Midlife Creative

We did it! We traveled for 6 months and made it across the whole Southern United States from Florida to California. I’m getting excited to sit back and reflect on the trip as a whole, but before that…One More Stop. The beautiful, yet often overlooked state of South Dakota.

We stayed in Rapid City for two nights at the Fairmount Inn (thanks to John and Julie Goos for sharing their hotel points 😊). The girls loved the water park attached to the hotel. We also enjoyed a couple visits with Mark’s aunt and uncle, Kent and Deb. They took us out to their favorite pizza place and also to their house for some lefse and more visiting.

We visited Mount Rushmore and Custer State Park. We saw deer, buffalo, donkeys, and prairie dogs on our drive through the wildlife loop. We would have driven more of the scenic drives if it had been the beginning of the trip, but we were just too tired of driving.

When it got dark, we drove out on a gravel road away from the city lights to look at stars. The Northern Lights were spectacular. A lot of other cars were parked along the same road looking at the lights. The beautiful night came to a sudden end when Ivy had to pee on the side of the road and we simultaneously somehow set off our car alarm. Worried that we were “making a scene” we headed back to the hotel.

Our last stop in South Dakota was in Sioux Falls. We stayed at another hotel and met up at the Olive Garden with Ben and Ona Duebner and their son. We were incredibly honored that they would drive 2 HOURS to see us!! It made our whole week