8 days on the road and so far, only 1 incident. But the incident was hilarious and I will get to it in a minute...We checked out of The White House Resort at 8:00 AM and drove past Mount Rushmore one last time. It was raining and foggy as we drove past and Jackson said "Look, they're crying because we're leaving! Look at John Adams' face."
"Uh, Jackson, John Adams isn't up there." I said.
"Oh yeah, I mean Thomas Edison."
Glad to see our youngin's have learned them some history.
We got to Jewel Cave National Monument and our tour began at 9:20 AM. The tour was just over an hour long and it was fantastic! We went down 379 feet below the surface and explored a 1/2 mile section of the 146 miles of caves that have been mapped out so far. Surveyors are, to this day, mapping out the caves. It reminded me of some weird Indiana Jonesy-Fraggley Rock movie. Chad loved this more than anything we've done so far. He said he wants to live down there. Sounds like fun, Chad. We'll miss you up here.
After the tour we stopped in Custer at The Purple Pie Place for lunch and mapped out where we should spend the night. We still didn't have any idea where we were going, as we left this day as our one day for total spontaneity. We decided to head toward Wyoming and stay somewhere near Devil's Tower. After lunch we drove over an hour to Wall Drug in Wall, SD. There were over 100 billboards on the side of the freeway advertising it. We stopped and shopped and looked at all the attractions then we climbed back in the van and drove through the Badlands.
The Badlands are so strangely beautiful. It was kind of an overcast day, but we had some great views. We were discussing what it was like for the pioneers to come across the plains... la dee da, in their covered wagons... green grass and flat all around... and then all of a sudden - crazy mountains and canyons everywhere. It was like being on Mars or something. And this is when "The Incident" happened.
There we were driving along - much like the pioneers of the 1800's when... what's that in our rearview mirror? Red and blue flashing lights? Oh crap.
Officer Take-My-Job-Seriously got out and sauntered to our car. Picture John Wayne with his thumbs through his belt-loops. Except this John Wayne is about 25 years old with a peach fuzz mustache and glasses. He asked us if we had any guns or drugs in the car. "Yes sir, we've got an 1/8th of weed in the glove box and our 6 year old has a shotgun behind her car seat" is what we did not say. After we told him "no" he said that the speed limit in the park is 35 mph and we were going 45 mph, which is the speed limit just outside the park, gesturing to the exit gate (we could literally throw a rock and hit the gate.) Chad gave him his license and proof of insurance and the park ranger-slash-sherrif walked back to his car slowly and sat there for about 5 minutes. Probably trying to scare us. I think he was actually listening to Bye-Bye-Bye by N*Sync. When he came back to the car, he slowed waaaay down and looked into the windows with a very stern expression on his face. He told Chad he was giving him a written warning and to not drive so fast. I leaned over and asked him if I could please take his picture, and he firmly replied, "No ma'm, you cannot."
You should've seen the look on the kids' faces when the jig was up. That's what criminals say, you know... "the jig is up, mister." We promised we'd make them each a copy of Chad's written warning for their Road Trip journals. They are so proud of their criminal-father.
We stopped by a Prairie Homestead and bought peanuts for the prairie dogs. I discovered that I am also a prairie-dog whisperer. We got some great pictures of the fat little guys. We explored an original dug-out, out house, chicken coop and a barn from 1909. I want to live in one of these. Perhaps we can find some property on top of a cave and Chad can live below and I can build a little dug out. A dream come true for us both.
We filled up the van, stocked up on road trip snacks, found a hotel in Sundance, WY and drove for just over 2 hours. We're now all checked in and sitting with the kids at the pool, relaxing and making fun of this little hyper-hypo kid that won't stop screaming.
Before we sign off, we'd like to share with you some more results from the Best Game in the Universe:
- Teddy Roosevelt walks into a bar, the bartender says, "we don't serve Teddy Roosevelt here" and Teddy Roosevelt says, "That's fine, The-odor here is horrible anyway."
- A bar of soap walks into a bar, the bartender says, "we don't serve bars of soap here" and the bar of soap says, "I'd lather go somewhere else anyway."
- Dorothy walks into a bar, the bartender says, "we don't serve Dorothy here" and Dorothy says, "But I'm Toto-lly thirsty."
- A donut walks into a bar, the bartender says, "we don't serve donuts here" and the donut says, "donut-hole me accountable for what I am about to do."
We worry too, Ashley. We worry too.
Peace Out Homies,
The Niemeyer's
This was a good one. The last comment from Ashley had me cracking up. Oh, that kid! She's a character!
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