Saturday, June 29, 2013

Day 16: Rapid City, SD to Wall, SD 110 miles

When we pulled into the hotel the night before, the kids could not miss the fact that a waterpark was attached to the hotel.  We knew that this hotel’s main focus was laundry so downtime was scheduled.  We did not expect that the kids would spend 3.5 hours in the park.  They had a blast!  The entertainment value was off the charts.  Every kid had an ear to ear smile.  I could watch Greg have his dramatic play time in the lazy river for hours.  He would go around and around acting out scenes from his deep imagination.  The kids barreled down waterslides, climbed through a water park or just relaxed in the lazy river.  We opted for the late check out and we just rolled with it.  Vacation needs to have “roll with it” time.  Today was that day.
The formula of the day: Water Park >Dead Presidents
We missed Rushmore.
However, we did hit the Badlands.  It is great to see people’s first impression of the Badlands.  For my mom, dad, and Marta, they had never been here.  It is a fascinating place.  We hit the park at 90 degrees, and it was a hot 90. 
After that we went to good ole Sleep Hallow Camp site.  For those of you who followed us last year, you might remember the story of the train hooking and unhooking railcars 100 feet from our heads.  Why did we go back….because lightning cannot strike twice!
Thankfully, we did not have any hookups, but, we did have 4 trains go through between 11 and 1 am (or at least that is what Jen told me, I enjoyed sleeping).

We also said good bye to my folks.  They have a flight tomorrow morning and need to catch a flight out of Omaha.  It was great to have them along.  My mom hit 3 new states and had a chance to see Yellowstone.  As a son, it is great to be able to take your folks on a vacation and have beer at a campsite with them.  We were so thankful that they were able to join us on this adventure.  It was great!

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