Badlands to the bone

Yesterday we saw the South Dakota Badlands, Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, and Custer State Park. We got up rather early to get a jump start on the day, but really it was just so that James could watch England's opening World Cup match. The beautiful game, ahhh, yes. Fortunately, that match was the least beautiful thing we saw all day.

Our first stop was Badlands, and my first thought when I saw the walls was "I bet those settlers were shocked as hell when they crossed 500 miles of praire and then stumbled upon this..." Pretty impressive. After spending a few hours driving and walking around the north wall, Alex and I went to Rapid City to get lunch. We ended up at the Sanford's Grub and Pub. Alex was a big fan of this place, as it had tons of country panache. Next stop was Rushmore, then we went to Custer State Park for a few scenic drives. Right before we began the Needles drive, we passed a damn Bison just grazing on the side of the road. Hahaha, I would have kept driving because I didn't see it right away, but Alex was like "holy shit, it's damn Buffalo!" Word up. The highlight of the evening for me, though, was the sunset through the clouds as we were leaving the state park. And there was a rainbow too. I know, rainbows are kind of pansey, but look at the picture, the shit was pretty.

We called it a day around 9:00 and checked into a Holiday Inn in Spearfish. I was tempted to go get a few drinks and meet some more locals, but the boredom of the morning's soccer match caught up with me and I was ready for bed. Today we drive towards Yellowstone in Wyoming, should be a good drive indeed.

Just for the record -
total miles on my car so far on this trip: 3200
total number of beam and cokes: 14
total times listened to "Free Bird": 3