Headed Toward Home

The Badlands were a short drive away from Bear Butte.  We stopped for our obligatory grocery and fuel supplies before taking the scenic route into the park and arrived in the hot hot heat of the day.  With the mountains out of sight and the Black Hills barely visible, the Badlands provide a “last hurrah” of western splendor. 

We luckily scored the last available campsite and got settled.  The sun was brutally hot and we headed to the visitor center to plan our time in the Badlands as well as have a respite from the heat.  

Having the great hike up Bear Butte earlier in the day we didn’t feel the compulsion to expend ourselves too fully and after watching the movie and getting our maps, we wiled the balance of the daylight hours sharing beers with our campsite neighbors. 

The Badlands are famed for their evening night sky program that is subsidized by local universities including a decent telescope.   Not having experienced much of this in my lifetime, I was excited to peer into the telescope to see Jupiter with its bands and moons before the full moon rose and clouds obscured the view.

We rose early the next morning to hit the trails and see the park.   Beating the heat at 6am, we loaded our bikes on our neighbors’ car and were graciously driven up the hill where we could navigate the park highlights with better ease.  Before midday, we hiked 5 different trails logging in over 8 miles and seeing what the park had to offer.  

The sun climbed high and hot and we returned to our campsite racing our bikes the steep downhill run back down the hills where we spent the balance of the afternoon avoiding the heat and getting some well-deserved rest.  John and Diane, our gracious ride-giving neighbors, joined us for happy hour and we shared a grill as we prepared our respective dinners and we got ready for the next day’s departure for the long stretch of flatlands to come.

After the best night’s sleep we’d had in a week – right through a major midnight storm! – we hit the road with no particular destination in mind other than east.  Feeling sad to leave the west behind, a visit with family from my hometown Wisconsin was next on the agenda which eased the melancholy.  The South Dakota summer heat again blazed down as we marched across the state.

Covering more ground than expected we made it to Sioux Falls by late afternoon.  Planning on stocking up there at Costco, we stopped for gas to find that not only had our refrigerator had stopped working but we had beer not taking the heat very well either.  Finding the reason for an odd noise we had heard, I had to clean up from the two cans that had exploded!  How is it that for a fine how-do-you-do on a scorching hot day?!  Instead of groceries, we loaded ice and the frig contents into the cooler, tried to get beer out of the carpet on off the ceiling and set to making do until parts could be ordered and retrieved in Wisconsin.

We camped at a State Park campground on the SD/MN border with the unusual and helpful benefit of a power hook up that we took full advantage of running our A/C for the first time on the trip.  We cleaned up and organized our frig and its contents and waited for the sun to head for the horizon before setting out to enjoy a magical firefly-lit sunset hike through the park.

The next day we continued our shot straight east through Minnesota under cloudy skies and slightly cooler temps.  We stopped for lunch at a rest stop midday with shaded picnic tables and a nearby bike path leading into a dense, rich forest where the road noise disappeared and the songs of birds filled the air, an unexpected delight along our way.

We reached the MN/WI border by mid-afternoon and chose the Great Bluff State Park for the night’s rest.  The campground was tucked into the lush green surroundings and we wasted no time seeking out the path to the nearest overlook.  Although growing up in Wisconsin, I had never spent much time along the Mississippi and it was breathtaking standing on the high bluffs over the strong, purposeful river.

Along the hike, we met up with two young local hikers who joined us at the campsite for a beer.  Today’s new friends were Kevin, a local teacher and band director at a 5^th- 12^th grade nearby school, and his friend Heidi who works for an organic orchard and farm just miles down the road.  Treated to some just-picked fruit from the farm (plums and apricots!), we each shared our stories as we huddled inside as a surprise storm passed through.  

I managed to sneak in yet another hike the following morning before we were back on the road and headed into Wisconsin meandering  along with the Mississippi before we took the final turn east toward Madison along the Wisconsin River.   Traveling scenic routes the whole way, we took our time being hours ahead of schedule for our arrival later in the day.  

We had great fun in Madison stopping at Trader Joes (Rob performed a brilliant temporary fix to the frig!) where the staff got quite a kick out of our Holy City transport and enthusiastically posed for some shots in trade for beer!  Seriously – how lucky can we be to be having such fun?! 

Stocked up and back on schedule, we set the gps for the final mid-state family rendezvous, our first home-like stop on our way toward home.