Bad Lands weren’t Bad at all

May 8: We left our Dakota Sunsets site with still no rain since leaving. Setting up and taking down camp in the raid was almost all I knew when poor Jo-Ann was with me. Not this trip so far. This leg of our journey was a relatively short drive only 268 miles. Took us about 6 hours with stops for pictures etc. Arrived around 2 in the afternoon (still felt like Eastern Time 3) early enough to setup and relax. This was a 2 day stay to see the Badlands. As we got closer to the Badlands we saw some amazing flat to rolling hills and rivers to flat. Jo remarked and I have to agree that we cant imagine living so far away from EVERYTHING. We imagined what going to the grocery store for things you couldn’t raise or make on these MASSIVE farms with houses surrounded by miles of fields before another house. And as lush as the fields already were this early in the season, you could tell how tenuous making a living farming is by the size and condition of the homes. Having to buy thousands of dollars of seeds and fertilizer, thousand and tens of thousands to buy John Deere’s that were as big as a house and then hope the weather, bugs, blight etc didn’t ruin you crop investment. We wondered how kids met significant others, how long even with the big equipment they would have to spend tilling and planting the fields and then harvesting them. You just cant believe how much land each farm had in use. It just looked hard, lonely and scary but driving by it was beautiful and BIG. Just BIG!

As we approached the Badlands I took pictures of what was I thought were really different and beautiful eroded stone spikes rising out of fields. We turned off our exit and had to drive through the Badlands National Park to get to our campground. We approached the gates for the park where you pay an entrance fee or show a national park pass (if you are senior like me you can get a lifetime pass for free National Park entry for around $80 which I had, being the frugal OCD guy prepping for this trip). The far left lane was for local traffic and said just stop and be acknowledged and no pay. I was going to a campground not the park and the lanes are really skinny so I picked the local wide lane, stopped, waved and drove on. Well I realized later that lane was for true “locals” not me. No one came after me and I travelled on starting to think of where we would go to see the Badlands sights once we set up camp. I didn’t realize we would be driving right through some of the most beautiful scenery Jo or I have ever seen. So different and like the Grand Canyon literally took my breath away and made me feel stomach flutters. Weird description but all I could come up with. Some of you have seen our pictures already but like the Grand Canyon, the pictures don’t even come close. Not even sort of close for the grandeur and beauty of rocks! Who knew. I wasn’t prepared for that dose of wow but we went on and set up our camp at a very nice campground four miles from the park. We arrived and because we were a full hookup site we were in the outer ring and backed up on an area where they were working to expand the campground. A little off putting with the noise and diesel fumes (I dont of course mind them when its my equipment) but they didnt work all day or everyday so tolerable and site was very nice even without all the beautiful big trees leafed out yet.

I’ve mentioned weather before. The bane or joy of camping. Still no rain setting up and record temps in the 80’s days and cool nights. Perfect. We did have rain one night but didn’t mess up our days. It looked like they had done some digging at our sites before the expansion work and it left yellow orange clay and dirt in places they hadn’t covered with stone yet. That rain softened it up. I mention this because Jo had that awful feeling of step, squish and slide in the early AM before it was really light and in the low light assumed someone had not picked up after their dog. Luckily it was a false alarm but not before the mud seemed to have gotten every where. Sun came out and dried up all the rain and the mud dried up again. One other thing….did I mention brown spiky balls we didn’t like? This site had little leafy seeds that were sticky like they had super glue on them and stuck everywhere. I mean everywhere. I am hoping I dont accidentally bring any back to Maine. All in all though a great site otherwise.

Day 2 we went to the visitors center and learned about the Badlands, the dinosaurs and scary really big non Dinosaurs that swam in the inland sea that was over where the Badlands are today. This makes the area a rich fossil site discovering many creatures never seen any where else. We also learned about the Native Americans that lived where the Badlands are today hunting all sorts of more traditional animals. They also had a fossilized bone from a Mastodon that showed a cut caused by a man made cleaver of sorts. Cant imagine taking down a Mastodon but they took down two based on the fossils found in one spot with human artifacts like arrow and spearheads.

We also went to the Minuteman missile museum. Tried to see and actual silo but they were booked out 90 days in advance. Watched a film the described two near Armageddon events. One a US tech loaded a training tape into the main frame that simulated a Russian nuclear attack. Everyone scrambled and got ready for launch until fortunately someone figured out the mistake. that was in 1979! The next one they described was when the Russians had a similar early warning system glitch that said we were attacking. The man in charge didnt believe it and didn’t call his superiors and worked to find the mistake. When the crisis was over he told his superiors and lost his position as a result. Punished for preventing Nuclear war, That was in 1982. Neither way back in the day but in my adult years!!! Jo felt very depressed reliving the Cuban Missile Crisis and the drills we did in school getting under our desks as if they would protect us from a Nuclear attack lol. Duck and Cover to make everyone feel they had some control even in the nuclear age. I also felt that angst remembering that period but the nerd in me was just fascinated by the fact that these missiles were scattered (and still are) all over the fields we were driving by.

As a “pick us up” we decided to stop at the “Ranch Store” we had passed by and saw billboards for. Why you ask (or don’t lol) because Jo wanted to feed the prairie dogs. The store sold perhaps 20 unsalted in the shell peanuts for a dollar. I tried to not do the math on the profit margin lol. We threw (I threw while Jo took pictures and spoke to the prairie dogs) peanuts to the many prairie dogs in a colony near the store. The prairie dogs must all be on insulin from overeating and were just huge. Imagine Jaba the Hut as a prairie dog. And most, except for one who appeared to be pregnant or a new mom, were tired of people chucking peanuts at them. I accidentally bounced a peanut off one of them and it ignored me. Three more aimed at his head didn’t phase him….kidding I didn’t do that. Unbelievably cute. Jo wants one as a pet and found out they are actually trainable and very affectionate and legal to have at least in SD. My answer is a firm no unless I am looking at the cute videos when a moment of well maybe creeps in lol. No more pets til we are done traveling please. Don’t bring prairie dogs up when you see her as I think I have talked her down. At a separate historical Prairie homestead site we stopped at they had rare white prairie dogs. One of them was so excited we might have food he actually was running toward Jo who screamed and ran back to the truck with me laughing as it continued to follow her at a surprisingly high speed. I never learn. We took a side trip to Wall Drug. Kind of like South Of the Border in SC with Billboards every few miles for hundreds of miles. Lots of stuff none of which tempted us beyond a postcard.

Without any issues or crisis we broke camp and headed for the Rafter J ranch in Hill City, SD.