Badlands and Bad Mileage (Day 7)

South Dakota has two things that, so far, are unique in this trip. One: They have some long constant highway grades. Two: The 75 mph speed limit. Combine the two, and you can indeed achieve 11 mpg out of an Odyssey when towing a trailer. (We’d been averaging 14-15 otherwise. I doubt the boats on the roof help aerodynamics either.)

I had wrote before that lower speeds were more “natural” and relaxing on the highway. That’s still true, but we had a lot of miles to do and sights to see today. It seemed worthwhile to blow more money on fuel (and increase our carbon footprint) to achieve them. (Hopefully, listening to NPR pod casts while we drove counterbalanced our evil ways.)

As planned, we got up early and left by 6:45. We drove 100 miles before breakfast. Their poached eggs turned out more like hard-boiled, but the pie (yes, for breakfast) was fantastic. Jules had rhubarb, me cherry.

We pushed on to the Badlands. Out in the middle of the prairie, there emerges this odd landscape, shaped by erosion. The rock formations and striated colors are otherworldly (well, unless you’ve been to Bryce Canyon.)

I’m ashamed to admit it, but the Badlands National Park seems to be optimized for the American vacation traveler. You can see a lot of the best stuff from the road. There are scenic pulloff overlooks all over. It only takes a brief walk from your parked car (ample parking, even for much larger RVs than ours) to clamber over the unique formations while watching out for one particular hazard:


Finally the park isn’t even much of a deviation from I90. All in all, a well spent three hour loop - and we didn’t leave feeling like we rushed it (much.)

Off to Custer State Park. You’re warned about “Free Roaming Wildlife” as you drive in, but that doesn’t prepare you for the first buffalo being four feet away from your hood. Buffalo are big.


Never mind the two raccoons that yesterday I swerved to miss: this is another level. Unlike Westchester and Connecticut, the deer here don’t just graze right at the side of the road, oblivious to traffic. Here they’ll take off and bolt into the road. Happily, traffic moves slow through here, and it’s normal to stop and gawk.

Our campsite for the next three days in Blue Bell Campground is beautiful, with a view of the forest behind.

One hassle: the parking spot for the trailer is far from level. I actually had to get out our bulky, expensive BAL leveling device to jack up one wheel of the trailer so we didn‘t wind up sliding to one side of the trailer as we slept.

Glad we brought it: it works like a charm. (Other trailers have all sorts of jacks and blocks of wood under them, with formations far more risky than any Frank Lloyd Wright cantilever.)

Beautiful weather today, but the forecast is worsening and looking like rain...

Tom