travel plans // south dakota

Living in South Eastern Saskatchewan has really opened up the likelihood of us traveling into the U.S. 

We're now about an hour and a half from the nearest border crossing, opposed to the five it would take to drive from Saskatoon.  We've been into North Dakota a few times, to get some good deals on big ticket items (like the vinyl fence that we put up so Molly could have free reign in the back yard), and to catch flights (to Boston, and Philly).  Flying within the U.S. from Minot or Bismark is significantly (we're talking a few hundred dollars) cheaper than flying out of Regina or Winnipeg.

The next road trip I'm itching to take is into the Black Hills of South Dakota.

A few things I hope to accomplish and sights I'd love to see:

• Travel the Peter Norbeck Scenic Byway
• Mount Rushmore
• Badlands National Park
• Spearfish Canyon
• Jewel Cave National Monument
• (side trip into Wyoming) Devil's Tower National Monument

Rapid City has a pretty stellar website, and I plan on ordering state vacation guides from both North and South Dakota next spring so I have all the latest info before taking our trip (fingers crossed for sometime in summer 2013).

There are 1,001 places I'd like to go and things I'd like to see.  South Dakota may not be be right at the top of my bucket list, but it is likely one I'll knock off the list fairly soon, so that's why I chose to post about it first.

travel plans // the beginning of a new post series

Kelly Purkey's geotag stamp - I bought one, and I'm psyched to use it!  <3

Recently, my daydreams have been all about travelling.  I feel like I really need to escape somewhere and I have all these grand ideas of places to go, and things to see - around the world and close to home. Until sometime next year those daydreams will just have to stay where they are, cluttering my up my head, browser history, and notebooks.

With all the projects we are tackling around the house, and by socking away vacation days from work to use at Christmas time, we're on hold when it comes to exploring this wonderful world of ours.

In September we do have a short three day trip planned to Clear Lake in Manitoba.  Clear Lake is close to home, a 3 hours drive, and has been highly recommended by our new friends in the area.  

Over the last day or two I've spent some time typing, re-typing, reconsidering and reviewing this post.  What started as an idea to post a list of all my current North American travel plans, quickly became the realization that if I were to put all of my travel ideas into one post, it would be 10,000 miles long and take centuries to read.

So thus begins a new posting series... travel plans //  ________________