Woke up and broke camp, fueled up and stocked up on gas station packaged snacks before heading into Badlands park, our first National park stop. Gas station fare is making up a considerable portion of our diet, though many of the gas stations out here have full-service kitchens, some of them churning out pretty amazing looking fried chicken, fried fish, and the like.
After so many miles of straight through the prairie, the Badlands show up like giant potholes amid the grass. Halfway through the park we took a left onto a dirt road, and spent about 20 miles riding the rim of the Badlands- grassy hills to our right, and what looks like craters to our left. We hit some deeper gravel left by a road grader at an intersection near the end of the stretch of road, and Naomi saved herself from a death wobble. Success!
After so many miles of straight through the prairie, the Badlands show up like giant potholes amid the grass. Halfway through the park we took a left onto a dirt road, and spent about 20 miles riding the rim of the Badlands- grassy hills to our right, and what looks like craters to our left. We hit some deeper gravel left by a road grader at an intersection near the end of the stretch of road, and Naomi saved herself from a death wobble. Success!
That gravel road dumped us back on 90 just west of Sturgis, which was a few days from wrapping up. We were glad not to have to fight swarms of bandana-wearing Harleys. We made a stop for ice water at Wall Drug, a tiny pharmacy that has built a 20,000 people-a-day customer base by putting campy signs advertising ice water and 5 cent coffee every few miles on the highways nearby for hundreds of miles in every direction.
We fought hoards of tourists (counting ourselves among them) on our way to Mount Rushmore. Rather than paying $20 for a slightly closer vantage point, we sufficed with the view from the road and the free profile-view parking lot. We paid to get into Crazy Horse, which is still under construction decades after Mount Rushmore was completed (which is probably racist among other things).
We ended our day at Devil's Tower in Wyoming, and broke out our cooking gear for the first time this whole trip (!) and made up something approximating hunters stew with bison summer sausage, peppers, onions, and jarred tomato sauce. Yum.