Badlands National Park and Wall Drug

 On our drive from Rapid City to the Badlands National Park we passed so many signs that told us we had to visit Wall Drug. Kids love it, 5 cent coffee, free ice water!!! We couldn't possibly pass up the opportunity to go... and it was weird. It was a giant tourist drug store. This first picture is Josh riding an actual Jackelope, yeah there was one there. For those of you who are new to Jackelopes, let me educate you. They are in the same category as Big Foot and Sasquatch. They are out there, but there is no real proof besides the occasional blurry photo and and weird noise when you are out in the woods all alone... The Jackelope is said to actually mimic you if you are singing in the woods. This was a rare opportunity for Josh and I'm glad we got it on camera.

 This next photo is of a T-Rex that they captured. It was actually quite scary. I could see it scaring many little kids. I even jumped a little. My nephew Taylor would have LOVED it. I however am still having nightmares.

 This lady and I were trying to help the payers cheat. Wild Bill Hickok did not appreciate our helping the other guys. We rode our horses to Deadwood, South Dakota, and had a shoot out... I think you all know who won.

 After our very exciting hour at Wall Drug, we headed to Badlands National Park. And for lack of a better saying, it was pretty "bad ass." We first drove up on "The Wall." I was not expecting it to be this large!

 We did the drive through the park and took so many photos, I had a hard time picking which ones to add. I did of course rule out most of the ones Josh took...

 The rocks where all stripped with the sediment from years. It was so cool to look out across the entire area and see the same lines running across every rock! It was like someone had painted lines across them.

 The only draw back to this park was the wind. It was ridiculous! the park ranger told us it was blowing at least 20mph.

 We got to the campsite early so we could set up and go watch the sunset. Now we have been camping in rain and a little snow, we have set up in the dark and on a hill. But this place was by far the hardest place to set up a tent. The wind would not have it. We ended up having to stake down the tent before we could even set it up! We then had to pack out stuff into the tent to give it more weight so it wouldn't blow away.

 We drove out to White River turnout to watch the sunset. It was beautiful!! The the shadows on the rocks were brilliant!

 One one side of us we had the sun setting and on the other side we had the moon coming out. You can kind of see it behind Josh in this picture.

Here are Josh and I sitting out on the ledge. The Badlands are so dry!

 After the sun went down, we headed back to camp. It was only seven o'clock but already almost dark. This campsite didn't allow fires and the sun was down. We sat up for a while drinking Black Velvet (the drink of true campers) and playing cribbage, but when we looked around the whole campgrounds had gone to bed.

 Of all the places that we have camped so far I would definitely recommend a tent to an RV, however with the crazy wind of the Badlands this was one place that I wished we were in an RV. The crazy wind kept us up most of the night, shaking our tent. I thought it was a Jackalope but Josh said no. We tried to wake up early to see the sunrise, but we woke up to overcast skies and rain. We did want to hike a little before we headed out so we went to the Door and Window trails. They were amazing! You hike out from "The Wall." It was beautiful.

 We drove out to Sage Creek to see the Prairie Dogs!! So cute!! I want one of these to take home too. They actually bark as you get close to them.

 With the awful wind and rain, we decided to head out to a new place. We thought about Theodore Roosevelt National Park, but when we called they said it was pretty cold and suppose to snow soon. We decided to hit the road and head out to Josh's grandma's house in Rock Island, Illinois. It was an eleven hour drive. That meant eleven hours in a car with nothing to look at but corn fields... Fortunately we had a book on tape to pass the time. Unfortunately, it was only six hours long. I did manage to catch some photos of the sunset. We are going to spend a few days in Rock Island and then I think we might be off to Niagara Falls!!!! We do miss you all and hope you are all doing well!