Bozeman bound

I'm writing to you from a hotel room in Belle Fourche, SD. Why Belle Fourche, SD? No particular reason, just that it was about 1/2 way between where we were yesterday and where we will be tomorrow.

Here's what our itinerary has looked like:
Saturday, June 12: leave Woodberry Forest, VA. Drive nearly 13 hours to Jason's parents' house outside St. Louis. We left at 4:30 in the morning. Ugh. Jason is a little bitter about me pushing to leave that early, but it is just so nice to arrive at our destination before dinner.
Sunday, June 13: stay at Nana Diane and Papa Butch's house. We had a family gathering and a birthday gathering for Sierra. More on that later.
Monday, June 14: stay another day. Papa Butch had to work, but Jason, Sierra, and I went to Old Town St. Charles with Nana Diane. It was hot!
Tuesday, June 15: travel to Sioux Falls, SD. We left at 6:00am and it was a 10-ish hour drive. Sioux Falls made a good impression. The weather was beautiful, and after an early dinner, we spent some time at a great local park with playgrounds and a trail along the river.
Wednesday, June 16: travel from Sioux Falls, SD to Belle Fourche, SD. (Why are we still in South Dakota?!) We took it easy this morning, went back to the park, and then went to Barnes and Noble for a bit before getting on the road just before 10. We arrived a litle after 4, with the time change
Thursday, June 17: the final leg of our journey. We're hoping to get on the road fairly early to make the not-quite-7-hour drive from here to Bozeman, MT.

Sierra did really well on that first looong day from Virginia to St. Louis. She only had about 45 minutes of cranky-ness before she went down for a nap in the afternoon. Yesterday, she was whiney most of the morning and had a pretty pleasent afternoon. Today, she's been a bit of a wreck. I think she's tired of being in the car. I can't say that I blame her. I fear for what tomorrow will bring.

Here's when our little traveller was having a happy time: