The Badlands

We caught up with John and Leslie at their hotel and went to breakfast at Millstone Family Restaurant, a local chain, and then we headed out for the Badlands. We all went in John and Leslie's car since this was a mostly driving trip with no real need for the mobility scooter, just the cane and walker. For those who have missed it, I am somewhat handicapped and can not walk any real distance or stand for more than a very few minutes. Geoff as well has some walking issues from his accident in 2015, although not as bad.

We cope with this by having a three way system consisting of a cane, a walker, and a mobility scooter. Usually if I need the scooter, then Geoff needs the walker and if I can get by with the walker he needs the cane. If I can manage with a little help from the cane then he can manage without assistance although once in a while we share it.

I wrote about the original scooter back in Alternative Mobility Getting From Here to Yonder way back in May of 2016. And again about problems with it on the first of our trips to south Florida in Journey's End? when it became unreliable and was part of our cutting that trip short.

On our return from south Florida we took Go-Go to 101 Mobility in south Jacksonville. We've been there before and trust them. They checked out poor old Go-Go and said it was the battery which simply was aging out. We finally settled on getting a new three wheel scooter and a new battery for the old one. Eventually Geoffrey is gonna need one and keeping the old one was therefore a no-brainer. The new scooter comes with interchangeable color parts so now we have Red-Go-Go and Blue-Go-Go! Although in actually usage they seem to be Go-Go when referring to the old 4 wheeler and Blue when referring to the new 3 wheeler. We did only take Blue on this trip but at need we will find room for both.

Back to the Badlands ... The Badlands National Park has a loop road so you can drive through most of it. It swings down from I-90 at Cactus Flats, Exit 131, and runs south and then west and northwest back to I-90 at Wall, Exit 110. Between Exit 131 and the actual entrance to the park is a state marker "Typical Sod House Homesteader" where Edgar and Alice Brown and their son Charlie settled around 1909.

This Prairie Homestead stop is definitely interesting. John and Leslie walked out to the house they built. Although billed as a sod house, it appears to be actually built of wooden planks but still shows the small difficult life homesteaders faced. Even in this barren land, people tried to establish themselves and provide for their families. The gift shop/entrance area sells a small softcover book about the Prairie Homestead which tells about the Browns and their settling and building here. Luckily I bought a copy there at the Prairie Homestead location, as I find that only a few used copies are available online.

I have a personal interest in the turn of the century settlements in this area although my ancestry goes to homesteads in Nebraska rather than South Dakota. There is not a lot of difference but it must have been even harder here, Just imagine crossing this countryside much less trying to live here. One of the informative plaques at an overlook referred to the homesteads here as being "Starvation Claims" and that they were either abandoned or sold.

From here we continued south to the Northeast Entrance to the park itself. Shortly afterwards is the Big Badlands Overlook where we stopped to get our first good look at the badlands.

From there we drove on to the Ben Reifel Visitor Center which has interesting exhibits and a lab section where they publicly prepare the many fossils found in the area. They also have a nice small gift shop area where I of course got a ball cap souvenir and also this cute little magnet. We hadn't seen any prairie dogs but they are supposed to be there! I also found a fascinating little wooden puzzle of a Big Horn sheep and calf. All in all, a good place to stop.

We continued around on the loop road, stopping at many of the overlook points. One would think the views would get similar as one travels around the loop but they don't. The landscape while remaining difficult, justifying the name badlands, still has many different types of formations.The loop road is a great day trip but this park also offers further roads and many trails to hike.

Unless you want to visit the same old chain restaurants, good as they may be, one of the difficult things to do traveling is finding good places to eat. That night I think we outdid ourselves. Leslie and I studied the choices ... a steakhouse had been suggested. We settled on the Dakotah Steakhouse and found our way to it. It looked good right from the start with a statue of a bison made from scrap metal near the front door. The lighting and noise level were both medium, not too bright or dark and not too noisy!

The menu listed a good variety of both steaks and other choices. John ordered a Braised & BBQ'd Buffalo Bone which looked huge! I don't remember what Leslie and Geoffrey, he probably had one of the burgers.

I ordered Prime Rib with a side of asparagus wrapped in bacon.

It was delicious!

One of the great things about traveling in an RV is one has access to a refrigerator for leftovers and a microwave for reheating it! I know, I know, ... a lot of hotel rooms now have either or both but it won't go where ever you head out to the next day like an RV will! The food was so good, I even got a ball cap from there!