I am writing about the second, third, and fourth day of our vacation. Two of those days were pretty much just driving, so I'm writing them all in the same part.
At about 8:00 am that morning we left the hotel and headed to Iowa. We got into Iowa at about 9:30am. We stopped to eat sandwiches at a rest area in Iowa at about 11:30am Central time. When we left lunch we were headed to South Dakota.
The time changed to Mountain time, which is two hours behind our regular time, when we got into South Dakota. While we were in South Dakota, we decided to stop at the Laura Ingalls Wilder home in DeSmet, South Dakota.
It was a neat experience. We got to see an old sewing machine and an organ like the one Laura had. We got to see her original house and a dug-out similar to the dug-out Laura lived in for a little bit of time. We also got to do some activities like making jump-ropes, braided rugs, and what we call a button-and-string toy. I regret we couldn't stay longer, but we had a long drive ahead of us, and we had to get moving.
A photo of Laura Ingalls Wilder.
A house like Laura Ingalls lived in.
We got to the Sunshine Inn Motel in Wall, South Dakota at about 11:00 pm Mountain time, and we got to bed 40 minutes later. The hotel we were staying in was nice. Just down the road from our hotel was Wall Drug, a drug store that is very popular. To put it in perspective how big Wall Drug is, we saw Wall Drug signs beside the Interstate a hundred miles from the actual place, and Wall Drug was almost half the town.
The Sunshine Inn.
We were in the van for 15 hours that day.
The next morning we went to the Badlands. We saw a lot of elk and prairie dogs. When we were going through the Badlands, we saw the layers of the colorful dirt piled into mountains. The layers were all perfectly layered on top of each other. It was such obvious proof that there is a powerful, yet gentle, God that is such a good creator, he thinks of everything as small as the DNA deep inside us to the giant stars so far away they look small in the sky. I don't know how people could really believe that life happened by accident. God loves us all no matter our past. If you think He couldn't love you because of your past, you need to know Jesus, God's only son, didn't die for nothing.
A few small hills.
The perfect layers.
A few big hills.
When we ate sandwiches for lunch at a picnic area in the Badlands, we were able to be up close and personal to the wet but powdery layers of dirt.
Us, eating lunch.
That night we ate at the Wall Drug restaurant. Even though it was 6:00pm at home and it was supper time, in South Dakota it was only 4:00pm. You can probably imagine what most of the people thought of us eating supper at 4:00 pm.
The main Wall Drug Sign.
While we browsed the Wall Drug stores, it was raining hard. We got wet walking/running back to the hotel less than a fourth a mile away.
The next day was mostly driving. We left the motel, got gas, and headed to Wyoming. Just before we left South Dakota, we stopped at the Cosmos Mystery Area near Mount Rushmore.
The Cosmos sign at the entrance.
All it was, was a house that was built against gravity. So when you were walking to the right you were really walking up, and when you tried to walk, what you thought was up, you fell over.
We got to Wyoming at 1:00pm and we stopped to eat lunch. You can probably guess that we ate sandwiches for lunch.
We got into Colorado around 5:00pm and got to where we were staying at about 8:30pm. We stayed at the Saddle and Surrey Motel in Estes Park, Colorado. It was a nice place. We had adjoining rooms, and one room had a kitchen. We were in bed about 9:30pm.
We were in the van about 15 hours that day.
From My Attic,
Eva
