Nothing much to report about Pierre, South Dakota. More driving through endlessly undulating prairie land and skirting the Badlands finally took me to Wall, SD and the "famous" Wall Drug and Cafe. It was a fun tourist spot with a bunch of little stores including a book store, a leather store, a native American art gallery, and, of course, the drug store section.

I had a tasty breakfast of french toast and scrambled eggs, and then headed on over to the Black Hills. I mean, you can't come through this area and not make a stop at Mt. Rushmore, right? I'll have you know that I climbed every one of those 425 stairs. Okay, so I climbed down them all, but still! 😂 And I did then have to make my way back up again via more stairs and a nature trail to validate my parking before leaving. But really, it was nothin' compared to the trek at Maquoketa Caves. I will say it was fun to walk through the parking lot and see license plates from South Carolina and Oregon and Texas and Missouri side by side.

Then one more long drive through a corner of Wyoming and on to Billings, Montana. You wanna talk about empty and vast, there were long stretches of the interstate highway where I was the only car on the road in either direction. At least on the interstate I mostly had cell reception for a Wisdom at the Well Zoom as I was driving. I would have been really bummed to have missed it.

Gallery

Camping Must-Haves of the Day

Camping Chair

One of the first must-haves I put on my list when planning was a comfortable camp chair. Some of the reasons I decided to invest in this one: 1. It packs up smaller than a lot of flimsier chairs and weighs less than 5 lbs. 2. Legs are adjustable. 3. Full size back. Comfort is a biggie for something I planned to spend a lot of time in (and have!). 4. It's sturdy enough to stand up to my weight and abuse.

Camp Stool

Since I was getting the accompanying chair, I went ahead and got the stool to go along with it. I love to have my feet up when I'm sitting, and it doubles nicely as a side table too. It also turns out to be a perfect size and weight to throw in my day pack for in case I'm on a trail and need a place to sit for a quick break.

Get in touch