Summer Vacation Trip - Day 3

I got up at 0645, still at Rest Area near Chamberlain, SD (Interstate crossing of the Missouri River).  We walked around to see the scenic view and Lewis and Clark Memorials.  After cleaning ourselves up a bit, we drove west on I-90.  We ate breakfast (leftover pizza).  The weather was amazing and I really loved the 80 MPH speed limit!  At 0800, we started our NPS Passport Book project for the day: getting stamps from National Parks we'd previously visited (Minuteman, Badlands, Mount Rushmore, Wind Cave, Jewel Cave, Devils Tower).  Mollie enjoyed seeing a prairie dog village near the Badlands.  We got gas in Rapid City at 0945, got into Mount Rushmore by 1030, visited all the other sites on our list and were completely finished with our road rally by 1500.  We had a great time and almost no traffic all day - the weather was perfect and we got some exercise throughout the day.  Ate lunch (snacks, leftovers) as we scrambled through the Black Hills - it was fun!  In addition to the roads near the Badlands, we used US-16 Truck, US-16A, SD-87 (Needles Parkway), US-350, US-16, US-85, WY-585, US-14.  Once we were back on Interstate, we stopped for early dinner (Taco John's) in Gillette, WY at 1545 and then went shopping for binoculars at Walmart (next door).  We were headed northwest by 1645 and passed the time on the prairie while listening to several good NPR radio shows.  We made it to our hotel in Sheridan WY by 1830.  We cleaned up the car (finally feeling organized) and rested in our room (TV, books, brochures).  Mollie made all kinds of plans for our visit to Wyoming and was very excited about the coming days.  Bed time was at 2200.