Cross-Country Vacation
Day 13: Badlands and Beyond
Friday, September 15, 2006
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Wall, South Dakota is one of the gateways to the Badlands.
We really did not have much time to spare that morning, but there was a place on the map called Roberts Prairie Dog Town so we went 5 miles down a dirt road to find it. There were plenty of prairie dogs there, and some antelope, too.
Back on the pavement; Yellow Mounds overlook (in case those yellow mounds did not clue you in).
And a little further down, another prairie dog town, this one not on the map. We did not need to drive 5 miles down that dirt road after all!
Panorama Point.
Then we stopped at what we thought was the Visitor Center. It was mostly a big gift shop, but that was OK with the women because they wanted to shop for gifts anyway. They did have some cute stuffed prairie dogs there. Mary found another leather pursue similar to the one she had purchased earlier, but it was much more expensive. She was convinced she had gotten a great deal now.
As we were pulling away, we realized that we had been in the Cedar Pass Lodge gift shop, and the Visitor Center was actually next door. Oh well, next time! It was back to the freeway and I-90 east. We soon passed from Mountain Time into the Central Time zone, losing an hour. We got off the freeway near Chamberlain, SD to get gas, and then crossed the Missouri River and stopped for lunch.
We were only half way across the state of South Dakota at that point. We needed to be somewhere in Wisconsin that night if we were going to drop Cheryl off at O'Hare by 11 the next day to catch her early afternoon flight back to Harrisburg. I originally thought Madison would be a good goal but we got ambitious and Cheryl had made reservations for a place in Beloit, near the Illinois boarder, earlier that morning.
It was nighttime by the time we crossed Minnesota and got to the Mississippi River, so unfortunately there are no pictures of that. It was after 10 by the time we crossed the Wisconsin River near Wisconsin Dells and stopped to have dinner, and after midnight by the time we got to Beloit, only to find the place had lost our reservation. Luckily they had a vacancy and a rollaway so that all 5 of us had a place to sleep.
Badlands National Park: Website, Map
Day 13 Summary:
Start: Wall, SD
End: Beloit, WI
By Way Of: Sioux Falls, SD; Albert Lea, MN; La Crosse and Madison, WI
Route: SD-240, I-90
Approximate Driving Distance:
This Day: 790 miles
Total: 3710 miles
Next: Day 14: The End of the Line