Day 18-Custer, South Dakota and Mt. Rushmore

Hi again from the Happys!! We woke up this morning after experiencing some rain last night at our campsite, Ponderosa, in Cody. People scrambled to throw their things under trees and put tarps over themselves. A lot of people woke up earlier but our official wake up time was 7:00 a.m., so some of us got to sleep in a little! V went around telling us "little darlings" to wake up. Grant also joined her in waking us up this morning. 

We loaded the bus and vans around 8:00. We had a variety of PopTarts and apples for breakfast. Grant played a PopTart song to get us in the mood. He also played some funny songs about Mormons to give us a good throwback to Salt Lake City. After we ate, as usual, almost everybody fell asleep again.

After our first gas station stop we drove through Shell Canyon. It was beautiful! It brought us back to our days in the Grand Canyon. For lunch we had hoagie sandwiches with roast beef and chips. The cooks accidentally forgot to put spoons and knives in the food bins, so we got creative and used chips to spread the mayo and mustard. We also had gourmet on brand cookies which was very exciting (Chips Ahoy and Oreos)!

After another few hours of driving we stopped at a Wal-Mart. The cooks picked up a few meals and others just walked around aimlessly in their favorite sections, which we all seem to have now with our frequent stops at wally world. We saw lots of people leaving with different snacks. Before we went into Wal-Mart Grant warned us of the electronic section nazi. She has a reputation of kicking out past TWB participants for using the electronics for personal use.

Lauren Letts purchased a Wal-Mart Associates Choir CD for $5. In response, Halen Lawing and Olivia Goodson asked Grant to play it for the entire bus. It was so bad and he made us listen to the whole CD!! Most people slept, read, or listened to their own music instead.

We continued driving for a few more hours until we arrived in Custer, South Dakota. We pulled over at a park near the downtown area and were told that we were to begin preparing for our dance battles that are to take place the next day. The counselors brought out a giant speaker and a remix of Timber and Old Town Road came on. The reaction to the song choice for the dance was a mix of cringing and excitement, but after we all listened to it at least 20 times while practicing we started to like it. While we were making our dances up the cooks were looking tacos for us. During dinner, Corbin Herman (the mayor of Custer) and his wife Terri Herman joined us. He shared with us the town of Corbin’s history wrapped around General Custer and the beginning of the Gold Rush. They also brought their adorable dog, Grizzly, and we all got to love on him for a while. 

Shortly after, we headed towards Mt Rushmore- a monument dedicated to four of our most famous presidents visited by millions of tourists year round. When we arrived, we heard research from Marshall, Caroline H., Kambrie, Lauren, and Halen. We took a group photo in front of the monument and then had free time to enjoy Thomas Jefferson’s soft served ice cream and browse at the Gift Shop. We then joined together at 8:30 and made our way back – singing USA songs – to the YMCA. We are very thankful to be able to stay indoors tonight due to the unpredictable weather. The YMCA we bed in tonight is the largest externally supported log cabin in the U.S. And we got showers!! They were cold, but a shower is a shower and we're thankful. Tomorrow we'll head to the Air Force Academy and the Olympic Training Center.





























 

Signing out, the Happys

Day 17- Cody, Wyoming

Day 17: Cody, Wyoming

Hello! This is the Happy GANG and we are the best group traveling the Wild West. (Grant H., Henry T., Ethan B., Addie B., Abi B., Jayla M., Elizabeth M., Ty D., Greer B., Olivia G., Ava G., Grace E., and Brooke H.).

Today we experienced the lovely town of Cody, Wyoming. We woke up today around 6:45 AM in order to go to the Wyoming River Trips facility for white water rafting! Our rafting guides came to pick us up at around 7:15 AM in some old fashioned school buses. The ride to the river wasn’t very far at all, only around 10 minutes. When we got to the river, everyone was given a life jacket and was also given an option to wear a classic oversized yellow rain coat, called a "slicker." From there we rode down to the water and were almost ready to go. First, we had to carry the super heavy rafts that we were going to be using down to the water. Then we got in groups of nine and ten and hopped in our boats with our guides. As we embarked on our 2 hour rafting tour through the Shoshone River, we saw the beautiful plateaus of Wyoming while floating in the crystal blue water. While going down the intense rapids we would splash the other boats with our paddle. It was thrilling, and we all had a super chill time. The tour guides were great, and the water was cold but enjoyable! 

Afterwards, we pulled back up to our campsite to realize that Grant, V, and Daisy had prepared our breakfast; we had eggs, grits, sausage, bread and orange juice for breakfast at the campgrounds, which was DELICIOUS. Then we did laundry for the last time! Some of us got to use the machines at our site, others took over two of Cody’s local laundromats, and had some nice relax time during the middle of the day. We got to reorganize our bags, work on postcards, hang out, and even take out time showering! We prepared for the rodeo as some guys wore jorts (jean shorts) and cut off polos. 

Some of our boys washing the vans and trailers in their rodeo gear

Around 4:30 or so we had chicken alfredo and green peas from the new cooks, which was fan-diddly-tastic. Then we packed into the buses and vans and headed into downtown Cody. The downtown had a nice mix of modern and western architecture and culture, and made for an interesting and new experience. We shopped there for a while (almost every person in our trip bought a cowboy hat tonight), and we also watched a pretend gun show which was neat. 

Lastly, we headed to the Cody Rodeo for a nighttime show of a lifetime. The rodeo was amazing, there were very awesome events such as cattle roping, bull riding, horse riding, and even bull wrestling! Before entering, a lot of us decided to ride a mechanical bull, which led to many laughs after watching us fall to the ground. Many of us bought popcorn and cotton candy as we watched the most dangerous sport in the world. We also had an Australian entertainer at the show announce our group and let us sing the song Wagon Wheel. After the rodeo, we headed back to the campsite, and some of us even went for a late night Dairy Queen run. We ate ice cream and even some chili cheese fries. Well, it’s time for us to go now so we can get some sleep, adios and goodnight! Happys will be back tomorrow! 

Some of the Happy bloggers outside Dairy Queen