The End of Our Vacation

On our final day in the Black Hills we decided to take the girls and go for a ride to the Badlands.  This was about a 2-hour drive each way so we knew it was an all day event.  The ride up to Rapid City was pretty but from that point until we were close to the Badlands was pretty boring.  The Badlands, however, were neat to see.  Out there in the middle of nowhere are these very large stone spires and canyons.  For quite a bit of the ride we were on top of the ridge with this spires and canyons on the left and acres of grassy fields on the right.  There were beautiful colors of reds and yellows in the rock.  Archaeologists have found many fossils throughout this area.  After we finished the drive we headed up to Wall Drug which was an interesting place.  This was just a small drug store purchased by a couple in 1931.  For the first five years the store brought in no business.  The town was very small and there was no reason for outsiders to come in.  However, with the opening of Yellowstone and a highway nearby, they started marketing the business by putting up lots of signs on the highway offering free ice water.  Remember, folks traveling to Yellowstone were in old old cars and it was a long, hot, dusty drive.  The free ice water did the trick and while folks were in the store they started to purchase other items such as snacks.  Now it is a booming business with a restaurant, tons of souvenirs, and more.  As my sister said to me, it's the signs you see on the road that make it even more interesting.  I believe it is the fourth generation of the family that still runs the business.  We loaded up the girls in their stroller and headed into the store to check it out. 

On our way back to the campground we made a stop at a wood carver's outdoor business that we had been eyeing and bought two adorable carvings of bears.  One for our deck at Cedar Blue and the other for our place in Newcastle.  Can't wait to get them displayed.

Friday morning we headed out for the Grand Island KOA which is where we spent our first night on the road.  Of course we lost an hour on that trip when we drove back into Central Daylight Time.  Yuk!  The drive down to I-80 was pretty nice.  I had no idea that Nebraska could be so pretty and hilly.  Right before we got to I-80 we came into Oshkosh and stopped at a place out in the country for gas as they had lots of room for the RV.  While there one of the owners had to come out and see the girls.  So they got a bit of loving from her.  Inside they had a very clean little cafe so we had lunch as well.  Then we made a bit of a detour and drove along the north side of a lake that appears to be the largest lake in the State.  John loves lakes so he enjoyed the drive.  The road took us across the dam at the end of the lake and out to I-80.  We don't know if the lake was really low in water or if there was supposed to be as much white beach as we saw but it was interesting.  We arrived at the KOA about 7 pm.  They made and delivered pizza at this place so we had a pizza delivered to the RV for dinner, washed the windshield and front of the motorhome off and called it a night.

I had to end the vacation with one last injury.  After I washed the front of the RV and went inside to sit down I pulled a back muscle when sitting.  Ouch!  It smarted.  At least it was on our way home.  I got some rest and John drove the first half of our final day.  Then we stopped for gas and yes - the RV would not start!  Ugh.  While I was on the phone with roadside service John messed with the ignition enough that it finally started up.  Thank goodness we had enough gas to get us the rest of the way home.  During our brief stops to walk the girls and eat lunch we just left it running and arrived home with a quarter of a tank left! 

We had a wonderful vacation and thank the Lord for blessing us in so many ways - for a safe trip and so  many beautiful creations of His to see.