...where the buffalo roam! We are here in South Dakota. We started the day at Sioux Falls. I, unfortunately, do not have any knowledge of the story behind these falls, but we took our breakfast and ate with a great view.
From the beginning of this adventure, I have been saying that the Badlands are one of the places I wanted to stop. Well...that almost didn't happen. It was Loren's turn to drive while I took a nap. I woke up when he pulled into a gas station for a fill up. I walked in and this gas station also happened to be the Badlands gift shop. My friendly readers, you are glad you were not there. I was hopping mad that we had missed one of the main places I had wanted to go. I was mad at myself for sleeping, I was mad at Loren for not stopping, I was mad at my phone for dying and not alerting us to where we were. I was just plain mad. Mom used to say that if I woke up crabby, she would send me back to bed until I woke up happy. I don't think that would have helped me this time.
Fortunately, it turned out that we had stopped at the exact place where the Badlands National Park starts. I think it was divine intervention because I was ready to strangle my copilot. We ate a bison dog- yes, I actually tried a bison dog instead of an all beef hotdog and then we set off the 3 miles down the road to the park.
We had to pay a $20 entrance fee, but unlike the $30 to park in Chicago, this money went to the parks. If you have not seen the Badlands, they are hard to describe. They are cliffs made of layers of sandstone and stretch out among the prairies. We fully expected to see someone fall to their doom as we watched stupid kids and adults climbing out on ledges.
The road through the park is a loop that takes you back to the highway. We did not see any buffalo, but we did stop with several other cars to watch some big horn sheep eating and butting horns.
It turned out to be a perfect time. We decided to have Rapid City be our Basecamp for the next few days as we see the sights of the Black Hills. So, stay tuned!
No comments:
Post a Comment