Badlands behind, heading east

Yesterday the Badlands shone in the bright, warm sun and we got to look around in unexpected ways. For weeks now we've been traveling inside National Parks and are careful to follow some of the main mantra's: keep your distance from wild animals, stay on the trails and don't leave food out to attract bears. Suddenly we're inside the incredibly beautiful Badlands National Park on the South Dakota plains and we're invited by the Park Rangers to "make our own trails". Apparently the geology of the park means it is eroding at about one inch per year so the impact of trails is minimal compared to other parks. We took the liberty of going on our own "trail scramble" through a dried up river bed and climbing on the mounds that form the colorful and bizzare shapes that characterize the hills within park. We kept a watchful eye open for rattlesnakes and fossils but were disappointed to see neither. However, our search turned up some dried up bones of more recent animals, as well as a live frog and a toad and some beautiful rocks - all of which we left in the park. Given that we exited the park near the town of Wall, we did an obligatory visit to Wall Drug before beginning our travels east along Interstate 90. Last night we visited a KOA Campground in Belvidere East (somewhere in South Dakota) to fill up our rapidly depleting propane tank and decided to stay for the night. They have a great playground for kids so Rose & Ruth were able to blow off some steam and slept liked logs last night. The general area is known for the filming of "Dances with Wolves", starring Kevin Costner. Over dinner last night, as we sat around the picnic table with the sun setting across the never ending horizon and a full moon rising behind us, it definitely gave us a feeling of what the early pioneers must have felt entering this great, vast land of the American plains.