Home Sweet Home - end of the road - it's all over. We've been home a week now. It's weird to be home and not working, but we are adjusting just fine! So, this is it until the next trip (hopefully there will be many more). We had a wonderful time and loved seeing the USA. We live in a pretty awesome country and we are privileged to have seen so much of it. A road trip is definitely the way to go!Conments from Eldon: All in all, America is an awesome place. The people were friendly and the scenery was beautiful. Everybody else can go to Europe, I still have a lot the see in America. Until the next time, happy trails.................

Comments from Larry: I love my yard. I can go in and out, in and out, in and out all day long. The road trip was fun though and I'm glad they took me along, especially since I got to see the prairie dogs. I don't want to go on any car rides for a while though.

Meet JJ, the newest addition to my side of the family. He's a sweetheart and the new mom & dad are already parenting pros. We had one last tourist stop yesterday, so I'll throw that in too. It's the Corn Palace in Mitchell, S.D. - what can I say? It's corn. We're on the last leg of the trip tomorrow - Michigan here we come.

Comments from Eldon: JJ is a real cutie. The picture explains why Mitchell S.D. is a corny place. I told the museum aide it's a corny place and she thought that was hilarious. Hasn't anyone said that to her before? I could be a comedian in Mitchell.

Comments from Larry: I didn't meet her, but I hear my cousin Zelda (also a cat) is a real hottie.

The Badlands did not disappoint either. Very cool. They are like a mini Grand Canyon. The rain held off, even though it's cold and dark. We took the 26 mile scenic drive through the Badlands National Park. We also stopped at the Wounded Knee Museum . Wounded Knee is not one of the bright spots in our countries' history. The soldiers totally massacred around 300 defenseless Indians in 1890. Many were women, children and babies. Also, we stopped at an original prairie home. The home was a sod house. The settlers built their home into a hill and used sod bricks for the interior walls. Not very pretty, but I guess it did the job. Larry saw the last of his prairie dogs today, too. We are now headed to Steve & Gena's in Minnesota. The trip is definitely winding down. We are both pretty sad about that, but we've had a wonderful time and feel lucky that we've got to see and do all that we have.

Comments from Larry: It was sad leaving the prairie dogs. A woman I met said ranchers hate them, but I still love them (except for the 10 foot one I met today.)

Comments from Eldon: Today was our last day to visit a national park. They truly are a treasure. I guess Teddy Roosevelt knew what he was doing back in 1903 when he started the national parks. I guess there is no way to dawdle anymore, I'm sadly on my way home.

PS - we have driven 11,000 miles now.

A very dark, rainy South Dakota day. We didn't go to the Badlands or the horse refuge because of the rain. We are in Wall, SD at the Badlands Park entrance. It's supposed to be clearer tomorrow, so hopefully the visibility for the Badlands will improve. We killed the afternoon at Wall Drugs - it's a block wide tourist trap store. The pictures will reflect that we had a little too much time on our hands!

Comments from Larry: No prairie dogs, just rain - the day was bust.

Comments from Eldon: Today was a classic example of the tackiness of souvenirs shops. I especially liked the buffalo chip frisbee - very realistic.

We had a tourist filled Mother's Day. We started out this morning with a gold mine tour - what can I say, it was right by our hotel! I thought it would be hokey, but it was just us on the tour and we had a good time with Matt, our personal tour guide. After the tour, we got to pan for gold. You are guaranteed to find gold. They set you up with your first pan and lace it with some gold flakes. Well, I evidently dumped mine, then even Matt couldn't find the gold either! Eldon has 2 flakes worth 75 cents. Then we drove 1/2 hour to the Crazy Horse Memorial. It was started in 1948 and is still a work in progress. It will be a whole lot bigger than Mount Rushmore when finished. It is being built by a non-profit foundation funded by donations (no government funding). They don't have a finish date proposed, but by the looks it will be another 50 or so years. We both thought it was pretty neat. Then we drove another 1/2 hour and arrived at Wind Cave National Park. Wind Cave is the 4th longest cave in the world. We got there in time for the last cave tour of the day. Enjoyed that too! (Brenda, remember when Grandma Hess took us to Mammoth Cave in Kentucky in about 1964? Mammoth was better than Wind Cave because of all the stalactites and stalagmites). We are spending the night in Hot Springs, SD. Eldon wants to go see the Wild Horse Reserve tomorrow. Then on to the Badlands.

Comments from Eldon: I enjoyed the day - I think panning gold was my favorite. I panned for about an hour and made 75 cents. A new retirement job at this rate would pay $6.00 per day...hmmmm

Comments from Larry: Another boring day watching Eldon & Cindy get in the car, get out of the car, get in the car, get out of the car....... then they wonder why I'm in a bad mood. Rested, but in a bad mood. One highlight of the day though - I saw more prairie dogs. I love them little critters. Saw a buffalo peeing too. Wow, they pee a lloooooonnnnngggg time!

Mount Rushmore did not disappoint. It's pretty awesome. The museum was interesting too with facts about the sculptor and the history of how it was made. By the way, it took 14 years, opened in 1941, and cost $1,000,000. We also went out a 2 hour train ride through the Black Hills in a restored 1880 train. Also fun. Oh yea, I also found out why the Black Hills are called the Black Hills. It's because the ponderosa pines do not reflect sunlight and it makes them look black.

Comments from Eldon: The immense amount of work on the rock was unbelievable. Fourteen years seems to be to short a time complete it. It's huge. You could walk right into George Washington's nose if you wanted to. In the kid's hands-on section, I got to push the dynamite plunger and see a video of what I blew up. That was cool!

Comments from Larry: I sat in the car all day and watched dead presidents through the window. I like prairie dogs better.

Pictures of Devils Tower & prairie dogs that wouldn't load last night.