Thursday, March 22, 2012

Spin Cycle--Road Trip! Everybody Load Up!

Gretchen decided that since Spring Break is breaking all over the place, having the topic this week for the Spin Cycle be Road Trip was a no brainer.
I'm perfectly happy with this topic as last week, for Spring Break we headed out on, what else?  A road trip.
We left Saturday Morning.  Nick and I had not told Turbo where we were going.  He had to figure it out by reading the road signs on the way.
We went to Hot Springs, South Dakota.  It's a small town just south of the Black Hills in western South Dakota.  The Mammoth Site is there and just north of town is Wind Cave National Park.  We have friends who live in Chadron, NE  who came up to see us on Sunday.  We let the kids swim in the hotel pool and then headed up to the Black Hills and ended up at the Crazy Horse Monument.
So Sunday we went to the Mammoth Site with the boys in the morning and then just explored the area waiting for our friends to come visit.  We found some area that we definitely want to go see again.
Bruiser beside a replica of a Mammoth jaw.

Turbo taking pictures--he loved this place.
Bruiser being a Mammoth.

Looking for the perfect rock to throw in the lake.

Boys and water, they just go together.
We met up with our friends and after trying to wear out the kids in the pool, we headed out to see Crazy Horse.  Then we had dinner and drove back to Hot Springs and said goodbye to our friends.
Monday we took the boys to Wind Cave and did the Garden of Eden tour.  Turbo loved it, but Bruiser wasn't so sure about the whole thing.  Happily the tour was fairly short.

Box work in Wind Cave.

Then we just took off and drove.  We found some very scenic roads to drive and had lunch with Larry,Moe and Curly (three big horn sheep).
Lunch stop.

Larry, Moe and Curly.

We skirted the edge of the Badlands and then headed back to Hot Springs.  Dinner was had, more swimming was done and then we all fell asleep.
Tuesday Morning we loaded up and headed out toward home.
One thing I do to make the miles go by faster for all of us is to read out loud.  I am the book on tape in our car.  On this trip I started a new to Turbo series of books.  David Eddings wrote a series of books called the Belgariad.  It's five books in the fantasy genre (there are five more in a following series plus two prequels).  I first started reading them when I was 14.  I read them out loud to Nick back before we got married.  Turbo was caught up in the story within the first two pages.  We finished the first book and started the second before we got home.  Turbo is looking forward to the next road trip to hear more of the story.  Since we love road hunting--hunting for roads we like to drive down, or ones we haven't driven down before) it won't be long before he gets to hear more of the story.
So what are your most recent road trip adventures?
Spin it up and link up with Gretchen.

Second Blooming

9 comments:

  1. That looks like a great trip! The caves are cool; we have some here (surprising, I know) but you can't touch anything so we haven't taken Elliot because he might get upset. LOL.

    ReplyDelete
  2. That sounds like so much fun! We used to drive through S. Dakota when I was a kid. I desperately wished that Jimmy was more of a driving guy! You are so lucky.

    You are also linked!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is the sort of road trip JR and I like to take. Sounds like you had fun.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Sounds like a fun trip! Glad you had a nice time.

    ReplyDelete
  5. What a great road trip. Can you send some of that weather our way???
    I love how you said road hunting - huntinng for roads we want to drive. That is awesome! Ohhh & the book on tape is brilliant!

    ReplyDelete
  6. I have been thru that area twice. One on the Road Trip From Hell... and once on a motorcycle. I rode my bike to Sturgis for the Rally. It's a beautiful area and I would love to spend time there again. At a slower pace! My hubs people are in Iowa and spend their vacations in the Black Hills area.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Love the idea of reading aloud in the car. Unfortunately, I am the one driving (I'll have to suggest it to my wife).

    ReplyDelete
  8. What a wonderful family road trip! Unfortunately we could never do that on road trips because reading in the car makes me car sick. I have to cover my head so I can't see stuff going by and that would kind of ruin the effect of reading out loud I think! Great and timely spin!

    ReplyDelete

I love to get comments! They make my heart go pitter-pat! Go on comment--I'll do my best to go give your blog some love too!

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails