South Dakota 2007 days 8 and 9
Saturday, June 16: Bill and I woke up at 6:00 on the nose to the alarm on his watch. Saturday morning brought with it mixed feelings. We were excited to be seeing The Badlands National Park, but kind of sad that this was the end of our trip. Despite the nightmare with the truck repairs, we had an awesome time going to all the places we did and hanging out together all week. I was leary about camping for so long, but (and I can't believe I'm about to say this) I really enjoyed it.
Anyway, Friday night we had packed up everything. I had laid out everyone's clothes (well, Bill laid out his own - LOL!) so that just pajamas had to be thrown into clothes bins in the morning. We got the kids up and hustled them into the truck so we could start loading our stuff into the camper and collapsing it. The morning was overcast and cold and it was drizzling while we were trying to load up. Eveything was wet, including the camper that we had to collapse onto itself. Yuck! We were loaded up and on the road by 6:59 - not bad! We were on Mountain Time, though, so we would be losing an hour on the drive.
Our first planned stop will be Wall Drug in Wall, SD. This just so happens to be where the entrance for the loop through Badlands National Park is, too, and is about an hour or so from our campsite. In case you didn't know, Wall Drug is advertised all over the place. We started seeing billboards for it in western Minnesota on the drive out. Bill and I were both advised by people we work with that we HAD to stop there. This picture shows only about a 1/4 of the store - it actually stretches the entire block it is on. Turns out, Wall Drugstore is a giant, block-long gift shop and cafe. We went into 5 sections - the gift shop, cafe (they have homemade, fresh doughnuts that are to die for!), the 'drug store', a t-shirt store, and a jewelry store. We only got about halfway through the place. We made sure to get a famous "Wall Drug" bumper sticker, though!
Take a look at the skies in the picture. It hadn't cleared up any and, in fact, was starting to look ominous. We headed for Badlands hoping to beat the rain. It was still cold - only about 60 degrees - and the winds had started to pick up..
To say The Badlands are beautiful would be an injustice. You really can't describe how breathtaking the place is. As you come upon it, it is the same rolling scenery you've been looking at for hours and then WHAM! there it is. We learned that the French and the Native American's words to describe this area both translated to "Bad Land". Can you imagine being a pioneer, you're forging through the prairies and then you come upon this place:
The pictures don't do it justice. The lightinsg is awful and the colors are all washed out. You can see how small the people are, though, and how big the rocks are. Here's another shot so you can see the striping in the formations. I guess the whole place was the bottom of an ocean in prehistoric times, which is why the rocks are striped like they are. Because of the weather, we kind of got gypped on the scenery. I guess in the sunlight the colors are unbelievable. We were able to see vivid colors in a place called The Yellow Mounds. Trust me, in person they are even more awesome.
(if you click on the pictures they will open in another window and you can see them enlarged. This is true of all the pictures I've uploaded from the trip).
The drive through the park took about 45 minutes. We knew we had 11 hours to get to LaCrosse that night so we didn't take our time and stop at all the scenic overlooks. Aside from the time, it was starting to thunder and you could see the storms in the distance as they were closing in:
It would have been nice to be able to spend a day there are really explore it. I don't think either of us regret only taking the scenic drive through it though. We both knew that this was probably a once in a lifetime trip to this area so we were going to see it one way or another. And once you've seen one striped rock you've seen them all, right? ;)
The next 10 hours were spent getting to our campground in West Salem, Wisconsin. We were able to book a site at the campground we stayed at the summer before on our annual Family Camping Trip. It was a little after 8:00 pm when we arrived and it was hotter than hell. We
drove through storms in South Dakota and Minnesota, but the front hadn't gotten as far east as Wisconsin yet. The humidity was just like it always is in the midwest - stifling. Thank goodness we only had about an hour of daylight left and two fans for inside the camper. We did what any road warriors would do after 12 hours in the car and ordered pizzas for dinner. I need to mention, too, that Billy was beyond pissed that we were
camping AGAIN. All week he was obsessed with seeing the movie Surf's Up (which opens on June 8th, as he so throroughly reminded us) and we told him that on Saturday we were going home and then we would see it after we got home. He didn't realize that we wouldn't GET home until Sunday, though. He was being ornery - arguing about everything (I'm going to SLEEP IN THE TRUCK!! I HATE CAMPING AGAIN!!). Bill took Alex and Caty to the pool while Billy and I waited for the pizza to arrive. We made a really small campfire and called it a night fairly early. South Dakota was over 600 miles behind us, now, and we were eager to get home.
Sunday, June 17: Happy Birthday, Caty! Happy Father's Day, Bill! As eager as we were to get
home, we were in no rush to pack up and get out of there. We'd studied the map and knew we only had about 4 hours in the truck this day. We freshened up, broke camp, and started out to find a place to eat. We found a little cafe connected to a gas station at the entrance for the Interstate. It was classic small town - the menu kind of reminded me of the cafe in My Cousin Vinny where they ate grits for the first time (the menu in the movie had three choices on it: Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner). The menu at this place had eggs, pancakes, or frenchtoast - LOL! We fueled our bodies and fueled the truck and I took the wheel for the drive home . Bill wanted to read Marley and Me on the drive. I think he was a bit put out that he'd started it and, when I finished my paperback, I hijacked it and finished it while we drove the day before (it's a great, light, entertaining book, by the way). We were on the road by 10:30 and pulled into our driveway at about 2:15 - not bad if I do say so myself!
This vacation is one that I think all of us will remember over our lifetimes. It was the first vacation we've taken where we didn't go visit other family members. It was just the six of us (don't forget about Sammy Boy!) for the entire week. We saw so many neat things and went to so many cool places and just had a great time. Even Sammy, who spent most of his days locked in our camper while we were our adventuring, was content (we agreed, later, that it was probably a mistake to bring him and he would have been much happier at Auntie Vicki's house or Grandma Gina's house) .
We're already planning our next trip for 2009 (we should have the truck repairs paid off by then!). Washington, DC, look out!
Anyway, Friday night we had packed up everything. I had laid out everyone's clothes (well, Bill laid out his own - LOL!) so that just pajamas had to be thrown into clothes bins in the morning. We got the kids up and hustled them into the truck so we could start loading our stuff into the camper and collapsing it. The morning was overcast and cold and it was drizzling while we were trying to load up. Eveything was wet, including the camper that we had to collapse onto itself. Yuck! We were loaded up and on the road by 6:59 - not bad! We were on Mountain Time, though, so we would be losing an hour on the drive.
Our first planned stop will be Wall Drug in Wall, SD. This just so happens to be where the entrance for the loop through Badlands National Park is, too, and is about an hour or so from our campsite. In case you didn't know, Wall Drug is advertised all over the place. We started seeing billboards for it in western Minnesota on the drive out. Bill and I were both advised by people we work with that we HAD to stop there. This picture shows only about a 1/4 of the store - it actually stretches the entire block it is on. Turns out, Wall Drugstore is a giant, block-long gift shop and cafe. We went into 5 sections - the gift shop, cafe (they have homemade, fresh doughnuts that are to die for!), the 'drug store', a t-shirt store, and a jewelry store. We only got about halfway through the place. We made sure to get a famous "Wall Drug" bumper sticker, though!
Take a look at the skies in the picture. It hadn't cleared up any and, in fact, was starting to look ominous. We headed for Badlands hoping to beat the rain. It was still cold - only about 60 degrees - and the winds had started to pick up..
To say The Badlands are beautiful would be an injustice. You really can't describe how breathtaking the place is. As you come upon it, it is the same rolling scenery you've been looking at for hours and then WHAM! there it is. We learned that the French and the Native American's words to describe this area both translated to "Bad Land". Can you imagine being a pioneer, you're forging through the prairies and then you come upon this place:
The pictures don't do it justice. The lightinsg is awful and the colors are all washed out. You can see how small the people are, though, and how big the rocks are. Here's another shot so you can see the striping in the formations. I guess the whole place was the bottom of an ocean in prehistoric times, which is why the rocks are striped like they are. Because of the weather, we kind of got gypped on the scenery. I guess in the sunlight the colors are unbelievable. We were able to see vivid colors in a place called The Yellow Mounds. Trust me, in person they are even more awesome.
(if you click on the pictures they will open in another window and you can see them enlarged. This is true of all the pictures I've uploaded from the trip).
The drive through the park took about 45 minutes. We knew we had 11 hours to get to LaCrosse that night so we didn't take our time and stop at all the scenic overlooks. Aside from the time, it was starting to thunder and you could see the storms in the distance as they were closing in:
It would have been nice to be able to spend a day there are really explore it. I don't think either of us regret only taking the scenic drive through it though. We both knew that this was probably a once in a lifetime trip to this area so we were going to see it one way or another. And once you've seen one striped rock you've seen them all, right? ;)
The next 10 hours were spent getting to our campground in West Salem, Wisconsin. We were able to book a site at the campground we stayed at the summer before on our annual Family Camping Trip. It was a little after 8:00 pm when we arrived and it was hotter than hell. We
drove through storms in South Dakota and Minnesota, but the front hadn't gotten as far east as Wisconsin yet. The humidity was just like it always is in the midwest - stifling. Thank goodness we only had about an hour of daylight left and two fans for inside the camper. We did what any road warriors would do after 12 hours in the car and ordered pizzas for dinner. I need to mention, too, that Billy was beyond pissed that we were
camping AGAIN. All week he was obsessed with seeing the movie Surf's Up (which opens on June 8th, as he so throroughly reminded us) and we told him that on Saturday we were going home and then we would see it after we got home. He didn't realize that we wouldn't GET home until Sunday, though. He was being ornery - arguing about everything (I'm going to SLEEP IN THE TRUCK!! I HATE CAMPING AGAIN!!). Bill took Alex and Caty to the pool while Billy and I waited for the pizza to arrive. We made a really small campfire and called it a night fairly early. South Dakota was over 600 miles behind us, now, and we were eager to get home.Sunday, June 17: Happy Birthday, Caty! Happy Father's Day, Bill! As eager as we were to get
home, we were in no rush to pack up and get out of there. We'd studied the map and knew we only had about 4 hours in the truck this day. We freshened up, broke camp, and started out to find a place to eat. We found a little cafe connected to a gas station at the entrance for the Interstate. It was classic small town - the menu kind of reminded me of the cafe in My Cousin Vinny where they ate grits for the first time (the menu in the movie had three choices on it: Breakfast, Lunch, or Dinner). The menu at this place had eggs, pancakes, or frenchtoast - LOL! We fueled our bodies and fueled the truck and I took the wheel for the drive home . Bill wanted to read Marley and Me on the drive. I think he was a bit put out that he'd started it and, when I finished my paperback, I hijacked it and finished it while we drove the day before (it's a great, light, entertaining book, by the way). We were on the road by 10:30 and pulled into our driveway at about 2:15 - not bad if I do say so myself!
This vacation is one that I think all of us will remember over our lifetimes. It was the first vacation we've taken where we didn't go visit other family members. It was just the six of us (don't forget about Sammy Boy!) for the entire week. We saw so many neat things and went to so many cool places and just had a great time. Even Sammy, who spent most of his days locked in our camper while we were our adventuring, was content (we agreed, later, that it was probably a mistake to bring him and he would have been much happier at Auntie Vicki's house or Grandma Gina's house) .
We're already planning our next trip for 2009 (we should have the truck repairs paid off by then!). Washington, DC, look out!
posted by Renfield at 11:52 AM
2 Comments:
Great vacation! You will be telling the stories for the rest of your life's! I enjoyed reading every word of it. Glad you are back all safely!
Hope to see you all on Saturday at Cathy's!
Ginger
Oh, LOVE all the pics. And despite the truck, it sounds like a wonderful trip!!
DC in 09??!! WHOOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!
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