South Dakota and Wisconsin

It's Kate, and I'm skipping ahead to days 11 and 12... David wants to write about the last day in Montana and our drive to Mount Rushmore. I'm going to pick up where we woke up at the campground in Keystone South Dakota. Another note - there's an issue with my computer and camera so you don't get any photos or videos til we get back to Ohio.

DAY 11
Date: Friday, August 20th
Location: Keystone, South Dakota to Boulder Junction Wisconsin
Miles: I don't even know.. 900? It was a ridiculous day.

This day was probably the longest and most agonizing of the trip, but we saw some great stuff along the way. We woke up in Kemp's Kamp in the woods behind Mount Rushmore, and thankfully we were not eaten by bears or mountain lions or rabid mountain goats. We were greeted by a nice family of wild turkeys, though. A momma and 3 babies walked right through our campsite. We hit the road and headed east for about an hour through South Dakota nothingness before arriving at one of the coolest spots we saw all trip, the Badlands.

When you get off the highway for the Badlands, you see some rock formations, but basically just wheat fields. Miles and miles of gold wheat fields. It's way freakier than endless corn or soy field due to the gold color. We drove a couple miles and took a dirt road to a part of the park that David discovered on the map - it wasn't technically part of "the loop" through the park, but it promised good views and prairie dogs. It was worth it - we saw prairie dogs EVERYWHERE which was so much fun, and we also saw the only bison in the Badlands there. We continued driving through the park and got to drive through the actual rock formations. They're not really rocks, it's more like eroded tightly packed dirt so you can't climb on most of it or it would crumble and you'd fall to your death. The only other wildlife we saw were GIANT grasshoppers and a snake. I was far more afraid of the giant grasshoppers than the snake on our path. There were signs for rattle snakes everywhere, but the snake we saw was some other thing - no rattle. We didn't see any pronghorns or mountain goats, but we had seen plenty in other parks. This is the one park I'd feel comfy doing back country hiking in - no trees so you have visibility as far as the eye can see. Rattle snakes, schmattle snakes.

Once we got back in the car we had an endless day of driving - 12 1/2 more hours after that point, and the speed limit was 75 a majority of that time. 6 more hours of South Dakota wheat fields alone. We than had to cross the width of Minnesota and go north past Minneapolis.. wheat changed to corn and the sun burned less bright making it at least a little less miserable. When we crossed into Wisconsin we weren't on major highways long - we had to go the rest of the way to northern Wisconsin in the dark on country roads (it was pitch black at 8:15.. what!?). It was terrifying and seemed like it would never end - deer in the road (we ran over a dead one), rain storms, fog.. and no light at all. We finally lived through the treacherous drive and arrived in Boulder Junction where we were greeted by John Eisner, my former boss and dear friend. He led us into the Manito-Wish Camp and walked us to their cabin. We were so happy to be there.. we chatted with John and Jen while their kids Hannah and Jake and Hannah's friend Shirley were asleep in the next room. After a glass of wine, we hit the bunks!

DAY 12
Date: Saturday, August 21
Location: Camp Manito-Wish to Madison
Miles: 3 1/2 hours south.. whatever that is (can you tell I don't have the mileage sheet with me?)

Camp Manito-Wish is a legitimate YWCA boys and girls camp and at the end of the summer they do a week of Family Camp where whole families stay in cabins and do camp together. John grew up in Madison and went to the camp as a kid, so now the whole Eisner family flies in from NYC and does Family Camp every year. We woke up to the breakfast bell and all the families head to the mess hall. Once we all had tables we said the morning grace and then someone from each table went to get the food to share. Cheese omelettes, french toast, fruit, and oatmeal. Every meal is eaten together and is reeeally good. Then all the counselors made announcements about the scheduled activities going on that morning. We chose to go on a horse trail ride (David's first ever time on a horse!) and take a canoe out on Boulder Lake. Lunch was more of the same, delicious bbq chicken, fries, and cheese biscuits, except lunch was followed by singing out of the camp music book - like real camp! We sang some songs and then retired to the cabin where we caught up with the kids. Then we took Jake to the rifle range and did some skeet shooting. David and I had never shot rifles so we didn't really hit anything, but it was so fun to learn. Jake was an old pro - he shot a rifle last year. Now that he was bigger, the kick back didn't hurt as much. After rifles, we had to say goodbye.. too short of a visit. Horses, canoes, and rifles all in one day? We've got to go back to Camp Manito-Wish!

We headed south to Madison and got to see how beautiful northern Wisconsin actually is in sunlight. We got to Madison right as the sun went down and arrived at our friend's Tommy and Megan's house. They made quesadillas and we played with their little girls Daphne and Fiona. I was wiped though, so we went to bed and slept for 10 hours. Now we're hanging out with the girls, who are pretending to be a kitty and bear, respectively. We'll be heading to Milwaukee and then Chicago in a little while!