This was initially posted on my previous blog on September 29, 2016.
Chicago
Technically my first stop of the trip was Indianapolis, but my first real stop was back to Algonquin, IL to see my parents and friends back there. I was so excited to show my parents the trailer, but I got home too late so we waited until my dad got home from work so they could both see it at the same time. They both loved it and were surprised by how easy it was to open and set up. Even more amazed at how much space there actually is inside the trailer. We spent the rest of the day running errands to prepare for the trip including buying groceries, getting some final items for the trailer, and getting my hair cut (gotta look good for the trip). I also spent some time looking through beanie babies, stuffed animals, and some other childhood toys so my parents can donate them. I definitely didn’t do enough justice to the pile and it will be there for me at Christmas. We finished with a home cooked meal which is always better when someone else cooks for you (Thanks dad!).
My last day at home was spent visiting my two good friends. I was thrilled to spend time with Mel and Tera and their little ones. I can’t remember the last day I spent time with 4 kids under 3, but I enjoyed it. They are adorable kids and I can’t wait to see them grow up. Also I always enjoy catching up with friends and can’t wait to see Mel and Tera again at Christmas. I got home early enough to start packing everything in the trailer (which takes a lot of time to organize). We hooked it up to the car and had it loaded and ready to go before bed. Oh yeah, the best part of the night was my dinner of deep dish pizza! I love Giordanos! Sadly we didn’t get to take the leftovers this time.
Badlands
Day one of my road trip was the longest car day of the trip. It takes 11.5 hours to get from my parent’s house to our campsite at the KOA Badlands and there isn’t much in between. We left nice and early around 6 and luckily hit no traffic pretty much all day. I quickly got used to driving while pulling the trailer and not being able to use my rearview mirror. We also found out that my car could only go about 2.5-3 hours between gas stops (wow my fuel efficiency went down). We had five gas stops that day (only one where my gas tank read 0 miles til empty). Lesson learned: get gas often and try not to let it dip below 50 cause you never know when the next gas station is. Another lesson learned: Always get cheese curds when you are in Wisconsin (yum!). We spent the trip listening to different CDs and chatting. It was actually amazing how fast the time was going until we hit South Dakota. The wind picked up and I ended up fighting with it the rest of the day. It was incredible how much the wind was blowing, but we survived. We were pushing it to make it to the KOA before sunset so we would have the sunlight to help us set up camp the first night. We did make it and had to drive through portions of the Badlands to reach our campsite. These rock formations are beautiful and seem to come out of nowhere. We didn’t have time to stop before reaching camp though. I loved the people working at the KOA. The owner, Bob, came to the site with us and helped walk us through how to set up and different things we can do to make the unit more efficient. He was wonderful and I thank him for all the tips. As soon as it was set up (which doesn’t take more than 5 minutes), we took off again to catch the Badlands during the sunset. I recently bought a DSLR camera and I am using this vacation to play around with it. The sunset was perfect to try this out and the colors reflecting on the rocks were great. Somehow we made it back to camp, made dinner of pulled pork, and called it a night.
I would love to say the first night went perfectly and we were up early to get on the road and see the rest of the Badlands, but that didn’t happen. Callie didn’t quite like the trailer and had several coughing fits. Each coughing fit resulted in me jumping up and getting her outside, just in case she got sick. Then I had to make my bed larger to fit her since she wouldn’t stay in her bed. So instead of a nice early wake up to get going, we slept in until 7:30. I was finally able to drag myself out of bed and get things organized and packed up again. My dad’s cinnamon rolls made the start of the day a little nicer at least. We spent an hour driving through the rest of the Badlands before hitting the road to head to Yellowstone (10 hour drive!).
I didn’t know what to expect with the Badlands and didn’t plan any extra time to spend here, but I would have loved to get in a hike. The views were beautiful. The rocks were in all shapes and sizes and seemed to come out of nowhere. They were surrounded by plains (filled with prairie dogs!) which added to the effect. I kept pulling over to take more pictures as each turn brought on a new, fun formation that I had to catch. Finally I pulled myself away to find myself at Wall Drugs and of course we had to stop. We had been seeing those signs for over 300 miles so I had to at least do a quick glance. It was a cute stop and I could easily see spending a little bit of time there shopping and looking at the different things they had, but we were running late and instead just did a quick walk through.
Amazing first day….off to Yellowstone!