South Dakota, Iowa, Minnesota & Wisconsin

We drove into South Dakota and visited deadwood where apparently they filmed a tv show that we have never seen. We grabbed some lunch picked our first KOA to camp in near Mt Rushmore and set off on our way. Usually the KOAs are too expensive to camp in but we bagged ourselves a buy one get one free night. Yippee! We stayed for two nights, when we arrived it was raining slightly but Andy wanted to get the tent up straight away. It obviously started to pour down and our neighbours helped us put up our tent, it hailed too and the biggest hail or ever seen for us English folk, apparently that size is quite normal.
We spent the rest of the evening in the hot tub surrounded by kids and the odd adult. That night we settled down in our tent about an hour in my leg was soaking and the rain water had soaked through my sleeping bag to my clothes so we abandoned ship and slept another night in the car.

In the morning we ate pancakes and set off for Mt Rushmore. It was smaller than I expected but still pretty impressive, definitely something to see if you can. We then drove on to the crazy horse memorial which was a let down to start with how much it costs to get in and that doesn't even cover the bus fare down to the sculpture. We watched a video about the monument and then decided to go back to the camp ground, crazy horse bugged me as not much of it had been done.. They talk about how much they need our contributions to finish it but there is a brand new massive welcome area new paved roads etc it's like common people lets get a wiggle on. Our last night in the KOA we managed to sleep in the tent which was nicer than the car because you can stretch your legs out.
We left SD in the direction for Minnesota driving through Iowa so that Andy could say we have been there, it pissed it down so we couldn't even get out the car.

In Minnesota we visited Minneapolis for the morning the main reason being so I could visit the sculpture garden and the cherry and spoon sculpture. I studied the sculpture when I was in school so it was pretty cool to actually get to visit! Before we went there we yelped a place for brunch and picked the Bad Waitress, we both had omelettes and they were good! You also take your own order, hence the name.

After leaving Minneapolis we picked a camp site near a lake in Winona, it was hell! We had to sleep in the car the first night due to storms and we had been bitten at least 10 times. The next day was the same bites all over again, they just wouldn't leave you alone even with the bug spray. The next night we got to sleep in the tent with a thunderstorm going on. Andy slept through it whilst I gripped his hand as the tent lit up from the lightning, it was terrifying!

We decided to book a semi cheap hotel for 3 nights before we arrive back in Chicago to get rid of the bugs and clean ourselves properly. We are currently here at the moment
With 2 nights to go. Tomorrow we plan to go thrifting, stuff is so much better in this country! If anything exciting happens I'll include it in my Chicago post.

We are nearing the end of our trip and the feeling is bittersweet, I am looking forward to going home and movin into
Our new house to nest but I am not looking forward to going back to the hell hole of work & I am sure you will be worse than before!

Chicago next!