Our last trip out west before I was laid-off was in the summer of 2010. My mom and I wanted to go back to South Dakota again before driving to visit our elderly cousin for a week. At this time, she was in a nursing home and no longer had her apartment. She didn't care for being in the nursing home and would have rather been in her apartment. One thing she did enjoy was watching the squirrels outside her window. We were very fortunate to be able to visit her this one last time. She passed away at the age of 99 about a month after we came home. We love and miss you cousin Fern.
 

Our third trip out west was in 2009. I had three weeks vacation time at this point so my mom and I decided to add South Dakota into the mix. Some of our relatives thought it was a great idea, while others thought we were crazy for driving to South Dakota. They said there was nothing to see on the drive. They were the relatives in Minnisota. We had visited there before going to South Dakota. We spent a couple of days near the Mall of America. The Mall was kind of cool. My mom and I enjoyed the Aquarium in the mall, and my son enjoyed the amusement park. After staying in Rapid City for three days, we drove to Iowa for ou week with our elderly cousin before driving home.

Our first trip that my mom planned began at 4:30 in the morning. I had loaded my van the day before so all we had to do was get ice and start driving. My mom and I took turns at the wheel and made it into Indiana the first day. The second day we made it to Wisconsin Dells where we spent three nights and did alot of attractions. We drove to our destination in Iowa for a week after that and then began driving home.
Our second trip consisted of us driving to Niagra Falls for three days before heading to Iowa for a week. We gave ourselves two days to make it there from the Falls.

I was thinking about my blog and driving out west, so I thought I'd share how it started. I was working at a factory for quite some time and my son had never had a long vacation. My mom had been wanting to go to Iowa to visit an elderly cousin for years and didn't want to go alone. I had two weeks vacation coming to me so I told her we could drive there and stay for a week to visit. She had to plan the trip and not tell me anything about it. It was like I was running away.   More to come.

Driving through the Badlands in South Dakota was a little scary. There was a posted speed limit of 40 miles per hour, but I wouldn't go that fast. There were steep drops and from what they say it resembles the surface of the moon.

My niece called me for a ride home since we had classes at the same time, and as I was driving it happened again. We got stuck behind someone who did not know how to drive around the circle on the college property.