Our trip started a bit late on Friday morning

Our trip started a bit late on Friday morning. Unfortunately we didn’t quite get done envy thing we needed to to get on the road Thursday night. After Misty said many goodbyes to the cat. We managed to pull away from our home in Midwest city Oklahoma. We made our way up I 35 and unfortunately, shortly into the trip we experienced some overheating problems with the Miata. After a bit of investigation I managed to diagnose this as a faulty radiator cap, we decided that we would head on to our destination and replace it when we arrived as the car only managed to run hot when the temp exceeded 100* with the A/C running 80 or so up the interstate. After making a short stop in Hebron, the self proclaimed Oregon Trail Capital of Nebraska (although I didn’t see anyone dying of dysentery, I think Misty may have started showing symptoms of exhaustion..) and taking a picture at the largest porch swing in America we were off to Spearfish, SD.
We arrived in Spearfish, albeit late, safely late Thursday morning. We were greeted by the arrival of my parents and getting to go to lunch with several members of my family I hadn’t seen in quite some time. It was nice to be able to visit with them and see their home in spearfish, which I might add has the most organized workshop in North America (pretty sure Bob Villa could take some pointers here). Friday was mainly sleeping and eating followed by a performance of The Little Mermaid that my Aunt Ann directed, i think she must have more patience than most for working with the children of the Black Hills to produce this number. On Saturday we managed to make a trip to the Badlands and the infamous Wall Drug (which is the absolute epitome of a tourist trap, however, it seems to be the whole reason one stops there) before heading over to Mt. Rushmore to meet my parents and cousins. We made a couple trips down scenic drives in the Black Hills and even managed to stop let Misty see the next road trip vehicle in Sturgis at the BMW motorcycle dealer. We met for lunch followed by a trip to the local park which included a fish hatchery and probably the nicest river you could ask for in a city park (read: rock bottom, not red muddy water). Followed the weekend up with a trip to DQ, said our goodbyes Sunday morning after breakfast and headed out towards Estes Park, CO.