Hot 'n Bothered

It was super foggy in the morning, and we set off towards Black Hills and Mt. Rushmore - which cost a ridiculous $11 to park and see... so we just pulled around and parked along the profile side.  It was cool for about 20 minutes with the parade that followed us and then there was nothingness the next 4 hours or so.

artsy Tyson

Pit stop at Wall Drug store

Your typical massive eclectic antique-esque art souvenir stuff shop... Tyson had to rip me away from the turquoise section... got to Badlands National Park for a hot minute following it all along endless curves.  Stopping for the occasional big horn sheep.

Camped a night at the edge of SD in Newton Hills just about 6 hours from Kirksville, Missouri.  Pitch black random state campgrounds in what felt like the middle of nowhere... but we weren't alone. Other than the skunk, there were a handful of RVs parking, and the neighbor Mitch and his son Lucias.  Tyson managed entertaining everyone until 2AM throwing gasoline into the campfire sending a huge rocket of flames near to the trees hanging down.  It seemed to be a pretty weird night, but overall nice area to stop.

Missouri was hot, humid, and raining off and on unfortunately for Lucas, making him go through maybe 3 shirts in a day.  The night before Kellen's brother's graduation, we watched him and his friends rip apart a white lab coat and threw it into the fire.  Not sure what could get more traditional than that... 

Fishing got a tiny bit more interesting when the clouds rolled in pouring buckets on top of us with lightning maybe 10 miles away... making us real ecstatic about the idea of electricity on our tiny boat made of metal.

Total miles driven: 841

Total Fish caught: 1
Toval vanMeltdowns: still 9

And that's How Clouds are Made

Following Lucas' revival from the unraveling of his dirt-angel-spectacular we went to see Old Faithful with The Rabbi, and it started hailing even-though the sun was out.  It was pretty cool, even while people gathered with their eyes and brains attached to poles trying to get the best shot possible of something that was the equal distance from all the way around from all of us.  

Old Faithful

We continued on to find something not surrounded by benches and popcorn, to a less consistant but more interesting geyser recommended to Kellen and Tys by a ranger earlier the other day.  It was near the Kepler Cascades, past the parking lot behind some Road Closure signs, a mellow trail along a creek 2 miles each way.  This mystery geyser goes off every 3 hours, and lasts around 15 minutes, but there was no way of knowing if we were... on time so to speak.  We got lucky, and caught the last 5 minutes of it in the rain.

Lone Star Geyser

It wouldn't be a prime day without some sort of breakdown... The Rabbi left for the Fountain Paint Pots and when we were set to meet him there, the van wouldn't start.  It got to a point where we ended up calling a Tow truck from Old Faithful.  It was raining again, and at first it looked like there was some hope as Tim the tow guy got all excited that it was a carburetor issue (at a glance) so he unscrewed some stuff and ended up completely fucking it up.  Then he saw the choke was on, and suggested that was possibly the problem, as it there was just too much air coming through and making the van sound really weird.  The cherry on top was how he charged Kell $100 for doing absolute jackshit... we thought Kell was going to lose it... I mean he definitely did in some shape or form cause he put everything back the way it was. A serious bummer... but in the end we made back to Madison Campgrounds in time to see like 60 bison crossing across to the river and meadow.

Fountain Paint Pots

WHAT ARE YOU MYSTERY BUILDING?!

Next morning, headed out early out of Wyoming and getting to South Dakota round 8PM?... looked up some campgrounds and ended up in what felt like someone's backyard.  

Frog legs at Killian's Tavern

It was the most random high level campground we've woken up in... there was gardening and construction happening just outside the bubble window, and people walking their dogs, jogging over the bridge.  Then Lucas bumped his head under the bench-tent.

Total miles driven: 400

Total vanMeltdowns: 9
Total # of bison seen: 87362025