Abby’s Awesome Adventure
Friday July 1, 2011
We set out for a trip to
South Dakota.
We crossed the
Mississippi River and during our drive through
Iowa, we saw
lots of windmills. We spent the night
at Hickory Hills Campground in Albert Lea, Minnesota, a nice clean campground
where we enjoyed the refreshing swimming pool.
Saturday July 2
We arrived at De Smet,
SD, where we spent a couple of days at Spot Campground.
De Smet, home of Laura Ingalls Wilder, 1879-1894, was also the final
stopping place for her family.
While there we enjoyed the Laura Ingalls Wilder Historic Homes tour,
including the Surveyor’s House, replica of the De Smet school, and the Ingalls
Home. We also saw a few other
historic sites, including the Almonzo & Laura Wilder homestead site and the
hitching post at the Loftus home.
After lunch at the Oxbow we spent the afternoon at the
Ingalls Homestead, a
wonderful “hands on” living museum.
Abby was able to experience many pioneer activities, including doing laundry,
making rope, making a button toy, playing a pump organ, using a treadle sewing
machine, churning butter, and driving a horse-drawn covered wagon to the Johnson
school. Abby bought souvenirs for
her family as well.
Monday July 4
We drove to Rapid City today. We
drove through
Pierre (pronounced ‘Peer’), the state capitol, where we saw a
severely swollen Missouri River with sandbags around most of the businesses and
some of the homes. In Ft. Pierre we
encountered a July 4th parade, with lots of horses and patriotic
floats. In Rapid City we spent a
couple of nights at the Americas Mailbox campground, while exploring the area.
We enjoyed the Rapid City fireworks from the back of our truck!
Tuesday July 5
After taking care of some business, we visited
Mount Rushmore National
Memorial, Abby’s primary goal for our trip.
It was a pretty day and we had beautiful views of Mount Rushmore.
We bought a few more souvenirs then headed to
Crazy Horse Memorial where
it misted but we were able to enjoy the views.
Grandpa & Grandma need to look at their 2007 pictures to identify the
differences in the memorial since their last visit.
We drove home through
Custer State Park, where we saw buffalo, pronghorn
deer, prairie dogs, and wild burros.
Wednesday July 6
We headed back to Tennessee today.
Interestingly, we saw several turtles along I-90 in South Dakota.
We spent the night at the North Sioux City KOA where Abby & Grandma
enjoyed the pool.