Road Trip Home - Day 2

Today was filled with with sightseeing activities. We started the day at the Mammoth Site across the street from our hotel in Hot Springs, SD. We arrived when they opened at 8am since we had so many things to do today. 

The site has the largest concentration of mammoth remains. They have uncovered 58 Columbian mammoths and 3 wooly mammoths so far at this sinkhole site. 

After our 30-minute tour and some time to roam around the display areas, we headed north to drive by the Crazy Horse Monument currently being constructed. 

We continued on to Mount Rushmore and stopped for a visit. 

Then we headed north to interstate 90 and stopped off at the infamously touristy Wall Drugs before driving through the Badlands National Park. 

The drive through Badlands was beautiful. We stopped at many of the pullouts and the visitors center along highway 240. 

We returned to I-90 and headed towards Mitchell, SD; home of the Corn Palace. About halfway there we had a problem with the van. It started shaking and dashboard lights came on. Luckily there was a rest area right in front of us so we pulled off the road to check things out. A state trooper took Vince to a service station to get some oil since it was low. We added some oil but couldn't figure out what else was wrong. All the lights on the dash turned off except the engine light. We decided to proceed cautiously, stopping every couple of hours and setting the speed a little lower.

A little engine trouble didn't stop us from visiting the Corn Palace. It was closed by the time we got there and they were doing major remodeling in the front of the building. 

We decided to drive through the night instead do stopping in Sioux Falls so the engine wouldn't be stressed by the hotter temperatures during the day. We finally arrived home at 9am after a total of 4700 miles of driving. 

We were all tired and happy to be home. It was a pleasure to have been able to experience such a beautiful and exciting trip.