Badlands National Park

We awoke this morning with the RV shaking back and forth. A strong...make that very strong...cold front came through and we've had northwest winds of 35-50 mph all day long. Our planned 1 hour drive to the Badlands National Park wound up taking over two hours because the wind gusts broke one of our slideout awnings and I had to keep the speed down to 25-30 mph to avoid blowing it off. We hope to get it repaired in the morning.

Once we reached our campground in the absolute middle of nowhere (e.g. go about about 5 miles past a town of 65 people, then turn left down a gravel road for a mile or so...), we jumped into the car and headed off to tour the Badlands. What an awesome site. Miles of grey mountain formations with streaks of other colors thrown in for interest. Then, instead of mountains, there were twisting canyons going every which way. The scenic waysides were nicely done with wooden paths and many hiking trails for the more adventurous.

Then one last stop at the famous Wall Drug Store in Wall, SD. Probably the biggest conglomeration of tourist shopping in the world peppered with everything from life-sized animated country bands singing Johnny Cash tunes to Susan riding a Jackalope. Lots of stuff you'll never need but still fun to see...