South Dakota, camping style, part 1 cause if I don't post what I've written, it might never get posted!

**I've been trying to decide whether to give you a highlights version or the every single detail version.  Couldn't decide so I'm going to do both.  I'll put the main things in bolder font so you can skim through fast. I'll put in all the other details too, which will make me happy and you can read them if you want/have time.

Our trip began with a 14 hour drive.    

We got started by 7:00--only 1/2 hour later than our planned time!  That was the best start ever for a family trip. For food in the car, we had granola & strawberry yogurt parfaits for breakfast & chicken salad with Ritz crackers for lunch--so tasty.  For snacks we had, carrot sticks, grapes, and animal crackers. There were also so sour gummy worms and gummy bears for when car sickness threatened.

I was so busy planning food and clothing for 6 days, our longest camping trip ever, that I planned nothing to entertain the kids in the car.  That could have been disasterous, but lucky for me, it wasn't. 

Benji and Ana both brought a book to read.  Somehow they kept busy and happy with not too much fighting.  I think it is because of how much space we have in the Death Star.  

We did play the license plate game and kept a list to see if we could see all 50 states.  By the end of the trip, we had seen 42, including Alaska & Hawaii! We found every state west of the Mississippi River, except Louisiana.  I guess Louisiana-ians weren't visiting South Dakota this year.

On our way to Rapids City, We drove through Sioux Falls.  For 20 minutes as we approached the city and then drove through it, we got to see some pretty neat aerial stunts that turned out to be none other than the Blue Angels in their F-18's.  That is the definition of serendipity, readers!

I also found out that South Dakota natives pronounce their capital city "Peer" not "Pierre." That seems a little weird to me, but I guess it's their state capital so they can say it how they want.

 

The drive was shorter than it could have been because the Man of the House rigged a  ...lou....  for the van. We are pretty sure we saved about 4 hours of stopping to take kids to the bathroom.

 I'm sure he is planning on telling all the details on his blog, so I'll leave that for him.  Besides I don't know if I want to talk about a toilet on my blog.  I'll just say that my initial reaction to his idea was, "You've got to be kidding."  But it turned out to be genius because we didn't have to stop every time a little kid needed to pee.  Also we used kitty litter instead of RV chemicals in the lou. They were cheaper and smelled better.  In fact we only had to open the windows once, the first time it was used, because we didn't have the foresight to put some of the kitty litter in to start with.  Perhaps you cat owners are shaking your heads at our ignorance right now.  Go on, laugh it up. 

For dinner we bought hamburgers at Burger King and I added homemade chocolate chip cookies and Mug root beer.  Everyone got their very own can of soda.  How exciting! 

We got to Rapids City at about 8:30 p.m. and stayed in a motel overnight  so we could clean up and go to church in the morning.

Saturday night I realized that Isla was dehydrated--no wet diapers all day and none I could remember from yesterday.  That worried me.  I realized I'd probably been giving her too many crackers and not enough milk the last few days while I tried to get everything ready for the trip.  I pretty much stayed up most of the night feeding her and she seemed better in the morning.  By Monday, she was much better.  Phew!