at least 300 pictures thus far. The last place we were at was Bear Country and the gift shop. I had it in my hand. Did I lay it down to pay? I immediately got on my phone to call. They hadn't found a camera or had one turned in. I felt so sick at this point. If you know me, I'm never far from my camera.  It never leaves my sight! The thought came to me to check my purse one more time, even though I had already dumped everything else. Sure enough, when I did that, I found my camera in a pocket that never is used and is usually zippered up. I said a silent prayer of thanks, tried catching my breath and calming down and then apologized to my kids for freaking out. I will say though, for the next couple hours there was no fighting or arguing. Maybe I need to have a few more melt downs.

After that nightmare, we got back on the road.  I drove about 35-40 minutes out of the way so we could drive through the corner of Montana.  Now my boys can say they've been to Montana. Then we drove through Montana, back into Wyoming and headed to the ghost town of a town: Hulett, Wyoming. It says there is a population of 383..I'd say closer to 100. The Best Western was the biggest establishment in the area. We drove past Devil's Tower to check it out, but that's on our agenda for tomorrow.