Wow, South Dakota! Who knew!?

Wednesday we went to the mall of America for the whole day. We literally shut the place down. I did some serious damage! Each floor of the mall is about a ½ mile around and there are 4 floors, plus the middle section which is the Nickelodeon Universe theme park.   We walked basically the whole thing, and even though we spent the entire day there we did not get to see everything we wanted. However, we did get to ride on the roller coasters, eat at a fancy restaurant and stopped in every store we had even the slightest desire to go in. (Which is probably why we didn’t get to everything). The roller coasters we went on were Sponge Bobs Rock Bottom Plunge, The Orange Streak, and the Ferris Wheel. They were all really fun, but on Sponge Bob they took you up to the ceiling of the mall and dropped you straight back down to the floor. We were literally in the rafters and there was a window above us so we could see the sky outside. It was really cool! You wouldn't think they could get "real roller coasters" in a mall, but they did it!

On Thursday and Friday we explored South Dakota. I did not realize how much there was to see in this state. I had not heard about anything other then Mount Rushmore until I started looking into coming here. 

Our first stop was at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD. This building is artistically covered in corn and stands as a tribute to the areas fertile ground. A thanks goes to Aunt Monica and Uncle George for this find. I even got my picture with “Cornelius the Corn.” 

Our next stop was at an 1880’s town. They have moved all sorts of authentic old buildings from the area into this one attraction. They made this look like a real old west town with everything from the Saloon, and jail to the one room school house and post office. We took our time walking around and looking at all the memorabilia. I don’t know how they could possibly collect all the stuff they had. It must have taken a while. They had old newspapers from as early as 1890 and in one section they had props from the Dancing with Wolves movie set.

Most of Thursday was spent driving. We were wishing we could have driven through the Badlands at sunset and the timing would have worked out perfectly if there wasn’t a huge rain/hail storm that had just moved in as we were leaving 1880’s town. We ended up driving past the badlands to find a hotel (but don’t worry we backtracked and saw it the next day.) That evening we found an awesome place to stay called Frontier Cabins. It was a hidden gem in this area of the country. They were little cabins that were so nice inside, yet very reasonably priced!

The next day, like I mentioned, we back tracked a little and went to the Badlands. They were so cool! I loved the stark contrast from the grasslands to the badlands. There was a definite border between the two. There were also these rocks that had pretty red and yellow colors all over. 

We then made our way over to the main attraction, Mount Rushmore. I was so happy to be looking up at this monument. This was one of the main things that I wanted to see on my trip out to Montana, and when I was having trouble finding a job, it was the thing I was saddest about missing. It not only reminded me of this countries great history, but also the blessings in my own life. One interesting thing I learned there was that the sculpture was supposed to be more in-depth with the torsos of the presidents carved out too. They did not complete the entire vision of the original artist due to it being over budget and the beginning of WWII.

 When we had our fill of Mount Rushmore we continued south to three other attractions in the area…Custer State Park, Wind Cave National Park, and Mammoth Site. We saw lots of wildlife at first two places. We saw tons of buffalo and prairie dogs by the hundreds!

The mammoth site was very educational. Apparently, there used to be a sink hole in this area of the state and when mammoths would come in to drink from it some of them would fall in. If you think of elephant feet you can imagine that these mammoths would not be very good climbers. So once they would fall in they were not able to get out and would eventually die in there. They have found 118 tusks in the sink hole which means there are at least 59 mammoths in there. That sink hole was hazardous if you ask me! The excavation of the site continues to this day. They could potentially find more bones, but they think the majority have been found at this point, and if they dig too much more they will have to start moving the bones that they have uncovered which would mean the destruction of the bone.

Our whirlwind tour of South Dakota ended with that site.  I will write again tomorrow about Devils Tower and our arrival in Montana. So long for now!