Family Vacation-Day Five

For those of you who are just reading for the first time, scroll on down to read about the previous days and work your way back to this one.

When we arrived at Walmart on Wednesday night, I was very happy to see an Alberston's next door. I was rather sad when ours were all sold out, as they had by far my favorite bakery. I keep hoping to find a decent garlic bread to replace theirs, but have had no real success as of yet. On Thursday morning before we left Rexburg I hurried in and got a couple of loaves, which we quite thoroughly enjoyed on Saturday night :)

As we wended our way through Idaho, we decided we didn't want another mediocre meal. Knowing we'd hit Pocatello around lunch time, we called Chris Wampler, my brother-in-law, for recommendations, as he had grown up in nearby Aberdeen. After picking from his suggestions, and with the aid of the GPS, we made our way to Sizzler, where we enjoyed our meals and I snagged another picture:

A few hours later, we found ourselves at home at last. I snapped one last picture of the bear collection Mom had started back at our first stop and completed at Yellowstone. From left to right, they are Yellowstone, Little America in Wyoming, Wall Drug in South Dakota, Cody, WY, and Mt. Rushmore.

I personally had a reason to get home a bit earlier than the rest (though at that point, like in many a good vacation, we were pretty much ready to be home). My cousin, Cory Stephens, and his wife, Charisse, were in Utah and were blessing their newborn son, Henry John Stephens. I was glad to be home in plenty of time to rest a bit, take a good, long hot shower, and make my way down to Sandy. I was very grateful for the chance to see my cousin and his family.

By the time I got home, my sisters had brought their families over to the house.

I took the opportunity to bring out one of our newest toys at the museum, Rocket Balloons. They've been a big hit there, though they met with mixed reactions in the family crowd. For the most part we all had fun with them, Jane and Michael especially. Dalton, on the other hand, was scared, and consoled only in the safety of his mother's arms. I just wish I had had my camera handy at the time.

Orange has been our family color for a few years now, as it is "bright, cheerful, and a little bit tacky". At one point during our vacation, my sister Laura bought some bright orange bowls for my parents. I don't know what drove me to it, but I took the opportunity to start a new fashion trend:

(Needless to say it wasn't a long-lived trend)

And so ends the last day of our family vacation!

Family Vacation-Day Four

Tuesday night was blessedly free of parking lot cleaners. I think I slept better that night than any other (not including naps, I had a few really good ones on this trip). Tuesday night Mom and I did some token shopping, while Wednesday morning Dad upgraded his Garmin GPS to get one that included such features as speed limits, traffic warnings, and Canadian maps (?).

I took one of my really good naps shortly after we left. It was so good, in fact, that I didn't wake up at all over the twisty, bumpy mountain roads. It wasn't until we stopped at a "Point of Interest" that I woke up at all, much to the surprise of my family, who were sure that there was no way anyone could have slept through such an unstable ride.

I am told that there were many "Points of Interest" along this particular stretch. There was no real rhyme or reason as to why we stopped at this particular one except that a few of us needed to stretch and move around a bit. I did enjoy the scenery at this one, and I'm a little sad to admit that I didn't even bother to read the posted sign apart from the title. Good thing I took a picture (though to be honest I still haven't read it).

(This is one of my favorite pictures of Mom from the whole trip)

We stopped in Cody, WY for lunch at Pizza Hut, where unfortunately they were out of garlic bread. Mom and Dad were, however, pleasantly surprised by the cheese sticks (having had them before, I was also happy with how much better they can be when fresh (yeah, I know, go figure)). We forged ahead towards Yellowstone, and passed the hours in our own fashions. Michael also slept pretty soundly:

After driving a few hours we came upon a line of cars, where a man in a construction vest was walking up and down to let the drivers know that it would be around fifteen or twenty minutes before we were allowed to pass.

Not to miss an opportunity, Michael and I ventured out of the RV. Michael proceeded almost immediately to climb the nearest rise:

We then walked up the line of cars, looking for license plates from states that we hadn't seen yet on our trip. Our family goal was to beat Laura and Chris's mark of having seen 41 of the 50 states on their own vacation. While we were unsuccessful at this particular stop, we were able ultimately to find all of the states but Hawaii. And yes, I still say that I did see New Mexico on our way to Sheridan from Mt Rushmore! :)

Our fellow travelers also found ways to pass the time. Made me almost wish that I had brought a football.

As promised we were on our way in around the projected time. Michael and I retreated into the bedroom and watched Rurouni Kenshin (my favorite anime show), while Dad, Bill and Mom were the first to enjoy the rich, scenic vistas of Yellowstone National Park. Our first stop there was at this little patch of gravel lining Yellowstone Lake:

(This picture is my own personal favorite picture of the entire trip)

We soon made it to Old Faithful, with the aid of the new GPS. One thing I continually found amusing, while also being grateful, was that it was virtually impossible to lose the RV in a parking lot:

While Dad was parking the RV, and after a brief stop near the geyser itself to see when the next projected eruption would be, Mom, Bill, Michael and I made our way over to the "General Store". Like at Mt Rushmore, it really struck me just how much logo merchandise Yellowstone had--our store doesn't feature nearly so much, though I think that will be likely to change in the relatively near future. I did love their selections, with the exception in that they didn't sell any rings at all (I'd been hoping to find one to go on the ring finger of my right hand). I did however see something that I had been considering selling at my store and took the opportunity to ask a cashier about how well they do.

About twenty minutes before the projected eruption, we made our way back to Old Faithful, where we joined Dad. I took a lot of pictures, of which here are some of my favorites:

One of the more humorous parts of our vacation occured here--right before the eruption, the wind changed direction and started blowing right toward us. After totally getting showered by Old Faithful's eruption, we jokingly renamed the geyser "Old Faceful".

Shortly after we left the geyser, Michael and I returned to Rurouni Kenshin. We were surprised at a hurried stop and calls of "Deborah, get your camera!". Mom and I rushed out of the RV so that she could get a picture of her with this bison:

As you technically are not allowed to stop at the side of the road, Mom had to hurry back over. My camera has a bit of a delay, and so I didn't actually get the picture until after she had started checking out traffic to cross back over to our side of the street.

There aren't many Walmarts on the West side of Yellowstone. Our options at that point were to either pay at an RV park, or forge ahead like we had the night before. The closest Walmart on our actual route, according to the GPS, was in Idaho Falls, ID. After a few more Gillette jokes, and a bit more searching on the GPS, we ended up stopping at Rexburg, ID instead. I'm rather glad we did, as we were all rather tired at that point. Twenty minutes extra driving in the morning was far less daunting than twenty minutes more after ten at night.

And thus ended day Four of the Family Vacation.

Family Vacation- Day Three part Two

So now we come to the main attaction--Mount Rushmore! Truth be told this is the only part of the vacation that I actually knew about beforehand, my attention being very much focused on getting things ready at work for my week and a half departure (I scheduled myself a few days of R&R at home to recoup before going back in). Of the five intended stops, I had already been to two of the major ones, being Martin's Cove and Yellowstone. I was quite excited for our first sight of this major national monument. Here is the first picture I was able to take, out the window of the RV as we were in line to get our pass:

Dad got the RV parked and decided to rest a bit, as he had already been there twice and wasn't feeling particularly well that day. Mom, Bill, Michael and I ventured forth into the great unknown....well, to us at least.

I was personally quite impressed at the presentation of the flags of each of the states leading to such a major national icon.

Apparently this goat felt the same, as he was looking back at the flags from the other side of a very short fence as we surprised tourists hurriedly documented him as a unique feature in our experience. I myself was quite happy to locate our own state flag and marker:

I took a lot of pictures of the monument, but I have to admit that this is certainly one of my absolute favorites:

We made our way to a lookout over a huge amphitheater. At the end of the day they do a large presentation about the monument and the presidents featured. I'm sure it is rather impressive, but we had already determined that we wouldn't be sticking around. We did manage to get a couple of great pictures with the monument in the background:

We took the easy route to get closer to the mountainside. A small cave led off the side of the path, through which a portion of the monument could be seen:

At one point while we were at Wall Drug someone accidentally said "booger" instead of "burger", which lead to a brief but rather humerous discussion in which we laughed that we'd soon have the chance to see the Presidents' boogers when we got to Mt. Rushmore. I have to confess I laughed a bit as I took this picture (Thomas Jefferson in particular):

For some reason or another (I think I blame Michael for this, though Mom may have been a co-conspirator), we took the longer, "strenuous" path back. Mom and Michael forged ahead as Bill slowly led me down (I was trying to send a text at the time and was meeting with limited success due to poor reception, go figure). The path (staircase, really) was quite scenic, and very well made, which I appreciate more now in hindsight, as I kept turning around to take more pictures in hopes of catching that perfect shot.

At the bottom of the stairs (about half-way back to the main entry), we took a breather. This is the second of three shots in which I caught just the right angle of Michael looking through his new binoculars. Kind of creepy, but also rather hilarious at the time :)

This is one of those shots that I hadn't actually intended to get, but was very glad that I did. I love the constrast:

After we had hiked up about half of the remaining distance, we took another breather. I personally also took the opportunity to "study tourists in their natural habitat":

The final stop, an absolute must for me, was the Gift Shop. It was huge, and packed to the rafters with both merchandise and shoppers. I admit, I was rather jealous. I have a hard time even imagining what it would be like to run a store like that one. That being said, I do enjoy the fact that I get to sell toys, not just your typical touristy souvenirs.

A short time later we started making our way back through South Dakota and back into Wyoming. With the aid of the GPS we were able to do a search for Walmarts in cities along our route. One of the closest ones was back in Gillette. I personally objected to spending the night there, as we had the night before. Where was the fun in that?

Unfortunately the next one in the route was around a hundred miles after Gillette, in Sheradon, WY. Courtesy the GPS we could project arrival times. We would reach Gillette around the time we had typically stopped the two previous nights, whereas it would take until about ten-thirty to get to Sheradon. Warming up more and more to the idea, I kept promoting the push on to Sheradon. It became a run-on joke, where even long after we passed Gillette and were closer to Sheradon we would say "It's getting late, let's just head back to Gillette", or "This is taking too long, let's just turn around and go to Gillette".

While it was indeed rather late when we got to Sheradon, I think we were ultimately all glad that we had pushed on. The remaining full day of our vacation could be that much more relaxed. We never really did have to rush from place to place, a fact I think we all liked and appreciated. I've never really cared for vacations where every moment is scheduled in advance. While I see that there are benefits, like seeing/doing more in the same amount of time, I've never been one to rush rush rush the entire time. Even with the long day, I have to say that with Mt Rushmore and Wall Drug, along with the fun involved in picking our day's final destination, it was my favorite day of the vacation :)

Family Vacation-Day Three part One

Day three dawned bright and sunny, though for some of us it started before the sun came up. The one hazard of parking at Walmart is when, around five or six am, the parking lot cleaner came around, seeming to pay particular attention to the area around all of the RV's. Sigh.

Anywho, with the aid of the new GPS we made our way to Hardee's for breakfast, as Dad was excited to get some of their sausage and eggs. Mom and I made our way in and ordered for those of us who had not already eaten, afterwhich I took a couple of pictures:

(As a side note, mom was very excited to be able to get such a large diet coke, as we were well equipped in our traveling accomadations)

Turns out I actually could have taken more pictures, as for some reason the staff at that particular Hardee's on that particular morning wasn't all that particularly efficient. By the time we finally got the food and got back out to the RV, Mom and Dad were disappointed and my own food was rather cold. At least it was still rather tasty. Sad to say, though, that ultimately if we ever find ourselves back in Gillette, Hardee's will not be on our breakfast list.

Our first official tourist destination for the day was Wall Drug, on the edge of the South Dakota Badlands. It had been founded by Ted and Dorothy Hustead in 1931. After five years of watching time pass by through the front window of their typically empty drug store, Dorothy had a great idea-advertise free ice water for passing travelers (a big deal, especially as air conditioning was years away from being a standard feature in cars). Skeptical and feeling somewhat silly, Ted elicited the aid of a local high school boy to paint and then put up a series of signs each bearing a phrase of the following ad: "Get a soda...Get root beer...Turn next corner...Just as near...To Highway 16 & 14...Free Ice Water...Wall Drug".

Before Ted returned from posting the last sign, people had already begun pouring in. They quickly ran through their supply of chipped ice and had to start chipping it off their ice block. They spent hours pouring ice water and selling ice cream cones. Thus began a great tradition-from one little drug store has sprung a true American landmark:

There are actually a very large variety of sections and sub-stores throughout Wall Drug, of which I took pictures of just a few. Over the last couple of years they have even expanded to include a "Back Yard", featuring more stores, a little mining section, a T-Rex, a ground fountain, a Mt Rushmore replica, and even a giant Jackalope:

I confess I was rather amused to see just how much they catered to tourists as a source of entertainment, not just merchandise. They even had life-size bands playing country songs, and Mom made a new friend and met a new beau:

(Dad never did seem particularly jealous at this new development)

My singular goal to fulfill at Wall Drug was to find a new ring for the pointer finger of my right hand. I had a couple of stores to choose from with relatively decent selections. Two of my favorite displays in all of Wall Drug were located in the store at which I made my purchase:

I think the Eagle Crossing one was the first to truly catch my attention and make me laugh :) Behind this particular display is The Donut Shop, where they featured three different types of old-fashioned cake donuts, chocolate, buttercreme?, and maple. While some in my family were somewhat disappointed at the lack of raised donuts, I quite thoroughly enjoyed them.

I have to admit, from a retailer's standpoint (especially one who works in a museum), I was quite impressed with Wall Drug-an impressive selection of merchandise and souvenirs, exhibits of statues, art and historical photography, and interactive exhibits as well. From a tourist's standpoint, I quite enjoyed the atmosphere provided to spend quality time with my family. Overall, a very worthy stop on the way to our ultimate destination :)