Today we went down to Mount Rushmore. I must admit I was very excited to go to this monument. Since I was little I have always wanted to go see Mount Rushmore. This monument did not disappoint me at all. It was kind of shocking when we got close, because it just appeared out of nowhere. This was a very educational stop for all of us. It was amazing to learn how they built this monument and about the President's that were carved into the mountain. After about an hour of walking around we decided that it was time to get going on our long journey to Rochester, Minnesota.
Knowing that we had over 600 miles to travel today and it being a second day of long travel we planned to stop several times throughout the day. Our first stop was at a place called Wall Drug. It is a huge store in Wall, SD. they had several different types of stores hooked together. We went in for a few minutes and walked around. It was a good pit stop and was fun, especially getting our pictures taken in the photo booth.
After Wall we took a little detour through the Badlands of South Dakota. I would almost compare it to Bryce National Park, because of it's formations. It had huge spires coming out of the ground with different layers of rocks in them. You can kind of see them in the picture below. We drove through the park in about an hour and stopped at the visitor center right before exiting the park. We rushed through the Visitor Center (basically just getting our stamp) because the road construction was letting our side go right then. Matter of fact a believe I almost backed into a car because I was in such a hurry.
The picture below show a brief stop we had, so the kids could say that they have been in the Missouri River. The boys found a dead snake and I believe it freaked the girls out a little bit.
Our next big pit stop was in a town called Mitchell. As you can see below it is home to the world's only corn palace. It was actually kind of neat how they made the artwork from corn cobs and husks. Those pictures in the background are made from corn that is grown in the local area. They change how the building looks every year. Inside they have pictures of all of the previous years up on the wall. They have been doing this since the early 1900's. We took some goofy pictures as you can see and we also ate dinner here. Corn on the cob if you couldn't guess.
Me and the kids being silly! Imagine that.
After travelling across the entire state of South Dakota we finally crossed into Minnesota. It was probably around ten o'clock at night. There was construction right by the sign so we had to park at the rest area next to the area and hike over a hill to get to the state sign. It was quite the adventure because of the muddy trail. I must give our kids major props because it was late and we had been out and about for around 12 hours, but they woke right up and ran over to get their picture taken.
I am not sure what time it was but I would say it was close to midnight when we made our last pit stop of the trip. We had to stop and see the Jolly Green Giant in Blue Earth, Minnesota. This was probably the most hilarious stop of the trip so far. I had to wake everyone up in the car. That may explain all of the craziness during this stop, I couldn't stop laughing.
We finally arrived in Rochester, MN around 1:30 am. It was a very long day but it was also a very fun day. We traveled over 1,200 miles in two days! It was crazy however very memorable. We will now relax with family for the next two days. 
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