End of Day 4--The Badlands and Day 5

Now it is just a short drive to The Badlands.  There is nothing around us but flat prarie land.  Then out of nowhere, large buttes rise up and engulf us as we drive.  It was pretty incredible!  We get to our campground and it is a balmy night, but windy.  The expected low is 60 degrees--much warmer than our 40 degrees at Yellowstone.  We set up camp with lots of laughs as we try to get our tent up without it blowing away!   The kids run in the open field, catch grasshoppers that were everywhere and then we attend a night star gazing event with one of the Rangers.  We did not last long--as the sun faded, so did we from the big day.  We headed back to camp and got into our tent.  The wind was whipping, which contorted our tent in all directions.  Ian was very nervous, thinking that the tent was going to blow away--it sure felt like it was!  It was a restless night for us--the tent blowing was very loud and woke us up all night long.  Morning came and we packed up camp as it started to drizzle.  We were going to explore The Badlands today before getting on the road.  We hit the Visitor Center and Ian got his suvenior from this stop--a really cool walking stick.  We drive down the road that leads through the Badlands and come across a trailhead and see people high up in the Buttes.  We decide to join in on the climb.  After our climb, we head to a fossil trail area where we see lots of fossils and the kids continue to explore the Buttes.  The rain began to come down hard, so we decided to end our hikes, and get on the road to a long drive ahead with no plans, but to get to our next destination:  Albert Lea, MN.

From the top of the Buttes

There is absolutely nothing that looks exciting to visit along the way on our drive to Minnesota.  As we drive and I think about the past few days events, I smile and am so grateful to god that I have been given the opportunity to give my kids this wonderful experience.  I look at Sky in my rear view mirror and somehow she looks older, with her head tilted up and her cheekbones bronzed by the sun.

      We stop in a town for gas and there is a place called Corn Palace and it was free!  Ian immediately vetoes going there and Skyler wants to go only if we are going to get some corn.  So I can not report on the fun things we missed at the Corn Palace. Oh Well!  We landed at a place to stay later than expected--we went through another time zone and lost an hour.  We have now officially driven just over 2,000 miles!