cedar point, chicago, driving, south dakota

Tuesday- june 19th

Our goal for today was to get to the Badlands, but fell just short of it, camping in Wall, SD for the night and could catch glimpses of Badlands National Park in the distance. Stopped in Mitchell, SD to see the world's only Corn Palace, and at to lookout at the Missouri River. Tomorrow we plan to visit Wall Drug- a huge drug/general store that had signs advertising it for over a hundred miles before reaching it. Then we're off through the Badlands and on to Mt. Rushmore.

Monday- june 18th

Woke up early again and were on the road by 10:00 and on the way to South Dakota. Today was a driving day- 630 miles from Yorkville, IL to Sioux Falls, SD where we stayed for the night. You could see subtle changes in the landscape. In parts of Wisconsin, the land resembled that of upstate Pennsylvania and as we moved on to Minnesota it became flatter and there were more farm fields, same with South Dakota. Sure is a beautiful country.

Huge windmills dotted the land.

Sunday- june 17th

Woke up early and got on the road for our next destination: Chicago, Illinois. Drove until late afternoon when we arrived at Hide-A-Way Lakes Campground in Yorkville, IL-about 50 miles outside of Chicago (can’t take trailers/RVs into Chicago). Got the trailer set up and changed and then made our way into Chicago for a trip up the Sears Tower to view the city and dinner at a good steakhouse to celebrate Father’s Day.

Saturday- june 16th

Spent most of the day in Cedar Point enjoying ourselves and riding the many rollercoasters. The park was quite crowded, it being a Saturday and summer just beginning, so we didn’t get on too many rides –lines were definitely long, but most were worth it. The first ride we went on was Raptor (much like Talon at Dorney Park) and then a view of the park from the Sky Ride, some bumper cars, the thrilling Millennium Force, Mark and Zach cooled down on the Snake River Log Flume, then a small wooden rollercoaster, and the dreaded Mean Streak (a wooden rollercoaster that no one found very enjoyable- very rough), and after that Emily and Mark were off to Dragster (120 mph and up 400 ft in the air). Overall an enjoyable day, despite the small number of rides ridden. The day left us tired and ready to head back to the trailer.