Travelblog episode 7: More Rushmore, some swimming, and a Kamping Kabin

So, the next morning we got up...boys relatively rested, girls not so much. Another check on the ol' weather forecast showed that there was a chance of thunder storms again that night, but that it would be gone the next night. Hmm...we didn't really want to drop another $200 or whatever on a pair of motel rooms, so we decided to try our luck with the KOA Kamping Kabin. Luckily for us the Hill City / Rushmore KOA had one with two rooms that they claimed slept 7. Perfect!

Rather than rush out of the hotel we took advantage of the free continental breakfast at the Ramada, the girls went for a swim, and eventually we checked out and headed in to Rapid City to buy tents and get lunch. The tents and some other essentials were procured at Target. Lunch was found at the Fire House brewery brew pub thing. Word of warning: don't order the taco salad. Why? Because while there's plenty of taco, there's no salad. Big ol' chip bowl thing, about six chunks of lettuce, and half a pound of ground beef. Paige had to ask for more salad. Seriously.

After lunch we headed back up to Mt. Rushmore to get a look at it in the daylight, and surprisingly it looked just like the postcards! Well, kind of...they had a bunch of wires hooked up to help haul up fireworks for the July 3rd fireworks show (why not on the 4th? No idea.)

The heads in the daylight

The gang with the mighty mountain


George peeking over the trees, Megan rocking it
in my cheap gas station cop shades

Once we'd had our fill of all things Rushmorian we headed back down the mountain to the Hill City KOA where we checked in to our Kamping Kabin. While the woman I'd spoken to on the phone that morning had assured me it had bunk room for seven, it turns out it was only six. But she was nice and let us sneak Maya in to sleep on the floor. A tight fit, but a roof, windows with bug screens, and electric light. We weren't complaining.

While the girls and Logan headed off to the pool Matt and Paige hit the internets while I ran down to the store to get quarters for laundry. Because, you know, you need clean clothes once in a while. Especially after a week on the road.

Once the laundry was started I grabbed my book and headed down to the water slide / pool area to read and watch the kids slide and swim. As I walked up to the water slide area I heard something along the lines of "whoah..bump bump...waaaaaahhhhh!!!!" and thought "I bet that's Maya." It was. I swear, that girl can hurt herself without moving, so when you combine running, a wet water slide mat, a hill and brambles you get one scraped up girl. I helped her back down the ramp, walked her over to the shower building, got her rinsed off, then sat with her as she soaked away the pain in the hot tub.

Eventually it got dark, the pools got closed, and we headed back to the Kabin for some Kamping. On the way back we could see some lightning in the distance, and hear thunder. And then we could hear something that sounded like thunder, but was way more sustained. More like, oh, a series of explosions. Well, I thought, it's getting close to the 4th of July...maybe people are setting off fireworks. Right? Wrong. One of the girls cleared up the mystery by saying that a kid at the pool said that she was going to Crazy Horse that night for the "Night Blast". It sounded like a doozy...we'd find out how "doozy" the next day.