The Imposter Badlands

Today, the beautiful second day in July, is yet another driving day, a drive that is, yet again, predicted to be almost five and a half hours. Woohoo. Mum wanted to actually get out of the campground before ten, so Isaac and I had to get up earlier than usual. We were unfortunately woken at precisely the same time, because my brother dearest takes FOREVER to get the hell out of bed. I would have gotten up before him, but I had, most unwisely, not put my pants on the bottom of my bed, so that was a problem. I was stuck, pants-less, in my bunk until lazy moved his sorry arse into the bathroom. I was up dressed and starting to get the room ready for takeoff before he even got his clothes on. Then, once we were mostly packed, us children set out for the all you can eat pancakes in a tent around fifty feet away. I had assumed it would be all inclusive, like a breakfast buffet, but it was truly just all you can eat pancakes. Everything else was added on to the initial charge. So we stood in line for twenty minutes just to pay three dollars each for three pancakes. You could get more if you so wished but three is lots of the mix crap thanks guys. And after that, I am never doing the breakfast provided by the campground thing again. Cereal’s good for me. We ended up on the road at 9:30, a small miracle in and of itself. The trip was very uneventful in the ways of scenery, except for when we entered Badland National Park, where we stopped for a quick jaunt around. (Why does the word jaunt even exist, it’s so weird). The South Dakota badlands vary from ours in terms of colouring; theirs are much lighter than our Albertan ones, which have layers of black coal and deep red. They are much pinker, with greenish tinges in the oldest parts. It was very familiar though, just from all the time I’ve spent up in Drumheller. After we got out of there, I finished my book, Brain on Fire, which was really good. It’s a memoir about a girl with a mystery disease in her brain, which was falsely diagnosed multiple times, when doctors assumed it was a psychological problem, not a neurological one. I then did some more writing and started (and finished) the first book of the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants. It was good, very easy and very cute. We got to our campsite in Sioux Falls at 7:30pm, mid-western time, as we have finally crossed the time zone line. We set up, ate a dinner of salmon and rice, then Isaac and I did the dishes and I made lunches for tomorrow’s drive and then stretched. It was pretty much a typical driving day all in all, but it was a good one none the less. Time for bed. Peace out m8s.

#southdakota #badlands #camping