A little bit of fun. A little bit of dangerous.

Here we are ... Day 4. To the amazement of all of you involved in the When-Will-Michelle-Be-Sent-Home? poll, I have made it to South Dakota.

The day began in Sioux City, SD. Early in the morning we crossed over the Missouri River, which was pretty cool. That was about the last "cool" comment over the next few hours. Observation: South Dakota is extremely dull (Sarah is involved in a love-hate relationship with the state..). I guess if you're the person who fights over the "yellow-green" crayon then you might be interested in the South Dakota landscape. Seeing a herd of cattle was pretty exciting because it provided various colors (Who knew brow, black and white would be so welcoming?).

Though my pleas for a stop at Corn Palace went ignored, we did follow the signs into the highly advertized "Wall Drug" ... It was everything we had anticipated. Kelsey sat on a giant Jackalope.

The ride to the night's campground was interrupted by a detour to Bear World. Bear World is a drive-thru safari-like adventure where we saw: wolves, reindeer (Rudolph included), big horn sheep, mountain lions, burros, and ironically enough, some bears. The bears were quite active and Mom was afriad one was going to break into the bottom compartments of the RV to steal our cookies. These cute little creatures are, as Sophie, noted, "A little bit of fun. A little bit of dangerous.". They were very fun but not the most memorable part of the day...

Following the drive-thru tour, we were invited to a walk-thru section. Because of time constraints we were trying to push through this section. One should know when Carl and Theresa are involved time constraints are blatantly ignored... The last exhibit at this walk-thru spot were the otters. Otters are fun to watch ... Theresa was really enjoying these playful animals. As she leaned over for a peek, her glasses jumped to the ground - landing directly in the otter habitat. As Theresa panicked (and Kelsey laughed) the otters playfully grabbed the glasses and took them right into the water. The workers were unable to retrive the spectacles but surely there will be an otter with excellent vision tomorrow. (Thersea, however, will miss most of the sights on the trip.)

From Bear World we headed to the campground. As we came around a bend in the road Mt. Rushmore was peeking out over treetops. The excitement from everyone in the RV was unparalleled. (Sophie's screaming and dancing was probably the most fun.) During a dinner we had a wonderful visit from my cousin, Kevin, and his friend, Jessica prior to heading to Mt. Rushmore.

For those of you who have not yet been to Mt. Rushmore, get into your car immediately and head out the badlands. Not one to usually give in to hype, Mt. Rushmore was actually even cooler than I had expected. A very moving patriotic ceremony topped the night.

We look forward to celebrating Sophie's birthday tomorrow (5 years old!). Seeing more of the SD sights before rolling on to the "great verb state" of Wyoming! Surely someone will be made a "Moose" in public, and Sarah will spend hours looking for Waldo... Despite it all, looks like I'll be staying at least one more day.