Hey everybody, a little unintended blogging break. Last Thursday Greg said “We should do Mount Rushmore, Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons for the 4th of July holiday.”
Friday was spent making reservations, mapping a route, doing 7 loads of laundry, filling the gas tank, getting some money at the bank, and asking each other if we really wanted to do this. We were on the road Saturday morning in traditional family vacation style: pillows, trail mix, hiking shoes, Gatorade, water bottles, Harry Potter on cassette tape, maps, and camera.
We made the executive decision to not take the laptop even though every motel from here to Mount Rushmore had wi-fi. We unplugged. I did sneak in a few e-mails from Deadwood, South Dakota but managed to let go of that by Tuesday.
3 National Parks, 2,850 miles, one broken seatbelt, a Cody Wyoming rodeo, one brake pad warning light, hundreds of Bison sightings, one low coolant alert, the best BBQ in the West, and one night of car camping in a Billings, Montana Wal-Mart parking lot made for our most adventurous and fun family vacation EVER.
It’s good to be home.
Wow! That’s amazing! The very idea of deciding on a Thursday that you want to drive all over half the country beginning the day after tomorrow… well, it kind of gives new meaning to “It’s a free country.” Good for you guys–it sounds like a great trip!
Wow! How does one break a seatbelt exactly? Sounds like a fantastic trip.
gosh it sounds like you had a fun time. Great photo!
Wow! What a holiday! I’ve been to those places but not for a long time.. my hubby needs to see them. Very inspirational
You gotta love the walmart parking lot car camping trip. We’ve done that before on long cross-country drives. It sounds like you guys had a fabulous trip! Road trips are the best!
That sounds like so much fun! Those are the best vacations, I think.
Sounds wonderful! My son lives and works in the Grand Teton National Park. He believes it is one of the most beautiful places there is!
This sounds like such fun!
How long does it take to drive to Mount Rushmore? I always thought you’d have to fly to get there, but now you’ve got me thinking…
Welcome home! Sounds like a fun + eventful vacation! I remember Billings, MT, but back then there were no W-M around.
Have a restful weekend!
What a great trip! You were in our neighborhood- I see the Tetons every day out my windows
So glad you took in a rodeo & saw some wildlife- hope your girls loved it!
Wow! Did you get to do some handwork in the car? That’s one of the main reasons I took up knitting, so I could keep my hubby company while HE does all the driving AND keep my hands busy!
As I’m sure you know, these are the kinds of trips your girls will remember…forever! Glad it was a good one!
The timing to get there:
Day 1 – Seattle to Billings, MT – 810 miles total. We left Seattle at 9:00 am and arrived in Bozeman, MT at 6:30 pm. No rooms anywhere in the town. We fed the kids and got back on the road for two more hours arriving in Billings around 9:30 pm. Billings is really big, there was literally not one room available in the town at any hotel/motel/side road shack. Besides stopping and asking at about 15 places, the front desks told us all the rooms in town were gone. We knew there was no point in trying to push on because the next town was too far. We drove to Wal-Mart and joined the RVs, a few mini vans and a couple of cars in the back of the lot. I was aware that Wal-Mart welcomed RVs in their lot but we were concerned being in a car, not a problem.
Day 2 – Billings, MT to Deadwood, South Dakato – 430 miles, about 6 hours driving with a side trip to Devil’s Tower.
Day 3 – Deadwood to Mt. Rushmore – only 36 miles.
How does a seatbelt break? Driving on curvy roads into Cody, WY Leil decided to exaggerate her body being ‘tossed’ around the back seat and ended up pulling the seatbelt out all the way to the point it would not go back in. She must have triggered an accident type fault which the dealer will have to re-set. She road in the middle of the backseat for the rest of the trip about 2 inches from her sister. Amazingly, no sibling violence resulted.
You’ve done the kind of trip I would like to do with my daughter who just turned 13. Now, I know, it could be a tricky undertaking travelling with a 13 year-old, next summer 14, and maybe I might have to wait to see some of this wonderful country’s natural beauty until she turns 15, 16, 23 (?), but it might be worth the try. Heck, it certainly would be an adventure! I was in Billings, MT when I was five, back in the ’50′s. It was a quite town, dusty in the summer’s heat and full of cowboys, or at least to me at 5, all the men looked like cowboys. My mom took my brother and I to see “Spartacus,” yes, with Kurt Douglas. Why? I do not know. Hardly 5 year-old movie fare. Anyway, travelling with us was our grey minature poodle named Bootsie. People literally stopped in the middle of the street to stop and stare and laugh! I remember being quite proud of the fact that we were walking something they called “Coyote meat.” I got cowboy boots and a cowboy hat on that walk and never felt prouder. Me with hat and boots and my “coyote meat!” Great memories. Thanks for inspiring this walk down “memory lane.”
Love the spur-of-the-moment trip. How wonderful. Going internet/ newspaper/ TV free is wonderfully relaxing. We should all do it more often.
sounds like a fun trip to me… a bit like being on the road with the griswalds. *g*
my grandma always said: the best thing of a vacation is finally coming home. …maybe she was right
So funny, so fun and so familiar. I have spent the night in a Walmart, K-mart, Safeway parking lot on more than one occasion as a kid and adult. If you are RV’ing sometimes its just the safest cheapest option! Sounds like you had an awesome time, glad you got home all safe! Love your blog and read it often:)
wow wow wow! I wanna go! We have been talking about doing that trip … I just need to get more vacation time
That looks like a great time
You are a brave, brave woman! Tee hee hee… glad to hear you all made it home safe and sound!
Tiffany
Reminiscent of a trip we took when our girls were the same age as yours except we started from the east. Great fun Great sites.
Way to Go! Gotta do it while they’re still young.
Love the picture!
Wow quite a trip!
We did almost this same trip last year at 4th of July. Drove to Minnesota first and then Deadwood, Rushmore, Cody (loved the cowboy museum and want to go back without boys in tow), Yellowstone and home! All in one short week with a puppy in the car. We missed the car camping at Walmart – maybe next time when we spend an entire vacation at Yellowstone. The year before we did a Route 66 vacation in Arizona.