Day 6 - Desmet, SD to the Badlands, SD

Day 6 - Desmet to the Badlands of South Dakota

Well, we didn't get our wish from last night....Robin was up by 5:30! We talked her into letting the others sleep until 6 though. But, once they started waking up they were moving. The thrill of spending time with the kittens is driving them. The only challenge now for us is finding a place to shower. No showers here.

So, we spent a few hours poking around the homestead some more. Breakfast was not important for the kids. They wanted to do farm chores. So, Matthew was tasked with cleaning the water bowls and refilling them for the chickens, calf, kittens and chicks. Robin and Brooke were busy doing their chores at the house. They helped to get things setup for visitors that day. Ally and Matthew then got to feed the kittens, mama cat and the calf. Feeding the calf was interesting. The calf was being bottle fed because it was rejected by its mother. So, the bottle used to feed this 2 month old calf was bigger than a 1 gallon jug of milk. That calf was hungry because the milk was gone in 2 minutes flat!

Meanwhile, Sharon and I were sitting on the front porch of the bunkhouse just watching the prairie wake up slowly. Little by little the critters of the prairie emerged to soak up the morning sun. It was a beautiful morning. A light breeze blowing in from the East bringing with it the smells of wheat and corn. There were long shadows cast from the little school house and the chapel.

Once the kids were done with their chores we took a walk down to the chapel. The chapel is hardly big enough to hold 40 people. It is simple in design. The fascinating thing is it had 4 organs all from different periods of time and all in working condition. The noise the kids made playing those organs was deafening. Ally and Brooke took turns reading a passage from the bible to the small congregation of 7 (us!). Meanwhile, Sharon and I read about the history of the chapel and looked through the visitor's log. The log had people from all over the world. Two people in particular stood out: 1) a woman who was baptized in the chapel in 1961 and her mother who taught at the little school in the 1950's and 2) a family from Sweden who came over to learn a little about their relatives who settled in Desmet. There is so much history here and it is such a warm, welcoming place. It really was a "find" and we are very thankful we stopped here. But, it was time to move on.

Finally, after stopping at Subway for a Brunch like meal we headed out for the Badlands of South Dakota. We had a good ride ahead of us on very long stretches of South Dakota highway. Boy, it's amazing how straight and flat these roads can be when you've been driving for a while. As we started to near the Badlands the landscape started to change a little into rolling hills. Everywhere you look there are cows standing out int he fields as far as the eyes can see. It looks a little like someone sprinkled pepper all over the hills.

We didn't need billboards or road signs to know we were getting close to the Badlands. The landscape changed from rolling farms to mind boggling rock formations. We pulled in at the Cedar Pass Campgrounds just after 3pm. It's a first for us to arrive at a campsite before 7pm! We checked in and went to the campsite to set up before heading out to go explore the Badlands. The tent was pitched and filled with our sleeping bags and clothes in no time at all. The kids were motivated to go exploring so they helped us setup. Note: it was a little windy so we staked down the tent (8 stakes) and then staked down all the guide lines (6 more) unzipped all the windows to allow for air flow. This is all very important to know....

We headed off to explore the badlands and run over to Wall, SD to experience Wall Drug and do some grocery shopping. While there we ate at the Cactus Cafe (not recommended) and shopped a little over at Wall Drug. I'm not sure I'd go out of my way to go to Wall again, but it is all part of the experience. When we were finishing up at the grocery store we looked South towards the Badlands and saw this really, really dark cloud formation. It was dark and menacing, one of those storm clouds that rolls in on a hot summer day and pours down rain so hard that the water stands in 6" pools on the roads and parking lots. Oh, oh there is the thunder and lightening to go with the dark cloud. Yikes, our stuff!!! So, we tore out of Wall down the highway at speeds I won't mention because Mark will complain about me wasting the gas. We wanted to salvage our stuff before the rains hit.

One thing we noticed on the wild ride back were the strong winds. Especially when we got into the Badlands. They really started to pick up. As we approached the campsite the rain started to fall. We were trying to hurry to the site without killing someone. As we approached the campgrounds things looked strange. The tents around the campgrounds were flat; people had pulled their poles out!?!? It was unclear what was going on at the time, but we started to panic a little when we approached our campsite and there was no tent!!! It was surreal!!! Who would take our tent???? Then we parked in our site and looked around and everyone else was sitting in their cars and RV's; just sitting. The people around us were looking at us and finally the guy next to our site came out to talk to me. Apparently, there were winds topping out at almost 60miles and hour and our tent was picked up and blown almost two football field lengths into the fields. yes, those fields comprised of the tall grass where all the snakes live! The winds were still swirling, but not blowing as hard. The lightening storm was beautiful and mesmerizing. Flashes of white lines streaking through the purple gray skies in the East and the beautiful orange sunset behind us in the West.

 Meanwhile, Sharon, Nice Neighbor Man and I went walking through the tall grass to retrieve our tent. While we were jogging through the field he was explaining to us exactly what it looked like when the tent got swept away by the gusting winds. In short, picture Dorothy's house getting swept up by the twister and you get a good idea. He was shocked that we had as much stuff in there as we did. He said it didn't even look like there was anything in there when the tent flew. We dragged the tent back through the fields (no snakes) and plunked it down in the campsite. Now, the storm is still going on around us and there we stand trying to empty out the contents of the tent while the kids watch from inside the car. Sharon and I just kept chucking all our stuff into the car on top of the kids until the tent was empty. I then took a quick look at the condition of the tent and realized that it was beyond repair. Two poles snapped in half and 3 guide lines had snapped off. UGH. Now what.

We folded up the tent and left it at the campsite and struck out looking for a cabin or motel for the night. Everything in the immediate area was booked so we had to travel a little. We finally found a little run down motel up the road a bit that had exactly 1 room left...sold!!! It wasn't much, it wasn't clean, it wasn't friendly, but it was safe and dry. There we unpacked and took stock of the day. It could have been much worse and in the end we are all fine. Maybe our trip to Wall was for a reason? Whether it was or wasn't, we all know that unplanned things happen and we need to be calm, flexible and open minded so we can figure out the alternatives. Finding a tent for the rest of the trip is going to be the priority for the next day.