So last week we loaded the kids up in the mini-van and with a borrowed GPS system, we embarked on our first family road trip. Here is a picture taken taken at the beginning of our journey:
You can tell this picture was taken early on in the trip because in this picture no one is crying or yelling and there is a notable lack of trash strewn about the van.
It was a great experience. After I got a pebble stuck in my sandal and before hurrying back to the air conditioned van, I really got a sense of what those people went through back on the plains all those years ago.
Anyway, like I said, back to the car and on the road again. Next stop, the Black Hills:

Well actually the next stop was the hotel. But then the next day, we got to the Black Hills and took that picture.
Another history lesson: Sometime after breaking the treaty which gave the Black Hills to the Lakota, in an effort to add insult to injury, the government carved the faces of some of its
past presidents in the side of these sacred hills. (classy)
And as far as I am concerned people who pay the entry fee to visit Mount Rushmore are doing nothing less than financially supporting that completely disrespectful act. But, you know - I mean we did drive all that way...

And it is an impressive sculpture and I admit that I was taken back by its beauty. So much so actually, that I lost track of the kids for a couple of minutes. And you will never guess where they had gotten off to...

After we finally got them to come back down, it started to rain and everyone was getting wet, so they decided to move the monument indoors:

But that was just too crowded, so we took off and went to visit the
Crazy Horse Monument. Which, although is not completed, was also quite a beautiful sculpture.

I made a joke to this Indian guy there that the monument reminded me of a
nickel I once owned. And I guess he he didn't think it was very funny because then he said that with my baby on my back, I reminded him of a
dollar he once owned.

My wife thought that was a pretty witty comeback, so she was all "burn!"
And then I guess the guy misunderstood, so he grabbed her forearm arm in his hands and twisted his hands in opposite directions until she screamed out from the pain the friction caused.
History lesson: This is a picture of the great Sioux chief, Red Cloud:

Why does he look so sad, you ask?
Well perhaps it's because in his vision quest he saw a vision of the kind of life his descendants would live. And yes, I am referring to his great great grandsons, Milli Bear and Vanilli Elk:

How gay did I feel when I bought those postcards, you ask?
Very gay. I actually pretended my daughter had picked them out. And yes, maybe I could fool the storekeeper, but I couldn't fool my wife.
Now where was I? Oh yeah. Then after that, we went into
Deadwood. to see all the historic sites...


It was a pretty cool place, but we didn't think the language was appropriate for the kids, so we took off and went to the local cemetery to pay our respects to some of the
Deadwood celebrities: Wild Bill Hickok, Calamity Jane, and Sheriff Bullock.

What? You think I'm lying? Well I thought you might, so just to prove it, we posed for this family picture outside of the cemetery.

Look at Priya in that picture. So cute...

And now look at me in that picture. So embarrassing...

Anyway, that was our trip. We stayed at the local
Ramada hotel, whose housecleaning staff are known to steal old dirty flip flops (you've been warned!) and then we drove home all day Sunday - and when we got home the house was 95 degrees Celsius - and trust me you do not want to see pictures of that.