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!