On Thursday 25^th September we made it into South Dakota, the geographic centre of the USA (marked just north of where we got to near Rapid City), so we had made it half way across America in a little over 10 days! We came off the highway again and onto 14a Scenic Highway. The dozens of motorcyclists whizzing by indicated it was going to be a special route. Through Spearfish Canyon in Black Hills National Park down into Deadwood along a route with waterfalls at every turn into Lead and then Deadwood.

Deadwood being the home of Wild Bill Hilcock and of course Calamity Jane, we obviously sung a few rounds of Black Hills of Dakota and some other Doris Day hits and decided we would postpone seeing Mount Rushmore until after we’d checked out Deadwood. So we found a campsite just outside of town and collapsed. (Sadly we didn’t find one on Calamity Lane – honestly there was a road with that name!).

Before we headed into town on Friday we spent the morning catching up on ‘household chores’. A couple of people have asked me about this and yes we do still have to do boring mundane stuff like cleaning and washing!! Although washing is brilliant. Instead of having my washing machine on every day like I do at home and spend hours sorting, folding, putting away clothes every day, (note no mention of ironing – either here or at home), once every 2 or so weeks we go to a campsite laundry. They always have 5-6 machines. I load them all up. Do all my washing in one hit. 45 mins later move the whole lot to the 5-6 tumble dryers. Then bingo everything is done all in one hit. Loving it. I think I may invest in 3 or 4 extra washing machines when I get home, or just start going to launderettes!

And cleaning the van is easy. It doesn’t take long to clean 28’ of carpet, 2 smalls sofas, 6 windows, 2 sinks and 1 toilet. Charlie does windows and mirrors. Will does the leather seats. I do the toilet and sinks and John hoovers. 20 mins tops.  Shopping however is less fun.  I desperately miss Ocado and resent the ridiculous waste of time walking round supermarkets. Putting stuff in trolley. Taking it out again. Putting it in bags. Carrying bags to van.  Then trying to squeeze it all into our tiny fridge and 1 cupboard and a overflow box in the boot.

Anyway, back in Deadwood. It is a very touristy town but still kind of cool. Old Wild Bill Hicock got himself shot in the back here whilst gambling in 1876 and the town dines out on him by way of re-enactments of his shooting the subsequent trial of his assassin! The streets are lined with all the old gold-rush era buildings which have been restored apparently from the gambling dollars made here in town – every other building is a casino.

The kids totally bought into the whole thing and we ended up being badgered into letting them have a sepia photo of them dressed as cowboys. They couldn’t be more chuffed with this image and are convinced they will make a rather fetching Christmas card, so watch this space.

Just as we were heading out of town Main Street suddenly came to life. A Wild Bill Hicock character sauntered out of a saloon and led what must have been the towns High School in a 10 minute parade, brass band and all. It was quite fun but best of all was the huge stash of sweets the kids collected.

So Friday afternoon we finally made it to Mount Rushmore. We got a glimpse of Washington’s nose from the road as we approached and once we had parked and were stood in front of it we were suitably impressed. Clever old Gutzon Borglum and his team of 400 workers who worked 14 years between 1927 and 1941 did quite a good job. Another brilliant workbook from the National Monument Rangers and the kids managed to come away with quite a comprehensive knowledge of the 4 presidents whose faces are carved into the granite mountains.

If we are totally honest the hour we spent gawping at this may not have been worth the 400 odd miles we drove east from Yellowstone to get here. Although we had loved our time in Cody and of course we had driven through beautiful Wyoming, which we wouldn’t otherwise have done. Anyway, we did it.

We then found a fantastic campsite just down the road in Hill City and we spent the weekend there. The huge campsite, Rafter J Ranch, had the biggest most spaced out pitches we have ever experienced on a campsite. It was very quiet (well apart from the 22 Camping and Caravanning Club tour who were there on our first night – honestly we are not deliberately following them!!) and the kids had acres and acres in which to bike, play football and baseball etc. The weather was incredible with clear blue skies and temperatures reaching 95 which had made for some horrible driving days in truth but now was greatly appreciated!

We had thought to only stay there one night but actually realised we were in need of a few down days. So we stayed 3 nights and rested up ready for the long haul back across the country to get us to the Oregon coast.   We did nothing more than hang out, ride our bikes into town, catch up on our project books, sit around the fire and most importantly map out where and when we will go over the next few weeks.

Monday 29^th we left the campsite and headed south. Hoped to check in on the progress of the Crazy Horse Memorial just odwn the road from Mount Rushmore. It is appreantly the worlds largest monument at 563 ft tall. When it’s done it will show the Sioux leader astride his horse pointing to the horizon saying ‘My lands are where my dead lie buried’. The monument has been under construction since 1948 in response to the completion of Mount Rushmore by sculptor Korczak Ziolkowski commissioned by the Lakota Sioux elders. Sadly it was such a cold cloudy day that we only just glimpsed his nose as we approached and by the time we got there he had been totally shrouded in mist – so no photos I’m afraid!

We drove through Wind Cave National Park, 44 square miles of grassland and forest. Quite pretty but it’s main attraction being below us in the 132 miles of passages 60-100 million years old. We would have stopped for a look but another attraction a little way down the road was what we were headed for…

Then we were in Nebraska and another short detour to visit Car Henge. Yes it really is what it sounds like. Built in 1987 in the town of Alliance, it is a giant sized replica of the UK’s druid ruin. This one being built entirely out of cars.  This was definitely worth the detour for petrol head and sons!!

We were now needing to crunch some serious miles so we literally passed through Nebraska in the space of a few hours. I’m sure there is much more to see and experience than the mainly farmland we saw but we had to just whizz through. One exciting thing in Nebraska was another one of those ironic wildlife spottings. Sat at the side of the road so close we could have touched him was a coyote. He just watched us drive past then sauntered off into the undergrowth. Glad we got up at 6am back in Yellowstone to spot one of those bad boys at least ½ mile away from where we stood shivering and fighting over our spotting scope to get a glimpse of him!

By the end of the day we were back in Wyoming again. It had been a truly horrendous driving day with endless rain storms but a beautiful sunset and so we were very glad to wake on Tuesday morning to clear blue skies again! Another huge driving day in which we crossed the continental divide not once but twice and climbed to 7000’, looking forward to being on some lower terrain hopefully once we reach the coast. But first was Utah and Salt Lake City.