South Dakota

Welcome to the random moments section of our road trip.  On our first day we stopped in Torrington for a picnic lunch at the local park.  The kids enjoyed getting out some wiggles on the playground equipment.  Jeremy and I were even able to get out our wiggles on the public ellipticals.  

We stopped as soon as we crossed from Wyoming into South Dakota to get another state sign picture.  We can officially cross this state off of our list now! 

 We had hoped to visit the wind caves, but like everything in the world their operations have been affected by covid-19.  The cave tours were postponed, but we stilled walked along the path to the cave entrance.  The kids each packed their cloaks to travel with.  And they thought, why not go hiking while wearing cloaks?  They reminded me of hobbits from Lord of the Rings. 

Jeremy thought that lowering our sons into the natural entrance of the cave would be a good idea...I've had enough scary experiences with exploring caves that I didn't quite agree.  Luckily Kelton was too nervous to go exploring.  

Near Custer we passed a huge sculpture made out of bicycles.  We pulled over and went exploring.  It really was a sculpture made entirely of bicycles; new, old, antique, broken, new-ish, children bikes, and adult bikes.  We walked through it just thinking that it took a lot of dedication to keep something like this growing, and I was grateful to find something so unique.  And we heard the unexpected from our teenage daughter, "Wow, road trips are actually a lot of fun!"  I'll take that as a win.

There were very few restaurants and shops open this time of year, so when we stopped at Custer and found the only burger shop open in town, we had to wait a bit for a table.  We wandered around town and found an old stage coach stop, stage coach, and bunk house.  And while we couldn't go into the museum, we could slide down its banisters!  

Luckily for us, once we did get our dinner we were not disappointed!  Black Hills Burger and Bun was amazing and we left with incredibly happy tummies!  Cambrie thought the restroom sign at the diner was awesome.  I admit, it made me chuckle too.  Day one on the road wasn't too bad!