Wall Drug and the Badlands

We're home now! It's been a whirlwind last few days on the road to say the least. I'll break up our final travel's into two posts (because you know my blogs are just used to force you to view pictures of our children - hahahahah)

Wall Drug in Wall, South Dakota was pretty neat to visit. It survived the depression by offering free ice water to people driving by.. and has just expanded.The kids thought the "backyard" was alot of fun, with a huge jackolope to sit on, teepee, wagon, a dinosaur that roared every 8 minutes, and other photo ops. We ate a buffet breakfast there- and usually buffets are so-so.. the food is a bit cool, not to much flavor, etc. This was the exception! Very good! I'm still craving more of the potatoe's. And the store itself was HUGE!! To big for 3 kids. We looked at some of it, but there was no way we could visit the whole thing without completly boring Buddy. (Josie- she's a shopper like Mom. I can take her to a store and I'm the one saying- ok, I've had enough- we've got to go now!)

After Wall, we drove to Badlands National Park. Buddy kept asking me if they were really naughty! Why were they bad? Um... well little man, they didnt DO anything to be bad. I think by the end of our conversation he understood why they are called BadLands. Both Josie and Buddy added another Junior Ranger badge to their collection. They learned how rattlesnakes got their rattles and what animals live in the badlands.

Gunner slept

through most

of the drive

through the park,

But Josie and Buddy

were able

to get out

and walk around a bit.

They both thought the landscape

looked cool. But- once again-

with a 4 and 5 yr old, landscapes

only are cool for so long and then its "where are we going next?". We did visit the Minuteman Missile but it was naptime and Buddy was getting grouchy. We ended up not taking the tour.

We then drove to North Dakota to learn more about the indian reservation Jerry was born on...