Day 7: South Dakota

Today was our longest driving day, at 8+ hours, down the mountains, across Wyoming and into the Black Hills of South Dakota. Today was also Lucia's. birthday. After the Grand Meltdown of yesterday, we were a little worried about how today would go. We reserved a cabin at Custer State Park, but still wanted to get there before dark. Paul and I got up at 5:30 and packed everything back into the car and truck. We hit the road right around 7am. No bear sightings this morning, although I was hoping I might glance over and see one. Western Wyoming was beautiful, coming down the mountains. Some parts reminded me of John Day and the Painted Hills. We were going to do a full pit stop in Casper for lunch and gas, but didn't easily see a good place to stop,  we headed north towards our turn off to South Dakota. As it turns out, our turn off took us straight through oil and coal mining country. We passed through the largest surface coal mining operation in the country. It was fascinating to see, and a little scary too.

We finally, after about 7.5 hours, crossed into South Dakota and began climbing up into the Black Hills. They didn't seem particularly special to me at first, until we got into them, driving Hwy 16 towards Custer and you see the exposed granite up close. We arrived at our cabin at Stockade Lake a little after 4pm. Since Lucia spent her birthday in a carseat (she was ecstatic to watch Little Bear all day and eat snacks), we gave her her birthday present right away. The restored trike and helmet were an instant hit, and after a couple times around the wooden deck of the cabin she got the hang of it. When asked what her favorite part of her trike was, she said," the sparkles" which made Paul's day, as he especially picked out the red with sparkles paint color for her. Thanks to Grammy for the perfectly coordinated ladybug helmet too! The other special birthday surprises were birthday cake in the Dutch oven and new pajamas made my Mommy (with help from Grandma Julia).

Lucia in the car photo

"New" bike!

Our cabin at Custer SP, highly recommend!

Birthday Girl!

It's hard work being 3

We ate cake inside the cabin because the ranger came by to tell us of a severe thunderstorm warning with wind gusts up to 70 mph. So we brought everything inside and hunkered down. We are looking forward to a full day of exploring the Black Hills tomorrow.

Day 6: Grand Tetons, The Grand Meltdown

We didn't give ourselves much time to spend in Grand Teton NP, so we got up early again. Our plan was to drive to the southern end of the park and work our way north back towards our campground, then spend the evening packing up. We weren't more than two miles south of our campground before entering GTNP before we saw a couple of cars pulled over in the early morning fog. Paul pulled over and we started scanning the hillside. Bear! Right near the road, sauntering through the brush was a scruffy-looking Black Bear. Paul had been hoping to spot a bear the whole time we were in Yellowstone, and had conceded that maybe we wouldn't see a bear this trip, and here was one and we didn't even need our binoculars to see this one. He walked along the road for a bit, then started down a gully and back up the hillside and was gone behind the trees. That was a great start to the day!

Good Morning Mr. Bear!

We continued to drive south, but unfortunately with the fog, you couldn't really see the mountains. We hoped it would clear soon. At the very south end of the park, we stopped at the Craig Thomas Discovery and Visitor Center, which looked fairly new. It had some great exhibits and was virtually empty when we arrived. Lucia had fun with the dioramas and we watched a video about the Tetons. Luckily we were ready to leave around the time that a large group of seniors with southern accents descended upon the gift store and bathrooms.

Mt. Moran in the morning

The only moose we saw on this trip

Craig Thomas Discovery Center

We had planned to stop at Jenny Lake for lunch. It was really busy, and we had to park far away. We stopped at the visitor center to check things out and that is when the Grant Meltdown started. Lucia was running all over the place, and not listening to us. She kept hiding in the clothing racks, and generally disturbing the other people in the area. When Paul scolded her and she hit him, he took her outside for a time out. Even with the time out, we could tell that Lucia was not going to cooperate. We decided that it was too crowded, and we would move on and maybe find a quieter picnic spot. We got in the car and Lucia was now mad that we were getting back in the car. Can you blame her? She has been in the car all day every day for almost a week now. Paul and I were feeling slightly guilty. Then in her frustration she threw her water bottle from her cup holder onto the floor. I picked it up and put it in the front seat with me. She wanted it back and told us so with her screaming. I told her she needed to ask nicely and she could have it back. Then, she lost it. For the next 30 minutes she screamed "I want my water cup!" Over and over and over. She was beyond reason. She finally fell asleep and we made the decision to just drive back to camp. We got to the cabin, rolled the windows down in the car and let her sleep a little while longer. When she woke up, she remembered exactly what she was mad about, and resumed her screaming. Paul was over at the main office and I was running out of ideas to get her to calm down. Paul walked in, and asked her to say, "Please can I have my water cup" calmly. And she said it. We were all fine after that, but we let her just chill out in the cabin and read books while Paul and I packed our things. Hopefully we can go back to the Tetons when the kids are older and actually do some hiking around. Tomorrow is a new day.

The Grand Tetons

The Grand Meltdown

Day 2: Montana

We left Moscow a little before 8 AM after breakfast, again provided by our wonderful hosts. We had a long day ahead of us. And we weren't sure how long it would take Paul to drive the truck through the mountains. We decided that it would be best to stick to the interstate even if it was longer distance-wise. We headed north and stopped in Coeur d'Alene for a quick break. I lost Paul pretty quickly through the mountains, but met up for a lunch stop in Missoula. I abhor McDonald's food, but clean bathrooms, free wifi and truck parking is a good marketing strategy.

Another day on the road

From there is was pretty smooth sailing to our turnoff to our campsite, just outside of Butte at Lewis & Clark Caverns State Park. Lots of campsites to choose from, we picked one close to the bathrooms and the playground. Win-win. Lucia had the playground to herself while Paul set up camp. Not long after we started cooking dinner, it started raining. All the RVers retreated to their vehicles and we were standing out in the rain trying to make our dinner. Luckily it was still pretty warm, despite the rain. We ended up scrambling to throw the stove in the trunk and we ate our dinner in the discomfort of our car. The rain let up enough for us to clean up and get read for bed. We climbed into our tent and listened to it rain most of the night. We were starting to wonder what we had gotten ourselves into.

Setting up camp BEFORE the thunderstorm

Girl in a landscape