A Day in the Life of a Campbell Family Road Trip. Day Five.

10:30AM - We're packed up and on the road with our first stop ahead - Bear Country, USA. Another nice, cold night for sleeping. Mommy and Abby were the first ones up and into their 4th of July clothes. Off to a pancake breakfast and then to break down the camp. While mommy packed the car, daddy took the kids for one last round of pillow jumping, mini golf, and volleyball. If only we had time for the water park and slide! It sure warms up quickly!

2:15PM - The tour through Bear Country, USA turned out to be about an hour. We saw elk,

reindeer,

mule deer,

mountain lions, big-horned goats (which Abby calls Corn goats),

and of course bears.

The bears really want you to stay! Sometimes they just sit in front of your car.

They had quite a few bears really - maybe as many as 50!

We took a quick look through Babyland to see some baby bears. They look pretty cute and were all enjoying a swim.

Some food from the grill and we are ready to make the long drive back to Sioux Falls.

2:25PM - Time for a potty break already. This could be a really long day! (And, in case you are wondering, YES! Mom did ask before we started out but everyone assured me they did not have to go...)

3:30PM - Arrive in Wall. Go to - yup, you guessed it - Wall Drug Store.

A drug store, you ask? Oh, not just any drug store. A city block deep and wide drug store. The kids had a blast running through and looking at everything. Abby had her arms so full of stuff she could barely walk. She was not happy when mommy told her she could not buy all that. She ended up with a pink horse she named Sarah. Noah picked some little pistols with a holster belt, and Benj picked a sling shot. (Yes, Grandpa Doug, he looks even more like Dennis the Menace with a sling shot in his hand.) Are we crazy, you ask? A sling shot for a four-yr-old? Yup, we are. We figured he didn't need to know what it was actually for. We stepped out of the store and he bent over to pick up the first stone he found. Luckily, he was not coordinated enough to get it all to work.

4:30 - Benjamin asleep.

8:00PM - we decide to pull through for some quick dinner. Agree on Arby's. Get to drive thru. Wait and wait. Finally daddy notices a sign that they closed at 7:00 for the holiday. Uh. Oh. Thankfully (or regretfully as some might look at it) McDonald's is open. Dinner is served.

9:30PM - We decide we will not make our intended stop in time for fireworks. Enter the beauty of the smartphone! We look up fireworks in Sioux Falls. They are at the fairgrounds. We touch the address and GPS comes up and gets us right there. Beautiful. We park on the side of the street next to the fairgrounds to watch the show.

**Side note - why did we not stay at Mt. Rushmore for the fireworks? Good question. That was the original intention of going up there this particular weekend. Luckily, in researching the trip I came across an article from Sept. '10 that said there would be no fireworks this year. (I cannot tell you how happy I am that I found that out before we got there to watch fireworks!!) Turns out some beetle has infected most of the pine trees in the Black Hills and they are dying out. They are afraid fireworks would cause a major forest fire. Christopher asked one of the park rangers and they have no guess as to when a 4th of July celebration might return to the area. So I spent the next two weeks trying to find some place along the route home that would offer some fun. Turns out it didn't matter because we arrived 4 hours later than we had planned and missed all the festivities - except for the most important part.

10:30PM - Fireworks turned out to be quite a nice show. We could also see a few competing shows in the distance.

10:50PM - Oldest and youngest asleep in the car.

11:45PM - arrive at hotel in Vermillion, SD. What a long day!