Day 8: Sturgis

We slept in and Mom wouldn’t let us eat until we had broken down camp. That consisted of bunches of work that took longer because I was hungry. Finally Mom took us to the truck stop cause the pancake buffet we were going to go to was in the process of shutting down. So was the truck stop buffet when we got there but we were able to snag a plat full of rel breakfast food before it was all gone. Would you believe that our cell phone was STILL not working and we couldn’t find a pay phone to save our lives. We alked across the street to the Visitors Center where we discoved that the whole South Dakota is a huge blank spot in the cell phone world, at least for our company. While Mom was talking to the ladies, I was learning about Stan, the biggest and most complete male T-Rex. The Visitor Center didn’t have a phone either but they did have a smashed penny machine so we collected more treasures for our collection.

We decided to go to Mount Rushmore first but it started raining and then pouring so we decided to find the little dino museum and meet Stan. We looked and looked but couldn’t find it in the rain. It didn’t help that lots of streets were closed to cars to make room for all the motorcycles. That really didn’t help. Mom said we needed to go to camp so we could drop off the trailer and find a phone. Would you believe we couldn’t find a phone in the whole place?!? When we finally found a gas station with a pay phone we found out that Daddy had three quarters of the police force looking for us we had been out of touch for so long. We had just been out in a huge barren space with no phone and no internet but he was afraid something had happened. He was really, really glad to find us safe. After we got off the phone, it had stopped raining so we went looking for the museum. We found it on one of the streets that was closed off for the Sturgis Rally. Mom didn’t think it was there but I asked a biker for directions and he pointed us to a building that looked like a barn. How could you miss that?!?!

The museum was incredible. They had Stan and a super croc, a triceratops head, a teradyctl skeleton, and all kinds of other things. The cool part was that you could get so close. They also had lots of ammonite shells. Some were pretty and toher were plain but they were all interesting. They have a curly shell like a curlie cue, and the creature inside had an eye and plenty and plenty of tentacles. At least that is what the experts can guess. The lady working there was a huge help and answered lots of my questions. I got another pin from there for my collection.

On the way back to the car, we got to see lots of motorcycles. Kaleb used his own money and bought a flame Sturgis hat. It earned him many compliments from the bikers. He also bought a South Dakota magnet. I think he is starting up a magnet collection. Mommy teases that he is our big spender because he is always trying to spend money. It is true, he is our spender. I am our saver. I had $20 from Dad on the first day of our trip. Within three days of our trip, Kaleb had burned through his money and I had only spent $5 of mine! Mom treated us to Dairy Queen because we were all hungry.


From there, we went to Mount Rushmore. It was super close so we figured why not. It happened that they had a HUGE junior Ranger program so we all did he younger section so it wouldn’t be too hard. We got our second badge while Bek got her first one. Mt. Rushmore is the place where president faces are carved into the side of the mountain. They have an avenue of state flags where you can walk through all 50 of the flags. They even had a teepee we could sit in. We wanted to stay for the light show but it was too cold and we had forgotten to bring our sweat shirts so we went back to the camper instead. I hope we can see the show at Crazy Horse at least. Talk to you in the morning!

See our Rushmore pics

See our Black Hills pics