Headin’ East

It’s not completely over, but now there is no denying that we are firmly heading East. I guess technically the minute we left Yellowstone we were heading East, but it didn’t feel like vacation was over. Today it does. I even thought about work today for the first time since leaving back on the 7th.

Last night we stopped in Spearfish, SD. This morning we drove down toward the Badlands and did one of the hikes we missed earlier in the trip because of the tire trials. It was a short, four-mile flat trek through prairie and the floor of the Badlands.

Last week when we were here it would have been bliss in the 70-degree temperatures. Today however, it was in the 90s and … “difficult” is the adjective that comes to mind . (I think I used “brutal” as we were walking.) I’m really glad I took so many pics of the Badlands last week, because it was hazy today and everything looked very one-dimensional. Also, the few flowers we saw today were beginning to whither in the heat – nothing like the colors we saw last week.

After the walk: back in the car, across the rest of South Dakota, then Minnesota, over the river and up to Menomonie, WI (back to Will’s bro’s). Tomorrow we will be on the road heading back to Jersey.

It occurred to me today that it may have been unclear in this travel log who was on this trip and when. Just to clarify, most of the trip was just me and Will. Our trip intersected with Will’s bro, mom, sister Linda and nephew Scott just that one day - the Jewel Cave, Crazy Horse, Rushmore, Devil’s Tower day. They were all on a different trip, ultimately heading up to ND where – just to confuse things even more – they met up with Judy and GP3 for GP3’s two-day college orientation.

That's it for today.