2020

I didn't want Randy to be disappointed by not going to Lincoln, to visit his brother's birthplace, but as soon as he saw how close we were to the world's largest ball of twine, he quickly decided we should head south and see that instead. No sooner had we crossed the border into Kansas than we saw a sign for the Center of the United States. What???! We had already been to the Center... in South Dakota! Obviously we took the turn off and there it was -- a gorgeous little rest stop, with a tiny little chapel, marking the geologic center of the lower 48 states. This had been the center up until 1959 when Alaska and Hawaii were admitted into the U.S., and Kansas was proud of it! A short ways down the road from the Center, we came to the world's largest ball of twine. Call it cheesy if you want, but if you can't get excited about Americana and a tradition that brought a town together then you are going to miss out on so much fun! Van's favorite part of...

Our first adventure in Nebraska was to the Museum of the Fur Trade  in Chadron. The museum didn't look like much from the outside, but the artificats were incredible, spanning from furs to seeds to guns. Even their website is worth a visit! So well known and well researched is this place that they were called upon during the making of the movie Revenant (featuring Leonardo Dicaprio) to autheniticate every little detail. We ventured west from there (because why would we go east toward our final destination!) to another museum, but it was so hot that all we really wanted was an ice cold slushie. We stopped at the "Dairy Sweet" and had the best slushie of my life. You know how you usually run out of juice about halfway through? This one was blue raspberry all the way to the last slurp! AND the "barista" (what do you call someone who makes slushies???) convinced Van and me to add nerds to our drinks. Genius! So, so good. While we waited for our drink perfectio...

Of all the states we were planning to travel to in our 4 months of wandering, South Dakota was the only one I had never been to. So obviously I was most excited about this one! I had always wanted to see Mt Rushmore, and even though I've heard people say it is disappointing, I didn't care. It was still tops on my bucket list! After visiting Devil's Tower, Wyoming, we once again started heading east, making the short drive to South Dakota. We stopped at the rest stop/visitor's center on the border of the two states and asked for a recommendation of an RV park. The woman suggested we go to Wyatt's Hideaway in her hometown of Belle Fourche (pronounced "bell foosh"). We had already been to Belle Fourche -- it was the geologic center of the United States that we had passed through earlier in the day -- but we were all about taking recommendations from locals, so back to the center we went! And we were so glad we did. The plan had only been to spend o...