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

11:30AM - Kids slept in until 9:00AM. We played in the pool with the pirate ship

and giant water slide.

Then we were back in the car. Noah liked making pillow forts in the car.

Abby just smiled when the camera was out.

11:40AM - Arrive at the Corn Palace.

What is a "Corn Palace" you ask? A building decorated in corn, of course, celebrating corn and it yumminess with a giant gift shop.

There are giant corn cobs on the floor to follow on the tour.

And, who wouldn't want their picture taken with Cornelius?

(Apparently, it is also a building used for basketball games, although we never found out what team plays there. We are thinking of moving our family when we find out so our kids can play for that team.)

1:25PM - Finished at Corn Palace. Hot dogs and corn-on-the-cob for lunch.

And, corn suckers for dessert.

On to Mt. Rushmore! Daddy is doing some driving now. We are on I-90. He asks if he will ever need to turn the steering wheel. Mommy assures him when he gets to Seattle, he should do it then.

6:15PM - Rapid City. 78. Dark, dark skies. Lightening in the distance. Mt. Rushmore is getting close! Side note - the mystery has been solved! Christopher is always astounded by the number of people that ask when given our name, "Is that P-B?" He wants to know when they have ever seen it spelled that way. Well, we just passed "Cambell St." Now he suspects everyone he has ever spelled his name for hails from Rapid City, SD.

6:30PM - RAIN STORM! BIG MOUNTAIN RAIN!

7:00PM - Mt. Rushmore KOA. Rain is letting up.

We set up our tents while the boys play "baseball in South Dakota."

8:30PM - on to Mt. Rushmore for the evening lighting ceremony. Mommy thought she would introduce another Randolph family favorite, "A quarter to the first one to see...."

Whoa, boy, she should have known better... (Whatever you do, do not ask Benjamin who got the quarter!) We had been telling Noah all along that Mt. Rushmore would be the perfect spot for our license plate game. We were not wrong - as we drove up and down the aisles, every car was from another state. So tell me, how did this happen? We end up parking right next to a Johnson County, Kansas car!

As we were walking up to the monument,

Abby said, "Mommy, look! Look what it is! Just like on my clipboard!" (She had had a Mt. Rushmore picture to color during the drive.)

She even called it Mt. Mushmore once - just for her mom.

Due to the rainstorm, the evening's performers could not set up. We missed out on "Tops in Blue", an Air Force singing group. They still sang a couple of songs for us, but without lights or microphones. Our children would not sit still. But they did manage to pose for some cute pics.

There is no pomp and circumstance to the monument lighting - it just happens.

What a beautiful site!

11:15PM - Back to campground. We are only 3 miles away but the boys are asleep within seconds. Abby still going strong. Daddy transferred the boys to the tent - they never woke up. It didn't take Abby long to go out. Beautiful, cool night for sleeping under the stars.