Albert Lea, MN

Hot air balloon ride at 5:30am. We could see several states while in the air. Due to wind direction we were not able to fly over Mt. Rushmore. After the balloon ride we went to Mt. Rushmore. We then bid the Black Hills and Badlands adieu and headed to Minnesota for the evening. We will be back in Illinois on Sunday. The entire vacation has been amazing and the sights unforgettable.

Hill City, SD

Crazy Horse was first on our itinerary today. Fascinating and very informative. We then went to the National Museum of Wood Carving which was interesting. We spent the rest of the day in Custer State Park. The scenery was breathtaking. Did some hiking at Cathedral Spires. During our drive we saw huge herds of bison and more pronghorns. Early night as we are doing a sunrise hot air balloon ride over Mt. Rushmore.

Rapid City, SD

Forgot to mention that on our hike to Fairy Falls we met Bob and Sherry from central Wisconsin. We compared notes on places we had seen while hiking the last 1/2 mile to the falls. Today we had a killer breakfast at Peter's in Cody and then went to the Trading Post. Went the northern route across the Bighorn Mountains. We stopped at Shell Creek Falls-what an awesome sight. There was plenty of snow at 10,000 feet. Saw numerous pronghorns and a weasel. New adventures await us tomorrow.

Cody, WY

Went to Fountain Paint Pot which has all 4 types of geothermal activity in one location. The next stop was Fairy Falls where we did a 5.2 mile hike to enjoy the splendid spring water run off shooting 100 feet down to a crystal clear pool. On our hike back to the car our path was nearly blocked by a 2000 lb. bison, but we managed to persevere. Once back to the car we were greeted by a raven on the hood. We then visited Old Faithful General Store and had a snack and did some shopping. We then waited on Old Faithful to erupt for 1 1/2 hours. While waiting we visited with some people from Joliet, IL. After the eruption we toured the historic Old Faithful Lodge, a spectacular example of rustic architecture. Our road out of the park was closed until 8 pm due to avalanche danger. Fantastic scenery but quite the challenging drive. Arrived in Cody at 10 pm. New adventures tomorrow.