Some of the best times in one’s life are those unplanned moments.  Our road trip adventure to South Dakota was one of those.  My wife and I seldom discussed this state when we would talk about our US travel bucket list and to be honest, we thought the Dakotas would probably be the last states to visit whenever we did complete our 50 state quest.  But then a few things changed and next thing we knew we were heading north on I-35 for 17 ½ hours!

BACKGROUND STORY

Towards the end of July 2020 my family (like most of America) was sick and tired of the covid-19 lockdown summer.  Most of the usual summer activities were either closed or severely limited and air travel practically non-existent. We entertained ourselves the best we could at home or visited/hosted friends and family that weren’t paranoid about the virus.  But after a while that got old too since we had been carrying on like this since the 1^st week of April. We were now at our wits end and something had to give.  Then it all came together that last weekend in July.

My wife and I were grilling outside and having drinks that summer night when my oldest daughter came to us and said we needed to do something because she and her siblings were tired of just being at home. School was starting soon and it was already announced that they would be virtual in the fall so that meant even more time at home and they all wanted to get away.  My response to her was “we’ll go somewhere this coming week”.

When she went back inside, my wife and I started discussing where we could go and how limited the options were due to covid so we agreed on 4 things right away.  Our destination had to be far away, it had to be somewhere we’d never been before, the weather had to be cooler, and it had to have plenty of open outdoor activities.  When we looked at the US map on our phones, we both knew we had to head north.  “F it, let’s drive to South Dakota” I said.  And that’s how we decided on The Mount Rushmore state.