We arrived in River City last night to camp at Whispering Pines RV park on the edge of the Black Hills National forest. We squeaked in just under the wire before the RV park closed for the night. We were late because we drove through the Badlands Loop on the way in and had to stop at just about every lookout that was big enough to park the rig. There are thousands better photographs of the Badlands than mine, but I made an attempt. It was a hazy afternoon, so I’m blaming the weather for my shortcomings as a photographer.

We’ve been on the road since Wednesday. I help drive, but since I’m a rookie the Captain makes decisions about when I get to take the wheel. Consequently Ben did the majority of the driving, and even when I was behind the wheel he was still driving. Saturday we crossed the plains of South Dakota. The landscape is wide open, ever so gently rolling, and the winds are fierce. Ben fought a wicked crosswind for hours, that tried to push us around to remind us who was boss of the territory. When we drove through the Badlands, there was less wind but lots of tight turns and narrow passes to get through. He managed just fine, but today we’re very happy to loll around in the campground and putter around the house. There are several big off-leash areas in nearby state parks and national forests (pets are allowed on trails in national forests, but not outside of campground areas in national parks) so we’ll take the boys out for some R&R later today.

Here’s the highlight reel from yesterday.

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