Wigtons Go West Day 3

Between not having great WiFi at one of the hotels, and intermittent cell coverage in most of WY, I haven't been able to keep up the daily coverage of this trip as I'd hoped.  Also, it's crazy how busy three kids and being navigator (you would think we would have an awesome GPS helping us to get to Ben's new job at Garmin!) have kept me.  I'm not complaining.  Here's yesterday's journal, as promised:

This chilly photo op resulted in finding a tick on Ezra.

 We stayed in Mitchell, SD, home of the world's only CORN PALACE!  Turns out, my friend, Michele's grandpa helped build it!  It was under construction, but even still it was very impressive.  Those pictures on the sides of the building were entirely made of corn cobs. 

We were so excited to see the change in terrain we were taking pictures of everything.  

OK, maybe that was just me.  I saw a bird with a yellow belly and gray back.  I think it was a Fly Catcher.  We saw some buttes and made lots of jokes about the little buttes we saw everywhere.

 We drove four hours to Keystone, SD to see Mt. Rushmore!  I honestly thought we'd be done see it in a few minutes, but the experience took a lot longer, with the museum they have explaining how it was made, a video showing it being made, gift shops, ice cream and helping all the people take pictures that needed it.  Ben started making fun of me after a while.  I seriously could stand there all day and help people take pictures of their families so they don't get left out of the picture.  I think I've found my calling.

 Funny, nobody offered to do the same for us, but Juni took this and I liked it! Thanks, June!

 

We wouldn't normally do something extravagant for ourselves, but we thought it would be fun to break up a week and a half of hotel stays with a few fun places to stay.  We surprised the kids and they named it "Heaven".  :-) 

Heaven has a doe that rests in the front yard.

 Daddy took the kids on a rock hunt while I got some groceries for breakfast. 

These are their finds, not mine. :-)

 If any of us are deaf after this trip it's from this steam train blowing all it's whistles and horns at the same time for a crossing.  I would've put the car window up but I was too busy holding my hears closed.  Not a proud moment, mind you.  Keystone was a lovely village with plenty to do.  I would have stayed longer happily...not near this train though.

We took a drive around after dinner (leftover Nepalese food from lunch - the goat curry was impressive!) and saw beautiful bridges!

This one I took through the windshield (sorry!) 

This one was in the Black Hills National Forest 

Then, look what we found! 

Summary for Global Thinkers pained by excessive detail:

Hours logged on the road thus far: 24

Miles: 1320

States we were in "today": SD

Running total of states: 6

Sanity Status: Exhausted most of the day, but lucid (I think the adrenaline wore off)

Mood: Pleasant - kids were nice to each other and played well together (compared to today, it's true)

Major Incidents: 0 

What we see this second: It's the next day, so I can't answer this, but I will sum the day up as perfect as a visit to Mt. Rushmore can be.  We had great weather and there weren't too many tourists (like us) there.  Early in the season yet.  

I hope to write up our day driving through WY today and eventually the next two days at Yellowstone, but don't be surprised if it takes me a few days to post as we are told there is no internet access at Yellowstone. That will help us focus on soaking it all in anyways!  Thanks for reading!