On the Road

We officially left our home in Minocqua on June 11, a day later than I wanted to, but we finished everything we had planned for sprucing up the house and moving out. After a relaxing drive to Apple Valley MN, we camped at Lebanon Hills Regional Park, a delightful little park with full hook-ups and lots of woods. While there we spent time with our daughter Kellie’s family. We read books and played with Rafa and River, our youngest grandkids. We also had dinner at the Taphouse in Rochester with my brother Tim and his family. It was a relief to finally be on our way after working so hard to get ready.

On Thursday we left the Twin Cities and drove about halfway to the Badlands with our 11-year-old grandson, Jordan. We spent the night at Camp America in Salem, SD. We had stayed at Camp America during our journey last summer. It is a great park to stay the night while traveling between Minnesota and South Dakota. Nothing fancy, but the owners are friendly, everything works, and it is right off of I-90.

The next day we arrived at Badlands National Park. We are staying at the Badlands / White River KOA. It is about 5 miles from the park entrance and has a heated pool that Jordan wants to visit twice a day!

On our first full day Jordan and I got up at 4 am to enjoy the sunrise. Unfortunately, heavy clouds quickly obscured the sun and we did not get to see it work its magic on the striped rocks.

 

Later that day we hiked several of the trails and drove out to Prairie Dog Town. Along the way we saw several bighorn sheep. One was perched on the Badlands wall.

 

We stopped and admired several of the many overlooks along the way.

 

 

At Prairie Dog Town we enjoyed the antics of the prairie dogs and their babies while bison grazed in the distance.

 

The next two days were complete washouts with near steady wind, rain, and unseasonably cool temperatures. During this time we hung out in the camper with Jordan. We watched movies, assembled a puzzle, and played dominoes and lots of card games. Jordan learned how to play Spades and he has really caught on fast. Our last trip into the park was to the gift shop and dinner in the rain. Tomorrow morning we are off to Custer, SD.