Day 2: Kansas City to Badlands National Park
Let noone ever question Brett's dedication to coffee. Since Steph is driving while this is being typed, let me go ahead and mention that I'm a dork at her request. Whatevs tho, the coffee was the shiznit-o-bang-bang.
Anyway....since we're going through Iowa we originally figured this blog post would read something like:
"CorncorncornCorncornCorncorncorncornCorncorncornCorncornCorncorncorncorn CorncorncornCorncor nCorncorncorncornCorncorncornCorncornCorncorncorncornCo rncorncornCorncornCorncorncorncornCorncornc ornCor ncornCorncornc orncornCorncor ncornCorncornCorncorncornco rnCorncorncornCorncornCo rncorncorncornCorncorncornCorncornCo rncorncorncor nCorncor ncorn CorncornCorncorn corncorn!!!!!!"
But honestly, the drive was really pretty. We left out around 8am and started what we figured to be around a 10-11 hour drive. So, we packed our lunch and split up the driving. Somewhere along the way Steph got really hungry and took a trip to SnackTown.
So hoooooooooongry
We hung a left at Sioux Falls, SD and made our official turn to head out west. The grasslands and prairie are desolate, but absolutely in their own was beautiful in their own way.
After maybe 4 hours driving through variations of plains and rolling hills we made it to the Badlands around 5:30, having gained an hour by entering mountain time. We hopped out at some of the scenic stops along the way to check in at the Badlands Inn
After checking in and downing a well deserved beer in the hotel parking lot(just ONE Mom's!), we headed back out for sunset. As we were meandering around we noticed an unmarked dirt road so, we decided to just to see where it went. What a great idea. After just about a mile we were in unspoiled, pristine beauty. No signs. No lights. No sounds, other than the wind whipping across the prairie and the yipping of coyotes in the distance. We parked and watched 5 deer maybe 20-30 feet away eat grass, paying us little mind as a storm rolled in, lighting up the sky miles from us across the plains. It was a special thing.
