A few weeks ago, I had an idea to go one a two day road trip out to west Nebraska and back using the Nebraska Passport program as a guidebook. J chimed in questioning how much farther it would be to visit Mount Rushmore. Umm… like another 5 hours driving. This conversation continued and evolved into a 5 day, 4 night road trip through Nebraska, up to the Mount Rushmore area, back through South Dakota, and down hone. After deciding on a big plan, I got to work finding lots of optional activities and sites to see. I’m huge into weird roadside attractions and offbeat sites and made sure to include a ton in my planning. We just got back from our trip this weekend and now it’s time to document our trip. I plan on doing a mini scrapbook album with pictures and ephemera, but first I’m going to document our travels here.
Day #3: Custer, SD to Rapid City, SD
Stop #1: Pancake Buffet at The Bavarian Inn, Custer, SD - Part of the reason we booked a hotel here was the pancake buffet. Q rediscovered his love of Nutella!
Stop #2: Random dinos in Custer, SD - We had to stop at this random display.
Stop #3: Black Hills Institute, Hill City, SD - Highlight of the day! The Black Hills Institute were the scientists behind finding Sue, the T Rex currently housed at the Field Museum in Chicago. A few years back, they found Stan - the largest most complete male T Rex fossil found. They actually still have Stan so we had to stop and visit. This tiny museum packs so many specimens in a tiny area. Another place we could have spent hours at if not for the little kids.
Stop #4: Mount Rushmore - My second visit to the mountain. Hasn’t changed. Haha! We didn’t spend a huge amount of time here, but we had to stop for a few to all get a look at the faces. While there, I picked up Thomas Jefferson and Abraham Lincoln bobbleheads. I now have all four of the Presidents on the mountain.
Stop #5: Lunch at BarLee’s, Keystone, SD - My best meal of the trip. I ordered the pulled pork sandwich and it was so good. Plus we got a great view of the hills across the street.
Stop #6: Black Hills Caverns, Rapid City, SD - Q fell asleep in the car, so J stayed with him while the rest of us went on the cave tour. I loved the tour and our tour guide. We ended up 225 feet below the surface!
Stop #7: Chapel in the Hills, Rapid City, SD - This reconstruction of a 12th century Norwegian church was a must see. J and hiked up to the church (the kids all stayed in the car) to marvel at the architecture. Very peaceful in the hills.
Stop #8: Storybook Island, Rapid City, SD - Apparently I have a thing for weird children’s amusement parks from the 1950s. We had to stop! And it lived up to all the weirdness that I was expecting. Unfortunately, there were so many bugs we didn’t spend that much time here. Seriously, there were swarms of bugs everywhere.
Stop #9: Dinosaur Park, Rapid City, SD - Another random roadside attraction I had to see. Q loved playing on all the dinosaurs. We got great 360 degree views of Rapid City. And I learned that the entire park was built by the WPA in 1936. Random!
Stop #10: Downtown Rapid City, SD - On our way to dinner, we walked through part of historic downtown. We stopped by Art Alley. Not quite the level of art as in Oakland, but I really liked the piece pictured below. RC has statues of all the U.S. President scattered throughout downtown. We saw about 10 total. We even managed to stumble across my favorite: Thomas Jefferson.
Stop #11: Dinner ay Jambonz Deux, Rapid City, SD - Decent soul cajun food. The catfish was really good.