South Dakota

 Recently, Kevin and I had the opportunity to take a vacation together.  Just us, no kids.  It was kind of a foreign concept.  The last trip that I can remember going on without the kids was to Toronto, Ontario, Canada with my sister.  But that was at least 15 years ago.  Since then, I have spent time away from the kids, but they were the ones going to far off places.  Caroline went to Marine Biology camp in North Caroline two years in a row and Jack went to football camps.  I usually stayed home.  This year, I was the one going away and they were staying home.  

The idea for the trip started when Kevin and his sisters were trying to figure out a time where they could all meet up.  Kevin had asked me when the best time for me to go on a trip would be, and I told him June or the first two weeks of July. In the end, the times didn't work out for everybody, so Kevin will go in August (when I am back at school).  We were both kind of bummed because we'd been looking forward to the trip.  One day, Kevin said, "Let's just go somewhere else."  

This was easier said than done.  I have been all over the east (from the Mississippi River to the East coast) except for a few states.  Kevin, having grown up in Eastern Washington state, had been to a lot of places in the West and over to Yellowstone.  I wanted to go somewhere where neither of us had been.  That's when I remembered that I that I had always wanted to go and see Mt. Rushmore, but there was also another reason.

For twelve years, I taught fourth grade ELAR (one of those years I taught all subjects).  For several of those years, we read a Time for Kids article about Crazy Horse and the Crazy Horse Memorial.  I also wanted to visit that. Kevin agreed, and so we began to plan.  

We planned to spend 5 days traveling and site seeing, and save money by camping.  We bought a tent that would go on the back of his truck and picked out the essentials we would need from our camping stores.  

The overall trip was so amazing and there were many lessons learned.  I am so glad that I had the opportunity to go and visit such a beautiful state.  If you ever get the chance to go, take it.  You won't regret it.