Country Driving: Population 4

We had a long drive ahead of us, so we figured we better plan some pit stops along the way to keep us entertained. God knows, we all get bored quickly. One of Britt’s dreams is to run through a corn field, so we thought the perfect place to stop would be the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. It turns out, it’s just a building decorated with corn….no cornfield. Fail. But, it was pretty neat to see all the decorations. It’s clearly a big deal because they even make signs that say, “Road closed. Corn Palace decorating area.” After spending 43 minutes at the Corn Palace we were off on our way to the Badlands. Let me tell you, they don’t lie when they say it’s freaking HOT there. This was our first stop where pictures just don’t cut it. I think all three of us were in awe when we drove through the areas snapping approximately 158 pictures, attempting to prove how amazing the views are. Sam was smart enough to take a short video, but still, it doesn’t do it justice. We’re assuming this is how the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone will be as well. Don’t worry, we’ll still try to capture the beauty by taking another 1,000 pictures. Next on the list was Mount Rushmore. All in all, it was cool to see, but once is enough. We got our standard picture picking the noses of the presidents and being all touristy. What was more impressive was the surrounding area which included the Black Hills and Custer State Park which is where we camped for the night. I don’t think Lindsay spoke one word while driving from Mount Rushmore to the campgrounds (30 minutes) due to fear of bears. Let’s just say, some of us would prefer to stay in hotels, but upon arrival, we were all enlightened to find that we were surrounded by people and located right on a scenic overlook. We then proceeded to take part in the best, most stereotypical part of camping: making dinner, drinking some beer/wine, and playing some cards before calling it a night.

The next morning, we took the Wildlife Loop Road around Custer State Park where we saw bison, pronghorns, horses, cattle and mules. Speaking of which, talk about some aggressive mules. They enter the road, stop traffic and attempt to steal food out of the cars through the open windows. And yes, they do in fact put their head through the windows. 

Once the loop was done, we were off on our way to the Grand Tetons. Basically, we drove, and drove, and drove some more. On our way, we did see some wildfires in western South Dakota, which was cool to see, but only from a distance. I mean, they did already ruin our trip by destroying Colorado. Couldn’t they have started like 3 weeks later? Stupid fires. Besides seeing these wildfires, our drive consisted of seeing absolutely nothing. We thought South Dakota was bad, that is, until we drove through Wyoming. Throughout the 9 hour drive, we saw numerous towns with a population of 4. AKA, one family owns and dominates the town. Upon arriving to the park, we were pleased to see signs that there was still availability at our campground, which doesn’t take reservations. About 5 miles later, we arrived at the campgrounds and were informed that they were no longer available. In fact, all campsites in the surrounding 30 miles were booked. Insert panic face here. We immediately went to the handy dandy smartphones to look up hotels in the nearest town (40 miles away, ugh). After searching for about 20 minutes, we finally found a hotel that gave us a good deal, because at this time, it was approaching 9:00PM. It didn’t help that our service was spotty at best, so even making a phone call was a challenge, let alone trying to give a phone number or credit card number. I’m pretty sure Britt attempted to give her phone number at least 10 times before being successful. Oh, by the way, we still hadn’t eaten dinner, but no worries, PB&J to the rescue. At this point, we were in desperate need of alcohol, preferably wine. The town was clearly a cute, little resort town. Wouldn’t you think there would be a liquor store on each corner? Nope. It took us about 20 minutes to find some wine, which happened to be in a specialty oil and vinegar store. Who would have thought? Clearly not us since we had to ask. Once we got to the hotel, we were finally able to drown our sorrows away in food and alcohol. One plus, the hotel had warm cookies waiting for us, which went perfectly with our wine. 

Until Next Time,

Farewell Friends