Trip to Mt. Rushmore, Day 1 6/27/10

So today was Day 1 of the Great Goertzen Trip to Rushmore.  And it was a doozy.  Actually, everything went swimmingly for the first 9 hours, until carsickness set in.  At the point where we were pulled off onto the side of the middle-of-nowhere road, with Lauren pacing beside the car, trying to decide if she was really going to throw up or not, I realized that I might have been feeling a little too optimistic about the whole driving experience.  Fortunately, after some walking around, some Dramamine & 7-Up, and a move of the carseat into the front seat, she fell asleep.  Phew!  I detest puking, particularly puking in the car.  Particularly puking in the RENTAL car. 
So we have made it to Alliance, Nebraska.  In about 11 hours. Tomorrow we are going to take in the wonder that is Carhenge - Stonehenge made out of American cars.  Nothing sums up the roadtrip experience like roadside attractions of this magnitude.
Today we got to see pronghorns in the fields, an astonishing number of open-top train cars piled high with coal, some wild swans, and more horses than I have ever seen before in my whole entire life, EVER.  Who knew that part of Nebraska is like the untouched wild?  It was literally hundreds of miles of untouched rolling green land, scattered with fences and cattle.  Unbelievable numbers of cattle.  I was taken aback by how near I really was to this mostly untouched land.  It made me feel a little like a pioneer must have - just this vast expanse of land, without houses or many telephone poles or much of anything at all.  And while we were not in mountains, per se, the land was different than Kansas land - rolling and textured, full of shapes that weren't exactly mountains, but that weren't exactly just little hills.  Lauren kept saying that it reminded her of fabric that had been laid with folds in it - she said that she felt like an ant at a picnic, standing in the grass beside an enormous blanket.
I am appreciating the fact that tomorrow will only entail about 2 hours in the car.  We are going to head for Hot Springs, SD tomorrow and take in the Mammoth Site, Evan's Plunge (a large hot springs) and a cave - either Wind Cave or Jewel Cave, I can't remember which one is closest to Hot Springs. We are going to drive around and do a little exploring of the Badlands/Black Hills area.  And we are going to swim in the hotel pool, as per Lauren's big dream for how to spend her vacation time.  :)