The Great Plains, Badlands and Black Hills Tourism!

To me, driving across the great plains is a treat. You can stretch out your eyes over hundreds of miles of rolling hills, prairie grasslands, and crops. If you can get away from the interstate, you can listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the fields, which is a kind of silence that opens your mind to the vast space you are in for what feels like millions of miles around. Back on the highway, traffic is sparse, and speed limits are fast. Nobody is weaving through traffic, cutting you off, or flipping you off. When you stop for gas you stand in line at the cashier behind weathered old farmers and Indians who look like they are straight out the pictures from the Great Depression section of your American History textbooks. It's a dusty trip back in time, and it's there for anyone who is brave enough to take it.

Billboards for kitschy tourists traps like 1880 Town and Wall Drug pop up constantly, and you get the feeling you are taking the original American Family Road trip, like the one starring Chevy Chase.

Our first destination stop was the Badlands National Park, but on the way into the park we couldn't resist a photo opportunity in front of "the world's largest prairie dog". We laughed at how the real prairie dogs bark with their whole body, as if it were the biggest sneeze of their lives. Then on to a quick drive through of the Badlands, which is one of the most unique landscapes in the world, truly amazing.

After the badlands we got our fill of classic Western American kitsch at Wall Drug. Wondering what I'm talking about? Check out the pictures.

Then we moved on to Mount Rushmore, the iconic American monument carved out of a mountain. It's cooler than you'd expect, actually, but my favorite part was the family of mountain goats that showed up and boldly did some grazing about five feet from the crowds.

Next on the itinerary for the day was the Crazy Horse Monument, which is the Native American answer to Mount Rushmore. This monument is going to be massive and amazing when it's finally finished, dwarfing Mt. Rushmore on a ridiculous level. So far the only thing that's finished is Crazy Horse's face, but it's still pretty darn impressive. What's funny about the museum at the Crazy Horse monument is that it doesn't seem to have much focus to it. Exhibits are random bits of furniture from the artist's house, autographed sports memorabilia, and custom motorcycles. You kind of wonder why some of the stuff is on display. The laser show that we stuck around for after dark was equally as cheesy and unfocused, but in the end we think the Crazy Horse monument is a pretty darn amazing project!

The next morning we checked out the Mammoth site in Hot Springs. This place is a lot cooler than expected. You get a close up look at some real mammoth bones in the actual process of being dug out of solid rock in a real dig site. Amazing skeletons of several prehistoric animals are on display there, and it's well worth the visit if you ever get a chance, although we have to say that our tour guide was terrible at delivering jokes.