KOA Campground

After going to the Badlands we had a ways back to go to our campsite. I should have listened to Daddy when he said, "Maybe we should spend the night near the Badlands." I said, "No there's so much to do at the KOA we'll be at. Plus it will be a pain in the butt to pack AGAIN, move AGAIN and we'll be closer to home if we drive back to go home the next day. It sure would have been nice to stay in Wyoming a little longer.

For some reason the ride back to our campsite from the Badlands seemed shorter than our way there.

The boys had fun at the Badlands and at KOA. It kind of stank because we were gone so much during the days that we were at our campground; that we didn't have a whole lot of time to do fun things there. They have so much to do!

These are the free activities that come with the campsite fee:

• Each night ta kid friendly movie. One night we watched Brave. We saw it in the theaters the year before. Both kids loved it the first time. When we watched it at the campsite Isaak was scared.
• The kids loved the splash pad.
• They had a hay day with the jump pillow. The lady in charge did want Isaak to sit out because he was younger than the rest of the kids jumping. I said, "I don't think you need to worry about him. He has spunk! If anything he'd be too rough with the little ones." She let him on.
• There was more than one swimming pool and hot tub. Daddy was the only one that enjoyed the hot tub. Like I said we were pretty busy. Daddy used the hot tub after the kids were down for the count one night.
• They had a water slide, but it was not working properly for 2 of the days we were there. Such a bummer because the boys kept talking about how they wanted to go down it! They finally did get to go on the last day! They were excited to because they actually let them go together. At water park places, they would never let 2 kids go at once!

It ended up being too cold for Isaak, so Mica did it alone a few more times.

• They had paddle boat. Now the boys (including Daddy) kept saying that they didn't want to go. I did. They whined about going, Isaak kept slashing water up on Mica, then both boys complained when we decided to call it quits because they were whining. They wanted to keep going. We stuck to our guns and called it quits.

Waiting for a paddle boat.

They may look like they are getting along, but looks are deceiving. Whatever was in the middle, they were fighting over.

I think Daddy had an ok time.

• They had miniature golf that you could play at any time. Isaak wanted to play golf so bad. 

Mica likes to control everyone by telling them what to do. Isaak ran a head. He kept taking the ball and moving it with his hands. That's what five year old do.

Then Mica hit his ball in a hole; he was amazed that the ball ended up in an entirely different spot! They kept putting the ball in one hole and watching for it to come out a different hole.

• A shuttle ride that takes you to Mount Rushmore to see the lighting display. We didn't do this.

Other things you can do, but you need to pay extra for are:
We only ate pancakes and got a few things in their shops.

• There are shops and eating places right on the campground.
• Horseback riding.
• Fishing.
• Biking and 3 wheel biking.
• A carriage ride.
• Pancakes in the morning. It's $2.50 for all you can eat pancakes. They have other things to. We brought our own juice, yogurt and fruit along. Mica ate 5 pancakes one day! Isaak had 4 pancakes the next! They enjoyed them a little too much!

This was our view from the campsite:

I liked KOA. Especially this campsite. It's so close to Mount Rushmore. I've been to other KOA's that don't have as much to do. This one rocks!

If you do ever stay in one of their cabins make sure you bring bedding. We almost didn't thinking, Oh we're going to be in a cabin. Good thing I did get our sleeping bags! Our first cabin in Nebraska did have bedding. This one didn't. They also didn't have a refrigerator. That's another thing that makes a trip better. Their stores were a bit on the high end, but it was nice knowing you could get something you may have forgotten.

There were only a couple bad experiences.

• Food is hard to come by when you are in the middle of no where. You'd think because it's a tourist spot, they have places to go to eat. Well they do, but it's mostly all greasy stuff. I don't know how anyone there does very much grocery shopping. We couldn't find much. This is odd ShopKo rules in these parts, and I didn't see one Walmart, or Target. DQ and Subway rule, but I didn't see one McDonalds or Burger King.
• I had asthma issues. It rained some while we were there. One night I swore we might have to go to the hospital. It started to storm, all the smoke from everyone's fires went into the cabins. My allergies and asthma went nuts! I took all the meds I could. I was wheezing, majorly short of breath, sneezing and coughing. I had trouble getting air in me at all. I have to say that this year in particular has been really bad for asthma. It only acts up when it's rainy, or acting like it's going to rain. I haven't been this bad since I live in Georgia; where it's rainy and humid all the time. Finally I caught a break, and could breathe again.
• Then the water slide, which didn't work much of the time we were there.

Ponderosa Ranch

The first place we stayed at, while on vacation was in a little cabin by Fort Robinson on Ponderosa Ranch. It's in Crawford, Nebraska. It was in the middle of no where.

We got there, and there were horses, pigs, chickens and sheep around a little wood cabin. The boys were in awe. Daddy checked in, and I had trouble keeping the boys in the car. They wanted to roam like the rest of the animals.

The owner came out introduced herself and said, "The boys are free to get out and run around. The sheep are tame." Out of the car they went.

Soon it was tag time between two small boys and the owners sheep.

Daddy was told where our cabin was. He was warned that there was no lock on the door, but that no one comes there.

He drove up to a little house that was white with green trim. We were there. We went into the house that was wide open. Everything looked lived in. We didn't care. Daddy had to go potty, so he did just that.

I looked around some more. I saw a check on a dresser for a larger sum. I looked out the window and saw a cabin in the back that was brown with white and green trim. I put two and two together and realized we were in the wrong place. Here the boys were running around someone's house and Daddy was locked in their bathroom. I said, "I think we're in the wrong place!"

Daddy called the cabin owners and found out we were in fact in the wrong place!

Off to our cabin we went.

It had the things we needed, but did not look lived in. The boys immediately took claim of which bunk bed they wanted.

Daddy wandered outside. Our view was amazing! It was then he realized he left his maps and paper inside the wrong house! He had to go in and claim his papers before the owner(s) got home.

I envisioned the owners of the wrong house coming home and doing God only knows what to my husband. I had no clue who lived there. You could say that I've watched way too many 48 Hours episodes.

He came home safely. Then I felt free to laugh about us going into the wrong place to stay.

The ranch was indeed beautiful! They had everything we needed. If you do go to stay somewhere in the middle of no where make sure you stop for food. Daddy told me, "We can just go to the closest town." Finding food was a hard thing to do. For once in my life I was hoping for a McDonald's just to get a grilled Southwestern Salad. It seemed like the few places to eat were pretty greasy. I'm just not used to deep fried anything, and cook mostly in olive oil. We're even used to having veggies with our breakfast. We finally found a place; to stock up. Lucky for us we had 2 refrigerators, a microwave, a stove, a coffee pot and a toaster in our cabin.

We did a lot of hiking around Ponderosa Ranch.

The boys picked wild flowers for me to put in my hair. Isaak wanted to keep adding more and more flowers.

The boys loved spotting deer, turkey, horses, cows and more animals. Remember we are city folks. All this was new for them.

We had fun walking all over the ranch. There was just endless grassy hills.

It seemed like we were on Little House on the Prairie. We stayed there for two nights. It was so pretty!