Road Trip Post #6 - First day for family!

Friday, June 19th

We woke up and after getting dressed and saying hi to family in the dorm common areas, the girls and I drove to Bismarck, ND to pick up Tim from the airport! By the time we parked to walk into the airport, the girls and I had driven 1,745 miles from Texas.

After many hugs and kisses, we drove back to the family reunion. Along the way we had to stop in New Salem to introduce Tim to New Salem Sue, the world's largest Holstein cow. She's quite the icon on I-94.

Family photo with New Salem Sue.

The girls tried climbing her.

Tim tried milking her.

Tim tried to get Eight to milk her.

 We continued back to the Elkins family farm where everyone else had already enjoyed lunch and chatting. We got my dad to take the girls on a tour of the farm through his eyes when he was their age. This was my first experience with seeing something so huge in my memory as a child, then seeing it again as an adult and it was so much smaller than I remembered.

The family farm house with original outhouse that I don't think anyone uses anymore. I used to think this house was HUGE as a child, but crazily the inside was just as I remembered.

My dad's first cousin still owns the farm, but rents the land. No one uses the barn anymore.

Here are two of the hog barns. One was for sows and piglets and another was for sows without piglets.

Back when this was "free-range parenting" my dad and his siblings could play to the property line, which was all the way to the horizon on the left of the picture and to the stock pond in the middle of those trees.

Granddaddy giving Eight a piggyback ride through the tall grass to hopefully avoid ticks.

The front porch and side door we always used were just as I remembered.

After the family farm tour, we got back into the van. My sister rode with us and purposefully didn't walk down memory lane because of the ticks. Who had a tick on her in the minivan? That's right, my sister. We kicked out the tick and drove back to the Abbey to get ready for the first official event: the family dinner with introductions, silent auction and entertainment.

I thought about reviewing the family dinner, but decided against it since it's only a family reunion treat and won't be around for another 2 years. Plus you have to be related to me to get an invite!

The silent auction was a hoot! One of the four-year-old cousins found a homemade princess pillowcase and begged her grandpa to bid on it for her, then hid the bid sheet! One cousin is a professional artist and she grabbed a painting off her bathroom wall right before she walked out the door to come to the reunion. Her painting went for the most money! We brought hand printed tea towels with a Texas flair made by a fellow Girl Scout mom. I scored a nifty fabric microwave baked potato bag and breakfast rolls. All the money raised went to help offset the cost of renting rooms and catering meals for the reunion.

After the silent auction, we had family introductions so we knew who belonged to which one of my great-great grandparent's children.

A panoramic of the whole family during the introductions.

After family introductions, we were treated with a musical performance from The Larsen Brothers. Paul and Lowell Larsen are my dad's mom's first cousins, but closer to my dad's age. They are not professional singers, but have such a rare sound with cowboy and gospel music, they were sent from the North Dakota Tourism Department to be musical ambassadors to Norway in 1999. My girls were so fascinated, they picked seats in the front row!

Why yes, we are that family who sits around and sings for entertainment after dinner.

This was my first family reunion since 1997 when I graduated high school. College and the Army took up nearly all my free time and dictated my schedule. I was happy to share this family reunion with my little nuclear family!

After looking around, I discovered that most of my generation was back at the dorm, playing cards, and catching up. We were given freedom to chose as adults whether or not to participate. When we were younger, we weren't given that choice.

Flashback to the early 1990s when my aunt the music teacher taught us a song and skit we cousins performed for the talent show.

I loved watching my girls interact with the older generations! After the music, we went back to the dorms and had "conversation" with storytelling. Eight loves this and tried to persuade us to let her stay up all night talking!

Road Trip Post #5K - Rapid City

Thursday, June 18th

We started the day by sleeping in as late as possible. My mom and dad went on a lovely drive on US 14A - Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway instead of sleeping in. They highly recommend this drive with its wildflowers, waterfalls and beautiful nature.

Part of the Spearfish Canyon Scenic Byway. Photo by Karen Rasmussen.

We took advantage of the hotel's pool and spa. We checked out at 11 am at the last possible minute.

The girls enjoyed as much of the spa as we'd let them get into the super hot water.

We all met up at Taste of Chicago on Lacrosse Street in Rapid City for lunch. My parents had been here two years ago, but the location and management had changed. From the manager, he stated that Rapid City wanted more authentic Chicago food and this new place was the answer to that call. The decor was all Chicago sports teams. Every wall hosted a different team. Side note: they had not updated that the Blackhawks just won the Stanley Cup.

My mom, sister, niece, Six and Eight waiting for our lunch.

The food offerings were authentic Chicago fare, according to the manager. I was surprised to see that there wasn't a pizza, deep dish or otherwise, offered on the menu. The menu mostly consisted of hot dogs, bratwurst, chili, and nachos. There were also tamales. The special of the day was tamales with chili on top, served with an individual bag of chips and a fountain soda for $5. However when I walked in, the one man/manager working the lunch shift stated that there was no soup and no chili. I had wanted a chili cheese dog, but that wasn't possible without chili.

A view of the other direction with Six, my dad, sister and mom. There was one other family and one single person in the restaurant. Maybe that should have been my first clue at noon on a Thursday.

I ordered a kid's hot dog meal of a plain hot dog, bag of chips and a fountain soda for Six. Eight wanted a tamale. I settled on a bratwurst and ordered us both drinks. All of this was only $12. Because there was only one man working, the food took forever. He kept saying that we needed to have patience and he'd get to us in order, giving each order the attention it required. Which would have been fine, except everything was premade and just reheated, and still a bit chilled. The rest of my family ordered the special - tamales with chili. Amazingly chili appeared. Turns out it was frozen and he was reheating it slowly, but in time to get to my family's order.

To say I was not impressed is an understatement. The service was slow, even with his assurance of quality, the food was only warm, and I'm not a Chicago sports fan for any of their many teams. I also do not associate Chicago with tamales, but I do associate Chicago with deep dish pizza.

Somehow I knew that even though we got to Taste of Chicago at noon, we would not make it across town to take a tour of the Black Hills gold Mount Rushmore Jewelry factory by 1 pm. We got our tickets for the 2 pm tour, and just made it with little time to look around before the tour started. Unfortunately they did not allow us to take pictures inside the jewelry store and factory.

I'm sporting my new Black Hills gold necklace with a Montana sapphire just outside the factory.

The factory is a fascinating place! Traditionally Black Hills Gold was only made from gold mined in the Black Hills of South Dakota. Now that the mines are starting to run dry, the term Black Hills Gold only legally applies to pieces made in the Black Hills. The designs including grapes and grape leaves came from a French jewelry designer who decided to try his luck at becoming a miner. He got lost looking for gold in the Black Hills. While lost he had a dream that he was back home in the vineyard and when he awoke, he was saved from starvation by finding grapes. He showed his gratitude by giving up mining, and only dealing with designing gold pieces and he used the grapes, leaves and vines in his designs, calling it "Good Luck" jewelry.

A few things not mentioned in the video attached to the link above: this is their second location. There were so many gold shavings trapped in the carpet of their old location that they sent the carpet to the gold refinery and received enough money to completely pay the mortgage of their new location. They also vacuum every day and send their vacuum bags to the refinery to reclaim the gold shavings.

Image taken from a Bing image search. This is Miss Rodeo America 2014 with the beautiful Black Hills Gold tiara.

We enjoyed looking at all the jewelry the factory had to offer. The tiara made for Miss Rodeo America was on display and is absolutely gorgeous. I think it's even more beautiful seeing it for myself. I couldn't decide between two necklaces, so I got both since they were 30% off. I also got the girls necklaces for their birthdays, so don't tell them if you read this before them!

We left the factory and headed downtown to see the City of Presidents. There are life size statues for every US president on a city block corner, except for Barack Obama. His statue will be added after his term in office is complete. The girls were still full of energy and decided to take pictures with most of the presidents and climbed on a few to get better pictures and burn energy. Here are a few of our favorites (yes, a few, I think we took pictures with all 43 statues):

My dad and girls with Teddy Roosevelt.

My niece and girls with Abraham Lincoln.

I'm way taller than James Madison.

The girls with Lyndon B. Johnson. We toured his ranch near Fredericksburg, TX in March.

We enjoyed pretending to feed the birds with Benjamin Harrison.

Howdy! with Calvin Coolidge

Grover Cleveland looked like he just wanted to sit and chat, kind of like Santa.

George W. Bush was president when both girls were born.

George Washington gets a hug.

Thomas Jefferson was the last president in our loop.

We decided to have an early dinner before we left Rapid City to drive 4 1/2 hours to the family reunion in North Dakota. We went to Perkins, which is yet another chain, but a favorite from my college days. I decided we had to go there because they had peach muffins! Other than that, dinner was what you would expect in terms of food, service, cleanliness, etc.

The peach muffins sang their siren's song and I had to eat at Perkins.

We left Rapid City and started heading north. We got to Belle Fourche, SD, the geographical center of the United States, including Alaska and Hawaii. Two years ago we stopped to eat lunch here, not realizing its significance nor the cool monument. So we had to stop for the photo op this time.

My dad and mom looking at the large compass monument depicting the geographical center of the United States.

The girls decided to roll down the hill after being cooped up in the minivan.

My monument selfie.

Smile like you like each other! I'm trying for a Christmas card photo here!

Monument angels.

We got back in the minivan and continued our caravan to the family reunion at the Assumption Abbey in Richardton, ND. We arrived at 11:30 pm and collapsed into our dorm room beds.

Road Trip #4K - Lucky's 13 Pub

Last entry for Wednesday, June 17th

We left Mt. Rushmore and drove to Spearfish, SD for the night. My mom was the one in charge of reserving all our hotel rooms during our trip and the Black Hills are so popular, this was the closest she could get us to Mt. Rushmore.

My sister was done for the day and decided to stay at our hotel with our uncle and aunt's dog. We went to Lucky's 13 Pub for a late dinner.

We were greeted by the hostess and our waitress who finished clearing tables and pushed them together for our large party of eight. The restaurant had character with a tin ceiling, wood detailing, and fireplaces.

Our waitress was very energetic, bubbly and happy to answer all the questions we had about the menu. She brought out bowls of popcorn for the table to share. We ended up getting 2 refills of popcorn while waiting for the kitchen to prepare our dinners.

While we were waiting, the area started experiencing severe weather with high winds, lightening, and eventually rain. The manager and waitress kept us updated with weather reports and informing us of their severe weather plan, should we need to seek shelter.

Unfortunately before we could enjoy our dinner, the restaurant and hotel it was attached to, came under a tornado warning and we were evacuated to an inner conference room to wait out the storm. It was such a fast moving storm, that we were only in the conference room for 20 minutes. Thankfully there was no damage reported and we were all safe.

Me, Eight, my aunt, Six, and my mom making the best of our evacuation for the tornado/severe weather.

When we got back to the restaurant, all the food had to be remade. I was so exhausted from the full day and the evacuation, that I nearly fell asleep at the table before we got our remade dinners. The wait was worth it since I ordered an Indian taco. I grew up on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana. Indian tacos are like normal tacos with their toppings, but the tortilla is replaced with fry bread. Fry bread is a big, semi-flat disk, fried like a donut, but not as sweet. On the rez, it's a traditional delicacy that I was happy to revisit from my youth. It's a big, delicious mess.

My Indian taco

While the dinner turned out to be a lot longer and later than I wanted, no one could do anything about the weather. The restaurant gave us a free dessert for the inconvenience of the severe weather. We took it back to our hotel and the girls and my sister ate it for breakfast.

Road Trip Post #3K - Mt. Rushmore

Wednesday, June 17th

We finally made it to Mount Rushmore National Memorial after our scenic drive. Everyone else took the direct route and they were done with Mt. Rushmore by the time we got there. So my sister, niece, dad, aunt, and her dog went ahead of us to Spearfish, SD where we planned to spend the night with the mission to find an interesting, rustic looking, non-chain restaurant for dinner, and check out the pool and hot tub at the hotel.

My uncle and mom stayed with the girls and me. My uncle got the girls hooked on the National Parks Junior Ranger Program, so he wanted to be there for their 10th Junior Ranger Badge.

My uncle, Eight, Six, and my mom enjoying Mt. Rushmore and filling out their Junior Ranger books.

Things we learned while filling out the Junior Ranger books: as a Veteran, I would have been asked to participate in the flag lowering/memorial lighting ceremony, but that was at 9 pm. We learned that originally Mt. Rushmore was going to be carved by drills, but after much drilling and hardly any progress, they used dynamite. Over 90% of Mt. Rushmore was carved by dynamite. We also learned that Mt. Rushmore got it's name from a New York lawyer, Charles Rushmore, who came to visit in 1885. He asked what the name of that particular mountain was called and to placate him, they jokingly said it didn't have a name, so we'll name it after you. Joke was on them as the name stuck!

Pointing out state flags of states we've lived in during our military moves.

The girls filled out as many the pages they could. We enjoyed hunting for all the flags of states we've lived in along the Walk of Flags. We had fun taking pictures along the back wall of the amphitheater. The museum on the lower level was very fun and interactive. I would have enjoyed more time to look around and read more of the descriptions, but the girls were on a mission to complete their Junior Ranger books and only looking for the answers. Their favorite part was an interactive video where they could plan the dynamite blasts, and then blow up the rock on the screen!

My uncle ready to assist with the quest for Junior Ranger badges.

The girls really enjoyed seeing Mt. Rushmore!

After all their searching and learning, the girls turned in their books to see if they earned their Junior Ranger badges.

The girls earned their 10th Junior Ranger Badge!

After the girls earned their Junior Ranger badges, we took a break to have some ice cream. Not just any ice cream, but ice cream based off the first ice cream recipe from Thomas Jefferson! After taking pictures all day, we apparently don't have any pictures of us with our ice cream. It was just the cool, creamy, sweet spot that our day needed. I highly recommend getting ice cream in a bowl because the servings are HUGE! We had strawberry cheesecake, cookies and cream, butter pecan, and the traditional vanilla. All the flavors were delicious and hit the spot.

We stopped in the gift shop before we headed up to Spearfish for the night. A surprise guest was Nick Clifford, an original Mt. Rushmore driller! He officially became employed in 1938 at the age of 17, more for his baseball skills than his drilling skills. That makes him 94 years old now. His book is filled with questions people have asked him over the years and his answers. It's a really good, quick read filled with all kinds of information.

The girls met Nick Clifford, an original Mt. Rushmore driller and got their book autographed!

We left Mt. Rushmore and took the direct route back to US 385. It was pretty, but we are happy we took the scenic route on the way there, even with all the construction stops and slow vehicles in front of us. (Except Six, who claims she nearly puked on the long twisty roads and Eight, with the occasional smell of tar from the road construction.)

Road Trip Post #2K - Wind Cave NP, Crazy Horse Mem, Needles Hwy, Iron Mountain Rd

Wednesday, June 17th.

We left the Mammoth Site and drove into Custer, SD to regroup with my parents, sister, niece, my uncle, aunt and their dog. We were separated while others had to run errands in town. Instead of errands, I took my mom and girls through a drive of Wind Cave National Park. I was a little sad we didn't take the 90 minutes to do the tour and let the girls become Junior Rangers again. We love the National Park Service Junior Ranger Program! We did see a lot of bison. (I will probably use the term buffalo, but know that I mean bison). Some day we'll have to take this trip again with Tim!

The girls talked me into getting them these adorable Junior Ranger hats at the Wind Cave NP Gift Shop.

Why did the bison cross the road? To get to the stop sign to scratch its head!

We had lunch at Subway in Custer, which I actually recommend! It's a typical Subway, but the crew was fast, efficient, and embraced being a popular chain restaurant in a tourist town with small talk on their favorite places to see and times to see it. (After finding their link on Yelp, I think I should review it and bump up their rating...after I finish my blogs.)

We decided to split up again on our way to Mt. Rushmore. I took the girls and my mom in my vehicle. First stop was to see how much progress had been made in the carving of Crazy Horse. Construction on Crazy Horse Memorial started in 1948. This memorial is privately funded and is not government sponsored like Mt. Rushmore, so progress is very slow.

We thought we could snap a few pictures in the parking lot, but the booths with people charging us $11/person admission were before the parking lots. At least they let us do a U-turn for free. We weren't in the mood to pay $44 for a quick look at the mountain.

Picture from the point of our free U-turn.

Zoomed in cropped view from our U-turn. There's now a hole under his pointing arm.

We left Crazy Horse Memorial and came to our decision point: drive straight (20 minutes on SD 244) to Mt. Rushmore, or scenic route (turned into 2 hours on SD 87 - Needles Highway to US 16A - Iron Mountain Road)? Because my sister wasn't in our vehicle, we chose the scenic route with lots of hairpin turns, sharp drop offs, and one lane tunnels. Usually the scenic route is only an hour, but we got caught behind people doing 10 mph in the 35 mph zone, and stopped in road construction with flag people so long that I actually stopped the engine and enjoyed the summer breeze carrying the scents of fresh mountain air.

Slipping through the eye of the needle on Needles Highway. Actually the eye of the needle was near here and people were rock climbing and all kinds of people parking in crazy spots to take a picture. I was focused on driving. Picture by Karen Rasmussen.

Part of the scenery we would have missed going the short way. Picture by Karen Rasmussen.

More scenery along the way. Picture by Karen Rasmussen.

Steep cliffs that we can see on this side of the road. Drop offs looked like this, but on the other side of the road. Picture by Karen Rasmussen.

One lane traffic going through a tunnel. Picture by Karen Rasmussen.

We stopped at a campground to use the restroom. This is the type of safe scenery that could be seen on the short route taken by my "scaredy-cat" sister. (Opinion completely mine!)

This is the reason to take the scenic route! Our first great view of Mt. Rushmore!

Shortly after that tunnel there is a place to stop and take pictures. Here is my mom taking a picture of the girls and Mt. Rushmore.