One of the first vacations that I can ever remember was going out to South Dakota. This is one of the most memorable time I can remember.

I was 8 when we decided to go out to South Dakota. I went with my mom, my dad, and my sister Katey. We decided to go because we wanted to see wild buffalo and all of the other animals that Custer Park had.

We left in the morning and drove into Minnesota. We then stopped at a farm that had oxen, which are two steers trained very well that are used for pulling farm equipment. They gave us a tour of the farm. I went out into the pasture to see the two oxen he had. There were also two horses out in the pen. When I was walking back with my dad one of the horses came and bit me in the back. It hurt a lot and left a big bruise. My dad had to keep hitting the horse in nose so it would not bite me again. We slept in a motel that night because it was very hot out instead of tent.

The next day we were going to drive into South Dakota. I was really excited but it took a little longer because we drove through a horrible storm. Everybody had pulled off to the side of the interstate but not my dad he kept driving like at 65 mph until he got out of it. We learned later that there was tornado a couple of miles from the interstate. But nobody was hurt which was good. Once we were in South Dakota it was 100 plus degrees in daytime and 90s at night. We packed a lot of food so we would just stop and eat at waysides. We stopped at the Petrified Forest museum which is fossils. It was really boring because it was just looking at old rocks. It was rocks that you looked at through glass window. We finally went to the Badlands National Park. We then walked on the rocks and saw all the colorful rock formations. We also walked around in the park taking lots of pictures. It was hot, so we tried to find a campground with a nice swimming pool. We slept at a campground that was close to Wall Drug. We went to an ice cream shop with air conditioning. After a long day and getting our tent set up and making food we decided to go to bed. At 2 o’clock in the morning the ground started shaking and then we heard the sound of metal smashing into each other. It was a train on tracks 50 feet from the campsite. They were stopping at a train station and loading, disconnecting, and then reconnecting until 6 in the morning. By then it was so hot again we had to get up and get moving.

This day was a big day of traveling. We traveled all day and looked at flat lands. We ate at waysides and had sandwiches. Once we got to a big town we stocked up on camping supplies and groceries. We went out to eat that night. We then decided to sleep in a motel because of the horrible night we had the night before. At the motel we discovered that I had a horrible case of poison ivy. I am allergic to it we went to the doctor and got a bunch of creams.

The next day we were going to Custer Park. When we were driving we saw a couple of buffalo and bighorn sheep. We had a campsite reserved by a small creek but because of the drought the creek was low. It was supposed to be up to our knees but it was only up to our ankles. There was also a ban on fires because they were afraid the ground would start on fire. Luckily we had brought with a camping stove. That night we took their wildlife loop in the car which is a 15 mile loop where there are tons of animals. We saw 100 or more buffalo and then we saw wild burros but they weren’t very wild because they stuck there head right in the car looking for food and licking us. We then went to bed once we got back.

The next day we were going to Mount Rushmore but waited until night to see fireworks. So that day we did a lot of hiking and driving around Custer Park. Before we went to Mount Rushmore we went to a Chuck Wagon which was an old western show of singing and dancing around with comedians. Then we went to Mount Rushmore and saw all the fireworks and the 4 faces. It was really cool seeing all the fireworks over the faces.

The next day we went and saw a cave Whispering Winds and had a tour of the cave Whispering Winds was really nice going down into the cave because it felt like air conditioning and it was 65 degrees down there. It felt like heaven down there plus it was really cool to explore in the cave. We also saw a prairie dog town which is like a bunch of holes with dogs.

The next day we started heading home, we stopped at the reptile garden which was more interesting than the petrified garden because the reptiles were at a zoo with animals. They had many animals like sharks which they had a shark show. My sister and I were so bored on the way home Dad decided to stop at Cabelas and looked around because it was the first time I had ever been there. Then we got back into Minnesota. That night we stayed in a motel.

The next day Katey and I were bored so dad gave us the cell phone and we called Grandpa and Grandma. We talked to them all the way home about the trip. We finally got home it was so nice to come home. It was so much cooler at home.

This is my crazy trip we took out to South Dakota that was so much fun. Even though it was hot! This is the best trip we have ever taken that I can remember. I also plan on going again this summer with our Amery FFA. I am so excited to go again except we are going to go a little further into Montana to Glacier National Park. Overall I think this was the best trip we ever took.