July 2019, South Dakota, Day 5

Camping day. yay.

Thomas: Does our next hotel have a gym?
John: Our next hotel is a tent.

We awoke to our normal morning routine. Charlotte becoming scratchy because she can “hear us”. You know, because we’re doing weird things like talking to each other. She then cranks her sound machine up to about 190 decibels so we can’t hear ourselves think, but at least she can drown us out and pretend she’s asleep in an aircraft carrier. The other sound we heard when we woke up was torrential rain. Not from the sound machine but from the heavens. Because camping…..

Thankfully, the rain was heading east and we were heading west.

Our Friend, Chris DeJarnett, recommended that we stop at this sculpture park last night when he heard we were in the area. While I do schedule our trips with much detail, I am always open to changes (okay, always is a strong word) I am sometimes open to changes. Upon arrival, we knew that we had chosen wisely. We slipped and slid our way down a very muddy, one-lane dirt road to get to the park. We met the artist/poet, Wayne Porter, and he told us all about his work. Wayne was an interesting character and we got to chatting about our travels. And small world, he knew Erika from Lucas, KS! This sculpture park featured a combination of sculpture that ranged from whimsical to kitch to macabre and was paired with poems painted on big placards. Thanks Wayne, for sharing your art with us!

 

Wayne assured me his was the World's Largest

Meet Wayne, The purveyor of this fine park.

Not a sculpture, but an actual cow in the road.

I mean the hits keep on coming! Our next stop was the World’s Largest (and only) Corn Palace!!

Y’all! This place is a wonderment! For over 125 years, the crafty folks of Mitchell, North Dakota,  have been adorning their beloved “palace” with all variations of corn and other grains. Its primary job is an entertainment venue serving the greater Mitchell area. This includes the local high school basketball team whose mascot is the Kernels! Isn’t that the best? The reliefs had a mosaic a style depicting life in South Dakota  using cob and kernel of differing hues. Kinda like corn paint-by-numbers. 

The Corn Palace is ever-changing depending on the theme for the year. It was a-maize-ing!

We made it to the Corn Palace!

 

Having fun up in 'ear! 

Mile 1774-Reliance, SD population 191- Mr. Bullington scheduled a little de-tour into Reliance so we could see first-hand the little wide spot in the road where he and his grown-man buddies still manage to get into all sorts of mischief every year on their annual boys-only hunting trip.

Another unscheduled trip happened after Wayne the sculptor from earlier in the day suggested that we stop at this place on the way to the Badlands because #1 they had a giant prairie dog statue and #2 you could actually feed the sweet little prairie dogs. It was kinda like a real-world whack-a-mole, but instead of bludgeoning them in the head when they peeked out of their holes, we fed them peanuts. #yourewelcomePETA

Bow to the Prairie Dog King

After a full day of riding through the most glorious, albeit monotonous landscape, these sharply jagged rock forms began to emerge on the horizon. #Badlands #youhavearrived

Y’all, this nation just continues to blow my mind. We arrived in Badlands National Park to behold the most mind-blowing rock formations. We jumped out of the car for a hike at the first chance we got because… Mr. Bullington. We were slightly behind schedule even with the extra hour we gained because of a surprise entry into a new time zone. #whoot I still had to urge Mr. Bullington forward to set up camp for the night. After our last camping debacle of 2016, I was certain that I had planned for everything. I had RESERVED not one camp site, but two camp sites adjacent to one another so we’d have plenty of room for our massive tent, but also to give our fellow campers a bit of a land barrier around our traveling sideshow. We’d practiced erecting the tent in the yard, folding it properly and tying down the rain fly. I’d organized head lamps and sleeping bags and lumpy mats on which to rest our tired bodies. I learned that our tent was a little leaky (after the tent water drill), and smelled faintly of cat pee and mold (after the sniff test) but the weather forecast looked good and I felt confident that our canvas castle would be just fine. So, you are asking, “Alright Sarah, enough fishing, we take the bait, what didn’t you plan for?” Well thanks for asking, fair reader! I did not plan on gale force winds. Like, hold on to a lamp post or you are flying to Oz and your tent is landing on a witch kind of winds! It just doesn’t “wind” in Marietta like it “winds” in South Dakota! Our tent was literally flattened. Mr. Bullington set off to secure some additional rope and steaks to try and secure our shelter for the night while I quietly in my head started developing a sleeping layout for the car. We watched as the tents of fellow campers collapsed and blew away. We returned from our night hike and dinner and she was still standing, but a bit askew. But, smelling less like cat pee and mold and more like a fresh mountain wind. 

Gone with the wind!

We did some star gazing with our telescope because there is zero light pollution! Glorious Stars! And now the truth. We packed our telescope and drove it across the country. We set it up to look at stars. We couldn’t see jack through it, so we used our own eyes. Constellations with a side of cuss words. Such a site! We settled in with giggles and now I lay on the ground with Mr. Bullington snoring softly-ish beside me. Freezing with wind whipping. Dreaming of tomorrow night’s cabin on the lake. #blessed #butnotasblessedastomorrownight