Road Trip Post #1K (K for Kyla) - Mammoth Site

I've decided to go a little off topic and make the next few posts more of a travel blog experience, which will obviously include the unique places we decided to stop and eat.

The girls and I started our Great American Road Trip across the country on Monday, June 15th, only we chose the south to north route. Honestly most of the food to get to the sightseeing part of our trip came from chain restaurants and was not worthy of a blog post. Thanks for being dependable Subway, Cracker Barrel, and McDonald's, and most importantly, attached to or near gas stations so we didn't have to veer too far off the beaten path to join Kyla's family in the Black Hills of South Dakota on Tuesday night. We gave ourselves two days to drive 1,200 miles.

An important stop since this was a new state visited for the three of us ladies. My bucket list is to visit all 50 states by the time I turn 50 years old. I only need to visit 7 more states in 13 years and 3 months.

On Wednesday, June 17th, we saw the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs, SD. This is a very cool, museum and excavation site of a prehistoric sinkhole that trapped at least 58 Columbian mammoths, 3 Woolly mammoths, and a few other species of animals. They even have a junior paleontologist program where kids can learn to excavate the very fragile bones. We didn't allow time to do the program, but would make the time on our next trip.

An overview of about half of the Mammoth Site.

The tour starts with a movie describing how the sinkhole formed and why the mammoths were attracted to the site (warm water grew plants around the water year round), and how the slippery limestone trapped the animals in the water. There they died and their bones were preserved. Because the bones were trapped in water, they are very fragile now and not hard like most fossils. Then we got headsets that allowed us all to hear our tour guide as she took us into the dig site.

My dad, niece, and Eight with their headphones ready for the tour after the educational movie.

She pointed out things we'd learned in the movie and lots of interesting features, such as all the mammoths found have been male. Some say it's because females are too smart to get trapped! But mostly likely it's because like elephants, juvenile males are kicked out of the herd and have to set off to find a mate and a herd of their own. At the end of the guided tour, we were allowed to wander the paths of the dig site to take pictures and make our way into the attached museum and even take elevators down to see scientists working in the labs.

Arrows pointing to crosscut mammoth footprints preserved in the mud of the sinkhole.

Beauty, a nearly perfect Columbian mammoth skull.

Murray Antoinette, a nearly perfect Columbian mammoth, without a head.
Beauty and Murray are across the site from each other and about 20 feet difference in elevation, so not presumed to be the same mammoth.

A mural depicting sizes of mammoths and elephants with kids for size reference. Tallest to shortest: Columbian mammoth, African elephant, Woolly mammoth, Asian elephant, Pygmy mammoth, Eight and Six.

Six and my dad trying to reach out and touch a life size Columbian mammoth exhibit.

The girls really enjoyed the "do touch" exhibits and learned how to tell the mammoth's age by teeth ridges.

We spent about 90 minutes at the Mammoth Site. We attended the first tour of the day at 8 am and the first junior paleontologist program started at 10 am. Next time we will allow for that program because the girls were having a great time with the hands on learning. This stop is a must-see for kids of all ages interested in science.

Round Rock Day

Today is Memorial Day. I always get a bit weepy this time of year because way back in 2004 I was in Iraq in the Army with the 1st Engineer Battalion, 1st Infantry Division and my battalion lost 10 heros. I considered two of the guys good friends. I miss my Army Brothers. So while this weekend no longer just means the unofficial kick-off to summer to me as it did before 2004, I do believe they would like us to take a moment to remember them, the good times we shared, and then get on with it.

Visiting my Army Brother's final resting place in Arlington, Memorial Day 2013, pictured with my oldest daughter. 

This morning I had to get my 2007 minivan it's 100,000 mile service! Yes, this military life has moved us coast to coast and now in the middle. My mom-van has served me well and is still going strong. As a reward for having to get up early on a no-school/work day, we decided to play tourist and head to Round Rock Donuts.

Round Rock Donuts neon sign by the registers.

I first heard about Round Rock Donuts when I attended a taping of the Jimmy Kimmel Live show in Austin this March. Then my spin instructor brought up that she got a "Texas Sized" donut from Round Rock Donuts for her birthday and she made us burn the calories for her. So today was the day to try these world famous donuts.

We drove up and were a bit surprised that the road was a weird left turn that kinda looked like a fork in the road, the road less traveled because just beyond the shop the road was blocked due to road construction. It didn't slow the traffic down at all. The parking lot is miniscule, with maybe 20 parking spaces. There is a drive thru that constantly has at least 10 vehicles waiting for their orders.

We parked and walked in. Amazingly we started to wait in line inside the doors. The good news is that the line moves quickly. The line moved so quickly, we didn't have much time to ogle the variety of donuts. We decided to get everyone a maple glazed and a chocolate glazed donut. The girls each got a chocolate milk that I wish we had glasses to share one, because neither one of them finished their milk. Tim and I got coffee.

The selection of donuts in the case with the Texas sized donuts. *They were similar in size to the Monterey Donuts which will be an upcoming Throwback Thursday post.

After placing our orders, there was barely any room to wait to pick up our orders. I'm not a fan of crowds, so I sent the girls and Tim outside to get a table while I waited for the donuts. It wasn't an overly long wait, but still felt long since I constantly felt I was in the way, but then again, so was everyone else.

Our family with our donuts. A nice lady who was sitting in that empty chair didn't want to photobomb us, so she volunteered to take our picture!

I finally got our order and joined the family outside. The donuts were obviously made fresh. They were very doughy and soft. Even under the chocolate and maple glazing, there was an odd orange colored glaze. They were a bit messy, especially the maple glaze. Their website says the orange or yellow color is because they use fresh eggs while hand making these donuts.

Six getting really messy with her maple glazed donut, plus some of the road construction equipment behind her.

While the donuts were delicious, I don't know if we'll be back any time soon. We have a few donut shops a lot closer who also make fresh donuts daily, with a lot less traffic and crowds. We might be back to order the Texas sized donuts for birthday breakfasts for the girls.

As we left, the traffic was just as bad and the line of people to get in the donut shop was even longer. Since it started to rain, we were happy to make room for others.

A horrible picture of the lines of vehicles coming and going from Round Rock Donuts.

As an added bonus, when we had to pick up my minivan from it's completed service, we decided to have burgers for lunch. So we headed to Mooyah.

We had decided not to review chain restaurants, because we usually avoid chains in favor of supporting local restaurants and businesses. Someday we may own our own restaurant or business, and we'd like all the support we can get! However, we didn't realize this was a chain, because it's only a Texas chain, like HEB the grocery store.

The burgers and hotdogs can be ordered with all kinds of toppings for free. Only cheese, bacon and avocado costs extra. You can also order salads here.

The rain was coming down hard and the restaurant was loud, so I had to repeat myself a few times. We did have a friendly chat with the gal working the register about Jimmy Kimmel and Vulcan Video that her friends own, and was featured on the episode I was there to see taped in person.

The girls were entertained by the big wall of chalkboard and chalk.

Our shakes came out first and mine was missing. Eight got cookie dough, Six got peanut butter cup and Tim got chocolate. I ordered an Oreo shake, but when it was delivered to me, it was peanut butter cup. Good thing I'm not allergic to peanut butter. It did have candy crushed on top, so I was warned it was not what I ordered, but I decided I didn't care enough to send it back. I was disappointed that the last third of my shake had no candy blended in, just vanilla ice cream.

My very disappointing and completely wrong milkshake.

Our food came out and it reminded me of Five Guys burgers. Five Guys happens to be my favorite fast food burgers, so this is a glowing review of their burgers from me! The one thing this place has over Five Guys is Sweet Potato Fries! Six was apparently not in the mood for her hot dog. She called it "spicy" but Tim tried it and he said it was delicious. We were filled, mostly enjoyed our food and didn't mind the wait as a huge storm moved through the area.

The rain falling in sheets as we waited to find a good time to drive home.

It was a blessing in disguise that we were stuck at Mooyah for awhile waiting out the storm. We drove home in the thunderstorm and torrential rain. A few minutes before we got home, a funnel cloud was spotted near our house. The storm has passed by now and we are all fine, still in our watertight house.

Someone shared this on facebook - the funnel cloud we missed as we were driving back from Mooyah, as seen 3 miles from our house.

As an added bonus, here is a link to the episode of Jimmy Kimmel I watched on March 16, 2015! Here's what I wore, matching my sister so we could find ourselves in the crowd. Amazingly Jimmy talked to us during a commercial break and we became known as "The Sisters" and got called out all evening walking around Austin that night! There's my 15 seconds of fame!