24 States in 27 Days - Day 5:

Oct. 14th, 2012, Sunday: Waking to the glow of sunshine on the Devil’s Tower, we walked down to the river for more photo ops. It was a beautiful morning! 

We left without breakfast or coffee, sharing a granola bar while stopping for more photos along the Belle Fourche river. 

Back on I-90 we pulled off in Spearfish where Brad spotted a bright pink coffee kiosk. Hoping to drive to Mt. Rushmore and take a tour of the NW corner of South Dakota, he stepped outside of the truck to look at a map with the coffee barista. Not remembering he’d taken off his glasses, he sat back down in the truck right on top of them! Luckily he didn’t break them but he did bend them pretty badly… That along with the realization we needed to start making tracks if we were to arrive in Michigan before my Aunt and Uncle moved, made for a bit of a rough morning. Leaving the Black Hills behind we hopped back onto I-90, thinking we’d have time to drive through the Badlands instead. A short while later, Brad passed a cop, going 79 mph in a 75 zone. No worries, right? Wrong… Pulled over, on I-90, a young police officer had me roll down the passenger window, collected all our info, then asked Brad to come back with him to his car! How was I supposed to give any input that way?! After some tense moments, Brad returned with just a warning. Phew! Welcome to South Dakota! I joked with Brad, it must be time to shave his days old scruffy beard! 

We soon stopped at a rest area where we had a nice breakfast in the sunshine - trying not to blow away in the powerful winds. Of course, everyone needs to experience Wall Drug, so we made a stop on our way to the Badlands National Park entrance. I drove while Brad practiced his drive-by photography. 

Truly another natural phenomenon worth checking out. 

Coming out on the east end of the park Brad took over driving and I photographed the amber prairie and wonderful puffy clouds.

Time to beeline east. We scooted along on I-90, slipping into Minnesota after dark, around 7:45 central time. Spying a state park on our road atlas we took the Luverne exit, drove through town, then north where we found signs and easy directions to the campground, which we were happy to see was open. It was cold out, temperature in Luverne was 50º but it felt even colder when we stopped to pick up a campground map at the closed office. We pulled into a vacant spot - not many campers this evening, so there were lots to choose from. We were at Blue Mounds State park where it seemed like we were camping real close to nearby farms. The aroma of cows or maybe bison was part of our evening enjoyment, and once we were in bed we heard weird bird warbling sounds not far away. Maybe turkeys? A truck with a tent camper arrived, drove past, then soon returned and stopped at our site. A woman ran out of the truck and grabbed a dog outside which was possibly what set off the birds. Evening entertainment for us as we peered into the darkness through our canopy windows. Even though we didn’t have any close camping neighbors, we decided to put up our curtains to block any further ruckus! Later that night we were awakened by coyotes yipping off in the distance. 

24 States in 27 Days - Day 4:

Oct. 13th, 2012, Saturday - At 7:30 we climbed out of our canopy, curious to see where we were now that it was light. It was a lovely campsite with Leigh Creek just beyond our picnic table. Brad started water for coffee then went to explore. 

I turned off the stove, poured the boiling water into our French press coffee pot then went on a photo shoot down by the creek. For fun, I collected rocks and made a cairn while Brad washed up nearby, then we had breakfast, reorganized bags and packed everything up. 

We took off a bit before 10:00, climbing up above the creek with cottonwoods shimmering yellow in the canyon.

Brad drove while I took drive-by pics, until we ran into road construction. I rolled down my window to ask how long and the fella said 15 minutes so we turned off the truck and got out. Brad took the camera and shot pics while I stretched, then we chat with the weathered, road construction guy while waiting. He’d moved to Wyoming in the 70’s when he was 12, and hearing about our road trip, talked about hitch-hiking all 48 states every summer with friends while in high school - not something he’d recommend doing these days. Quite the character! Once the pilot truck showed up, we climbed back in ours, said “bye!” with a wave, and continued on towards Buffalo, up and over a 9,666 ft. pass. 

In Buffalo Brad drove downtown where we parked, ready to find a coffee shop & wifi. Mmm, downtown smelled like bacon! Standing outside an organic BBQ joint reading the menu, we heard through the screen door - “come on in!” so we stepped inside. The bartender handed us menus and gave us the run down on the place. Brad asked if they had wifi and he said sure, sometimes. Brad needed to buy a font to finish business cards for a client. It seemed like a good enough place to settle - they were happy to accommodate us, so we sat and ordered lunch. While Brad worked, I uploaded photos. When finished with lunch and work, we took off to explore the downtown area. Leaving town, I took over driving so Brad could finish the biz cards and we hopped on I-90 until the exit to Devil’s Tower National Monument. It had been mostly cloudy all day, 63º in Buffalo, yet even though it was prettier now, we saw a possible rain storm in the distance. The Devil’s Tower finally appeared, way up ahead, impressing Brad like I had been the first time I’d seen it in 2005. 

We arrived around 4:30,  and soon came upon a prairie dog habitat we had to stop and check out. 

It was 5ish before we started hiking the trail around the tower so we went fast, pausing for photos, of course. 

Brad really enjoyed it - he hiked to the base of the Tower, over fallen rocks while I shot pics of prayer tokens. 

We spotted several groups of climbers, tiny, like ants way up high - just barely visible with their white helmets or red jackets. Their voices carried though - we could hear them before seeing them. Towards the end of our hike we experienced some slight rain sprinkles, but they didn’t last. 

Once back at the truck, I drove down quickly, wanting to catch the light and a campground spot. The campground was almost full - a Sat. night, with just 2-3 open sites. We took one then I hurried Brad down to the Belle Fourche River so we could see it before dark, happy he had our little camera w/him. 

We hiked to the far corner of the campground, then back to make a delicious dinner with greens and tomatoes from our garden, a hard boiled egg, smoked gouda, blue cheese, potato chips and homemade clam dip. In the dark, we crunched chips and watched a tiny light on the Devil’s Tower. Brad thought they were climbers, still up there! We went to wash bowls, forks, knife & cutting board in the bathroom, but a sign said to wash dishes at the sink washing area between bathrooms. This turned out to be a closet sized room with an odd square basin, about knee high with a metal collar protecting the porcelain edge and a faucet about chest high. The large bowl could be flushed like toilet. Quite the washing system! It was warm in the canopy that night - too warm, so I opened the window behind our heads, between the canopy and the cab. That let in a nice breeze which felt like a silk scarf fluttering over our faces. Cool but not cold. Unfortunately, I tossed and turned, until I finally flipped off the second duvet (which meant Brad now had three layers!) otherwise, it was quiet with just the wind rattling dry leaves in the cottonwood trees, sounding like falling rain.