Tuesday 2nd July 2019 

This was going to be a long drive as we were going to Deadwood, South Dakota. We had a few stops off at gas stations along the way and that gave us chance to stock up on van snacks. We also went to go see a small waterfall called Shell Falls and we stopped for lunch. We arrived at our camp for the night around 4:30pm and we had tea early this evening. It did start thunder and lightening for a while so cat said she would drive us down town those that wanted to go and then the others stayed back at camp. Now this night in Deadwood is probably one of my favourite nights I had out there, such good memories! We went to Saloon #10 for some drinks, it's literally a museum with old artifacts and antiques that cover the walls, it even had sawdust all over the floor! Us girls loved it here as the cocktails were only about $5 so cheap compared to some of the places we had been to throughout our travels. The next bar we went into was The Nugget Saloon we had more cocktails and Jurn even bought us all shots! There was a lot of live music and a lady came round taking requests from everyone so Dean requested Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen and he started singing so she came over with a microphone and he literally sang the whole song, it was so funny! Afterwards we were all a little hungry so we found this place called Mustang Sally's which was like a sports bar and we grabbed some food before we headed back in a taxi to camp. We arrived back around 1:30am but again it was raining so I didn't get much sleep that night. 

Wednesday 3rd July 2019 

Our first stop of the day was at the Crazy Horse Memorial. It's crazy to think that it started back in 1948 and how much more there is to complete, I wonder what year it will be when it is completed?! Then it was onto Mount Rushmore. We walked on the trial which took you around the rocks and got to see the different angles of the memorial. Once we had all finished we had lunch and then stopped off at Wall Drug. Back in the van for a few more hours and then we had arrived at Badlands National Park. Driving through we saw buffalos, prairie dogs and even big horned goats! We arrived at our camping ground and got set up. We could see the clouds coming in and the sky turning darker so Cat set up our cooking area under some shelter and hooked up sheets onto the roof of the shelter to protect us, We had chicken jambalaya which was probably one of my favourite camping meals we had. We finished our meals and was ready to start the washing up and clearing away when the heavens opened. We all gathered under the shelter but it turned into a huge thunderstorm and the rain was coming in and everything was getting wet so we ran to van to take cover and hope it would just pass..... but it didn't! I didn't think it was possible but it rained even more then all of a sudden we thought about our tents and all our bags and belongings in our tents, even more our passports!! We all jumped out and ran to get our stuff, this was a bad idea, we were on grass with mud and we had pitched our tents up a slight hill. Bad idea!! I could barely make it up the hill with all the water, puddles and mud and a few of us fell over including myself!! Richard managed to collect the majority of all our things bless him we were so thankful, I mean everything in our tents were soaked, bags, sleeping bags, pillows, even the tents had collapsed but luckily I don't think anyone's passport was damaged! We were all drenched through and covered in mud, my trainers literally felt like I was walking in puddles. It just wasn't stopping so Cat came to the decision that we wouldn't be able to stay here this night due to the weather conditions and having no tents. So she called around a few motels, but no where had space for us as I think everyone must have had the same idea but in the end she found somewhere for us which wasn't too far. But then she told us we would have to go back and collect all the broken tents and cooking equipment and get them in the trailer. We arrived at the motel and worked out who's rooms we were in so Me, Rach and Courtney shared. It was in the middle of no where and looked like something out of a horror movie and we were going to get killed in the middle of the night haha No, I'm only kidding, the rooms were really nice actually for a motel and It was so nice to get out of all our wet stuff and have a nice hot shower, even a decent bed for the night! But at least it was an experience and I know for sure I will never forget that night!