C'est La Vie: We're in Wyoming!

Hello!

Darren and I have traveled a long ways since we left early Monday morning from CT. We're already in Wyoming and have camping reservations in Yellowstone National Park at Madison Campground for tomorrow and Saturday night. We're staying at Keyhole State Park tonight in our new tent... (I'll get to that later).

Since I last posted many things have happened:

On Tuesday night we stayed at my cousin Paul's house in Deerfield, Wisconsin and had a great time. He gave us the ins and outs of planting tobacco, corn, and soy bean. We learned a lot!

On Wednesday, Darren and I had lunch with my Aunt Georgette and Uncle Paul in Fort Atkinson, Wisconsin--just 15 minutes from my cousin's house. My aunt gave us a tour of her beautiful gardens and we ate sandwiches and ice cream, but we had to be on our way to Sioux Falls, South Dakota to make it to our campground before nightfall. There weren't many campgrounds in Sioux Falls that we liked, so we ended up sucking it up and staying at a KOA. It was really windy and cold that night. It wasn't the best time, but we survived!

On Thursday, we drove to the Badlands! The Badlands were spectacular and easily my most favorite part of the trip so far. We went on a hike and explored the area, and we ended up getting very sun burnt. Forgot to put on sunscreen... OPS! That afternoon we made our way to our campground for the night: Sage Creek Campground. It's a primitive campground just west of the Badlands. The campground was something out of The Oregon Trail computer game. There were bison in the campground, and they came within 15ish feet of our car! (Check out FB for a video of that experience.) We set up camp and had to be mindful of the winds--it was gusting up to 30 MPH. Long story short... the wind snapped one of our Kelty tent poles and ripped the rainfly. We decided not to worry about the tent situation and enjoyed a nice hike around the campground area. We observed the bison over large hills--amazing experience! That night we slept in the car because of our tent being broken, and it wasn't that bad. Overall, it was a great time in SD.

Today, we drove a few hours west to see Mt. Rushmore and Crazy Horse Memorial. We also picked up a new tent at Cabela's. This store is like REI or EMS but better! It has everything: hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, boating, etc. equipment. We literally could have bought a lot in the store but settled on our tent and some reflective line, so we don't trip over the tent lines like we so often do in the dark.

Now, it's time to enjoy the campground here at Keyhole State Park. We have the hammock up and plan on eating cheese and crackers and drinking a bottle of wine. Until next time! XOXO