Last Monday we drove about 30 miles to Crazy Horse Memorial.
Crazy Horse is a mountain monument under construction in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Ultimately, it will depict the Oglala Lakota warrior, Crazy Horse, riding a horse and pointing into the distance. Currently, only the face of Crazy Horse is carved.
We paid $30 for admission for our whole family. We enjoyed seeing the memorial, watching a film about the history of the memorial and walking around the museum.
Our kids loved seeing the collection of art and artifacts reflecting the cultures of over 300 Native Nations.
There is a bus tour that costs $4 per person and takes you closer to the memorial. We chose to just view it from afar.
We thought Crazy Horse Memorial was very interesting to see, and we think it’ll be fun to keep up with the progress made on it over the years.
It’s so much fun to make new friends along the way RVing. We really enjoyed evening talks and hanging out with the Joneses while in South Dakota!
On Monday, their last night in South Dakota, we all headed over to see lit Mount Rushmore. It was pretty awesome.
All-in-all, it was another great day in South Dakota!
Last weekend we went to Custer State Park, about a 30-minute drive from Rapid City.
Shortly after arriving, we found a picnic area. We ate our lunch of thawed uncrustable sandwiches and chips there, and our kids enjoyed playing on the playground.
Then we loaded in the van and drove the Wildlife Loop.
We saw buffalo, antelope and prairie dogs.
The prairie dogs were fascinating to watch go in and out of holes in the ground. They made an interesting barking noise as well.
We stopped at a few places along Wildlife Loop, either to get a closer look at animals or to better soak in beautiful views.
We walked some short hiking trails at different viewpoints, and we did see some amazing views.
We have all grown to love hiking the more we travel. We went on walks often prior to traveling, so our kids had already built up a pretty good endurance for long walks.
Even little Bravely loves hiking. I truly think she’d walk the entire time if we’d let her. She loves to walk.
When we finished Wildlife Loop, we headed toward the famous Needles Highway.
Needles Highway is know for its spectacular views and its one lane tunnels, particularly Needles Eye Tunnel. Needles Eye Tunnel is 8ft 4in wide and 11ft 3in tall. To give some perspective, our van is 7ft wide and 9ft 1in tall.
It was pretty awesome driving through the eye of the needle!
We continued through the Black Hills down Needles Highway until we got to Sylvan Lake.
It was crowded at Sylvan Lake, but we stopped to soak in its beauty. It is unique with all the rocks standing in and around it.
South Dakota is beautiful. There are endless things to do and sights to see in the Rapid City area. Out of all the places we’ve visited thus far, this is one we’d all recommend as a vacation destination.
Last Friday we went to Bear Country U.S.A. It was right next door to our RV park, so we had been admiring the baby bears from afar all week. It costs $18 per adult and $12 per kid ages 5-12. They either gave us a discount or had discounted prices due to COVID-19 because our whole family got in for $60.
The first part of Bear Country is a drive-through. We saw wolves, bighorn sheep, mountain lions and tons of bears.
I have never seen so many bears in one place. We were all going wild with excitement over the bears.
Driving around, we could see bears wandering all over, and some even came close to our van.
My favorites were the bears bathing.
After the drive-through, we parked the van. We walked around and saw some interesting animals. In some ways, it was better than a zoo. We were able to see animals up close and without a caged view.
We loved watching the young wolves play with each-other.
A highlight, at the end, was watching the baby cubs run around, wrestle and play. We counted at least seventeen cubs.
We waited around for awhile, hoping the cubs would climb the trees. We knew they did this because we’d seen them in trees when we drove past Bear Country several days before. We eventually decided to leave, and guess what we saw as we drove away? Those cubs were in the trees. Ha!
All of our family loved Bear Country U.S.A. It was one of the coolest drive-throughs we’ve done, and it definitely has more bears than we’ve ever seen anywhere. It was a great afternoon!
Wednesday, we drove a little over an hour from Rapid City to Badlands National Park.
The visitor’s centers are closed because of COVID-19, but the park is open for driving and hiking.
We were stunned by the beautiful views as we drove through the Badlands.
When we go to a national park, we are typically looking for a good hike. This afternoon was hot and we were all a little more tired and sluggish, so we mainly drove and stopped at different viewpoints along the way. We did some walking, but no major hiking.
Driving along, there seemed to be endless amazing views.
We did see some wildlife – buffalo, bighorn sheep and prairie dogs.
Bravely is becoming quite the big girl. She still likes stroller rides, but more and more she’s asking to walk. She loves walking and running around, picking up sticks and rocks. We all think it’s adorable watching her explore.
We spent a few hours at Badlands National Park, and we easily could have stayed much longer. It exceeded anything we hoped it would be. It was another great day surrounded by gorgeous landscape!
Living in an RV as a family of 12, we don’t do a lot of souvenir shopping. We do purchase postcards and Christmas ornaments most everywhere we go, but we do not buy much more.
Several people recommended we visit Wall Drug Store in the town of Wall, about an hour from our RV park. Tuesday, we decided to give it a try. Wall Drug Store is basically a very large souvenir shop with some unique and interesting finds. We thought the prices were good overall, so each of our kids purchased one or two things for themselves and some gifts for siblings and cousins. And I decided to do something I’ve never done – I purchased all 11 of our nieces and nephews Christmas gifts in June. Then I had to buy a storage container to put in the back of our van to haul the gifts around for the next several months. Haha.
After souvenir and gift shopping, we stopped in the fudge shop at Wall Drug and got several types of fudge to try. Debbie, working in the fudge shop, asked if we were Rolling by the Dozen. We told her that we were, and she let us know that she reads our blog. That was fun! We enjoyed meeting you, Debbie!
After selecting our fudge, we decided to do something we had not done since Manning’s birthday on March 18th…eat IN a restaurant.
We ate at the Wall Drug Cafe. A few people recommended we try buffalo while in South Dakota. Ryan and our boys got buffalo burgers, our girls got beef burgers and I stuck with a chicken sandwich. I did try a bite of buffalo, at least, and it tasted very similar to beef. Ryan, Manning and Rhythm loved the buffalo.
We really enjoyed our outing to Wall Drug, as we’ve mostly stuck with and will continue to mostly do outdoor activities during this season of COVID-19.
Thursday we made the drive from Nebraska to South Dakota. It was such a beautiful drive!
When we arrived at our RV park, it was initially a little stressful navigating the RV through trees to get to our spot. Once we were settled into our spot, we loved it! It’s been such a beautiful, great space.
I love being surrounded by trees in the mountains. The views and the weather have been amazing. We’ve even had to pull out our hoodies some evenings.
Friday afternoon, we made the short drive from our RV park in Rapid City to Mount Rushmore in Keystone.
We were able to see the Mount Rushmore National Memorial as we were driving toward it, and it really was such a grand view.
The Mount Rushmore sculpture features the 60-foot heads of Presidents George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln. It costs $10 to park at the memorial, but there are no other fees. We walked upstairs and through the grand entrance only to see people taking photos in front of a construction zone. I thought, “Really? There have to be some places with unobstructed views.” We walked around and happily found plenty.
There is a Sculptor’s Studio where we were able to see tools and models that were used during the construction of the Mount Rushmore memorial. We found out that 400 mostly ordinary men carved the four presidents’ heads into the mountain between 1927-1941. It is quite impressive to learn about and see.
Starting just outside the Sculptor’s Studio, there’s the Presidential Trail that gets you up close to the mountain sculpture. It’s a 0.6 mile walk. There are many sets of stairs and it isn’t stroller friendly because of all the stairs. Otherwise, it is a really nice walk.
It was a cool day with an overcast sky, what we considered perfect walking weather. We absolutely loved walking the trail and seeing all the different views of the Mount Rushmore sculpture along the way.
Bravely kept pointing and excitedly saying, “Look! A man! A man!”
There is a really nice and large gift shop near the entrance of the memorial. We picked up some post cards and a Christmas ornament, and the boys got miniature replicas of Mount Rushmore.
Honestly, Mount Rushmore was much more awesome to see in person than we thought it’d be. We did think that it would be cool, but it was even better than we imagined.
Wednesday we drove a little over 20 miles from Chimney Rock to Scottsbluff National Monument.
We’d read there were some hiking trails, but we had no idea it would be so fun and beautiful!
Scotts Bluff has served as a landmark for peoples from Native Americans to emigrants on the Oregon, California and Mormon Trails to modern travelers. There is currently no cost to visit, and it operates similar to a national park. There is a visitor’s center that is currently closed due to COVID-19.
There are three paved walking trails. Two are short, easy walks. The other is pretty strenuous, in a good way. It was definitely a work-out!
The trails are stroller friendly, though, we did have to navigate one part that was a bit uneven and had a drop-off to the side very delicately.
There were gorgeous views in all directions. The weather was great. We all kept saying how much we loved hiking at Scottsbluff.
We did bring a snack lunch, and we chose to eat it in this tunnel. It was cool and breezy, the perfect place for a break.
Visitors can drive to the top of the mountain to access two of the trails and to look at the great views. Also, there is a short trail at the bottom of the mountain that visitors can walk.
There are covered wagons on this trail that mark the start of the Oregon Trail Pathway. When the trail surface changes from asphalt to dirt, you are walking on the actual Oregon Trail.
We absolutely loved visiting Scottsbluff National Monument, and we definitely recommend it as a place to see!
When I was making reservations online for our current traveling route, I happened upon this gem…Chimney Rock Pioneer Crossing. It’s a small RV park located at the base of Chimney Rock with full hook-ups and no amenities. It was such an amazing place to spend three nights! I’d take the beautiful landscape over amenities any day.
Chimney Rock is one of the most famous and recognizable landmarks for pioneer travelers on the Oregon, California, and Mormon Trails.
Our first evening in Bayard, we enjoyed the most beautiful and peaceful walk from our RV to Chimney Rock.
Birds and crickets were chirping. Farm sprinklers were spraying. Otherwise, there was silence. And stillness. No traffic. No busyness. We saw beetle prints, rabbit prints, pig prints and all sorts of animal prints on the dirt road leading up to Chimney Rock. Also, we saw the biggest dandelions we’d ever seen.
Chimney Rock is interesting to see. You can see it from miles away. We enjoyed watching it as we were first driving into town, knowing it was the landmark we’d be staying near.
We spent time just walking and looking around. Beautiful views were in every direction we turned.
Taking a photo in this spot reminded me of the Sound of Music. A large family in the mountains. I probably would have busted out in song to make our kids laugh, but some Chimney Rock visitors had just drove up – and they offered to take our photo.
If you’ve ever had an evening this peaceful and wonderful, you know it can’t end without something crazy happening. Or maybe that’s just us. Ha! We encountered four skunks. FOUR. When does that ever happen?! The mom and two babies were adorable, however, we avoided them like a plague.
We watched the sun go down as we walked back to our RV. And I kid you not, a man in a truck stopped to warn us that there was a skunk just ahead. Another skunk?!
I always sleep with my window shade down at night, but that night I raised it and fell asleep looking at this view out my window. Chimney Rock.
Thursday we made the drive from Kansas into Nebraska. We chose to stay at the Double Nickel Campground in Waco. We originally looked for an RV park closer to Omaha, but we had a hard time finding parks taking reservations due to COVID-19 and a park that was okay with our family size. I often hear gasps when I say how many kids we have. Some parks are great with it, some charge more and a few turn us away. I’m always hoping and praying they don’t ask how many kids we have. Once we arrive, park managers almost always seem to like our big family and think our kids are really well-behaved. We’ve found that some of the best parks we’ve ended up in were a result of not being able to get a reservation at our preferred park or location. That was true with this park – the Double Nickel.
We had a big shady spot with trees, grass, a big picnic table and even a swing. There is a nice pool, a basketball court, a volleyball court and a putt-putt golf coarse.
We got settled in Thursday, picked up groceries from Walmart I had ordered online, and enjoyed hanging around the RV park that evening.
Friday morning, we drove an hour and a half to go to the Omaha’s Henry Doorly Zoo with Oksana. Oksana reads our blog. When she saw we were coming to Nebraska this summer, she commented that she’d like to treat us to the zoo and wildlife safari park. We messaged back and forth and worked out the details.
Oksana was so much fun. She knew everything about the zoo. It was like having our own personal tour guide.
Because of COVID-19, the zoo was taking reservations and only allowing a certain amount of people in at a time. It was set up for everyone to walk through in the same direction.
It was a hot day, but there are many shady spots and our kids enjoyed stopping at the spray stations.
There were many interesting animals to see, and we enjoyed seeing so many different ones.
My family jokes that I can get most any human or animal to look and smile for a photo. Haha.
The carousel was open. A zoo employee sanitized each animal after every single carousel ride. I cannot imagine having to do that, but I’m sure everyone who rode appreciated it.
All our kids, especially our little girls, enjoyed the carousel ride. It took Bravely back to our days at Disney. She loved riding so much. She kept saying, “I like it. I love it.”
The zoo had all the indoor buildings and play areas closed due to COVID-19, but there was still plenty to see, do and enjoy.
After the zoo, we drove 30 miles to the Wildlife Safari Park in Ashland.
Again, having Oksana with us was like having a personal tour guide. She knows where the animals typically hang out and hide. The kids had a blast trying to spot animals as we drove through.
We saw elk, buffalo, pelicans and turtles. We had never done anything like this drive-through safari before, and we thought it was really cool.
Zoos and safaris are very pricey for our family size and are not something we do often. Oksana, thank you so much for treating us to such a fun day! We really enjoyed meeting you and going through the zoo and safari with you!
Today is Rhythm’s 13th birthday. It’s also the day we adopted Rhythm from China four years ago. It’s hard to believe we now have two teenagers!
We had a great day celebrating Rhythm’s birthday and him being a part of our family! We started the morning with his request of Toaster Strudels for breakfast.
Then we each read him what we wrote in his journal, and he opened some gifts. We buy each kid a journal when they are born (or adopted in Rhythm’s case) that we keep. We write notes in it for birthdays and special holidays or events. Eventually each kid will have his or her journal full of love and encouragement. They cherish these journals.
We surprised Rhythm with an MP3 player. He is so excited to have his own device.
We picked up Rhythm’s choice of Arby’s for lunch. I told him I’d take him on an awesome date to get Chinese food soon. Otherwise, he definitely would have chose Chinese food today.
Rhythm decided he wanted to stay at our RV park today because there is a lot of fun stuff to do here.
The kids played basketball, and we all played putt-putt golf this evening.
Rhythm had a really fun day, and we all had a great time celebrating him!
The day Ryan brought Rhythm home from China
Happy 13th birthday, Rhythm!
You are a teenager! You are a cool, fun, laid-back kid. You are a rule-follower. You like things clean, organized and perfectly tidy. You are good at anything requiring meticulous detail and care. You like a schedule and regimented routine, but you love adding anything fun and new. You enjoy playing indoor or outdoor games. You love traveling and exploring new places. You like working hard to master new skills, and you do master many skills. You like hanging out with friends and meeting new friends. You have conversations with strangers and make new friends with ease. You are loyal and dependable. You are a good friend to each of your sisters and a best bud to Manning. You love God and want to be part of anything to do with Him. You are a great musician, and you truly are the rhythm keeper of the band. You give me lots of good laughs, you are always willing to help me with anything and you are a fun son. I am so happy to have you as my son, and I love you very much! 💙
