July 29-31, 2009. Days 10-12, St Paul MN.

We arrived in Rosemont, Minnesota on Wednesday, July 29th. We spent the next few days with our dear friends Marcy, Dewey and Natalie. We had a lot of fun with them, catching up on things going on. They could not have been better hosts, especially Natalie who became our tour guide for the days we were there. She took us to tour the capitol in St Paul, we spent all day at the Mall of America and even took us on a train to the Metrodome to watch the Twins play the Angels. Glen and Sue Hamilton, some old friends of ours, came to the game to see us. It was great to see them and catch up with them too. 20 years ago we had gone to Hawaii with them and Brent and Cheryl Spencer and we enjoyed reminiscing about that trip. Even Dewey was quite the “splurger” treating us to dinner at the posh restaurant of Rosemont, Taco John’s. We loved it! These were our best days so far.

July 28, 2009. Day 9 Souix Falls SD.

July 28 was mostly a travel day for us from Pierre SD toward Rosemont MN. We didn’t want to have too many long days of travel so we stopped in Sioux Falls. We camped at a county campground then went downtown to see the falls. They were actually impressive even though the river was running low. After we did that we drove down to Tea SD, a small town 10 miles south of Sioux Falls to eat at their regionally famous Tea Steak House. Although it seemed as if time had stopped in this town and restaurant since 1968 (the chairs, tables, glasses and waitresses were all original!) the food was awesome. Thanks to Dewey for recommending it.

July 27, 2009. Day 8, Wall and Pierre SD.

On July 27th, we stopped in at Wall, South Dakota and toured Wall Drug store, Don Ritz said we just had to see it. It is a huge drug store, with many, many stores and every kind of souvenir you can think of. They have the best homemade donuts, the tastiest fresh, homemade ice cream, 5 cent coffee and free ice water (They really advertise this!!!!! And yes, we had it all). Later that day we toured the capitol in Pierre. We really enjoyed the capitol. It was beautiful.

July 25-26, 2009. Days 6-7 Custer and Mt Rushmore.

On July 26h, while camping in Custer, South Dakota we drove to Mount Rushmore. What an amazing sight. Being able to hike right to the base of it was fun. We also went to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It is a huge granite sculpture of Chief Crazy Horse. Most of his head has been completed but they are still sculpting his body and horse and it will take many years to complete. They say it won’t be completed in our lifetime. It has been 50 years now that they have been working on it. We really enjoyed Custer, South Dakota a small, beautiful town in the mountains.

July 23-24, 2009. Days 4-5 Cheyenne WY.

On July 24th we toured our third capitol in Cheyenne, Wyoming. We had tried to take a tour the day before but Velma, the tour guide had left for the day. It was well worth going back for the tour she gave. It was a beautiful capitol – built in 1887. After the tour we drove to Wyoming's Frontier Days –they say the biggest outdoor rodeo in the world. Normally the popualtion of Cheyenne is about 50,000 but for Frontier Day's week there are 400,000 people in the area. We walked around the midway for awhile and the kids went on some rides. A couple of really nice staff personnel allowed us all, for Rachel’s sake, to go into the Rodeo, without tickets, because they could see how bad she wanted to see it. That was really nice of them.

July 22, 2009. Day 3, Denver CO.

On July 22nd, we toured our second capitol in Denver, Colorado. It was a beautiful capitol – spectacular. We were able to tour the entire building even climbing over 100 stairs into the dome where you can see most all of Denver. Daniel loved that. We also went to a Colorado Rockies game and shopped all along their 6th Street mall. We ate dinner at the Hard Rock Café. We also visited our good friends Patty, Dean and Blake Hightower our cruise buddies. They fed us a great meal and helped start the trip out right.

July 21, 2009 Day 2. Travel Day.

This was a travel day for us from Santa Fe to Denver. We have decided that travel days will be school days for the kids. They're not happy about it but have to do it. Since the trip is scheduled for 376 days and we have to do 170 days of school we only have to do a school day about every other day. After a quick 50 mile trip from home to Santa Fe this 380 mile day seemed real long. We camped at Chatsfield State Park in south Denver. It was a real nice campground at a good price. It put us close to our friends Patty and Dean. Here's the boys working hard on their school work.

July 20, 2009 Day 1 Santa Fe

Santa Fe NM, was the first capitol building we visited. We were a little disapointed with it. We didn't think it looked at all like a capitol building more like an office building. We hadn't gone far so Grandma Celine came up from Albuquerque to have dinner with us and to bring an important package that had come for us that day. It was nice to see her.