CSA Thursday

I normally post about CSA Wednesday, but we didn't make it back in time last night from our trip to pick up our weekly goodies. We picked them up today instead. They even gave us extras because we missed last week's pickup!

There's no way we'll ever use all these onions

More lettuce

One of two bags of squash

More eggs

This Place is for Boys

We saw dinosaurs, fossils, caves, trains and reptiles aplenty.

South Dakota is made for children, especially boys.

Here are some of the things we did while on our trip:

1.       On Tuesday we drove through most of the state of South Dakota. The state earns much of its revenue from tourism, and the billboards all along the Interstate make that obvious. We stopped at what can only be described as two of the state’s landmarks:

The Corn Palace

and Wall Drug

We saw billboards for this place from the moment we entered the state until well after we passed it miles later. We stopped here to browse and to eat. I also enjoyed the best 5-cent cup of coffee I’ve ever had!

2.       Mt. Rushmore was a must later in the week. You can't go to South Dakota and not visit this place.

We explored one of South Dakota’s many caves later that day. No pictures, though. I left my camera in the car and was not about to walk down and back up the long flight of stairs with a baby in tow.

3.       We enjoyed the first train ride of the 2012 season on the 1880 passenger train Friday morning. It was cold!

Later that day we went to the Black Hills Museum of Natural History. I cannot say enough good things about this place. It’s a fossil musuem, most of which are dinosaur fossils. The most impressive is the T-Rex Stan. The museum space is small. There's a gift shop and one room where all the fossils are displayed, but it is the perfect size for little ones to explore. The staff is super friendly and there is complementary coffee as you enter the museum.

4.      We spent yesterday at the Reptile Gardens in Rapid City. It houses the biggest crocodile I’ve ever seen.
We then ventured to the Mammoth Site in Hot Springs. The hubby and I both agree that it was our favorite place. On display is one of the more amazing things I’ve had the pleasure to see. In 1974, when workers were trying to develop the land, they came across what can only be described as a mammoth graveyard. For almost 40 years, researchers have continued to dig and still unearth things here. They have found what they believe are 59 mammoths in this one site. The theory is that this was a watering hole that turned into a sink hole, and the mammoths drowned. Most of the mammoths found here are Columbian Mammoths. I don’t know much about mammoths, but I always thought that Wooly Mammoths were the only kind that existed. They have found wooly mammoth remains here as well, but the majority of remains belong to the Columbians.

5. We are officially out of the state of South Dakota this evening. On our way out, though, we had to make a couple more stops. We took a quick tour of a petrified wood park. Both the hubby and the little boy thought it was cool.

We ate lunch at one of the many diners in this state. Al's Oasis served up a good hamburger and some more 5-cent coffee. It was also a place to stretch our legs and get a few more pics.

The other three members of this tired family are currently snoozing away in our king-size bed here in Minnesota this mother's day evening. What a blessed mamma and wife I am!

Homesick

Here we are a couple thousand miles from home and it has sunk in.

My little man is homesick. He told me tonight how he missed home. Tears welled up in his eyes.

He was tired and we were laying in bed going through our nightly routine. Except, when you are so far from home, it's not the same thing. It's a different bed, a different room and it all feels different.

I haven't been homesick in so many years I'd forgotten how bad the feeling is. When you're four, and home is your favorite place, six days away from it is a long time. We've got about six more to go before we get home.

So tonight, I'm saying a prayer that God will help me say what he needs to hear most tomorrow night if this feeling creeps back in.

Our days have been fun-filled, but when the weariness sets in at night and the eyes get heavy and the limbs ache from so much walking and running and playing, the familiar warmth of home is what he's probably missing most.

We all learn this tough lesson at some point: There's no place like home.

Dinosaur Heaven

I thought we'd spend the day recuperating from our long drive. To me, this meant washing several loads of clothes at the campsite laundromat and then walking the grounds. To the little boy, it was all about seeing some dinosaurs.

Upon realizing that the Dinosaur Park was only a couple of miles from our cabin, we piled back into the car.

Not even an upset stomach was going to keep him from this today!

There are five green dinosaurs sitting atop a hill in Rapid City, SD

Meet the Allosaurus

Sitting on the head of a triceratops

This is just a portion of the city seen from the hill

I'm sure this place stays packed with tourists on warm days like today climbing the long flight of steps to make it to the top.

Many a child has had a wonderful day at this place.

Stoney Creek Inn

We spent last night at the Stoney Creek Inn in Sioux City, Iowa.

I mentioned in a previous post that we'd be staying in "rinky-dink" hotels along the way. Well, this place was far from rinky-dink. I booked the room for $89, so I assumed it would be a small hotel with a cool waterfall and some bear statues out front (I saw these images on the hotel website when booking the property).

What I didn't expect was the decor to be so rustic. The hotel definitely did not match its surroundings.

I realize this sounds like a complaint.

It's not!

Here's what I mean. The inn is located directly off the Interstate in Sioux City and is surrounded by, for the most part, run-down buildings. Inside there are lots of images of outdoor life, a deer head mounted on the wall and a stuffed bison in the lobby. Faux gas lanterns are spread throughout the hotel.

I would expect to see something like it here in The Black Hills or the Great Smoky Mountains. I just wasn't expecting the lodge-like feel of an inn that is located in the midst of town.

The hotel itself was large. There was also a pub, an indoor/outdoor pool and a good breakfast.

Maybe these pictures will give a better feel for the place than my floundering description. It's been a long four days!

The back of the hotel had a pond with streaming waterfalls

Did I mention waterfalls are a favorite of his - that's the reason I booked the place

A view from the back - Nothing like what you see on the inside

A view from the front

The little boy apparently hates deer mounted on a wall - He was so upset by it that we had to walk through another room each time we passed

The moose armchair and ottoman in our room

One of several tree lamps in our room

The bison in the lobby

One of many bear signs displayed throughout the hotel

Our Paul Bunyan bathroom

Holding sister

Sioux City, Iowa

Day one in the car is exciting. By day three, weariness sets in.

At least it had for me and the children.

The hubby, who is more optimistic and less prone to fits of temper, seemed to be holding strong.

That changed for us temperamental ones sometime on this side of Kansas City. We got our second wind thanks to help from our trusty friend - Chick-Fil-A - and the view of the vast plains of Missouri and Iowa.

It's definitely cooler here. By cooler I mean it was a sunny 72 degrees around 4 pm, but it felt like the low 60s - none of that humidity that comes along with a 72-degree day in the deep south.

We are loving our hotel in Sioux City. It reminds me more of a mountain lodge than a hotel (without a view of a mountain of course).

We hope to reach Rapid City tomorrow afternoon or evening and will spend some much needed time Wednesday as far away from the inside of a car as possible. 

Somewhere in Middle America

We've been on the road now for two days.

Last night saw us in Bowling Green, Kentucky. I was hoping to snap a picture of the super moon, but didn't want to walk through the hotel in my pajamas. I planned to stay up so I could at least view it from our hotel window. I got in the bed to rest and the next thing I knew it was 1:21 in the morning. Oh well, maybe next year.

Tonight finds us in Columbia, Missouri. As I type this I can hear the wind howling outside our room. Being from the deep south means I'm uncomfortably familiar with thunderstorms and tornadoes. We've dodged bad weather thus far, and I'm hoping this nasty line of storms passes us by here too.

We took our time more today and stopped for about three hours in St. Louis. It was a welcome break from the car.

We enjoyed getting to see the Gateway Arch up close. My favorite part was the shaded walkway there on the riverfront where baby girl dozed in her stroller while the little man and the hubby did some running.

The temperature in the car read 94 degrees when we arrived in St. Louis, and it felt like it. I'm ready for some cooler temps come South Dakota!