Rushmore and Rowing Part 3

South Dakota was very interesting.  We did a few quilt shops, stopped at Mt. Rushmore, went through Wind Cave National Park, Hot Springs, South Dakota, the Oglala Sioux reservation, and the Rosebud Reservation.

Driving into South Dakota you pass by the famous Sturgis-  no we did not stop because even though the famous Bike Rally isn't until the first week of August it was still crazy busy.  But we did stop at Spearfish, South Dakota at Dakota Quilt Company.  I have shopped their online site quite a few times, and they have a gorgeous selection of batiks.

This was their row. 
We spent the night in Rapid City, South Dakota so the boys could swim. We had a late start because I wanted to stop at a shop called Betty's Quiltery.  Per their online shop it opened at 9:00 but when we got there according to the sign on the door it didn't open until 9:30.  I was not about to sit for 1/2 an hour with the three men in the car, so we went off to Mt. Rushmore.

We did the hike which is about 3/4 of a mile up/down and stairs.  OMG I need to lose more weight!

The boys thoroughly enjoyed it and there was a child's display of a teepee which they thought was cool.

We drove out to a nearby small town called Hill City which had a sweet little quilt shop called Hill City Mercantile.  They had some great patterns, and fabrics in a great old shop.

These had to come home with me.
I also had to have some of this fabric.

There row was very simple, but could be changed up many different ways.

There was a family discussion at that point.  Do we drive back to Rapid City, and head  homeward on 90?  Do we go to Hot Springs through Wind Cave Park, then across the Sioux Reservations through the Badlands.  We decided to head to Hot Springs.

At Wind Cave park we saw prairie dogs, and came around a corner to this.

There was a giant herd of Bison.  They were huffing, snorting, kicking up dirt, and the boys could hear it all.  These were bigger than the ones in Yellowstone.  They covered a hillside, which makes you wonder what it was like 200 years ago when they say that a herd could run by you for a couple of days.

Hot Springs is a sweet little town. There are a lot of old buildings which appear to have been built from the local sandstone which is red.  The town sits along this little creek.  If you would like to read more about it check out Wikipedia.
 
There were not many places to eat so we ate at The Vault which is a little bar and grill in town.

The only thing that the boys were disappointed about while eating at The Vault was that they did not get to sing "Sweet Caroline" by Neil Diamond.  They were complaining about the song, and I told them that they needed to learn it  because inevitably they would be in a bar when they grew up and that song would come on, and the whole bar will sing and they would want to sing along. 

Amazingly there is a quilt shop in Hot Springs called Heartsong Quilts.  Great shop with lots of modern fabrics, and patterns by more modern designers.

The kit was very cute and I loved how they had it all set up in a roll with all of the fabrics, and the pattern.

We traveled the rest of the day trying to get across the state of South Dakota.  We should have stopped in Sioux Falls, but DH wanted to go a little further.  What a mistake.  We drove almost 100 miles into Minnesota to find a motel. Got to bed at 1 am only to have a very rude awakening by a woman screaming at someone on her cellphone at 5am.  Unfortunately there were not any shops along the way without wandering way off the interstate.  We got to Wisconsin and it was the same.

DH saw a sign for a quilt shop and decided maybe we should go check it out.  Off the Interstate to Waunakee we went to Mill House Quilting.  All I can say is wow.  I don't know if it was I was tired, and ready to be home after my rude wake up call, but the shop was overwhelming.  They had great shop examples, and lots of fabric but it was too much for my brain that day.

This is their row it is kind of modern, but I liked the colors too.

We traveled through Illinois, and made it home by 12:30am on Friday the 24th.  It was great to sleep in my own bed.  

Another fun vacation memory.