For a week over 4th of July, I took the Judester on a road trip through states #44-46 on my 50×50 quest: North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska. We flew into Denver and, over 1,600 miles, road tripped through the Midwest.
We visited numerous national and state parks, including Scotts Bluff National Monument in Nebraska; Custer State Park, the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore in South Dakota; and Theodore Roosevelt National Park, with its Painted Canyon, in North Dakota.
We also played around at water parks and zoos; experienced the Old West in Deadwood, South Dakota; and had a fun Fourth of July in another Old West town of Medora, North Dakota. We got cheesy with some pure Americana roadside attractions like Carhenge in Nebraska and a bizarre sculpture graveyard in Bowman, North Dakota.
We had a ton of fun at a Chuckwagon Cowboy cook-out dinner (which we rode to in a covered wagon) and riding the historic 1880 train in South Dakota. And we stood at the geographical center of the contiguous United States in Belle Fourche, South Dakota!
My favorite part of the trip was the Black Hills area of South Dakota – very beautiful, with so much to do. Now I’m on the very last few states in my 50 by 50 quest: Connecticut, Maine and Rhode Island (where I head in just a few weeks) and Alaska – which I’ll conclude with in dramatic fashion for my birthday in September!
