Across America Days 3-5

Well, after we finished at Pictured Rocks, we headed out.  We were now further away from our final destination than when we started in Chicago,but we weren't in an excessive hurry.  We drove through Wisconsin and most of Minnesota.  After a stop in Minneapolis in a real Hotel, with a real bed and shower, I was recharged and ready to move on.  We were off to South Dakota to check out the Badlands, Blackhills, Mount Rushmore, and a few other national monuments.
We made it to the Badlands National Park with only about an hour of daylight, so we did a quick drive through and stopped very quickly at select locations and then moved on.  They were quite beautiful, but I was hot and glad that I wasn't spending all day in 100+ degree weather without shade hiking in the formations.

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Once we were done with the badlands, it was time to make Kevin's dreams come true.  We were almost to Mount Rushmore!!! My hyper American husband has talked about going since I met him, and I was never going to take a trip to South Dakota for any reason, but since we were driving across the country, it was the perfect time to make my man happy and go see all the rocks that he wanted. I think he has reached his Zenith.  He is self actualized and can die a happy man.  We camped in the Black Hills and got up at the crack of dawn so that we could be the first people to arrive at this amazing display of American exceptionalism.
Kevin showed some impressive tolerance as we pulled in and it was packed with foreigners blocking his way and walking into all of his pictures.  Don't fret though, we got plenty of pictures.

Once we were finally finished at Mount Rushmore, we still had plenty of daylight to burn, so we were off to our next adventure.  We wanted to hit up the 2nd largest cave in the world, so we headed to Jewel Cave in the Black hills.  Since I was carrying the fetus, I was too large to go spelunking (you had to fit through a tiny concrete box as seen below).  We ended up settling for a cave tour.

We were just trying to make the most of our time, so once we were finished in the cave, it was time to move on.  We drove all the way up to Wyoming near the Montana border to check out The Devil's Tower National Monument.. It felt like it was 200 degrees outside, I had camped too many nights already and this was an extra hour or so out of our way, I was dirty, I am sure I was smelly, and 30+ weeks pregnant.  I was not a happy camper, BUT let's look on the bright side.  It is a GIANT rock in the middle of nowhere.  I know someone who LOVES rocks.  In fact, I am just hoping this trip that we took full of rocks does not encourage someone very cute to try to go back to school to become a geologist.  Say a quick prayer for me. Kevin was in Heaven (yes, good rhyme, I know). There is a ton of Indian folklore about this rock because of it's strange groves in it. So not only did we drive up to it, but we hiked around it. I think I deserved an Oscar that day for my performance on trying to look even slightly interested and I deserve something else for going on an additional 2 mile hike around the monument in 200 degree weather.   I was not in a good place at this point and yes, I made sure we had a hotel this night.  In hindsight, I am glad I went, in part because I never have to go again, but it was a pretty cool place.