Okay, so I forgot something from yesterday. On the drive to Alliance, somewhere between Grand Island (maybe) and Alliance, there was a musical road. I think. The way that it made the tires hum sounded like it was creating music. On YouTube, or somewhere, I once saw a road that played a certain song when a car with a certain size wheel base drove on it. I don't know for sure if that's what was going on, or if it was just a strange coincidence, but it was quite an experience. Near the end of that section - a few miles - there was a sign that the road was made from recycled tires, so maybe that was all. However, it was so interesting, and it kept us all guessing about what song it might be.
So this morning when we got up, we got ready, had breakfast at our hotel and then headed for Carhenge. Carhenge is a replica of Stonehenge, created from American cars painted primer gray and set in a field outside of Alliance. There are also several other car/car part sculptures. It is huge and unusual and unlike anything else I have ever seen. We walked through the fields to explore all of the sculptures until the mosquitos drove us away! I'll post pictures after I download them from my camera - it's one of those things you have to see to understand!
Then we drove to Hot Springs, SD - a drive of about 2 hours. We took a route that wasn't the shortest route (thanks, GPS!) and wound up driving around a beautiful lake, with houseboats and a land bridge and a beautiful spillway. The road was really windy, so we gave Lauren some Dramamine again, even though the drive wasn't too long, and we also let her ride in the front seat (in her car seat) so help her. She fell asleep and slept through crossing into SD, which she was cranky about later - she'd been expecting a big change, I think. :)
As soon as we got to Hot Springs, we checked into our hotel and then had lunch at Pizza Hut. We had actually been heading to the Subway restaurant, but when we got there, it was both a Subway and a Casino building. That was a new one for us. So we decided that we'd just go to Pizza Hut!
After lunch, we went to Wind Cave National Park. It was a beautiful park, with a beautiful drive to get there. We saw herds of pronghorn antelope and a few buffalo on the way there. It is amazing how pristine and untouched the land is here - especially in the national parks, with no fences, no power lines, etc. The only sign of people is that there are cattle guards in the roads in a few places to keep the buffalo in. All of the land is green and rolling, and there are mountain ranges on all of the horizons. This would be an amazing place to live, but in the winter I think it would be so isolated. Everything is so far apart from everything else. Most houses have horses in their yards. I've seen more horses in the past 24 hours than I've ever seen in my whole life.
There are very few fields of crops here - almost everywhere is cattle farming instead. There are boulders sticking out of the ground all over.
We toured the cave, after buying Lauren a sweatshirt in the gift shop so that she wouldn't freeze - 58 degrees! Our tour guide was super goofy - it was not the experience I'd expected. I have toured the Cave of the Winds in Colorado Springs a couple of times, and I was expecting something like that. There was only one type of formation, and so it wasn't what I was thinking it would be - no stalagmites, no stalactites. The tour guide shut off all of the lights at one point, which was fun, though, and showed us what it would be like to be one of the first cave explorers with only a candle.
When we were done, we went back to the hotel. Lauren and I went swimming in the hotel pool - outdoor and heated. And we got in a little sunbathing time, too!
After we'd showered and clean up, we walked to the DQ across the street for dinner - it was so nice being so close to a few restaurants. We stayed at the Budget Host Hills Inn and loved it. We had one of the few 2nd story rooms, and we had a front door and a back door. Lauren loved it because it felt like a little house.
We were going to go miniature golfing after we ate, since the motel had a mini-golf course attached to it. However, it had closed already, so we walked by the river. The river was the mineral water river. We climbed down beside it and put our hands in - it was warmer than the hotel pool had been! That was my favorite part of the day.
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