South Dakota, Snow, and Mt. Rushmore

I thought this might be a good time to describe our routine for a quick overnight rest... usually by the time we stop, half the kids are asleep.  We put a make-shift bed across the front seats, and move one of the kids to here, then we lay down to 'snooze'.  In the morning, Doug usually wakes up early (no alarm, he just pops awake -- usually between 5:30 and 6:30).  He'll move the child from the make-shift bed to the back where he was, put away the bed, then start driving.  Liz will then join him while the kids continue to slumber.

OK, back to the story...

The day before in Nauvoo and Thayer, it was pretty warm -- 85ish.  The kids were complaining a little about how warm it was riding in the RV.  Well, on this morning, getting up to leave the Rest Area, it was rather cold -- around 40 or less.  The wind was blowing from the North/NorthWest (our direction of travel).  There was rain, lightning, and thunder during the night, still raining on this Thursday morning.  If you've ever driven an RV or something similar, you know how difficult it is to push through a head-on wind.  Needless to say, our MPG suffered greatly, as did our ability to go at a decent speed.

At one stop, Brandon just had to get this giant Reeses PB cup, so he and Liz

bought one together.  They shared it, slicing it up like a pie!

As we left Iowa near Sioux City and entered South Dakota, the rain turned slowly into snow, then became a near blizzard.  We stopped at a Rest Area that also served as a SD visitor's center to get a weather report.  The forecast indicated it would stop within a couple hours, so we decided to forge onward.

Halfway across the state, we stopped in Mitchell to take a look at what a Corn Palace looks like.  It was definitely something different!

Continuing our trek West towards Mt. Rushmore, the roads were fine -- just a lot of wind trying to push us around.  Finally made it to Rapid City, stopped to get fuel, then continue on up to 5,200 feet at Mt. Rushmore.  The higher we got, the foggier it became.  The more we drove, the more we realized we probably wouldn't be able to see anything -- and we were right.  But, we took pictures anyway!

Nearly dark now, we made our way down the other side of the mountain towards Yellowstone.  Stopped along the road while Liz cooked a marvelous dinner for us.  As we continued driving, we weren't sure if Yellowstone would even be open given the recent snow.  After making some calls and some help from Mom, we learned the entrance we would use did indeed close.  We decided at this point to 'play it safe' and head back South towards the interstate running along the southern part of WY.  Much of the roads were snow-covered, and pretty icy.  Still windy in spots.  We stopped to refuel and rest around midnight at an Albertson's parking lot in Casper.  It was VERY cold!!!