She's So Beautiful!

Sibling Road Trip!  (Part 2)

My siblings and I recently took a road trip to visit relatives in South Dakota and Wyoming.  On Saturday, we went to Spearfish, SD, to visit our grandfather.  On the way, we decided to shop for purses (for me, since my purse was covered in stinky gasoline... see previous post) and knickknacks (for SundanceKid, my brother, and ChangelingChild, my sister).  However, nothing was open.  This baffled us, because it was 9:45 on a Saturday.  Surely, some shops would be open!  But alas! No.  We had to wait until 10AM... apparently everything opened at 10AM in Spearfish.  So we decided to walk around downtown for 15 minutes until stuff opened.  So we walked the entire downtown and back in 15 minutes (downtown Spearfish is maybe 5 blocks long).  On the corner was a Little Free Library.  True to Western US tradition, there was a children's book about cowboys, which I took to give to WildBoy and WildGirl.

(It is now one of their favorite books... probably because I read it in a silly cowboy voice.)

We passed a shop that looked very promising.  It had weird stuff in the store window... such as a Jesus toast and some funny decorations.

(This made me laugh)

(All hail creepy Toast Jesus!)

When the shops opened, we first went into a pawn shop and mosey'd around, and ChangelingChild bought a weird game called Sneak King.  Then, we went back to the shop that had the cool things and looked around.  I found a purse and a cute but incomprehensible shirt.

(Squatchy!)

SundanceKid found the perfect mug for him and his coffee. (It said, "Fuck Face").  I also got some yummy orange spice lip balm.  For anyone visiting Spearfish, SD, I would highly recommend "The Junk Drawer" for awesome and quirky items.

After shopping, we went to visit Grandpa.

(My grandpa is awesome.  He fought in the Navy in WWII, raised 7 kids, has a great sense of humor, and worked as a lumberjack well into his 80s.  I think he's 94 now.)

After that, we went shopping (again!) at Walmart.  Going into a Walmart is so fun with New Yorkers.  They are not used to cheap stuff, so they are like kids in a candy store.

(Look at everything I can get for under $10! What IS this magical place???)

SundanceKid immediately proceeded to try on all the things.

(Pikachu, yo.)

ChangelingChild bought a Steven Universe blind bag.  Honestly, going shopping with my siblings is remarkably similar to shopping with my kids.  Go figure!

On Sunday, my aunt and tiny, adorable cousins came over and we built a snowman!

Well, actually, we TRIED to build a snowman.  It came out as more of a... snow phallus.

(What happens when snowman building goes horribly, horribly wrong.)

So, to fix that problem, we decided to make it into a snow woman.  My aunt gave her a very... unique... face, I gave her curves, ChangelingChild gathered snow and finishing touches, and the tiny cousins found branches and rocks for her arms and face.

(Our beautiful creation!)

The cousins were very enamored with our snow woman.  Maybe a little too enamored.  Tiniest Cousin went up and put his hand on her breast.  Little Cousin, his brother, was very amused and said, "Take your hand off her protrusions!"  Protrusions?  Well, OK.  All the adults laughed at that.  Tiniest Cousin, undeterred, started rubbing her breast, and said, in his sweetest 7 year old voice, "She's so beautiful!"  All the adults were laughing uproariously by this point.

(Little Cousin and Tiniest Cousin, with the beloved protrusions.)

SundanceKid made our snow woman a snow baby and a snow dog, and then we had a wonderfully fun snowball fight.

(So cute!)

SundanceKid had to go see the real Sundance Kid statue that's in Sundance, WY.  Because, Sundance.  So, of course we had to take silly pictures with it.

(The Creation of Sundance Kid)

(My Harley Quinn hat is a bad influence on me.  Hey puddin'!)

Early Monday morning, we had to head back to the Twin Cities and get back to real life.

(Nooooo!  Not real life!)

But on the drive back, we saw some gorgeous views.  No matter where I live, South Dakota will always feel like home.  I was born there, I grew up there.  When I want to connect to my roots, I go back and visit.  There's something very rugged and comforting in the rolling hills and the endless horizons.

(Goodbye to the wonderful American West!  I'll come back soon.)

Little House on the Big Road

Sibling road trip!

This past weekend, my brother, sister, and I decided to go on a breakneck road trip to visit relatives in South Dakota and Wyoming.  Since I live in Wisconsin, that is quite a drive.  Since my siblings live in New York, that is a longer drive.  So, they took a plane to Minneapolis and I picked them up there.  From there we drove, Thelma and Louise- style, all the way to Sundance, WY.

My siblings are fun.  ChangelingChild, my sister, is silly and random.  She showed me weird Youtube videos (Pantosaurus!) and made me laugh.  SundanceKid, my brother, is funny and spastic.  He also makes me laugh with his antics and unique way of seeing the world.

(Ah, weird PSA cartoons- you amuse me so!)

Whenever I'm with them, it's an adventure.  We had to drive 12+ hours from Minneapolis to Sundance.  Early on in our trip, we saw a rather mangled raccoon in the middle of the road.
ChangelingChild: Well, that raccoon had a bad day.
SundanceKid: Maybe it was a raccoon, maybe not.  It could have been a coonskin cap that someone left on the road.
Me: ...Its foot was up in the air.
SundanceKid: It could have been a new fashion...?

(I'm dead! And also clearly not a hat.)

South Dakota and Western Minnesota is pretty boring to drive through.  So we decided to stop by the Corn Palace in Mitchell, SD for nostalgia's sake.  When we were kids living in SD, we would stop by the Corn Palace every now and again because, well, it's pretty much the only attraction in that part of the state.

(Can we go to the Corn Palace again, Mumsy?  I do so love to see walls covered in corn!)

For those that don't know, the Corn Palace is a huge palace lined with murals made from corn.  They change it up every now and again.  This time, they had a mural of Willie Nelson and Elvis.

 (SundanceKid thinks Willie Nelson made of corn is kinda nifty.)

(Also, the whole Corn Palace is kinda nifty)

After that, we decided to try to find the "Prehistoric Indian Village" that was advertised all over the place.  We followed the numerous signs, but they just led to a graveyard.

(Most depressing tourist trap ever.)

Turning around, we did eventually find the Prehistoric Indian Village, only to find out that it's closed for the season.  South Dakota is very touristy in the summer.  In the winter, it's kind of like a ghost state- everything is all boarded up, waiting for the snow to go away so people will actually visit.

(Ummm, because there is nothing in SD in the winter. Nothing but graveyards and wind.)

As the day wound down to evening, we stopped for gas.  I filled the car up, just minding my own business as usual.  When the car was full of gas, I let go, only to find that the handle was stuck on my mitten!  Gah!  Gas sloshed out of the tank onto my boots, pants, and purse while I tried to stop the horrific flow of smelly death liquid.

(It's fine.  It's totally fine.)

(Actually, no.  It's not fine.)

(It's very bad.)

(THE WORST EVER!!!)

So, I pouted while I changed my pants and dumped everything out of my purse that I absolutely needed.  Then I tried to get a sub sandwich to cheer me up, but the attendant forgot to make my sub.  I stood there the whole time looking at her like,

(Finally I asked her for my sub and she made it for me.  But I was not happy.)

It was kind of a crappy sandwich anyway.

After that, ChangelingChild drove for a while.  As she was driving, all of a sudden she saw a house in the middle of the road.

(Jinkies!  What's a house doing sitting there in the road????)

She swerved to miss it.  We made it!  Whew!  But also, why was there a house in the middle of the road?

.......
We will never know.

About 20 minutes later, we almost got hit by a semi that kept swerving into the passing lane while going 10 mph under the speed limit.

It was luring us into trying to pass it.  So, of course, we tried to pass it.  It started drifting into our lane.

(Whew!  That was close.)

We tried this a couple of times before succeeding.  By this time, our hearts were pounding.

(We almost died!)

Eventually, we did make it to our Grandparent's house in Sundance, WY and were rewarded with hugs from Grammy.

(Grandpa and Grammy)

Also, Sundance is very pretty.

(Mountains, Gandalf, mountains!)

Too many quirky things happened on this trip to tell you all at once, so stay tuned for part 2!