After that, we drove through farmland and pastures, towards the Badlands. This is the second seemingly alien landscape we’ve seen on this trip (the other being the paint pots in Yellowstone).
A lot of the roads through the park were gravel, so we didn’t drive through some areas, and it was very sunny and rather hot out, so we opted not to hike too long.
I had bought a spectacularly dorky looking hat back in Idaho, specifically because it had a broader brim, the better to keep the sun off my face and neck. And then it was so gray and rainy in the Tetons and Yellowstone that it was mostly useful in keeping the rain off. And yet today, despite my regular use of the hat, my scalp is an interesting shade of pinkish-purple.
After the Badlands, we didn’t have a lot else we had planned to see in South Dakota, so we started making haste towards the southeastern border of the state. We crossed into the Central Time zone, and soon thereafter stopped for gas. At the same exit, we saw a Holiday Express that advertised “high speed internet access”, and so we gave in to the lure of a hotel. Mmm, real beds, real baths, and net access. Considering our previous two hotel stays were for automotive emergencies, I don’t think we’re being tooindulgent so far.