Practice Run - Number 1

As we plan our vacation to South Dakota, we have included many, many hours of walking, particularly on trails through the Badlands and Black Hills. Hhhhmmm, hours and hours of walking with a 9 year-old and a 7 year-old. How fun, you might be thinking with much sarcasm. While Matthew has hiked a number of times at Ledges State Park and at Big Basin Redwood Forest, Gabriella has not enjoyed this particular activity with us.

So this vacation could turn into the most agonizing experience of our lives. Two children, whinning, complaining, asking "are we there yet" until our heads nearly explode. We could be nursing dehydration, exhaustion, and headaches as early as 11:00 am if we do not begin preparing them.

Hence, Memorial Day at Ledges State Park. We arrived at 10:00 am, quickly scouted out a relatively nice picnic area, and set off for the nearest trail. Unfortunately, while it was a different starting point, it was the same trail we have taken Matthew on a number of times. After this realization set in, we made for the water and headed upstream (the opposite of our normal route).

We had arrived early enough that we were some of the first people out and about, and for nearly 2 hours we slowly made our way upstream. We (or more accurately, Matthew) stopped to examine life under rocks, create hiding places for the fish, and attempt to catch minnows. Our time also included lessons in using the forest as your restroom (not much success there yet), followed with a lesson on rinsing your clothes in the stream and another lesson on why we always back an extra pair of undies and shorts.

Walking through a stream for 2 hours also meant that our Keens filled with sand, requiring many stops to empty shoes and rinse off our feet. It also resulted in Matthew receiving two painful blisters on his ankles (which later required piggy-back rides and very careful showering so the soap would not sting his "hurt spots").

After 2 hours, we came to a fork in the stream and neither option looked to appealing, as both would require us to eventually head up through the woods on a very steep incline with two children refueled by sweet and salty granola bars and their Camelbaks but still quite concerned about how much more we had to go. Sebastian and I have been notorius for losing our way at Ledges, so we quickly agreed that the safest and easiest choice was to head back the way we came. Amazingly enough, it only took us 30 minutes to get back from the 2 hour walk.

We brought out the cooler once we were back to the picnic site and grabbed the first aid kit to bandage up Matthew. Sadly, my first aid kit is full of dried up antiseptic wipes and 11 year old band-aids. Glad we disovered this before we headed to South Dakota. We cleaned up Matthew's blisters as best we could, scarfed down our sandwiches, watermelon, and Dutch cookies and then headed for Lost Lake to track down the not so elusive American Toad tadpole. This is when the piggy-back rides took place (and I willl be the first to admit I am completely out of practice).

All in all, the kids very successfully survived nearly 3 hours of hiking, with a 30 minute lunch break. What we learned?

• make sure you know where you are going


• Camelbaks are essential


• break in your shoes before hiking


• make sure shoes fit properly


• more lessons in peeing outdoors in needed (seriously, did any parent ever think about practicing this one before heading off for a hiking/camping trip)


• check your first-aid kit before departure


• and last but not least, Matthew cannot keep up as exploring every aspect of nature is essential to his mental and emotional well-being.

More practice runs will occur as we continue our preparations. Next stop Neal Smith Wildlife Refuge and Prairie Learning Center.

Exploring the Grasslands

We began our preparations for South Dakota by reading Explore the Grasslands by Kay Jackson. While the photographs were beautiful, the writing was a bit too poetic for my first and third graders and they quickly lost interest. In fact, through most of the book, Matthew was standing on his head, running over to pet the dog, and generally trying to start side conversations.

The book is broken out into several, very short chapters, and rather than read the entire book from start to finish, as I did, I would suggest reading it one chapter at a time and then expanding on that chapter with other books or activities.

The book begins with a discussion of what biomes are and then describes the different types of grasslands. What I would like to do is revisit this chapter and use it as a starting off point to go deeper into a comparision between prairies and savannas, and then learn to classify South Dakota's grasslands.

The kids were both super psyched to hear that they may see prairie dogs on our trip (I mean, jumping on the couch pscyhed) so I believe we will review the wildlife chapter and go deeper into the wildlife of South Dakota.

To wrap up, this book is interesting and beautiful to look at, but in regards to preparing for a trip to South Dakota, it really can only be used as a starting point, and should only be read one chapter at a time. All in all, not absolutely necessary to your preparations.

What's this all about?

Not so long ago, I told Sebastian that we must find a way to get the kids to all 50 states. It was a brillant and inspired moment of pure and utter genius. Sebastian had in some unknown moment of our early history (probably right about the time we first visited Galena, IL) infected me with this nasty, and incurable, thing called a travel bug. Now it itched madly and I was trying my darnedest to pass it along to the kids. So far, my parents had taken us all to Disneyland and sent us to Great Wolf Lodge in Kansas City, MO, so I was pretty sure that they were already infected, but I wanted to be doubly sure.

Since, smacking Sebastian up side the head with this genius plan (which thankfully he was very much on board with) I have been able to revisit California with Matthew and we have been able to take him to Chicago for a long weekend. But we needed something to knock both Matthew's and Gabriella's socks off. Something to make them say oooohhh and ahhhh. Thinking back to my childhood, it was obvious. South Dakota! And to spice up what I already remembered about the wonderful state (not like Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, and random moose in the road were not already exciting enough) we added the idea of camping across South Dakota.

As you read this, reservations have been made, plans have been set in motion, and we are anticipating a particularly memorable family experience. We will begin our journey from Des Moines to Mitchell, SD. Our intention is to wow the children with the Corn Palace and enjoy the KOA campgrounds. We will wake up early and leave Mitchell to drive the 3.25 hours to Interior, SD where we will camp at Badlands National Park.

We will head out of Badlands early in the morning to drive to Hill City, where we will stay in a TeePee at Crooked Creek Resort for three nights. While in Hill City, we will visit Mount Rushmore, ride the 1880 Train, see Crazy Horse Memorial and Wind Cave, and make a trek out to Devil's Tower. On our way back to Iowa, we will stop overnight in Sioux Falls to visit the Heartland Corn Maze and the Kirby Science Museum.

So plans are set and we are ready to go (and alas now have to wait). To keep the anticipaton high, and because I am anal, insane, and ambitious, I have begun to "instruct" the kids with the wonders of South Dakota. We are not going to just show up and go oohh and aahh. We are going to show up already knowing its state bird and fossil, understanding its plants and wildlife, and knowing the history of its most famous citizens and landmarks. I have begun pulling together a storehouse of books, activities, and ideas so South Dakota will seep from our very pours.

So sit back and enjoy the unfolding of our South Dakota Family Experience! Up next, everything the kids want to know about grasslands and prairie dogs.