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<\/a><\/p>\nI warned the waitress that 4 kids would be stumbling in eventually and then started on my first cup of coffee as I tried to get a handle on our first week on the road. \u00a0It wasn’t just that I had failed to pack enough water for a 2 hour hike. \u00a0I also couldn’t decide what to put in my travel journal—did I want to include the temper tantrums and petty moments? \u00a0When I looked back would I want honesty or just smiles and sweetness? \u00a0I had brought a series of audiobooks on Theodore Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln and the Mississippi River to listen to in the car but right now we were working our way through a fiction book on zombie apocalypse and a nonfiction on the secrets of Area 51. \u00a0What kind of a parent does that?<\/p>\n
I felt bad I had not forced everyone to go on last night’s wildlife loop because now some of us didn’t get to see the buffalo. \u00a0But at the same time I knew we needed some space and time away from each other at the end of the day. \u00a0Having to do everyone’s laundry every 3 days while on “vacation” was bugging me and our visits to the national parks had an alarming factor that I hadn’t prepared for at all. \u00a0While I read up about bears and bugs and hot springs, no one mentioned all the cliff edges and precipices. \u00a0Almost all of the impressive views we’d seen and trails and roads we traveled just dropped off into nowhere without any warning. \u00a0No fences, no guard rails—just fall or drive off the mountain whenever you feel like it. \u00a0It was stressful keeping en eye on 3 kids bouncing around and ahead and behind while also keeping track of Pretty, the family photographer, and her attempt to get as close to death as possible.<\/p>\n
Since it is important to take good care of the person taking care of everyone else, I decided it was time for some self-love. \u00a0I ordered the cheese and veggie omelet with extra homefries and the sourdough toast. \u00a0Because wheat toast is not self-love at all. \u00a0And I told the waitress to keep the cream coming because black coffee is for haters. \u00a0Eventually Pretty rolled in with her own journal and we sat quietly in the historic lodge as other tourists arrived and the room slowly filled up. \u00a0The boys staggered in and we sampled the blueberry pancakes and biscuits and more homefries. \u00a0By my fifth cup of creamy, sugary coffee (in my defense they were small, fancy, dainty cups), everyone was up and ready to go and I felt better about things. \u00a0After all, we were on a 3 week vacation across the country<\/em>. \u00a0It wasn’t easy being Captainess of my crew but we were on a 3 week vacation<\/em>. \u00a0Enough said.<\/p>\n Everyone knows breakfast is the most important meal of the day so I’m giving the breakfast at the State Game Lodge credit for what we saw as we packed up and left the lodge, headed for Iron Mountain Road. \u00a0There they were, an entire herd of buffalo slowly making their way across the road as they munched their own breakfast.<\/p>\n The herd was filled with young calves.<\/p>\n Some of them so close that we could have reached out the window and touched them.<\/p>\n I mean, we could have touched them if we wanted trouble with these guys. \u00a0Which we didn’t. \u00a0We did not want trouble. \u00a0Just looking, sirs, no touching.<\/p>\n The buffalo escorted us out of the park.<\/p>\n Mostly because we could not get around them even if we wanted to. \u00a0No passing, people. \u00a0No passing.<\/p>\n Once out of the park we made a stop at the Museum @ Black Hills Institute<\/a>. \u00a0Before our trip we watched the documentary Dinosaur 13<\/a>. \u00a0Back in Chicago we saw Sue, the T-Rex, at the Field Museum, but now in South Dakota we were going to see where the controversy started. \u00a0The museum is small but is packed full of fossils.<\/p>\n And although the museum lost Sue, they now have Stan, the largest and most complete T Rex.<\/p>\n The staff was helpful, jumping in to answer questions and point out exhibits. \u00a0The museum is well worth the stop and is nestled in the little town of Hill City which had other tourist stores and restaurant and activities, too. \u00a0From there we headed to Medora, North Dakota. \u00a0It was beautiful country….<\/p>\n but flat was back….<\/p>\n Except for, um…. that…thing.<\/p>\n In Medora we entered Theodore Roosevelt National Park and took the Scenic Loop Drive. \u00a0We hiked down into the Painted Canyon which was similar to what we had seen in the South Dakota Badlands.<\/p>\n Except there was a lot more brush and greenery among the rock formations.<\/p>\n The usual suspects were there. \u00a0Prairie dog towns that stretched to the horizon.<\/p>\n Mule deer.<\/p>\n Buffalo.<\/p>\n But we did see wild horses for the first time. \u00a0I think they were wild horse. \u00a0If not, someone’s fence is down.<\/p>\n <\/a> Then we pushed on for Montana and Great Falls where we visited the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail and Interpretive Center<\/a>. \u00a0Just like we spent a lot of time crossing the trails of the wagon trains headed out west, we also crossed many parts of Lewis and Clark’s expedition pathway. \u00a0The Center details the expedition’s difficult portage of the 5 waterfalls of the Missouri River as well as the rest of the their 8,000 mile journey.<\/p>\n Before the trip I expected a lot of National Parks propaganda about the early explorers and the white settlers. \u00a0But like the other museums we visited, the Center spent a lot of time explaining the Indian cultures that were present before the explorers arrived and how instrumental the Indians were in their successful passage. \u00a0Is it enough? \u00a0Probably not. \u00a0Is it a fair and complete story? \u00a0I doubt it. \u00a0But the story of the Native Americans, the explorers, the settlers, and, eventually, the National Parks is long and complicated, full of controversy and conflicting interests. \u00a0The extensive exhibits on Native American life and culture are, at least, a beginning.<\/p>\n From the Center we took the riverside trail to Giant Springs which was used by the Blackfeet as a source of fresh water during the winter months and documented by Lewis and Clark in 1805. \u00a0The water can be seen bubbling up from the rocks underneath its crystal clear waters.<\/p>\n From there it overflows into the Roe River and eventually the Missouri River.<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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