It’s hard to believe, but we are seeing the 3rd full moon of the trip. On our way from Lake Minnetonka to Mount Rushmore we drove through Le Sueur, MN, home of the Valley of the “hohoho” Green Giant. I never got that Le Sueur peas were named after a place. Now I know, and I saw it. Another day, another lesson.

Added two new states to my long list of first time-in states. South Dakota and Wyoming. As we were driving through the Badlands, we saw a billboard that said “Help manage wildlife. Wear fur.” Okay, not politically or otherwise correct, but it was good for a chuckle. This is the area where Dances With Wolves was filmed, and you can totally see it. The drive to Rapid City, SD, was a long one (574 miles), but there really wasn’t any place you’d want to stop, for lack of things to do, so we just went for it. We found a great restaurant (it was time for a steak) just a short walk away, and made a new friend. He is moving to Phoenix next month (we will try not to hold that against him though, lol!).

On our drive to South Dakota, we noticed motorcycles everywhere on the road. It turns out the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally was over on August 10th. I guess we dodged a bullet on that one-apparently accommodations were difficult to find during that week-it’s still not great yet. Sturgis is 29 miles from Rapid City, where we decided to stay.

On Monday morning we headed to Mount Rushmore, which was pretty cool. Lots of people. There is a very short trail to give you different vantage points. After that we went to the Crazy Horse Monument, which I’m sorry, annoyed me a little. They charge twice as much to go in to it than Rushmore, but it is not even close to complete. The head is done, nothing much on the horse, which is what will be really amazing. I say wait on this one. Next stop-the Devils Tower in Wyoming. You can see this for miles and the drive is beautiful. Thumbs up. We took a really pretty scenic drive between Custer City and Deadwood-the Black Hills area is definitely worthwhile. Lots of little casinos everywhere-but we did not stop. We had hoped to make it to Billings, Montana today, but with all the oohing and ah-ing, that was not to be. A quick stop in some little Wyoming town, called Gillette, and then onward to Montana in the morning. I feel bad that this post is kind of boring, but how much can you write about all these rocks?