Wake up was again early on day 4.  My husband seems to think between 5-6am is a good time to wake up while on vacation.  We were ready to go in record time again.  I tell you traveling all together I think we did dang good.  Chad, my husband, is now a pro at packing the pod.  It was packed and secured in record time.  We checked out of our Keystone Hotel and we were on the road again.

Our first stop today was the Cosmos Mystery Stop.  It is a cabin up on a mountain side where everything defies gravity.  You stand sideways, water runs uphill, drop a tennis ball and it goes uphill also.  It is a place of mystery or to my husband it is a place of trickery and everything is built on such exaggerated angles what you think up is actually down.  I don’t know all I know it was a steep walk up that mountain and when I got up there I was so dizzy I felt sick.  I have terrible balance and have a tendency to stumble on flat normal ground I thought for sure I was a goner up there.  My head was spinning and I was so dizzy I am really shocked I didn’t go down.  The kids and Chad laughed the whole time up there.  They did the experiments and had a grand time at the Cosmos Mystery Stop.

The one “trick” or amazement not sure what to think was a supposed level spot where the kids stood across from each other and then switched spots and it looked like Greta grew and Henry shrunk.  I wasn’t quite so dizzy for this part so I enjoyed it.

We left the dizzy producing fun spot and continued on to Rapid City.  We stopped at Dinosaur Park this was suppose to be a highlight for Henry and Grandma.  They were so excited to have a picnic in Dinosaur park.  Well we got there and there were about 500 steps to get to the park.  Ok maybe a little less than 500 but there were a ton straight up the hill or mountain.  My mother in-law is in a wheelchair/walker.  It wasn’t going to happen the dream of the picnic was over.  I felt soooo bad about the situation.  My in-laws stayed over at the gift shop/snack shop and we took the kids up the steps.  Afterwards we did have a little picnic at the snack shop at dinosaur park and got one picture with the grandparents and a dinosaur.

We had a busy day planned for our Day 4 so we had to be On the Road Again…. We headed out of Rapid City and went to the South Dakota Air and Space Museum.  This was Chad’s pick for the vacation and I think he was getting worried that it wasn’t going to happen.  It was really a good museum and FREE.  For me that doesn’t know one plane from the next it was interesting and I really enjoyed it.  Chad loved it and wants to go back and go on a base tour next time.  I took some pictures of the Korean War for my grandpa was in that War.  The Vietnam War exhibit for my uncles that were in that war and the B-52 planes for my Grandma who went to California during the war to work on these planes.

We hit the road and stopped in Wall Drug again for some free water and an ice cream treat.  We really packed a lot in day 4 now writing it all out.  We hit Badlands National Park.  I wasn’t sure what to expect and it was beautiful.  The color of the rocks reminded me of Colorado Garden of the Gods or something like that.  I wish we would have hit this park a little earlier in the day.  This would have been a fun park to get out and explore a little more.

We drove the park and ended up in Kadoka South Dakota for the night.  We stayed at an old Rodeside Inn.  There were a lot of famous people that had stayed there before, Charlie Daniels Band, the actors and crew of Starship Troopers etc… I just wonder what this town was in it’s hayday.  I saw a clean but old motel.  It had some dry rot on the wood and it was in need of repairs.  Chad and I drove the town and it was very rundown and old.  There were hotels and campgrounds completely overgrown.  It is like a major little town just gets jumped over now reminded me of the movie, Cars.  Kids ran around the grounds and played on some old horse swings probably from the 1950’s.  It was a good night in Kadoka that was population around 500.

Day 5 would be one step closer to home.  We would head towards Sioux Falls.  I was excited to see where Chad lived and worked for a while before I knew him.  Another wonderful day that was packed full of fun.