Adventures with Carrie and Grace part 2, 2021

 Part 2 of this log described Day 1 of my June 4th, 2021 trip heading to Sioux City, Iowa.

Reaching Sioux City on June 5th, the laundromat was my Saturday. The daughter works midnights so Carrie and I loaded all the laundry into the Dodge and spent the next hours washing, drying and folding. 

The remainder of Saturday was a rest break and the following Sunday also. Monday we headed to Omaha in my rental Corolla to collect Grace from the airport. Grace is Carrie's friend and she was to accompany us on Adventure 2021. 

Grace lives in a 5 bedroom house with multiple bathrooms. Carrie lives in a rental with one bathroom. I wondered how Grace would deal with the living conditions of the old two bedroom, one bath aged Craftsman house that we would be inhabiting for the next week before moving on to our trip. Taking bids for who uses the bathroom next, sleeping on an air mattress and functioning in a small space, Grace was a champ. I also was a bit hesitant about taking someone else's child on a trip that Carrie and I take which sometimes has it's challenges. This trip was especially challenging as I had no rental for the first week or so and was using the daughter's truck in the daytime while at night she drove it to work.

 We explored Sioux City, the girls visited the park, walked around with friends, shopped and had their nails done. 

Eventually I was able to secure a rental (the Jeep Cherokee) and we packed everything into it, the girls occupying the back seat as I had the cooler in the passenger seat. It's early Friday AM and we are headed to Mount Rushmore. I had hoped to stay in Keystone, at the base of the monument but all the rooms were reserved. We rented a room in Rapid City. This room was 189.00 a night, a queen size bed. Most hotels were full or the rooms were over 300.00 a night. 

After many trials on sleeping arrangements which tried was one sleeping on the floor, or one in the Cherokee, we found the solution. Stripping the linens off the bed, we positioned ourselves ACROSS the bed.

 

Again I wondered how Grace was taking this "roughing it" but there was no complaints from her at all. I'm sure she was experiencing a different vacation then what she was use to. Usually Grace visits the beach multiple times in the summer, staying in a beautiful condo, and dining out every night.

Forewarned about "adventures" and my style of vacationing, and hesitant about including another person other then Carrie (who goes with the flow and without argument) again Grace was without complaint and still excited about the trip. The cooler was packed with water, cokes, pepsi and Mountain Dew. A loaf of bread and bologna and a squirt bottle of Mayo was available. 

Before reaching Rapid City, we visited The Badlands National Park.

As the girls walked to the edge and my fear of heights was now full blown and having warned them of the dangers of getting too close to the edge, I had to turn away and not watch them. My screaming wouldn't have helped so I refused to be an audience. 

We munched on our bologna sandwiches and sipped on cokes from the cooler and slowly drove around the park, stopping to collect rocks and take some photos. Our next stop was Wall, SD. where we spent some time at Wall Drug Store. This was my first visit to Wall, SD. The drug store is huge and comprised of shops displaying agates from the region, leather goods, clothes and a restaurant. The girls tried on cowboy hats, picked up agates, and Grace bought a "Badlands" crew neck shirt and we were off once again to Rapid City.

We checked into our "queen sized bedroom', unpacked and headed for Keystone to watch the lighting ceremony of Mt. Rushmore. With time to kill, we got hamburgers (not bologna) at a Dairy Queen and moved up the mountain to the monument.

Seated in the  outdoor amphitheater, we waited for the show to begin. I had warned the girls to take warm clothes as it would get chilly during the evening. This is not my first visit to Rushmore and the Black Hills. History of the faces of Rushmore, the visitors singing the national anthem and the lightning of Rushmore, and back to Rapid City for the night.

The girls are used to staying up till 3 AM. I hustled them out of bed at 7:30. There was no more late nights for them after that. They were happy to be in by 9PM. Early to bed, early to rise...lol.

We made our way back to Keystone. Carrie loves going through "Bear Country" so we paid our admission and took an hour cruise through that park. Plenty of bears to see and Grace was squealing when one walked right up to her window. Reindeer, antelope, fox, mountain lions and buffaloes were present.

Initially, had I not wrecked my auto, I wanted to go to Deadwood. I haven't been there in years and wanted to revisit. We instead went to Keystone again and did a tram ride

up the mountain then did the cave.

Here is where my trip became unpleasant. Losing my car I thought would be the worst part of this trip but that was only because I had never done a cave.

We climbed stair after stair after stair to get to the entrance, bought our tickets and waited for our group to enter. As soon as we walked down the narrow path into the cave, entered the cramped room with rocks and narrow pathways, I knew I was not going to be comfortable in the bowels of this mountain. Too late. I was trapped and trapped I felt. Uncomfortable in small enclosed spaces, I took some deep breaths and tried to calm myself. The girls were having a great time and excited to be trying something new. 

The next hour was spent following our guide, wiggling through tight corridors and descending deeper and deeper into this cave. Ducking to avoid rocks encroaching into the narrow passages with the guide calling out "watch your head"... Occasionally we would get to a small room where we all gathered to listen to our guide explain the rock formations above and around us. At this point all I can think about is getting OUT!

Stair after stair, steps taking us up to another level and stairs taking us down into more openings and then a warning from our guide that the next set of steps would take us to....WAIT FOR IT....a ladder we had to scale to get out of this cave. She said that this would be the worst part and that anyone not wishing to go further could turn back and go the way we came in. Really? Alone?  Not I!! Alone through those passages, I would have surely had a panic attack wondering if I was going in the right direction and not veering off into a dead end passage. Again with the deep breaths. Forward....and be damned,  I was exhausted, my legs were trembling as I climbed that ladder but the end was in sight and I was more then ready for this to be over!

I have done my first and last cave. The girls loved it and were having a great time. 

Stumbling out of that cave and down the stairs, we made it back to our car and headed south. 

1400 miles from home, we stopped two nights on the road on the way back. 

Home and the unpacking begins, the rental cleaned and returned to Enterprise.

I'm sure someone was waiting for a rental as Hertz has sold all their fleet during the pandemic, leaving Avis and Enterprise the choices of travelers.