Day 12: On The Road Again

Day 12, I woke up fairly tired.  Exercising at 9:45pm the night before was probably not smart, but after sitting in a car for 100s of miles and many hours, I had to do something.  I woke up this morning at 4:32 and was awake until at least 6:00.  Mike's alarm went off at 6:30 and woke me up again.  I finally gave up at 7:15 and got up.  We left the hotel at 8:17, got gas, and then drove to Sculpture Park in downtown Des Moines because I was determined to see something in Iowa and I didn' think I'd be back any time soon. The sculptures were cool.  I took a few pictures and we were back on the road within a half hour after arriving at the park.  We made a pit stop for Mike and one for me (becuase of course we didn't need one at the same time--go figure).  Not too much to say about the drive through Illinois except they must have had some serious rain recently because the water was right up to the highway. One school playground we passed was partially underwater.  We saw a truck pumping out water on one road.
We made a gas stop near Notre Dame so we decided to take a little drive to see the school.  We didn't get out of the car or anything, but we saw a tiny bit of the campus.  Couldn't see in the stadium from the car, but saw the outside.
Sometime between 5:00 and 5:30 we stopped at a rest stop in Indiana for a bathroom for me and pizza for Mike.  He hadn't had pizza in over a week so I thik he was suffering pizza withdrawl--I think he would live off pizza if I let him.  :-)
We got to the hotel around 8:00.  Checked in and then went down the street to a Red Robin for dinner.  Then back to the hotel for the night.

Day 11: Red Rock and The Road

I was hoping to go to The Mint on Monday (day 11), but you can only get tickets the day of and despite the fact that my mom was in line before 7am, there were only tickets left for the 3:30 tour.  As we had a nine hour drive, we were unable to do the 3:30 tour.  My parents and their friends enjoyed their tour though.  Since we couldn't go to the Mint, we made an impromptu trip to Red Rock.  We didn't stay too long because we had a long drive ahead of us, but we enjoyed wandering around a little bit, taking pictures, and checking out the area.  Then it was time to get on the road and begin heading back toward home.  We made a bathroom stop in Colorado on the Nebraska border.  A little later we stopped at a diner in North Platte, Nebraska for lunch.  It was at a place called Penny's Diner--a 50's diner.  It was pretty good.  We made one more pit stop later that afternoon.  On our ride we saw lots of cows, corn, and windmills.  I still found that part of the ride more enjoyable than Wyoming though.  We listened to quite a bit of country music--not Mike's favorite, but limited options in places.  With the time zone change, we arrived at our hotel at 8:10pm (in Iowa).  Our room was really nice, I kind of wished we were staying for more than one night.  We ordered take out dinner from a place we'd seen on the Travel Channel and Mike went to pick it up.  It was Jethro's BBQ.  Mike really enjoyed his sandwich.  After dinner, I did a short work out in the hotel gym.  A little reading, then off to bed.

Day 10: A Little Baseball And a Little Beer (And some Books)

We did the usual breakfast and gym this morning (and by we I mean we went to breakfast and I went to the gym).  Then we headed to Corrs Field to get tickets to the Rockies baseball game.  We watched the first three innings or so and then my brother, his wife, and two of their friends from back home came to the game.  We joined them and hung out with them for the rest of the game.  I couldn't tell you too much about the rest of the game as we chatted through most of it.  We had a great time though.  We left a little before the game ended because Mike's friends had to catch a flight home.  So we all walked out together then they headed toward the hotel to get their luggage and the four of us went down the street for an eary dinner/late lunch.  It was called Biker Jim's and I believe it's locally famous.  I had some type of vegan hotdog sausage thing that came with cream cheese an onions.  I also tried a random beer, that was just okay.  After dinner we Ubered back to my brother and sister-in-law's house, had a delicious carrot cake cupcake and then wished them well as we wouldn't be seeing them again for a while.  We stopped at Fiction Brewery on the way back to our hotel.  I loved the decor--it was a book themed bar, even the drinks were named after books.  There was even a big  full bookcase at the bar.  I ordered a flight, which I did not love, but then the bartender gave me some random drink which I really did not want (it was free), but he talked me into it and I'm glad he did because it was really good--better than the flight!  Then it was back to the hotel to pack up as we were leaving Denver the next day.

Day 9: The Wedding

My brother's wedding a.k.a. the reason for the road trip was on day 9.  We had a lazy morning--breakfast, gym, hanging out at the hotel.  Around noon time, we went downtown to have lunch and peek around for some souvenirs.  We ended up just sharing some appetizers for lunch and all I got for souvenirs were two postcards.  We found some fun stuff as we were walking around though--fun chairs to ride, corn hole with bean bag chairs, and beer pong (no beer) with soccer balls and trash barrels.  Then it was back to the hotel to get ready for the wedding and board the shuttle to the wedding. It was an entertaining shuttle ride.
The ceremony was nice--short and sweet.  It was at a brewery in the mountains.
The reception was fun--great food.  We met some new people (friends of my brother's from Colorado) and it was nice to see some of his long time friends again.  We ate, drank, danced, lauged,and had a good time. The shuttle back wasn't quite as entertaining as some people were a bit annoying, but such is life.
By the time we got back to the hotel it was around midnight so we called it a night as we were exhausted.  We had a good time and I am very happy for my brother.

Day 8: Breweries (and a Rehearsal Dinner)

The hubs and I got up, went to breakfast at the hotel and ran into friends of my parents. We chatted with them for a little while, went back to the room, then I went to the hotel gym and worked out for a while. Got ready, then headed to the 16th Street Mall and poked around a bit, but there weren't any shops we were really dying to go in so we ventured to Great Divide Brewery.  We got there right after they opened and it was a good thing because the place got busy quickly.  I had no idea that many people drank at noon on Friday.  I'm not a big beer fan, but I tried two samples and I liked one of them--it was some sort of sour.
After about an hour or so, we walked a mile to another brewery, Epic.  I got a small flight there and didn't really like any of them.  We also ordered some pretzels to absorb the beer.  Mike did like his beer.  I think he even got a t-shirt there.
Then we walked a short distance to Our Mutal Friend where we split a flight of fruity beers--thought since they were fruity I'd love them, but no luck.  Our last stop was Stem Cider Company.  I tried two small ciders there and really liked one of them.  I also had the best vegetarian crepe of my life outside Stem. I think the guy who made it was high, but he was a riot and the crepe was delicious.  I kind of wanted to get a dessert one too, but we had to head back to the hotel to get ready for the rehersal dinner.  Mike had a s'mores crepe, Happy Camper or something like that, he enjoyed it.
Anyway, we Ubered back to the hotel, got ready, then Ubered to the rehersal dinner--good ol' traffic (and a little poor planning on my part) made us 15 minutes late.  The food was pretty good--big portions.  After dinner (it was only 7), we rode with my parents to my brother's house.  He and his fiance were having a party for everyone who was in town--local or out of towners--for the wedding.  It was nice to see his friends from home and meet some of his friends from CO that I had not met yet.  We stayed 'til around 10, then rode back to the hotel with my parents.

     

Day 7: Missing Shoes, South Dakota Sighseeing, Cows Galore, and Colorado

On day 7 as we were getting ready to head out for the day, I heard the hubs start saying a few shall we say not so nice words when he was in the hotel bathroom.  I was sitting in the bedroom so I thought perhaps he'd seen a spider or gotten hurt or something.  Nope.  My parents had flown out to Colorado and per usual overpacked so Mom asked us to bring a small bag with shoes and a purse in it for her.  The hubs had taken some bags out and moved some bags around at our last stop.  As he was getting ready, it suddenly dawned on him that he didn't think he'd put Mom's bag back in the car and he was freaking out--because you know it's always fun to tell your mother-in-law you did something wrong.  I told him to calm down and go check the car when he was dressed.  He did--no shoes.  I texted my friend to see if we'd left them at her house.  She wasn't at home, but promised to look later.  So as we're trying to decide how to explain this to my mother, I go out to to the car, look around, and find the shoes and purse in a bag UNDER another bag. YAY!
With that settled, we could get the hotel breakfast, pack up, check out, and head to Mt. Rushmore.  We drove over there, waited in a short line of cars, and then for the first time I saw , Mt. Rushmore.  I was pretty excited.  It was great, we took some pictures in a few different places, but then it was like, um, okay, what do we do now?  If we'd been there at night, there was a light show, but we had plans to be in Colorado that night so we were all "um, I guess we should go to the gift shop???"  So we went to the gift shop and then left.
Then it was off to Custer State Park--via some crazy narrow windy roads.  At Custer State Park, we did the Wildlife Loop Road where we saw burros (donkeys) that come right up to your car and buffalo--the buffalo made me a little nervous, but the hubs LOVED them.  I had no idea he liked buffalo so much prior to taking this trip with him.  From Custer State Park, we headed to the Crazy Horse Memorial--not my favorite spot.  It was cool to see, but I didn't think we got our $22 worth.  We only stayed there a 1/2 hour. I guess if we'd had more time, we could have watched the movie and spent more time walking around, but I just think for that price, there should be more to do.  We left Crazy Horse and began the 5 1/2 hour drive to Denver.  We saw lots of cows--and not a whole lot else. Once in a while we'd go through a small town.  We saw some storms in the distance, but thankfully, we only got hit with a little rain.  We made one rest stop in Wyoming and later one gas stop.  The hubs and I wondered what life was like for some of the people out there.  You'd see a house with nothing else really around--besides cow and hay of course.  I wondered how far they have to go for groceries, school, etc.  Just so dfferent than what I'm used to in my neck of the woods.  Not much traffic until an hour outside of Denver--UGH!
  We finally checked into our hotel in Denver around 7:40 then drove to my brother's house.  We hung out with hin, his fiance, and my parents for a little while--got a tour of his new house--then my brother, his fiance, my husband, and I all went out for dinner and drinks.  We left the car at my brother's house since parking was ridiculously overpriced and my brother drove us back to the hotel after dinner/drinks.  It was a long and busy, but fun day. 

Speaking of busy, I have a few busy days coming up so it may be a few days 'til I blog again, but we're getting there with the trip.  :-)

Day 6 South Dakota

If I were to replan this trip, I would have spent another day in South Dakota.  Don't get me wrong, we had a great time and saw a lot, but we did a lot of driving and didn't have a ton of time to stop anywhere in an attempt to fit it all in.  We left Angel's house just before 9am and drive to Sioux Falls, SD. We stopped at Falls Park Visitor Information Center and Observation Towe rmainly because I had read about it and wanted to see it.  It was also good to stretch and go the bathroom.  I visited the gift shop and climbed the tower.  We took a few pictures in the park, then it was back in the car.  We drove to the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD.  We spent between 30-60 minutes exploring the place.  We also stopped at the ice-cream shop across the street so Mike could get a shake.  It was a 4 1/2 hour drive from Angel's house to Corn Palace and now we had over three hours from Corn Palace to Wall Drug, our next stop.  On the way we saw:  fields, tons of billboards, and many bales of hay.  Suddenly at one point we saw a lake. It was so weird to see nothing and then bam there's a random lake.
   Wall Drug was all right.  We wandered around the shops, had lunch (linner?  A late lunch/early dinner)--Mike tried buffalo, then headed down the road to the Badlands.  We both really liked the Badlands, but we didn't spend a ton of time there.  If we did this trip over again, we would have stayed there longer.  Shortly after leaving the Badlands, we saw some buffalo, which excited Mike--I had no idea he liked buffalo so much.  One of the roads we took was SO BUMPY.  It was in the middle of nowhere--no cell service and I kept praying we didn't break down or get a flat.  I was having flashbacks to a similar road in Iceland years ago.  It was only an 8 mile road, but my gosh if felt long!  I was so excited to get back to a "main road" to head to Rapid City.
  We checked into our hotel, got settled, then got gas, and went downtown to explore a little, and get some dinner.  We had dinner at the Firehouse Brewery.  Then we went next door to the Firehouse Winery to sample some wine. Took a couple of pictures downtown, then it was back to the hotel to go to bed.