Not quite as planned

Today began with a bang – literally. As we pulled out heading toward the visitors center for an 8.30 geology walk, our back passenger side tire blew out. Will nearly qualified for a pit crew changing the tire and we made the walk. I should also mention that just moments before the blowout, we discovered that a mouse had helped him/herself to snacks and rolls we had left in the trunk of the car.

After learning a bit about how the Badlands were formed we drove to Wall, SD (home of the famous Wall Drug and the nearest town), and got a new tire, some lunch, and mouse traps at the local hardware store (for all the hype, Wall Drug is fairly useless in terms of practical shopping). Back to the park for some serious hiking the rest of the afternoon. EXCEPT… as we climb out of the car we see the brand new tire is now also flat. Who cares, let’s go for a hike. Nice (albeit short) 1.5-mile walk on Notch Trail. Back at the car, Will is on his back jacking up the car when the heavens open. We toss everything that was previously in the trunk into the back seat and jump in the front to wait it out.

Few minutes later we get out and Will finishes the job, noticing that the spring (something to do with the struts and shocks) has actually broken and left a sharp edge, which is what cut/punctured both tires. (It’s not sticking out far enough to catch the donut spare). Back to Wall. The tire guy sends us to the local mechanic who tells us he can’t really help and we need to go to Rapids City. We’ve decided to go first thing in the morning because it’s over an hour away and this all was taking place around 3.30/4. By the time we got back to the park it was steadily raining and we both just crashed.

It’s nearly 8 now. Still raining. Will just put the mouse traps in the trunk and the front seat of the car. Not quite the day we had planned.

Photos from today:











Our second flat tire of the day. (Oh how this tire mocks us).

P.S. This post could have also been titled, Why no one will be getting postcards from the Badlands. Had planned to get, write and send post cards today/tomorrow at the latest, but it’s not going to happen.