We flew from Kristiansand to Minneapolis via Stavanger and Amsterdam. On our stopover in Minneapolis we spent most of the time in the Mall of America. Finally we boarded our final flight and arrived in Rapid City, South Dakota. After picking up our rental car, we drove through the Black Hills visiting both the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse monuments. Then we continued west, driving through the Big Horn National Forest on our way to Yellowstone National Park.

July 17, Wednesday

The flight from Kristiansand to Stavanger took only 30 minutes, so at 1800 we arrived at Sola Airport. We then took a taxi the short way to Quality Airport hotel. After checking in, and having a (soft) drink in the bar, we took local bus 142 into the center of Stavanger. It was very windy and cold there, so we only walked around for a short while before looking for a place to eat. All restaurants seemed very expensive, even by Norwegian standard, but eventually we found a Turkish Kebab place with reasonable prices. Not only that, but the food was excellent as well, and we all enjoy our Kebab dinner with french fries and Bulgur rice. It was too cold to hang around outside, so afterwards we just took the bus back to the hotel and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

July 18, Thursday

We woke up at 0500 and were picked up by a taxi at 0530 and taken to the airport. The plane left at 0630 and around 0810 we arrived at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. Since the flight food had been rather miserable, we first went to a cafe and had some sandwiches for breakfast. Then it was just a matter of waiting for the Minnesota plane at 1110.

According to our boarding cards, we would be boarding at 0930 which we found quite puzzling with departure being so much later. However, this was due to a more extensive procedure due to safety regulations. All the passengers were "interrogated" about their cabin luggage, whether we had packed it ourselves etc.

The flight in itself was noneventful and rather boring. But finally at 1300 local time we landed in Minnesota, just on schedule. Fortunately the immigration officers were in better mood than their New Yorkian colleagues usually are, so we were all let into the country without any problems.

More than a month in advance, we had used the Internet to book a room at the Exel Inn near the airport. At the main terminal, there was a list of all the hotels in the area and it was possible to call them for free. I did this and within 15 minutes they had sent a free shuttle over to pick us up.

Although it was the cheapest hotel I could find on the Internet, it was rather expensive at 87$ pr. room, so we all stayed in the same room that night. By Norwegian time, it was almost time to go to bed, but we knew that it would be an advantage to stay awake as long as possible, so after putting our stuff inside the room, we walked over to the Mall of America which was conveniently located just two blocks away.

The temperature was 27 degrees and it was quite humid. For some reason, we had expected the climate to be roughly as in Norway, but we seemed to be completely wrong as it was much hotter.

The Mall of America is the largest shopping mall in the world and it was quite interesting to look around there, with lots of special shops. Eventually we had dinner at a "family restaurant", with everybody having the American speciality of hamburgers and french fries. After dinner we were all quite sleepy, but tried to walk around some more just to keep awake.

Eventually we sat down at the food court and had a Pina Colada and some cookies. Time was now 1830 and our parents decided to go back to the hotel since Kirsten (our mother) was too tired. Me and Tina walked around for an hour more. We looked at the amusement park Snoopy, but didn't try anything since Tina was still a bit sick (she threw up when the plane landed). There was a Scandinavian shop called "Liten Hus" (wrong grammar - it should be "Lite Hus" or "Det lille huset") which we found quite amusing. They sold various Norwegian specialities such as Freia Milk chocolate etc.

We were back at the hotel around 2000 and went to bed almost immediately. All of us slept rather uncomfortable during the night, waking up several times.

July 19, Friday

Eventually we got up at 0530. Breakfast was supposed to be served at 0600, but it turned out that nothing was actually being "served". Instead there was a room where you could help yourself to toast and muffins etc, with no place to sit down.

At 0730 we took the shuttle to the airport. On arriving we tried to check in our baggage outside the terminal with a company called Skycap, but apparently there was a problem with our tickets, so the guy told us to see an agent inside. We therefore went inside to the regular check-in counter, where check-in went without any problems, so I have no idea what allegedly was wrong.

It was necessary to go through a security check to reach the gates, and the security turned out to be a lot more thorough than in Europe. Tina's laptop even had to be taken out of the suitcase and sent through the screening machine. On sending Tina's backpack through, it was discovered that she had a pair of needle scissors inside. She had completely forgotten about them, and we had now been through several security checks on different planes without anybody noticing. However, the security officers were all very friendly and polite, never accusing her of planning to hijack the plane. The scissors weren't allowed on the plane, though, so she was given the option of having them mailed to her at a small cost.

She didn't bother with that as it was only a cheap pair of scissors. (This probably happens quite often so they must have a huge collection of scissors at the airport!) However, it was good to see that security is taken seriously in the US. This is quite contrary to Europe where airport security appears to be just a charade to give people the impression that "something is being done".

The flight to Rapid City took 1 hour and 30 minutes, which meant arrival was around 1020 local time. Using the Internet we had reserved a rental car from Hertz, so after picking up our luggage we went straight to their desk to fill out the relevant forms etc. Fifteen minutes later we were the proud "owners" (for three weeks) of a silver metallic Dodge Stratus.

There was a temperature of about 30 degrees outside the airport, so it was good to get into the air-conditioned car. The real American adventure was now starting! Tor had never driven a car with automatic transmission before, but after some minor initial problems, he soon got the hang of it and found automatic cars to be very convenient.

We drove into Rapid City and stopped at a pizza place for lunch/breakfast, everybody sharing a medium pizza. Rapid City only has a population of around 50000, but was so spread out that it would hardly have been possible to get around without a car. We didn't stay around, though, but headed straight for the Black Hills and Mount Rushmore.

The area directly around Rapid City was very dry and yellow with little vegetation, but this changed after less than half an hour, when we reached the Black Hills. Here there was more pine forest and the scenery was quite nice. After driving through Keystone, a small town that seemed to be only souvenir shops, we arrived at the famous Mount Rushmore. It cost 8$ for parking, but entrance was free.

It was quite nice. On arriving a woman took our picture, which we would later be able to purchase. She was very impressed when we told her we came from Norway, and had to shake our hand, We walked the "President trail" around and then sat down to drink something after having shopped for souvenirs. The temperature was around 35 degrees, but fortunately the air was quite dry.

From Mount Rushmore it is only a short distance to Crazy Horse. The road was very nice with views of lots of interesting mountain formations. Unlike Mount Rushmore, Crazy Horse is a 100% private project receiving no public funding, which explains why it cost 19$ (in total) to get in. I had never seen a picture of Crazy horse, so I was initially a little disappointed to see that it was far from finished, with only his head being complete. However, on seeing a film that was shown inside the visitor center, I was very impressed with how large it would be when it is eventually finished. It's going to be enormous, and it's fantastic that it's very much the work of only one man and his family.

From Crazy Horse we turned northwards and drove to Hill City where we stopped to eat. We had Fajitas which was very good. Before leaving we walked up and down the main street (and only street!). The town looked like a "Wild West town" is supposed to look, but the stores were mainly souvenir shops. We all had an ice-cream which turned out to be so large that not everybody were able to finish it.

We continued northwards and eventually reached the towns of Lead and Deadwood. There seemed to have been a major forest fire here recently, very close to Lead. In lots of places people had hung up signs saying "Thank you firemen" and similar, clearly very grateful to the firemen.

We then followed a scenic route through some kind of canyon before eventually exiting the Black Hills National Park outside a city called Spearfish. Time was now around 1930 and we wanted to find a motel for the night. However, as we drove through the town, all motels were displaying "No vacancy" signs. This was quite worrying since we were all rather tired and didn't feel like driving all the way to Sundance, the next town. Fortunately, we spotted a Days Inn on the outskirts of town. On inquiring, they had only one spare room. While we were filling out the forms, three other people came in asking for rooms, so we arrived just in time. Lucky us!

The room was quite expensive at 121.80$ (including tax), but it was very big and nice. Before going to bed, we walked over to Safeway supermarket next door and bought some drinks etc. Around 2100 we were all in bed.

July 20, Saturday

We slept reasonably well and tried to stay in bed for as long as possible. Around 0700 we had breakfast at the hotel. Once again it was a rather limited self-service breakfast, but at least there were a few places to sit this time. It was also possible to make your own waffles.

After packing, we got in the car and drove on the I-90(?) until we reached the town of Sundance. There we made a short detour to see the Devil's Tower, famous from the movie "Encounter of the 3rd degree". This was a very interesting rock formation, completely standing out from the rest of the rather flat scenery. According to the legend, the pattern had been created by the claws of a bear as it was chasing some Indian children up the mountain.

We then got back onto the Interstate and continued driving westwards. The scenery was now completely semi-desert, reminding me of the Karoo in South Africa. By noon we reached the small town of Buffalo, and stopped at a fastfood place called Taco John's for lunch.

Ahead of us were the Bighorn National Forest, through which there were three possible routes. We opted for going on Highway 16 (for which there had been lots of advertiser billboards saying that it was the quickest, safest and most scenic route towards Yellowstone). As we drove up into the mountain range, the scenery changed dramatically and became very beautiful. Suddenly there were trees around, and not everything was dry and yellow. The weather also changed, as suddenly it started raining quite heavily for a short while before clearing up again.

We crossed over at the highest point, of more than 3000 meters altitude and started descending. The way down was particularly scenic going through some very dramatic mountain scenery. However, as we came out of the park, the scenery returned to being desert. We drove towards a town called Worland, where there was an intersection and a road northwards.

Around 1700 we arrived in a town called Greybull. After some discussion, we decided to stay here for the night instead of going all the way to Cody. Since Cody was so close to Yellowstone, we figured it might possibly be difficult to find a spare room there, just like it had been in Spearfish yesterday. Finding a room in Greybull was no problem, though, and we settled for two rooms at the Antler motel for about 90$ total.

After settling in, we all walked down the main street of Greybull. It was not a big town, only around 1800 inhabitants, but the street was quite long and had a variety of shops. We even found a huge Quilt shop, which unfortunately had already closed. On our way back, we stopped at the supermarket to buy some drinks and snacks. Then we went out to eat, and eventually decided on a place called Lisa's. We had chicken sandwiches with french fries.

After dinner we went for an afternoon drive, trying one of the other scenic routes through Bighorn Nat Park. This route turned out to be exceptionally scenic, even more so than the one we had chosen earlier. I think it probably was made especially beautiful by the sunlight not being so strong. We drove as far up into the mountains as we could before it became too dark to see anything, and then we returned home. On our way we passed through a tiny town called Shell. According to the sign it had a population of 50, which we found quite amusing.

Before going to bed, I wrote the diary from our two first days. I didn't sleep particularly well this night, having to go to the bathroom repeatedly, probably because I was starting to get a cold. Tina had been suffering from this for a few days, but was now finally getting better.