We all slept better last night. Everyone was completely wiped out so that helped. I woke up at 6:45 and once again Arden peaked her little head out of her bunk. I gave her an Ipad and walked to get some coffee. Davis came out of his bunk about 20 minutes later after I got back from getting coffee. There is a little coffee shop about 200 yards from the RV so that has been convenient each morning.
After wrestling the queen out of bed a little while later, we all decided on going to Pappa's Big Top Pancakes for breakfast. They have a little tent here they aggressively refer to as the "big top" and for $2.95 you can have all you can eat pancakes. Sausage, bacon and drinks extra. Tracy brought her own food. The whole trip she's been eating as healthy as possible so she brought a little greek yogurt, granola and fruit. I paid for our meals and the cashier gave me 3 poker chips. Two reds for the bacon eaters and one green for the sausage eater. Someone kindly advised us to sit in the corner by the pick up area where you trade poker chips for pancakes, and the meat of your choice. When you go up for another serving of pancakes, they flip them over the counter about 10' in the air onto your plate. We sat down and patiently waited for a customer wanting a refill. Sure enough the man with the empty plate steps up, pancakes start flying through the air, he catches them and goes back to devour his prize. I quickly scarfed down my pancakes so I could get in line. I caught the first one. Talked Tracy into catching the second one, and like the superior athlete that she is there were no problems. We were notified by the staff the record for eating pancakes was 27. We declined any competition, finished our breakfasts, and left for our activities. Reptile gardens here we come.
We voted after breakfast on Reptile World, Rushmore Cave, Old Macdonald's Farm or Presidential Wax Museum. Wax Museum got zero votes, Reptile World got both kids attention so we were off. Patience permitting we'd hit up Rushmore Cave after Reptile Gardens.
When we got to Reptile Gardens, a crocodile/alligator show started right away. We took our seats in the front row and out came a trainer to walk around in between 30 or so crocodiles, caymans and alligators. The crocs and their buddies are cold blooded which he explained in a very long way makes them lazy so they basically sat around the whole time until he grabbed one and laid on top of it, holding it's mouth shut, etc. He fed a few of the crocs, had a few more tricks and then the real crowd pleaser was when he went back into the building and came out with Fluffy the baby croc. The crowd suddenly got back into it. He kindly taped Fluffy's mouth shut and walked around the fence for all to pet and take pics with Fluffy.
After hanging with Fluffy we stopped for a 10:30 am hamburger snack as the kids were starting to get hungry. Even though we were at Pappa's Big Top a few short hours ago, kids tend to eat when they find it convenient, so I'm not sure they actually ate any pancakes. Once the snack was devoured and a little half lemonade/half water consumed, spirits were better and we were off.
A few lame exhibits here and there and then we got to the giant tortoises which were really cool. We walked into this little wooden fence, closed the door behind us and about 20 feet away there was a 50 year old, 500 pound tortoise named Tank. He was just laying there so the guy in the exhibit started rubbing his neck/shoulder which was kind of weird and up popped Tank. When he stood up he was probably a foot or so off the ground and massive. The kids rubbed his neck and shell and he just hung out there. There were a few more giant tortoises, one of which was 108 years old. There is basically no phone or internet service anywhere near Rushmore or I'd post pics and videos of these tortoises and the rest of our adventures.
After leaving Tank and his buddies, we went to a snake show and Davis' attention span started getting the best of him. Just as the snake handler brought out the venomous snakes Davis looked over at me and said "I want to go Dad". He gets his attention span from me, which is the shortest attention span in the world next to my brother's, whose attention span would actually measure in negative seconds. On the way out we saw a prairie dog exhibit which was funny as we have prairie dogs all over Colorado and basically view them as rodents.
After reptile gardens, we drove back towards Mt. Rushmore and went to Keystone to lunch. Keystone is the town after Mt. Rushmore on one side, Custer being the town on the other side. Both of which are basically a few hundred feet or tourist shops and average at best restaurants. We stopped at the first random restaurant and it was actually good. We were 1 of 2 patrons and it was nice to have a meal that wasn't horrible.
After our lunch we went to Rushmore Caves where we planned on doing the two seater zip line and going through the Rushmore Cave. Once we paid for our tickets it was clear Davis wasn't going to be able to go through a one hour walking tour, through anything much less a cave, without going on the zip line. We ran to the zip line sat down and went down for our few seconds of fun. It was pretty cool that we were able to sit in a chair lift type chair next to each other so we could experience it together, and once we got to the bottom of the zip line they pull us back up backwards so we got to experience it twice. We were destined to do this zip line again after the cave tour.
The cave tour was pretty cool. I did a cave tour like this when I was a kid but I can't recall where it was or when it was. You know the deal; stalactites, stalagmites, etc. Davis did pretty good but about halfway through he started asking the guide how much longer. It was pretty funny. Arden really enjoyed it. She's more studious than Davis so she was asking questions and geeking out on it. We made it out, tipped the guide, hit the bathroom then it was back to the zip line as I mentioned above.
We learned our lesson yesterday on pushing activities much past 2 or 3 in the afternoon. We went back to the campground and Tracy went to do laundry while I made the kids watch movies in their bunks. After 20 minutes or so they were ready for more action and I was basically sleeping, so I told them to take $20 out of my wallet and scram. One of the really nice things about staying at a campground like this is it gives the kids the opportunity to be independent. When I was a kid I recall riding my bike to my grandparents house on the other side of town or to school which was a mile or two (I mapped it, .7 miles to school and a little over a mile to grandparent's - I wanted to confirm how far it was for my uphill both ways stories to the kids). These days the kids rarely are allowed to be independent and it shows. Anyway, moral of this part of the story is give your kid $20 and tell them to scram once in a while.
After my brief nap I walked around to find the kids and they had been waiting at the bike shack for me to sign a release form so they could rent these little recumbent bikes KOA refers to as banana bikes. I dutifully signed the form, and they were off on the bikes for about 20 minutes. When they came back I took them in the paddle boat and then they asked to go on the kayaks. I got in the open seat kayak and explained to them they can't lean or we'll tip. Davis did ok. We went around a 30 foot circle or so and he wanted to go back. He wasn't excited about the possibility of tipping. Arden got in and immediately leaned over and we were about one millimeter from tipping. After giving her the quick kayak tour of a pond that is about 100' long we went back and it was clear they were ready for dinner.
Nothing exciting at dinner. Ponderosa Diner again, which I'm excited about never frequenting again in my life. Had our daily favorite part of the day conversation and I started getting antsy about our pending departure so I left Tracy to pay the bill and went back to start packing up the RV. After 20 minutes or so they came down and went swimming while I finished packing the RV. I cleaned out the black water and gray water tanks. I heard so many horror stories from people about doing this and getting yuk water all over them but it seemed pretty simple to me. Hook up hose, open valve, open other valve, put hose away. Pretty uneventful other than it brought back a memory of going on an RV trip with my family as a kid at around 8 or so and my dad doing the same exercise in the middle of nowhere in IL on the side of the road into a drainage ditch. Times have changed. Now there's special hoses and these little ramps for the hoses and the EPA would probably execute me if I were to do what my Dad did.
After showers the kids watched movies in their bunks while I sit here writing the blog and Tracy is reading a book about Tom Sizemore (she liked it if anyone cares to read). The bunks are pretty sweet with them each having their own little flat screens with built in DVD players. It rained really hard for an hour or so and as I'm finishing up the rain has stopped. The weather is really similar here to Colorado, especially in the mountains. Warm and super sunny during the day, cool at night and so far the same late afternoon rain storms we experience.
We are Planning to drive to Sioux Falls or if I'm feeling confident Sioux City tomorrow. It is 14-15 hours to Chicago and I need to get Tracy and Arden to her parent's house in Buffalo Grove by Friday night as Tracy's hosting her brother's fiancés shower Saturday. Davis and I will drive from her parent's to my sister's Friday night. I only want to drive 5-7 hours each day so we'll have to work on the plan for the next few days while en route as the cell/internet won't work until we get closer to Rapid City.
Favorite part of day:
Davis - zip line
Dad - catching pancakes at pancake breakfast
Mom - taking Tucker for walks
Arden - zip line and rushmore cave
No comments:
Post a Comment