Interior, South Dakota

Mileage:  40,097

Another day, bright and beautiful!

Early this morning we crossed the Missouri River into South Dakota onto 90W.

The land is flat here – wide open spaces.  There are still miles and miles of growing corn and lots more cattle.  The air smells of fresh cut hay and sometimes manure.  The sky is so big and you can see so far.

The speed limit here is 80!

We are still traveling with lots of trucks and for the first time today we saw a UPS triple tractor trailer with a long load sign on the back.

We have amassed quite the bug collection.  The RV windshield is so wide and flat.  We like to play a game trying to guess what the bigger splatters might have been.

We stopped for diesel fuel in Sioux Falls.  The woman who waited on me wanted to know where we were from and where we are headed.  She thinks we are crazy too…but she wished us safe travels.  Is this thing we are doing really so nutty?

We crossed the Missouri River a second time at mm264.  This is an amazing rest stop with an incredible sculpture and fantastic views of the river valley below.

On the other side of the river, the land became hilly again with large open land.  You can easily imagine herds of bison and covered wagons traversing the grassy plains.  Even at home on the Eastern Shore of Maryland where it is flat, there isn’t the same sense of of immensity.

I don’t pretend to be a photographer.  I’m using my cell phone to take pictures.  I know from the traveling we have done that you can never capture the true beauty of a place through a camera lens.  To us that is not what is important.  To us, it is being here and experiencing the essence of our surroundings and being present.  That being said, I’m going to continue to take and post my pictures.  Maybe our adventure will intrigue you, entice you or inspire you to create your own experiences!

Today we decided we’d like to visit the Badlands.  We were able to get a dry camping site inside the park – 2 nights for a total of $23.45.  That’s quite the deal!

This is our view from our campsite at Cedar Pass Campground.

We set up camp and rested for awhile.  It was 96 and very sunny and at least 99 degrees in the RV….the thermostat doesn’t register temperatures any higher!

Tim wanted to pack up our dinner and go exploring.  We put our chicken feta burgers, sangria, and spinach salad in the cooler and strapped the grill to the new roof rack and away we went.  We found a dirt road and set off.  There was a very active prairie dog colony in the back-country and we had fun listening to them chatter to one another and watching them scamper about.

We found the perfect picnic spot.

See those storm clouds.  We watched lightning and heard the thunder as I cooked our dinner.  We had just finished eating when the first fat raindrops fell.   The rain didn’t last long but it was really windy for awhile.  It was cool to be able to see the entire storm wrap around the horizon and then the sun breaking through the clouds and brightening the sky.

We saw several mule deer and a jack rabbit and a bighorn sheep.  The jack rabbit was too quick for pictures!

We continued to drive around the loop, stopping for pictures as the light changed.  I had read that the best time to see the rock formations is at dusk and dawn.  The view altered from minute to minute as the sun sunk lower into the sky.

 

Sunset from our campsite.