South Dakota: Adventures of the Midwest

Howdy y'all! Time for some catchin' up on the ol' bloggity blog! As some of you may be aware we've been posting pics on the Facebook pretty regularly but we've slacked off on our journalistic commitments a bit. Now that we have another long stretch on the road we can reflect back on the past few days! Ready!?

Our departure from Jackson, WY ended up being our most scenic day of driving... ever! After leaving the amazingly beautiful forests of Yellowstone we drove a few hours through Wyoming desert before encountering an unexpected mountain that went up and up and up... Definitely the craziest hill we've encountered. The Zinger handled it like a pro and we rewarded it with several breaks to cool down. When we eventually reached the top we realized we had entered Bighorn National Forest, an unexpected bonus which solidified the day's 'most scenic ever' status.

We rolled into a Walmart in Burley, WY around 11PM and crashed for the night. The next day we embarked on our South Dakota scavenger hunt. We found Kim's dad's childhood home in Rapid City and explored the Black Hills searching out Mt. Rushmore and the Crazy Horse Memorial.

Both of these historic rock carvings cost money for parking. More money than we were willing to spend so instead we just drove by real slow in order to savor their magnificent splendor. The final spot on our scavenger list was a free campground located in the Badlands National Park. We grabbed some cool looking South Dakotan beers and ventured back into the desert. 

In the middle of nowheresville, the campground was nothing more than a small circle of a dirt road encompassing some dried out desert grass with some shaded picnic tables scattered about. It was HOT out and even when the sun went down there was no relief from the intense heat. We made the best of it, attaching our hammocks to the picnic shelters, sipped our cold beers and planned out the remainder of our trip.

It's pretty crazy to have the end of our trip in sight. We've got everything all mapped out and there's less than 4 weeks 'til we're back to 'normal' life in Burlington. Weird!

We cooked a simple but tasty dinner: quinoa, veggie broth, garlic, and vegan sausage (we're not vegetarian but sometimes it's nice to not have to worry about the mess). As the campground slowly filled up we did our best to try and get some sleep in the heat. A late night thunderstorm brought the most rapid fire lightning strikes we've ever seen and thankfully some cooler weather! We left early in the morning and encountered some local wildlife. At first it was single buffalo that was walking in the middle of the road. Then around a corner we ran right into a herd of over a hundred! The herd was lounging about in and around the road and luckily they didn't mind our intrusion (some where as big as our van!)

After safely navigating the wild buffalo herd we got back on the highway and left the Badlands for what would end up to be a less exciting part of the country...

P.S. - there's pictures up on Facebook but because we're making this post from the phone we can't link to them. If you go back to any old post that does have a link you can find the new pictures in Curt's photos. Enjoy!