Long Drive Day

There's nothing like a long drive day (about 12 hours with stops, from Glacier to Keystone, SD) to put things into perspective. Those days are always good for conversation, though, and Patrick did a great post about one such discussion.

Yesterday at Glacier we saw several people, just hanging out at viewpoints in camp chairs, with a drink and a book. I was extremely jealous — to me time spent reading on vacation is perfect. I don't like to read in the car because it's not fair that Patrick can't (since he's driving), but I wanted to finish my book so bent that rule a little today.

We stopped in Billings and had an amazing lunch at The Sassy Biscuit.

While Patrick ran some errands, Beatrix and I hit a lovely vintage shop where she got a new dress, and an antique mall, and checked out some murals (It's really hard to pose with your foot up in the air).

Multiple more hours of driving. We stopped for a surprisingly good dinner and some very sweet cocktails at Black Hills Contraband in Rapid City (thanks, Crafttapped!), then on to our very nice hotel smack dab in an area that looks like where the Dells go to die.

Second double rainbow of the trip!

Last thing -  we drove out to see Mount Rushmore lit up, closing the loop on Beatrix's kindergarten art project based on the monument. No pics because we just viewed from the road; I was too cheap to pay for parking, and am not feeling extraordinarily rah-rah America right now anyway.