Storms and Badlands...

Sunday night in Deadwood, a storm put a damper on our sleeping. Although the tent is mostly waterproof, a puddle ended up forming inside. Brittany's entire back was wet and her pillow was dripping. Everybody was awake for a large majority of the night.

Despite the lack of sleep, Amanda and Brittany started biking from Caputa to Interior, SD. Anna drove ahead to Scenic and sat outside a thrift store reading for a good two hours waiting for the bikers to get there, where they ate lunch. After lunch Anna drove on to Interior and set up camp. She met a young boy named Donald who offered to help her set up the tent, and she let him but refused to take him along to get coals for fire. As Anna was dealing with a clingy 13-year-old, Amanda and Brittany made their way from Scenic to Interior... nothing too exciting happened minus the prairie dogs barking (they have PLAGUE! by the way).

That evening at the campsite was relaxing and peaceful. We ended up going to bed at 9pm to wake up at 6am... sourdough pancakes made from sourdough starter over 100 years old were for breakfast at the campsite cafe. We had a great day planned with all three of us biking twenty miles to Wall, hang out there, and then bike the easy twenty miles back. Turns out, however, that Wall is actually 32 miles from Interior and the ground turned from flat to extremely hilly with three spots labeled as "passes!" In the 96 degree heat we were not mentally prepared for this, but we all managed. When we got to Wall we ordered large chocolate shakes and French fries. After walking around Wall Drug and filling up on free ice water, we found a tree and layed in the rocks beneath its shade for a half hour nap.

We then headed back towards the Badlands National Park... a hard 8 miles uphill (mostly) against the wind. Luckily it was more downhill on the way back as we assended 800 feet on the way to Wall. Amanda was thinking about food for dinner as she biked and realized that if we made it back to camp in 23 minutes we could eat buffalo bugers! Brittany biked ahead at 19-23 mph in order save us a spot. When the biking was getting hard, a kind family drove up along side each biker and offered water. And the buffalo burgers were great!

With some concern about the forecast, we headed to bed as soon as possible. Not long after they had taken Melatonin and dozed off, the wind picked up. The wind was so strong it ended up pushing the tent in on all sides! The lighting was something else as well, flashing every second - literally. Although it was scary we were all holding up until it started to rain. It was misting in our tent onto our faces and Anna was in a large puddle within seconds. Game plan? Go to the bathroom. We grabbed our sleeping bags and blankets and headed that way. About 30 seconds after arriving there was a knock on the door. Amanda opened it to none other than Donald and his fast dog, Sammy. Amanda kindly asked him, "What are you doing?" He said his trailer was shaking. It was weird that he came to the ladies bathroom! After moving to the game room and talking we decided to call our friend Charli to see if we could come a little early to her house. Thankfully she answered her phone at 3:30am.

We packed up in the rain and drove the two hours to Pierre. We arrived at about 6am and headed right to bed. Thanks Charli! Today we took it easy (on little sleep) and spent some much needed catch-up time with our college friends Charli and Amanda. Charli showed us around town; took us to her work and the capitol building. We also enjoyed choice meats and fried olives and mushrooms from Cattleman's Steakhouse. Good day!