YTD-Day 2

10:40 a.m.

Well, an hour and a half behind schedule is certainly better than the eleven hours behind we fell yesterday.  We are, again, packed like sardines and 32 states into the license plate game.  It’s amazing how quiet the car is at the moment.  Even Nathan who is ALWAYS talking is quiet.  AMAZING!  Everyone is pretty tired.  But I am wide awake-Thank you, Starbucks!

10:47 a.m.

I spoke too soon.  Ryan is managing to tease everyone in the car…tickling Nathan, looking at Grace “wrong”, and calling me Laura!  Who does he think he is??  J 

(Sigh)

As I sit here in the passenger seat traveling a stretch of road that does not offer much to look at, I think about the road trips I took as a kid.  We never traveled by plane.  Always by car with my sisters and I in the back seat.  I sat in the middle with my feet on the hump.  We brought things to do to keep us busy…crosswords, seek and finds, books, cross stitch projects, music on the FM radio, paper/coloring books, crayons and pencils.  We would make our own fun:  driving Sandy crazy, singing, making up songs/stories, or just looking out the window.  My parents would try to engage us in games like the license plate game, guess the distance, the alphabet game, or they would torture us by listening to talk radio on the AM dial…ugh!  And to get from here to there, we used a map.  Times have certainly changed!

1:15 p.m.             Boredom

Nothing to do…nothing to see.  Just trying to pass the time.

2:30 p..m.

Potty break at scenic overlook. Pretty pic of Grace and other scenery or "ob-scenery". Nathan just couldn't wait so we had no choice. He also didn't realize he shouldn't go right on the walkway. After we got back to the car, this family stood for a photo opportunity right where Nathan peed! Eek!

3:25 p.m.

Soooooooo close to running out of gas but we made it just in time!  First stop…gas station.  Second stop…Wall Drug.  We saw signs for miles and finally arrived.  How Wall Drug started was fascinating.  A couple had a dream and against the advice of some and a lot of prayer and encouragement of family and a church community, they bought a drug store in Wall because it was close to a Catholic church and the people were friendly.   They had little success and thought they made a mistake.  They agreed to give it 5 years and if their business didn’t grow, they would move.  It was coming up on five years during one of the hottest summers during the Great Depression and business was not good.  One day the couple had a conversation about the heat and mentioned the fact that there was a lot of traffic on the highway of people who needed water.  They decided to begin advertising free water.  They posted billboards along the highway and in no time, they found people would take the detour for water.  And it grew from there and is now a major tourist attraction.  I am not fond of those really touristy places but there were a few interesting things and we did get to eat and buy a few souvenirs. Mom…it doesn’t look like they have those fountain sodas.   Here are a few pics:

Later that day...Can't recall the time because I am actually not writing about this until the next day!

The Badlands...Absolutely amazing!!  And can you say "windy"????

I could spend days driving through, climbing, hiking through this beautiful place.  Of course, I might feel a little better if I had all three kids on a leash...especially Nathan who has the energy level of a room full of children after ingesting a case of Mountain Dew and 150 Pixie Sticks.  The anxiety felt imagining one of the kids falling off the edge...ugh!  Yeah....remind me never to take them to the Grand Canyon.  And did I mention rattle snakes?  Didn't see any but there are signs everywhere telling us to "beware".  The weather was perfect...so much better than home.  We are thoroughly enjoying the mid-70s/80s.  These pics will probably not do the Badlands justice but here they are: