So we became homeless. We passed Rapid City quickly. It is known as the "Gateway to the Black Hills" or the "City of Presidents". If it's advertised only as a way to get somewhere it cannot be very interesting. Our visit there was limited to a quick stop in downtown to take an envelope with money for Eddie and a short walk. Few office buildings, few restaurants, downtown a bit deserted at noon, typical American city below 100 000 residents.
We headed east, with no plan as usually. A few times we caught ourselves thinking that once we get tired we'll just find a rest stop at the side of the road and...and what? Traveling without Eddie seriously limited our accomodation possibilities. We wanted to try couchsurfing we signed up for lately, but nobody repiled. Oh well, with Boondockers Welcome it wasn't a good start either. We decided not to worry in advance and enjoy the road. And the road just brought us a new national park: Badlands.
We went through Badlands Japanese style: remembering how much more we have to go we just stopped at a few view points and we went for a one short walk. From what we've seen on the map Badlands is a rather "drive thru" park. Most of it is paralell to Interstate 90. Leaflets and a website suggest to take a detour from the highway and drive those 25 miles through the park. It's some 1/4 of attractions. Nobody really encourages to go further and see the rest of it. Southern part lies within Indian Reservation anyway and roads just surround it. It's probably peaceful and quiet. And there are some hiking trails.
In northern, more civilized part there are also some trails, we've seen sings for 4, 5 i 6-mile walks. Maybe next time.
For travelers crossing Wild West towards Pacific Ocean Badlands can be a prelude to Utah. Thanks to erosion you can see rocks of different colors, canyons, cliffs, hills. All surrounded by green valleys, but it gives an idea of what you can see 700 miles further west.
75 million years ago shallow sea where now is South Dakota was a great place to live for many sea creatures. When the sea backed up a huge subtropical forest took its place. Gradually the climat was getting colder and there was less and less rain. Forest got replaced by savanna and later on by green valleys. Over time old layers of rocks came up showing various fossils. Most of them from Oligocene period, which was between 23 and 35 million years ago when forest was transforming into savanna. Area was populated back then by animals similar to those we know today: ancestors of pigs, horses, rabbits and also saber tooth tigers and huge rhinoceros, lifestyle-wise similar to hippos.
Badlands is excellent place for exploration for paleontologists. Even visitors still find bones of prehistoric animals every once and then. There are reminders everywhere not to pick them up and inform park service, that will look at them professionally considering context and surroundings. Skeletons found in Badlands are displayed in visitors center and at some short trails by view points.
We spent just a few hours in Badlands and we went back to "90". Landscape was getting more and more monotonous, hills disappeared from green plains and the only attraction by the road were exits to towns with gas stations and restaurant by town famous for Elvis' motorcycle…
The last turbulence in landscape are somewhere by Missouri river, from there on it's flat and green and the only change is that pastures got replaced by corn fields. South Dakota is not very crops-friendly state and it's not before midwest that fields start.
Once the green pastures of Wyoming and South Dakota were used mostly by bisons but after white man took over they were replaced by cows. We quickly got used to their smell (and it was pretty strong one). But traveling after dark through South Dakota and Minnesota we recommend good washer fluid. We didn't have it and after a couple of hours it was difficult to see anything through our windshield. It looked like it was raining with insects.
We were considering driving all night but knowing we'd have to be up anyway at 8 am we decided it was not the best option. We decided to spend a night in a motel. Remembering motels on our way to Florida we thought we'd have no problems finding something for less than 50 USD. To our surprise the cheapest motels from brochures with coupons for South Dakota and Minnesota were over 60 USD.
Ok, we thought, coupons are one thing but there's nothing here. Who would fill up those motels? We thought that maybe if we get to empty motel late at night we'd get a good rate. So we kept going hoping we would find something good. We gave up that hope in Minnesota. We decided to take anything. It was half past one at night.
To out surprise all the motels and cheap hotels on our way were full. The first one we found that had a room for us was Travelodge in Worthington, 70 USD after tax. If we don't count Yellowstone, it's more or less how much we spent in last two months, since April. We miss Eddie...
We went to sleep late, we got up early and we drove all day. Exhausted we got to Chicago in the evening. Illinois reminded us there are paid highways in th US. We paid sometimes for bridges but the idea for paying for a road seemed odd...
We stayed at Aneta and Miłosz's, who we met thanks to this blog. They made us feel very welcome, they gave us their bedroom despite our protests and went to sleep on the mattress, they fed us and we stayed up until 3 am talking over beer. Planes that we could see through the window that landed at O'Hare Airport, just a mile away, kept reminding us we'd be going home soon...
We spent next day sleeping, repacking and visiting family and in the evening we met with our hosts in a pub The Dock by the lake. Very nice place - live music, beach, and Polish beer for those who miss motherland. Plus it's a popular place among jugglers and fire eaters who have their show there. And last but not least, Chicago skyline behind our backs.
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| From the left: Miłosz, Michał in the back (cousin), Łukasz (The Dock's owner) and Aneta |
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| Find a disturbing element... |
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