More South Dakota

Mount Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

We took the drive from Rapid City and saw these historical sights and were also rewarded with a mountain goat grazing by the road. In the photo with the car you can see the Mount Rushmore profile above us if you look closely and the information board explains it all, including the goat.

Wall, South Dakota

After driving through Badlands National Park we really felt that we should stop in to see Wall Drug in Wall SD. After all, they've invested in about 100 billboards covering the 300 miles before and after them. I guess they work because the place was packed.

It's a whole street of shops really but Wall Drug is the big draw. We enjoyed the free ice water and 5 cent coffee as adverstised. We ate at the cafe and browsed the art work, photogragphs, shops and exhibits while dodging other tourists. And then of course there's the giant jackalope.

South Dakota: Badlands National Park

The girls said it was like Australia only no flies. It was a pretty cool 30 mile drive through here.

Missouri

Babler Memorial State Park, near St. Louis, Missouri.

St. Louis, 'gateway to the west'

horses

Kentucky Horse Park, near Lexington, Kentucky.
3 hour horse farm tour.
We got to meet some famous race horses/breeders, including 'Tiznow' who would cost 100 million dollars if you wanted to buy him. The girls got to feet peppermints to 'Lady McQueen, a race horse in training.

Kentucky

Here's an update on the highlights so far.

We thoroughly enjoyed and exhausted ourselves at the Six Flags in Mass. Excellent roller coasters and a great water park.

On the highway near Hershey, Pennsylvania the roads were very rough. As Kevin gave some space to a state trooper that had a car pulled off the road we heard a very loud 'bang!'. We pulled off the highway to find that we'd blown a back inside tire. The police officer we'd gone around came racing up behind us. He was very relieved that it was a blown tire he'd heard, he thought someone was shooting at him. He was very helpful and followed us to the next rest stop where he called AAA for us. Dealing with them was another story but not as interesting.

In Hershey, Pennsylvania we visited Hershey Park, a full-on theme park. It was sooo hot though, we didn't do much more than a morning at the water park. Oh yeah, it was also July 4th, a little busy!

At the campground in Hershey we enjoyed an outdoor movie, fireflies, giant koi and frogs in the pond, and off course the pool. We never did eat any chocolate in Hershey. Too hot.

We stayed a night in Shawnee State Park, Pennsylvania. Had a nice swim in the lake.
They had warnings of bears in the area and a bear trap at the garbage cans. (Which reminds me, we saw a bear cub on the side of the road near Wentworth, NS).

In Akron, Ohio we got new back tires. The other ones were still fine but we needed the new spare anyway and don't want to risk another highway blow-out.

We're now in Kentucky. A water tower in Florence, Kentucky said in big letters: FLORENCE Y'ALL!

We stayed a night at Big Bone Lick State Park in northern Kentucky. We took a walk in the evening through a forest full of loud bugs and fireflies to a field of buffalo.

There, now we're back on track.

Another voyage...

We're on the road again! Just a month this time. We're travelling through the USA once again, seeing some new-to-us states. Since it's a summer trip we've managed to swim everyday so far, in lakes, pools, and water parks!

These photos are from Freeport, Maine, at the L.L.Bean store. On this blog, almost 2years ago (October 2008?), there are some very similar photos.

We've been to Six Flags, Mass. and Hershey, Pennsylvania. I've been a little slow on the photo taking so here we are in Lexington, KY. More photos soon!