Greetings from Wyoming!

Hello Everyone! Day 6 is just beginning for us, I think. We’ve only been gone for a few days but I’m having trouble keeping up with what day it is and what time it is. It’s hard to believe that only a week ago I was on such a rigid schedule and now time doesn’t really matter. It’s all about sunrise and sunsets.

Since my last communication Alicia and I were at Mammoth Caves Kentucky. We’ve since snipped the southwest corner of Indiana, driven across Illinois and the Mississippi River and made a quick stop in St. Louis, Missouri. The Gateway Arch was more impressive than I ever imagined. I’ve seen it in pictures and on TV, but to see it in person its grasp its enormity. Stopping in St. Louis was fitting as it’s the gateway to the west. Many explorers left from St. Louis, including Merriweather Lewis and William Clark, so it was the perfect place to stop. After the two hour city excursion we continued west, following the Missouri River, like Lewis and Clark until we finally arrived at our destination of Wallace State Park in northwestern Missouri around sundown. While I went to the camp station to pay for the camp site, Alicia stayed back to heat up dinner. When I returned Alicia was completely freaked out. A raccoon was sneaking into the site and she had to scare it away. She spent the rest of the night worrying that critters were going to get us through the tent. We camped near the top of the hill and the wind was swirling pretty heavily. We didn’t put the rain fly on our tent that night and I spent the night worrying that it was about to rain and I would have to cover the tent in the middle of night. Fortunately there were no raccoon attacks or rain storms.

We never got the chance to really look around Wallace State Park, but what we saw was lovely and I would definitely stay there again. We left Wallace SP about 8:30am headed towards Long Pine State Recreation in north-central Nebraska. We could really start seeing the terrain of the country change. Gone were the tall, thick trees. Nebraska was surprisingly more hilly than I ever anticipated. I thought it would be completely flat with nothing but corn, but I felt like we saw more corn in Missouri. There were plenty of cattle though. Long Pine SRA is known as the Beauty Spot of Nebraska and it was very beautiful. The park was very small, mostly on a downward slope that leveled out at Pine Creek. We spent a few minutes wading in the chilly, yet comfortable waters before settling into our campsite closer to the top of hill.

The Purple and Gold Hills

Yesterday was the day that the trip really and truly began for me. We left Nebraska early and as soon as we crossed into South Dakota the temperature dropped ten degrees. Alicia is always talking about running away to Canada if things went bad in the US and we had to flee, but she decided that South Dakota would be suitable for laying low and avoiding people. I hadn’t really seen sparseness like that it a long time. As the terrain began to change and become more mountainous and rugged I began to really get excited about the trip. The colors of the formations were spectacular. In the southern part of the park the hills were striped with red and white. Further north they became purple and gold. Those colorings were obviously more stunning and beautiful. We then took the Sage Creek Rim Road, which was a dirt road out to see the wildlife. We stopped at Robert’s Prairie Dog Town which was a large grassland covered in Prairie Dog mounds. There was a hippie couple from Minnesota who let us know that the prairie dogs were very friendly today. Most of the prairie dogs sounded the alarm and scurried back into their hole when we got too close except for one prairie dog. She had a gimp front paw but would approach people without hesitation. Off the in the distance we saw our first buffalo, but they were too far away to take pictures of. We did see a grey fox or perhaps a coyote that was trying to get a prairie dog snack.

From Badlands we went into Wall, SD which is known for Wall Drug Store, the world famous tourist trap of a store. We ate buffalo burgers before exploring the many rooms of the store. From there we headed west on I-90 to Mt. Rushmore. Mt. Rushmore was of course pretty impressive. We walked on the Presidential Trail and were able to see the giant heads from some neat angles. It was now time to find a place to camp for the night. Our first plan was Custer State Park, just south of Mt. Rushmore, but we found you were supposed to make reservations in advance and there was no vacancy anyhow, so we headed south to Wind Cave National Park, where there was plenty of vacancy. While driving through Custer and Wind Cave we finally got to see buffalo up close. We watched them cross fields, climb hills, cross roads, and lick dirt on the shoulder of the road. We also saw deer, antelope, and small bunnies. After setting up camp and making dinner we noticed the sky turning black and the sound of thunder off in the distance. Last night we experienced our first thunderstorm and torrential downpour. Alicia draped one of our tarps over the tent, since there were no trees to tie it up and we listened to the rain dance on the tarp throughout much of the night. Fortunately the rain eventually stopped and we were able to get pack up and on the road without too much trouble. We were on the road by 7:30 because we had no idea what time it was. It seemed later. We stopped in Custer, SD for breakfast and while eating it began to downpour again. At the restaurant we parked next to a car with NC tags and East Carolina stickers on it! Pirates everywhere we go! Haven’t seen any UNC, NCSU, or Duke stickers… We’re currently driving through Wyoming, on our way to Yellowstone!

Wind Cave National Park

Internet, as you can imagine, is sketchy in these parts. Pictures take forever to upload. When we to a city I’ll try to put more up.

Will.