Day Two, June 28

 

We lived through last night’s storms, though Lili would beg to differ. Bud is not so bothered, but Lili stared at her little night light most of the night and panted hard when the rain and thunder came in about 4 a.m.  There’s no telling her it’s okay, that she’s safe, she just shakes like a leaf until the storm has passed.

 

This morning we woke up about 6 a.m. Walked the dogs quick, over to the dam again, to see just how much water is coming over that thing. And to take a few photos with the big camera, capture a little of that magic morning light on the trees, rocks, and sky.

 

Made our first pourover coffee of the trip with the little filter I got. 20g of coffee is too much, 15g was better. Might need bigger mugs. Still, great coffee. Breakfast sandwiches were too frozen, bring to fridge the night before or even before that. Gonna be tasty anyway. Learning.

 

We left camp at Split Rock at about 9:15 a.m. Central, after telling ourselves we’d be wheels-up at 8:00.

 

The rest of this day I feel like I should write in reverse. I just finished doing the morning dishes, in addition to the few dishes we had from dinner. I had to use way too much soap, because as it turns out, it’s important that you screw the little cap on the one tiny jar of soap. Because otherwise, when you’re fighting with the compartment under the stove that holds all the dish-doing supplies, and the little jar tips over, well, then there’s a big lug of dish soap on the rug. Scoop it up with a sponge and do the dishes with as little water as possible and with way too much soap. That was an adventure.

 

Before that, we rolled into this neat campground around 6:15 local (mountain) time, checked in. The nice lady hollered at someone that site 70 was ready to check in, and a guy hopped into a golf cart to escort us to our site. He showed us where the site was, and then he basically took over the backup duties (telling the driver which way to turn the wheel). The nice fellow has had throat cancer, and his helpful words of instruction were absolutely unintelligible as Jim backed into the site. He quickly gave up trying to shout instructions and wildly gestured with his arms. Luckily, we had the walkie-talkies and I was able to translate/repeat what he said to Jim so he could do a real quick back-in because there was traffic waiting. Now that was an adventure.

 

Before that, we had a lovely drive from Garretson across the massive, and I mean Massive Great Plains. It’s always amazing to travel across this great continent and see just how large it is. Expansive. And it struck me that there truly is room for everyone, or should be. All opinions and religions and politics. And why can’t we all get along? But I digress.

 

We stopped for lunch at a really cool rest area at Chamberlain, SD. There was a huge silver statue of Sacagawea with azure blue accents, standing and pointing off in the distance. The whole rest area overlooked the Missouri River. So you come up the hill and suddenly there’s this dip down into the river valley and it’s wide and beautiful. Apparently Lewis & Clark stopped at this spot. What’s it like to travel across this giant land of so much nothing and so little water (except for recent flooding in a lot of places), to roll up on this river and this beauty? Amazing now, for sure, but what was it like for the settlers, and the Corps of Discovery, or for the First Nation people, to see this glorious sight? 

 

On the way toward Spearfish, SD, where we are tonight, there’s this scenic bit that Jim said he wanted to see. But he didn’t quite say it was the Badlands, or it didn’t register with me that it was. So amazing. I'd forgotten how cool it was. We ended up doing the short loop, which was hilly and bumpy in spots. I did a bit of the driving, but then I let Jim back in the driver’s seat midway. What a neat bit of geology, that I still don’t know the origin of. Have to wait for better internet connection than what I have now. Anyway, we really enjoyed the drive through, even though it made for a longer drive and a longer day. I've got photos, but can't quite get them into this blog with my spotty interwebs connection. I'll try to update.

 

This campground is cute but we are crammed in close to each other. Think sardines in a swanky condo, and you’re not too far off. The dogs are kind of trapped inside except for leashed walks. I feel a little snooty sitting inside our fancy tin can while others are grilling and s’more-ing and laughing it up outside. Everyone else has dogs too. So many dogs. And as if that’s not enough, there’s a petting zoo area with cows, goats, and sheep, that drove both of our mutts insane to smell. But folks were respectful of quiet hours, so I can get behind that kind ethic.

 

Just as we were finishing a late evening walk, we saw a bunny in the lawn across from us. The bunny saw us. And then it started hopping TOWARD Buddy, like he was an old lost friend or something. Buddy lunged at him, whereupon the bunny changed tack, running in the direction of a nearby beagle, who went absolutely apeshit about the bunny and its dubious choices. All the dogs in the vicinity were nearly inconsolable about the failure of a proper bunny chase. I gave ours a little peanut butter in a Kong toy to make up for the loss of the evening’s entertainment. However, they have both been pointed directly at the door of the trailer ever since the event, looking at us with their doleful eyes, maybe even more doleful than usual. It’s got to be hard for them, riding in the car all day with us, and then not able to enjoy a good bunny chase. They have such a nice back yard at home where they can run around off leash, and that’s not an option here. Gonna be a long trip, kiddos.