Blogs from South Dakota, United States, North America - page 2

Today we enjoyed breakfast outside on the patio at our Holiday Inn Express in Chadron, Nebraska. I had fun showing Ed the pancake machine. It’s one that you just push a button and it makes your pancake and shoots them out on your plate! It doesn’t take much to entertain me!! I am starting to get my taste back but just certain things. Today I ate a piece of bacon that tasted like bacon. I still can’t taste coffee or many, many other foods! AND I still can’t smell!! Our goal today was South Dakota. What I love about our group is that if we see a sign for a place that looks interesting we stop or head that direction. So today we saw a sign for Wind Cave National Park so we decided we should ... read more

It's easy to romanticize the Badlands. The narrow canyons beckon travelers to explore the echoes of solitude. Fifteen years ago, looking into the wrinkled surface of the earth from a tourist platform, I fantasized about hiking and camping there, but I didn't have the knowhow, the gear, or the fitness. So now that I have all those things, this was a place I wanted to revisit during the coronasummer, on my way to Wyoming with my friend Dan. When I told my dad about my plan to explore the area more, he bought me David McCullough's book Mornings on Horseback, an origin story of Teddy Roosevelt, culminating with the time he spent in the Badlands grieving the deaths of his wife and mother, and further developing a Hemingway-esque code that catapulted him to becoming the youngest ... read more

Big day, today. We had Devil’s Tower on our agenda, but mid-day we decided to add Badlands as well. We left the hotel at 8:10 AM and 63 degrees. The weather was promising rain for a good part of the day. The skies were cloudy and we had a low ceiling hanging heavy over us all day long. The cows were lying down in the pastures and, according to my mother, that means rain is coming. It only took us a little over an hour to get to Devil’s Tower National Park. The scenery was familiar, with rolling green hills, cows and horses in pastures, and occasional faces of gray rock poking out at us along the side of the road. Miles before we got to the gate, we caught sight of the top of the ... read more

July 15-16 On day two in the Badlands, laundry almost done, we left the dog’s and drove to the Badlands park visitors center. We enjoyed the archeological bones exhibit. We picked up our magnet. We have 60+ now on the refrigerator from all our trips. Just seven so far this trip. We headed out toward the loop road which explores the western half of the park. There were some beautiful vistas with lush green grass separating the sedimentary formations. The farther north the color of the formations changed and began exhibiting streaks of yellow and reddish hues among the common grey formations. It certainly beautiful in its foreboding desolation. We wondered how did Indians and pioneers survive this area? We saw remnants of sod huts from those days. This area was once inhabited by a large ... read more

July 12-14 It’s been frustrating to blog last week without WiFi and very little cell signal. And it doesn’t seem to be getting better but worse. I’m making notes and will post when I can upload pictures and text. This morning we got up and headed northwest again. We were hoping for better roads but it was only marginally better. We hit a bridge seam that was bad and noticed a shimmy had developed in the truck. It is very difficult to tell if it’s the road or the truck. If we could find a smooth road we might know but that’s asking the impossible. We arrived at Oahe Dam Downstream campground near Pierre SD by mid afternoon. It was hot but not as bad as Iowa. We had to get water as we try not ... read more