We packed everything into the trailer and loaded the teens into the car, said good-bye to everyone and headed off on the road trip in the early morning hours. It was a long drive from Rochester, NY to central Iowa, which was our destination for that night. Pete drove the whole way despite repeated offers from his co-pilot to drive for a while. As we were entering Iowa, we ran into a very impressive thunderstorm which stayed with us for the rest of the day until we arrived at Pam and Jon's house. What a great evening it was, good company, good conversation and good food with the thunderstorm rumbling in the background. Finally it was time for bed.
In the morning, after breakfast and the required group picture, we gave our thanks for putting up with us and said our good-byes with many hugs before once again turning to the west and hitting the road. Late in the day we started looking for a campground to spend the night. We found one just outside of a town but when we tried to move in, the campsite was so small that we couldn't fit in it so we moved on and drove for a couple more hours until we arrived at the Badlands just as the sun was going down It was beautiful with the rich rays of the setting sun really bringing out the colors in the different bands of exposed rock. We did a little exploring and drove down to the valley and the campground that awaited us there. It was a very comfortable night despite the winds that came up and tried to flatten the tent around us. That only made it more exciting.
The next morning (day 3), we ate a good breakfast, packed up and went off to do some exploring and photo taking. We made a stop at the museum and visitors center before resuming our westward trek towards Yellowstone.
Along the way, we found a place that served Ice cream and just had to stop to try some. A short while later, we rounded a curve and the presidential visages of Mount Rushmore we watching us as we approached their domain in the Black Hills of South Dakota.
