Last Thursday, Josh and I took the GTI and drove a couple hours to LUSK, WYOMING! Home of a Best Western, another hotel, and... I think that's about maybe it. We almost hit a deer driving in too, which was weird. I also did that screamy gasp / grab the handle / shift uncomfortably in my seat thing because I thought we were going to crash before we even got to Fort Collins, which got Josh mad. By the time we finished our dinner though we'd apologized... I said I don't really make a conscious decision to DO it, it just happens. Total your car and see how easy going YOU are when someone else is driving. Anyway.

After staying the night in Lusk, we headed out to South Dakota in some back roads through the Black Hills. We saw a herd of buffalo, and drove past Crazy Horse and Mount Rushmore.

Then we hit Rapid City, and as I was taking a look at all the attractions one stood our in particular: Dinosaur Park. I freaked out because I have pictures there from when I was about 3, sitting on these giant cement dinos with my cousins. Needless to say I made Josh veer off the main drag, and we get a bit outside of town... you know how when you're driving up to a major attraction you can see it, or the town starts looking a bit like "hey, Disneyland / Water Park / Tourist attraction is just ahead?" No, there was nothing. The road started veering up a hill, and going past these teeny little houses that looked super old, and I was about to give up but then Josh saw a dino head towering above the hill and I literally screamed. So, we jump out of the car and it's literally 100 degrees, and I start screaming DINOS! like I'm a 4 year old instead of a 28 year old on vacation, and I charge up these steps like, YEAH YEAH YEAH!!! And Josh took a ton of pictures of me on the same dinosaurs from 25 years before, and my heart was happy.




After that we ate at Taco Johns and made the lone drive to Sioux Falls, where I proceeded to drink too much margarita at the family reunion and almost pass out on the lawn. Instead I passed out in my room and woke up at 9:30, hung over and disoriented. So I had some dinner and went back to bed. Sunday we went to Lake Madison and water skied, and I wish I was still there doing that now because of how fun it is. The lake was full of green algae but not the sick foamy kind that makes me want to throw up thinking about it touching me. We had to leave pretty early though, so I was sad as it's been 10 years since I was there and will probably be 10 before I am back, though I really hope it's not that long. Monday was really low key, and then Tuesday.... was the bane of my existence driving 11 hours back to Colorado.

So the whole time I was complaining like, why can't they make a more direct highway from here to South Dakota? Why does this take so effing long? I started making plans to get a small plane, and a small pilot's license, and fly there. But that's not realistic either really, so I guess the only options continue to be to fly, or drive 11 hours past the Kearney Arch in Nebraska.
But anyway at least I got dino pictures, and buffalo pictures, and pictures of us at the lake because.. that's all that really matters to me. Make fun of me all you want but, South Dakota was a great vacation.