Plans, plans, plans

The time for my next big adventure has come!  I will be travelling over 3,500 miles with my sister, Zoe.  Our main goal is to see Glacier National Park before the glaciers melt, but we will also be stopping at many interesting places along the way.

Here's what we intend to do (but who knows if this is what will actually happen!)

Day 1: Depart St. Louis around 5pm.  Arrive in Omaha around midnight.  There will be only restroom breaks along the way.  This will be our only night in a hotel.

Day 2:  Depart Omaha and head towards Mount Rushmore.  Without stops this is a 9 hour drive, but we have a few things up our sleeve.

• Falls of Big Sioux - Basically a big waterfall in South Dakota.
• Corn Palace - (I'm pretty confident this will be my favorite part of the trip!)  This is a big palace made out of corn.  Only in America!   
• Sage Creek Rim Road - This is part of Badlands National Park.  Basically a scenic route where we will (hopefully) see Bison, Billy Goats, and other wildlife.
• Iron Mountain Scenic Road (Route 16A) - Another scenic route into Mount Rushmore.  It includes bridges, tunnels, and winding roads.  We're hoping to make it to Mount Rushmore in time to see the nightly lighting ceremony.

Day 3:  Quick look around Mount Rushmore in the daylight, and then we will begin our journey to Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.  Along the way we will stop at Devils Tower which just seems to be a giant rock formation sticking out of the Earth.  We're hoping to arrive at the Canyon around 6:30 just in time to pitch our tent before sunset.

Day 4:  We will spend a day exploring Bighorn Canyon.  Here we will hike to a Ghost Town and spend some time exploring Historic Ranches.  And most importantly we will spend some time outside of the car!

Day 5:  We will depart Bighorn and head for the most important destination: Glacier National Park!  This will be one of the longest stretches of our journey at a little over 9 hours.  Luckily, Pictograph State Park is along the way, so we will stop there to rest.  Apparently this was the home to Prehistoric Hunters whose paintings are still visible inside of the caves.  Should be interesting!  We hope to arrive at Glacier National Park around 6:30.  Once again, just in time to pitch a tent.

Day 6:  A full day to explore the Glaciers!  I'm hoping we can squeeze in a Horseback Trail Ride.

Day 7:  We will head out for Yellowstone.  On the way we're hoping to take a dip in Chico Hot Springs.  Hopefully we'll arrive to Yellowstone early enough to do a bit of site-seeing.  Zoe was there just a couple of years ago, so I'm hoping she can show me around a bit.

Day 8:  We'll spend the morning meandering around Yellowstone and leave for Fort Laramie later in the day.  Unfortunately there doesn't really seem to be  anything to see along the way, so I guess we'll spend some time listening to Audiobooks (courtesy of Nana and Papa.)

Day 9:  We'll start the morning exploring Fort Laramie.  Then we will head towards Homestead National Monument of America.  This site commemorates the Homestead Act (which I know nothing about, so it should be quite informative.) We have two very interesting stops planned for this day:

• Carhenge:  Basically a replica of Stonehenge made out of cars.
• Chimney Rock:  The natural landmark made famous by the 90's computer game The Oregon Trail.

Day 10:  We will head home!  Our last stop will be a tour of the Harley Davidson Factory just outside of Kansas City.

Sounds like we're in for quite the ride!