Venturing West, Part 4

After a great weekend in Minnesota (see below), it was time for the final leg of the trip.


Here we are heading out on Wednesday morning:

Whitney wants to add that although I looked "bright and chipper," she clearly needed some coffee.


We hopped on I-35 South for an hour, through the farms of southern Minnesota, until we reached I-90, where we spent the remainder of the day. After lunch and a few more hours of Minnesota, we reached the "Great Faces, Great Places" sign of South Dakota around 3pm.

South Dakota is mostly a prairie landscape as seen above, dotted with hundreds of signs for the Corn Palace and Wall Drug. We were able to fend off the urge of these tourist traps, and made it into Rapid City for the night at 8pm. Spurning the national food chains, we picked the Millstone Family Restaurant for dinner. Great choice! Nothing like Midwest diner-style dinner.

With a night of rest, we took off for Mount Rushmore in the morning. Driving out of Rapid City, we quickly rose into the Black Hills.

The approach to Mount Rushmore:











And there it is! Quite a sight to see in person















Here we are with George, Thomas, Theodore, and Abraham















After a few hours at the park, including seeing the sculptor's original, unfinished plans for the monument we continued on to Wyoming.
















Wyoming was pretty plain, about how Wyoming sounds, although we saw many of these, without knowing what they were. Have a guess? Click on the picture and scroll down to see if you're right.











After stopping for gas in Chugwater, Wyoming (pop: 244), we drove past the "Welcome to Colorful Colorado" sign (see our title header) at 6:36pm, and arrived in Fort Collins about 30 minutes later.

Now that we've had a chance to settle in and explore the town, we'll pass along new stories and pictures soon!