South Dakota

I'm afraid I don't have a whole lot to say about South Dakota that hasn't been said before. It really is flat, it's freaking boring to drive through, and goddamnit, the Corn Palace is not even made entirely of corn!! Okay, maybe that last one is just me.

So I left my hotel around 9ish, which was a big deal for me because I like to sleep way in when I'm in a hotel room. At least on this trip. But Mpls to Badlands is quite a long drive and I didn't want to be setting up my tent in the dark, so I got up "early". Actually, okay, to be entirely truthful at that point I was thinking about getting a hotel room near Badlands and not camping at all. I was getting soft, see. My delicate sensibilities wanted a bed. Anyway, I got on the road relatively early and drove and drove and drove...

And drove and drove and drove...

Thank god for audiobooks...seriously.

And drove and drove and drove...

Finally I got to my first fantastic stop, the world famous Corn Palace! The tagline on their website brands it as The World's Only Corn Palace! To which I have to say...um...maybe there aren't corn palaces all over the world because building a "palace" (not even entirely) out of corn is kind of a dumb idea. But you know, I forfeited my right to be an authority on palaces of corn when I decided not to get out of my car in Mitchell, SD. I just couldn't bring myself to get that excited about the corn, especially with the rest of a day's drive ahead of me. So I did a drive by. Maybe I missed something fantastic, I don't know. And I really never, never will. I'm okay with that.

Corn Palace experienced (sort of), I got back on the road. There honestly aren't any highlights to mention or I would...driving, driving, driving...

Eventually I got to the Badlands area and had a decision to make...I was still thinking about staying in a hotel but I could save myself $60 by just camping as I had planned, plus I'd get to see Badlands NP. Okay, that's an easy choice. I turned into the road leading to Badlands, paid my fee, and proceeded into the park. The experience of driving through Badlands was very similar to Joshua Tree. It's a windy, twisty road surrounded by gorgeous scenery and all I wanted to do is get out and take a picture but you're not supposed to stop. Finally I came to a viewpoint and got a few shots. The sun was setting so I headed for the campground and got set up.

The campground at Badlands was one of the most unimpressive, nondescript campgrounds I have seen on the entire trip. You can't have a campfire there because of the dry brush, so campgrounds are just vague areas in a big field with picnic tables next to them. No bushes, no trees (because of the climate, of course...I didn't see any bushes or trees in the whole park, not that I can remember anyway), just you and all of your camping neighbors. It was a good thing I already had some camping experience under my belt and was able to just ignore everybody else...if this was my first camping trip I would have been freaked out, feeling like everyone was watching me. Paranoia, you know.

So the night at Badlands was fairly uneventful. The stars were beautiful, of course. I read a bit of my book and made some dinner, then turned in early. Sometime in the middle of the night it started to rain a little bit. Sometime later, it started to rain a lot. By the time I woke up and was ready to leave, everything was pretty well soaked. I had left the folding camp chair and a towel out in my campground and of course both were soaked, not to mention my rainfly and tarp. Inside my tent was completely dry though, even with the little tears in the rainfly from rolling around in Joshua Tree. So go tent! I didn't know how long it would keep raining and I was so ready to go, so I just sucked it up and got wet while I was packing up the tent and stuff. Naturally, three minutes after I packed the last item in the car, the rain stopped. I sat on the edge of my trunk and enjoyed some honey nut cheerios, then it was time to get going again.

I drove through the park and got some more lovely shots of Badlands. Just gorgeous. The park loop road spat out right next to the famed Wall Drug and I had seen signs for it the whole drive through SD, so I figured I'd better check it out. I would like to take this moment and give Wall Drug the finger. I was expecting some giant, incredible, over-the-top campy experience and all I got was the same lame ass crap you can get at just about any truck stop on the road. In WD's defense, I didn't scour the whole place, so maybe I just missed the delightfully campy section. If you ask me though, they should put that part front and center.

I was open to the idea of maybe getting a souvenir there (which of course is how they getcha), plus I wanted to get something to thank my boss for approving my five weeks off. I took a little time and looked through the t-shirts but I couldn't find one that said "I rolled my eyes at Wall Drug" so I didn't buy. The next room was full of more touristy crap, including a giant selection of shot glasses with the Wall Drug logo on them. I carefully selected a shot glass with a plastic jackalope on the inside for my boss and, with a quick look over the rest of the hideousness, I took my leave. In Wall Drug I saw the following: dreamcatchers, jewelry boxes with wolves on them, silkscreened wooden plaques, shot glasses, magnets galore, an animatronic country band, coon skin caps, cowboy hats, socks with prairie dogs on them, kitten sculptures made from rabbit fur, a giant wall of porcelain dolls, garden gnomes of every flavor, and more jerky than I've ever seen in one place. And yes, that was still not enough for me. Clearly I've seen too much of the world to be so jaded at such a collection of atrocities.

Anyway, I was done with WD and I needed to make it to the middle of Wyoming that night, so I took off. The rest of South Dakota was a tapestry of driving and more driving, which I will not waste your time with. Next stop, Prune Creek, Wyoming and the worst night's sleep evar!