I have 2 corrections for yesterday. First of all, it was North Dakota, not Nebraska. I kept saying that all day, and
apparently it translated into what I wrote. We spent the night in North Dakota. Secondly, yesterday wasn't ALL bad.
Apparently Monday nights at La Quinta Inns are Guest Appreciation nights, so we scored free pizza for dinner. After we
had dinner and got everyone ready for bed, we climbed into bed and watched a movie on the ceiling of our hotel room. A
couple weeks back, we got a small Auking projector to bring with us on this trip and it worked fantastically. The sound
on the projector was a little less loud than I would prefer, but it encouraged kids to be quiet as well.
Today, we drove through some very, very sparsely populated parts of North and South Dakota. There were areas where we drove for nearly an hour without seeing a single person - no cars behind us, no oncoming traffic, and very few buildings. It all felt very.. Desolate. At one point, the highway in North Dakota stretched on, straight, as far as the eye could see. Nothing but green on the sides, no traffic, just open road.
The parts of South Dakota that we visited were only slightly more populous than North Dakota, but the layout of the highways were quite a bit different. North Dakota's highways were fairly flat and straight with mostly farming or drilling happening to the sides, while South Dakota's were meandering and hilly, with lots of trees surrounding us. They were both beautiful in their own ways.
We drove through Rapid City, SD and on to Mount Rushmore. It was smaller than I was expecting, but it was still a bit of
a surprise as we rounded that one corner and bam there it was. There were several cars pulled over to take pictures,
but we kept going and paid for parking to go into the monument. The kids got to meet Theodore Roosevelt, we looked at a
few exhibits about the construction of the monument, watched a quick film about its construction, and then caught part
of a Hoop Dancing show. Then it was back into the car and on to Crazy Horse.
Crazy Horse has the potential to be significantly more impressive than Mount Rushmore, based purely on the scale of the
thing. But... They're 75 years in and they've completed his face, and part of his arm and hand. It's going to take
another hundred years or more to complete. It's an absolutely massive undertaking, and I appreciate what they're trying
to do with the university on-site, but there's still so much left to do.
Finally, we hopped into the car and headed to Deadwood, SD for the night. This is our first spot where we're staying for more than one day, so tomorrow we'll likely see what Deadwood and the surrounding area have to offer.